Jed's Sweet Revenge (19 page)

Behind them, Beneba recited other milestones in Jed’s rodeo career—not an illustrious career, but one that had gotten his name mentioned in dozens of small papers across the western United States. It was odd to hear Beneba using terms such as “bull dogging” and “bronc riding,” Thena thought with nervous humor.

Thena touched Jed’s shoulder. “We should go see these scrapbooks,” she urged gently. “They’ll change your mind about your grandfather. He must have loved you so.”

An eternity passed before he looked at her. “Nothin’,” Jed told her in a deadly, slow voice, “is ever goin’ to
change what happened to my mother. He waited too long to do anything decent. She was already dead.”

Thena was careful not to sound rebuking. “She was too proud to ask for help, Jedidiah. You said so yourself, once.”

“Because he was so against her for marryin’ my pa. Can you blame her for not crawlin’ to her daddy after the way he’d acted about the marriage?”

“But he would have helped her, Jedidiah. That’s the point. Despite everything, he would have helped her. He doesn’t deserve so much anger on your part.”

He sighed and gently placed one square, rough hand against her cheek. His thumb caressed the soft skin with tender care. “I gave you this island, Thena. Believe me, I had to give up a lot of my anger when I did that.”

“I know, and I’m proud of you. Now give up the rest.”

“I hear what you’re sayin’ about old Gregg really bein’ sorry for what happened. Maybe it’s so and maybe it isn’t.” He paused. “I’m more worried about your feelin’s for this island than I am about the mysterious brand of love—whatever it was—my grandpa had for my mother and me.”

“You don’t have to be worried about my feelings, Jedidiah. Just stay here and—”

“Sweetheart, I can’t live here. I haven’t got it in me to love this place the way you do. Maybe I feel like I’m trespassin’ on Gregg property.”

“But you’re a Gregg,” she said in a beseeching tone.

“No, I’m not. I might have the blood, but not the background. I don’t belong here.”

“You do, you do. Jedidiah, this place is where I belong, you know that. How can you ask me to leave it?”

He rebuked her, but gently. “Gal, you haven’t ever seen anything else of the world. You don’t know
what’s out there on the mainland. There are other places you’d love just as well as this.”

“No.” Her voice trembled with controlled sorrow. “My parents and Nate died because they went to the mainland. I have a bad knee because I went to the mainland. People there are too hurried, too interested in unimportant things—”

“Things that aren’t important to you, you mean,” he prodded in his soft-spoken but firm way. His hand still cupped her face, trying to soothe her. “You gotta visit my world, sweetheart. Don’t you think that’s only fair? Just to see how things really are outside of your
National Geographics
?”

Thena felt like a trapped bird. Her pulse racing, she whispered, “I’m afraid, Jedidiah.”

“I know, pretty lady, but I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Will you go—for a visit, at least?”

Beneba’s soft voice interrupted him. “Tasoneela go with Gabel, and he brought her back when she was unhappy. Will you do the same for Thena?”

Jed’s eyes locked on Thena’s. “Yes,” he promised.

Thena spoke wistfully. “How long will we have to stay in Wyoming?”

“Sweetheart, we won’t just go to Wyoming. We’ll go all sorts of places. Wherever you’d like to go. Anyplace you’ve dreamed about.”

“Go, child,” Beneba ordered smugly. “I’ll look out for your animals. You should see other places, because then you’ll come back loving your island even more. And maybe, if your man is smart, he’ll come back with you. I hope so.”

Thena’s eyes shut tightly. She swayed a tiny bit, and Jed took her in this arms. “You’ll have so much fun you’ll wonder why you never wanted to travel before,” he assured her.

“I’m really ignorant about some things, Jedidiah. I’ve never ridden on a plane, I’ve never been in an elegant restaurant, I’ve never seen a big city.…”

“Well, gal, I’m not Cary Grant, but I got the worldly
smarts to take care of anything that might come up. Relax.” She placed both hands on his bare chest and tilted her head back, looking thoughtful and distressed. “Now tell me some places you’ve always wanted to visit,” he urged.

Tentative enthusiasm tinged her voice. “Disneyland?”

He chuckled. “All right. Where else?”

Her eyes widened. “Hollywood?”

“Shoot, yeah!” He exhaled in relief. “I was afraid you’d say someplace weird.”

Beneba’s voice, dry and flat, came to them. “I read the
National Enquirer
. Hollywood is weird.”

Jed shook his head in amusement. “Enquiring Yoda’s want to know,” he deadpanned under his breath. To Thena he said, “We’ll rent a big ol’ car, drive to Atlanta, and get on a plane for California. After we visit there a few days, we’ll go to Wyoming for a week or so.” His eyes flickered with sudden inspiration. “Let’s go ahead and leave tomorrow. I don’t want you sittin’ around here frettin’ over it. The sooner we go, the better.”

“Tomorrow?” She began to shake. He held her tighter and pressed her head to his shoulder.

“You’ll love it,” he crooned.

“I’m doing this because I love you, Jedidiah. I’d never leave Sancia otherwise.”

“Not even for two weeks? Two itty bitty weeks? Lord, woman, you’re a tough cookie to crumble.”

“You want me to stay away from Sancia forever.”

He ignored a guilt pang. “Aw, gal, I never said that. I love you too much to ask you to do that. I just want you to give my world a chance before you make up your mind about where’s the best place to live.”

Jed pressed his cheek to her forehead and shut his eyes as he absorbed the dear and familiar scent of her, the feel of her clinging to him, and the way her heart pattered against his chest. Concern for
her made him feel a nauseating dread that he couldn’t define.

A suffocating tension caught his breath. It made no sense, this feeling. The bile rose in his throat as he tried to understand where such an odd … almost a premonition … came from. God, no, he thought quickly, fearfully. It wasn’t a premonition. He didn’t believe in premonitions.

Craziness, that’s what this feeling was. The pull of this damn fairy-tale place with its old mansion and Thena’s talk of spirits and Beneba’s bizarre eyes. What had happened to his practical, sensible nature? The ugly sensation of dread passed, and he shivered as if recovering from a bad fever. His stomach relaxed and he could breathe again. There, that was better. What the hell had happened to him for a moment?

“Jedidiah? Love?” Thena’s pained and frightened voice pierced his thoughts. She was gasping for breath. “You’re holding me too tight, Jedidiah. How can I travel if I have crushed ribs?”

   Showing Thena the world was going to be a unique experience, Jed decided with a rueful smile. On the drive up to Atlanta, she played with every button, knob, and lever in the ritzy Oldsmobile he had rented. When they stopped for lunch at the Dixie Dog Restaurant and Gift Shop, she spotted a display of the tacky coconut heads that plagued every tourist trap on the interstate.

She loved them. Jed was dumbfounded, but eager to please her, so he bought her two of the ugly things and winced when the cashier cheerfully pointed out that they were the first people to buy coconut heads since a tour bus full of Kiwanians had passed through, and that was six months ago.

And further up the highway, at a convenience store, she bought a copy of a glitzy women’s magazine
named
Lovers
. She bent her head over the glossy pages and read solemnly as he drove.

Jed was suddenly aware of her nimble fingers tickling the inside of his denimed thigh. She was still reading, her face a mask of concentration. He glanced at her, tried to ignore her for at least five minutes, but finally gave into the wonderful heat that spread outward from her unexpected caress.

“Lord, gal, what are you tryin’ to do?”

“It says here that you’re supposed to like this.”

“I do, but not at sixty miles an hour.”

“People do this all the time, it says here.” Still reading, her attitude serious and clinical, she unzipped his jeans and began sliding her hand inside. “Now I’ll just—oh, my, I don’t have to do anything, do I.”
Lovers
fell to the floor and her gaze darted to his lap. Her fingers stroked the magnificent result of their bold invasion. “Jedidiah,” she whispered throatily. “Jedidiah, that magazine is very informative.”

His eyes were half-closed, his breathing a little shallow. “Did it tell you what happens next, Miss Witch?”

“Uhmmm, no, I hadn’t got to that part yet. I can … make a logical deduction, however.”

He pulled off at the next exit and found a dirt road that took them to the middle of nowhere. Then he cut the engine and slid across the seat, his eyes daring her deliciously, his hands already reaching for her legs. Thena smiled breathlessly at the impatient hunger with which he captured her. His hands pushed her sundress off her shoulders and rubbed her bare breasts, her thighs, her stomach, skimming waves of pleasure across her skin, making her feel wild and tender and greedy all at once.

“I’d love to keep going,” he murmured in a gravelly voice. “But we better not. Not here.”

Thena raked her hands through his hair and made a soft, plaintive sound. “I love you, Jedidiah. I want you.”

“I love you, too … now don’t go doin’ that … don’t coax me like that … oh, gal, you win.”

When they finally got back on the highway, Jed drove with one hand and put his other around her shoulders. Both of them were smiling and quiet. Eventually he said in a droll voice, “Thena, I’m gonna buy you a subscription to that magazine.”

The cavernous terminal of Atlanta’s ultramodern international airport left her speechless. As Jed waited at one of the car rental counters to return the Olds, he let his eyes flicker protectively to where she stood studying the selections on a newsstand. His gaze softened every time he looked at her, because she was so beautiful and so unaware of it.

She wore her lacy sundress with sandals and a delicate white sweater that emphasized the billowing dark mane of hair down her back. Men eyed her with open intrigue, and Jed frowned in surprise. Of course he’d always known that she was too beautiful and exotic not to draw attention from other men, but he’d never had to deal with that fact on Sancia. He shifted, impatient to finish with the car chore and get back beside her.

He watched as she flinched at the beeping alert of a small courtesy shuttle and turned around to stare. As the shuttle rolled past her, she raised one hand and waved tentatively at the man who drove it. He smiled and nodded. She smiled and nodded.

Jed shook his head in gentle amusement. This was like that movie,
Crocodile Dundee
, about the naive Australian who visited New York City. At baggage check-in, Thena had politely asked the clerk when he was going to examine her suitcase for drugs and bombs. He gave her a long, straight-faced appraisal, then said almost to himself, “Naaaah,” and handed her a claim check. Jed led her away quickly. Next, she’d noticed a man using a bank teller machine and wondered if the airport had installed a game that gave prize money. Then she’d asked Jed if
the two of them could hurry so they’d be first in line to board their plane. She wanted to beat the rush for the best seats.

The car clerk spoke to Jed, taking his attention. When he finished with the clerk and turned toward the newsstand again, Thena had disappeared. Jed halted, his heart jerking with alarm as he scanned the terminal. Relief made his knees weak when he located Thena at a small booth near the concourse escalators. She was talking amicably to an orange-robed man with a shaved head. The man seemed utterly delighted.

His expression determined and his attitude firm, Jed strolled over to the booth. She looked up excitedly. “This is a follower of Krishna, Jedidiah. We’re discussing the Bhagavad Gita. I love it. It’s a fascinating Sanskrit poem.” She looked back at the man. “What a novel way for you to seek converts by setting up this booth in the airport. How dedicated.”

With an attitude of resignation, Jed retrieved a twenty-dollar bill from his jeans pocket and pressed it into the man’s outstretched hand. “Hare Krishna,” the man said in thanks.

“Mmmm. Holy moly.” Then he took Thena’s arm and guided her away. She waved good-bye to her new friend, then looked at Jed, her eyes gleaming with amazement.

“Why did you give him money?”

“That’s what he’s there for, sweetheart. That’s why he talks to people. Since you liked his poetry, I reckoned you’d like to contribute to his cause, whatever it is.”

She was silent, pondering such an exploitative enterprise on the man’s part. “My goodness,” she whispered, stunned. “Talk isn’t cheap on the mainland, is it?”

He chuckled. “That’s all right, Miss Dundee, I’ve got plenty of money, and you’re welcome to use it in
any way that makes you happy.” He paused. “Except you can’t buy any more of those durned coconut heads.”

“Miss Dundee?”

He put his arm around her. “Never mind. The point is, I want you to have a good time. I don’t want you to feel bad about leavin’ the island for one minute.”

Jed had never really blessed his extraordinary wealth before, but now he did. It seemed fitting that his grandfather’s money should be used to make Thena happy. She was, after all, the heart and soul of the island old Gregg had once loved. Fancy rental cars, first-class airline seats, a California shopping spree to buy Thena whatever caught her eye—these luxuries were what she deserved, and Jed intended to provide them.

As they sat in their plush airplane seats, waiting to taxi, Thena clutched Jed’s strong, warm hand and looked out the window, fighting tears. She loved him, and she was going to give his complicated world a fair chance.

Then, like Tasoneela and Gabel, they were going to come back where they belonged.