Cole's Redemption (Love Amongst the Pines) (13 page)

             
Darned if his voice wasn't silky smooth, like he might actually care or something. "Nothing's wrong. Go sit down while I get us some water."

             
"Natalie, can't you read?"

             
She froze; the pitcher poised and ready to pour into their mugs. For a few seconds, she said nothing, staring at the tin cups as if an answer were somewhere in their depths. A few seconds passed before she could give him an answer.

             
"No." There. She'd said it. "Now you know the truth. I'm ugly and stupid."

             
In an instant, he was beside her, his rough arms pulling her to him. For the first time in a long time, Natty let the tears flow. "I was a disappointment to my mother, being so homely and
then not even being able to read my own name! She never said anything, but I knew."

             
"Oh, honey," he crooned over her. "It's okay; I can teach you to read. It just takes practice."

             
She pulled away from him, suddenly angry again. "Don't you think I've tried? Ma would sit up for hours and try to teach me, but I'm just too stupid to learn."

             
He framed her face with the sides of his hands. The rough bandages scraped against her cheeks, absorbing part of the dampness there.

             
"I don't think that you are stupid or ugly," he said softly. Gazing upward, she searched the brackish green depths of his eyes. Her mother had told her that the eyes were the windows to the soul. If that was true, there was much hidden in his, because she only saw herself reflected there.

             
When she tried to look away, he turned her head back, until their eyes met once again, like she was a secret puzzle, and he was bent on finding the answer to it. Just when she thought she could stand his examination no longer, he leaned in closer, and brushing her lips with his own, breathed only once and kissed her.

             
Only, it wasn't the brief meeting of their mouths they'd shared earlier. This was something profound and different. Suddenly his arms wrapped around her, and she was pulled into a pocket of warmth, like being wrapped in a wool blanket on a cold winter morning.

             
Her senses exploded as she both felt and tasted him. His silky mouth caressed hers, and the sharp bristle of his beard stubble scratched against her skin. The taste of the morning's cornbread still hung on his breath. Breathing even deeper, she could smell the mixed scent of her own arousal and his. Suddenly, she'd wished she'd gone out to the creek and bathed that morning. Or that her hair wasn't all chopped up and was washed and combed like the ladies in her momma's picture books. Before she could think anymore, the kiss deepened. Natty gasped. She felt like a tall glass of bourbon, warm and burning, and he was drinking her up.

             
Suddenly, he turned loose of her then stepped back, gasping and shaken. It took a few moments for her to catch her breath, but when she did, she pressed even closer.

             
"What's wrong? Am I that disgusting?"

             
He looked at her, and she could read the fear in the narrowing of his eyes. "No, Natalie, it's wrong." He shook his head, reminding her of some great beast, like an ox or a buffalo.

             
"I'm sorry," she whispered, confused. "I never meant..." "It's not you! It's me. I'm wrong." Turning, he went to the cot and sat down on the edge. His tall form folded in half as he cradled his head between his arms. "I don't understand?" She stepped closer, reaching out her hand to touch his arm.

             
He jumped away from her. "Don't touch me! I can't take that, please."

             
"All right. I won't touch you. But you've got to tell me." He looked up at her then blinked twice and took a deep

breath
. "I lied to you when I said I'd stay a year. I doubt I'll be alive that long." His voice was trembling.

             
She sat up straighter, listening. "I told you, I bought your sentence. Judge says that you could stay here, married to me. He won't hang you."

             
He shook his head. "No. It's not the Judge. He doesn't even know."

             
"Know what?"

             
"The truth about me. Why I came into town knowing I'd get a trial and hanging." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "I came to the Whispering Pines because there is going to be a man coming after me. He's a wealthy rancher from Texas, and those three men I shot..." he paused to let the effect of his words sink in.

             
"What about them?"

             
"One of them was his son. I knew it, and I killed him anyway. I'm glad I did."

             
"And you think he can find you here?" She chewed her lip, jumping slightly as a tree branch scraped against the side of the cabin.

             
"It's only a matter of time. I did the best I could to throw him off my trail. But he's got a long arm and a deep pocket. He'll find me."

             
"Why don't you just challenge him to a shoot out, at least if you lose, it'll be a fair fight?"

             
He shook his head. "Because my quarrel wasn't with him. His son was the criminal, and I don't shoot innocent men."

             
"What did he do that made you want to kill him and those other two fellas?"

             
Natty watched as he breathed in several long breaths. With each intake of air, she saw the rise and fall of emotions on his face until he set his jaw and looked up at her, his eyes narrowing, his mouth twisting and a dark, angry expression gathering in his eyes like storm clouds on the horizon.

             
"They killed my wife and infant son."

             
It was late into the evening before he could speak again. After his admission, Cole had lain down on the cot, crossed his arms, turned on his side, and shut her out of his mind. He heard her moving restlessly around the cabin. Stirring the soup, stoking up the
cookfire
, folding and refolding what few garments she and her uncle owned. He knew she was doing these things, but she never once came over and tried to talk to him. It was like a thin thread had held them together, and he had severed it by his admission.

             
It wasn't only the length of the day that had brought darkness to the cabin. He could feel her despair as thick as the dirt on the floor. It clung to the air like early morning fog. Cole thought he would drown from it. In truth, he could take harsh words, or even a beating, but he couldn't stand the silence.

             
"I heard you reading something," he said quietly, not wanting to talk about himself anymore than was necessary. "It was my first night here. You were reading from the bible."

             
Natty was sitting across the room from him, squinting into the candlelight, valiantly trying to darn a decrepit sock. She put the garment down for a second and regarded him.

             
"I was
recitin
' not
readin
.' Ma taught me a whole bunch of those bible verses when I was little. I used to pretend I was
readin
' them when she was dying. It gave her a lot of comfort, I think."

             
"You were a good daughter. She must have loved you very much."

             
Natty smiled. "I think she did. What about your Ma? You told me she died, did you get to comfort her any?"

             
Cole looked at her sharply. Of course, he'd told her that his family was dead. That was one secret he was determined not to share with anybody.

             
"No. We argued. I left angry, and I never saw her again." He looked away for a moment. When he turned back, it was because he could feel her gaze on him.

             
"Don't do that!" "Do what?" "Don't look at me like that! Don't feel sorry for me. I don't

deserve
your pity." She sat straight up. "You know something, Cole
Remmington
? You are the most exasperating person I have ever met! One minute you're as hot as the barrel of a rifle that's just been shot and, the next, you're as cold as the creek in the dead in the winter. I swear I never know how to figure you. Isn't there anything I can say that is right?" She threw down her sewing and stomped to the other side of the room.

             
"All right," he said after a moment. "Let's make another deal."

             
She turned then, suspicion etched in her expression. "We already have more deals than we can shake a stick at."

             
Cole couldn't help but smile at her. "The new deal is; I won't feel sorry for you if you don't feel sorry for me. That way, both of us can get through this with at least a little of our dignity intact."

             
"All right. I have one condition. I
ain't
gonna
sit here while you stew over that Texan. I don't care what Judge or anybody else says. You had a right to kill those men. And if they was here right now, I'd shoot them again."

             
"Deal. I have a condition, too. Let me try to teach you to read." She started to protest, but he stopped her with his glance. "I know you don't think you can, but maybe there's a reason you haven't been able to so far."

             
"There's a reason all right. I get the letters all jumbled up in my head. I try and try, and all it does is give me a terrible headache."

             
"I want to try, anyway. Deal?"

             
He watched as she chewed her bottom lip. She clearly didn't want to concede.

             
"Come on. You aren't scared, are you Natalie?"

             
She stared at him a moment longer. "I
ain't
scared of you, Cole."

             
"Fair enough. Just let me try, and if I fail, we'll be done with it."

             
"Deal."

             
"Why, Miss Natalie, you've done a really good job taking care of this boy." Doc Evans examined the purplish hands of his patient. "There's still quite a lot of bruising, but the splints are intact. And, those gashes are healing nicely, too. I commend the both of you."

             
"You don't know what that means," Cole murmured. Judge stood leaning on the wall next to the cot.

             
"At least they
ain't
killed each other," Dermott whispered beside him.

             
"They're still on speaking terms," Judge observed. "It's no raging love affair, but at least it's something." He returned his attention to the Doctor's ministrations.

             
"Aw, come on son," Sheriff Watkins said behind them, "you not still mad at us, are you?"

             
"Forgiveness is divine," Preacher Dean said, nervously
fidgeting
as he stood farthest away from the group.

             
"No. As a matter-of-fact, I'm not angry any more." Cole said.

             
"My gosh almighty!" Natty appeared at the door, her arms filled with wrapped packages. "Look at all this stuff! This all can't be for us!"

             
Sheriff Watkins turned towards her. "I'm afraid it is, Natty. Judge
,
you certainly lit out at the right time. Once the 'Lady's Home Christian Society' got ahold of us, we were done, gutted, an' cooked."

             
"I don't understand," Natty said, as she set the packages down on her table.

             
Doc cleared his throat. "They were mighty upset that we let the two of you get hitched in the jail. Said it wasn't a proper wedding. The only way they would stop yammering at us was if we brought out these wedding presents. That and a couple other things."

             
"Like what?"
Judge asked, his suspicions aroused.
He looked at each man's expression in turn. The sheriff turned away quickly, as did the doctor. Only the preacher stood his ground.

             
"They made us promise to bring you into town next Sunday for a proper ceremony, for one."

             
"No!" Both Natty and Cole answered together.

             
Judge knew that their getting married in that fashion had been a legal loophole from the beginning. But it was more and more looking like a noose, especially since both of them were shy of the altar.