Scars Of Defiance (6 page)

Sierra was becoming all sorts of nervous. Just when she
thought this crosser home might be safe, her mind was going in another direction.

“Didn’t she think it was wrong for you to undress me?”

Paul felt insulted. Who did this ungrateful girl think she
was? “No offense,” he said, “but you’re just another crosser to us. You needed
help, and we gave it. Does it really matter who undressed you? You’re alive
aren’t you?”

She stared at him, trying to decipher his words. They were
curt, impatient, and slightly rude. His bushy eyebrows had knit together in
frustration, and it worried her. Yes, this boy and his mother had helped her,
and so far as she knew, she hadn’t been abused, plus they had fed her. Maybe
she was overreacting.

“Should I have put you back where I found you when I learned
there wasn’t room for you here?”

“No, Paul. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me.
I’m just a little confused is all.”

“Join the club, but you can rest assured I’m not a bad guy.
I’m here to protect you, not hurt you like other people in your life have
done.”

She stared at him, taking in his honesty. She believed he
meant what he said. She nodded to him that she understood.

“Look, I’m supposed to ask you about your payment,” he said.

“Payment?”

“Well, you know, money so we can take care of you?” he was
extremely uncomfortable asking the injured girl for money, but it was
procedure.

“Oh, right. Where’s my coat?”

“Why?”

“My payment. It’s in my coat,” she said in a slightly
frustrated tone.

“Oh, then it was probably a bad thing we burned your
clothes.”

“What?!”

“Just kidding,” he smiled and laughed. “They’re in the
closet drying.”

“That’s not funny.”

Paul went to the closet and pulled out her coat. “I have to
say, this baggie bubble idea was pretty smart. It probably saved your life.”

“Thanks.”

“Did someone recommend it?”

“No.”

“You didn’t want to sink in the water, so you made a life-vest
with baggies?”

“No, I didn’t know I’d break through the ice. It was more
for padding, you know, to make me look bigger.”

“Well, it saved your life.” Paul lowered his voice and spoke
in a more serious tone. “My dad said they pulled twelve bodies from the lake
this morning.”

Her mind went immediately to the plane ride. She could see
the anxious faces of the other passengers, people just like her who only wanted
freedom from tyranny. Her eyes watered as she realized she actually would have
died if Paul hadn’t pulled her out. “They only wanted freedom,” she said. “I
guess they got it.”

Seeing her face blank out and turn to sorrow with tears
filling her eyes was almost too much for Paul to watch. He didn’t like seeing
this kind of emotion on her face because it brought into sharp relief just how
difficult her life had been in Rendier. He wanted to see her happy again, or
even spitting angry, as long as the anguished look on her face would disappear.
Sam and his parents had never talked about this emotional roller-coaster with the
crossers. He wouldn’t have volunteered to do this if he had known how difficult
it would be. Paul’s voice was nearly a whisper. “Are things so terrible in your
country that it’s worth dying to get away from it?”

“Yes.” She wiped her eyes.

Paul handed her the coat. She flipped it open and started
ripping the bottom inside hem. A large zipper bag slid out containing a bulky
brown envelope.

“How much?” she asked him, clearing her throat.

“I, uh, don’t know. How much you got?” he teased, trying to
lighten the mood, attempting to put a smile back on her face.

“That’s not funny either. Go ask your mother.” Once she said
this, his own smile faded quickly, and his mood changed. Then he left the room.

Sierra didn’t know what she had said wrong, but clearly
something had hit a nerve. He couldn’t possibly be upset because she wouldn’t
tell him how much money she had with her, could he? This guy was hard to read,
but then again, it had only been an hour since she had woken up in this strange
place with a strange boy cuddled up next to her. She was still a little
disoriented.

Sierra unzipped the bag and looked inside at the stacks of
hundred dollar bills. Together with the three other envelopes still hidden in
her coat, she had a total of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. That was
all she had left of her father’s insurance money after paying the crossing fee.
She hoped staying at Paul’s house wouldn’t cost much. She would need this money
to start her new life.

Paul left the room and stomped into the kitchen. Go ask your
mother? Great. Obviously this girl thought he was nothing more than a worthless
kid. Without even knowing him, she had put him in the same position of
insignificant household member that his parents did. Would anyone ever
acknowledge him as an adult? He was almost twenty, for crying out loud. He’d
probably have to become a brain surgeon to be seen as competent by these
people. And even then, if someone in his family needed a brain operation, they
probably wouldn’t consider him good enough and would ask for another doctor.

He found his mother in the kitchen. “What’s our fee?” he
asked.

“A hundred a week.” She recognized stress and anger in his
voice. “Are you okay, Paul?”

“Just dandy.” He turned on his heel and walked back to his
room. He told Sierra what the fee was. She pulled the money from her stash and
handed it to him. He snatched it and left.

When Paul came back several minutes later, he brought warm
blankets and dumped them on the bed by Sierra. “There you go. These will get
you warm again.” He folded his arms across his chest and leaned up against the
dresser.

“Thank you,” she said.

“A doctor’s going to come look at your ankle this afternoon.
It might be broken.”

“Okay. What will happen then?”

“I don’t know. My father usually makes the arrangements at
this point.”

Elsie came in and picked up on the tension immediately. This
situation was worse than she’d thought. Paul’s arms were folded across his
chest, and his overall behavior radiated frustration. If Paul couldn’t nip his
pride and immaturity in the bud, she would have to pull the plug on his
crosser. She walked over to the girl and placed her hand on her forehead.

“You’re still cold. Lift your tongue, dear.” Elsie rapidly
waved a glass thermometer back and forth to bring the mercury level down. Sierra
did as she was told and clamped down on the glass stick. Elsie turned to Paul.
“What’s the matter with you?”

“What makes you think something’s the matter?”

Elsie looked back to Sierra, who looked at Paul with
question in her eye. “Go tend to the dishes,” Elsie ordered Paul over her
shoulder.

Sierra watched as his facial expression changed, looking
completely irritated as he left the room. “I’m shorry,” Sierra said with the
thermometer between her teeth. “I don’t know what’sh wrong.”

“Keep your mouth shut, dear. He’s never been responsible for
a crosser before, so you’ll have to be patient with him. Your condition was far
worse than that of any of the others, and it made me nervous to place you with
him. If you had died, he would have blamed himself. I didn’t want to place that
kind of a burden on him. His older brother Sam had picked up some other
crossers last night, and when Paul brought you home, we were already filled to
our maximum. But he insisted on keeping you in his room, and that was before he
knew you were a girl.” Elsie sat on the edge of the bed and removed the
thermometer, giving Sierra a chance to speak.

“I hope I didn’t offend him,” Sierra said earnestly.

Elsie squinted at the mercury. “Ninety-six. Better, but
you’ve got a way to go.” She looked at Sierra. “Neither of us knew you were a
girl, dear. But I don’t think it would have made a difference. Paul was
determined to take care of you. Not you, necessarily, but whoever it was he had
rescued from the lake. He felt slighted by his brother, and he can’t stand
being bested by Sam. Don’t worry about Paul.  He’s at his own crossroads. He
needs to decide which way to turn. One direction leads to the life of service
helping crossers, and the other leads to independence. I’ll have him bring in some
warm soup for you and some ointment for your back.” Elsie stood up and walked
toward the door.

“Ointment?”

“Your back, dear. It looked very painful last night when he
turned you on your side.”

Sierra’s face turned red, and her cheeks burned. At least something
was warm. The thought of Paul manhandling her in her unconscious state was
embarrassing. It was even more awkward knowing they had seen all of her whip
marks.

“Some ointment would be wonderful. Thank you,” she managed
to get out.

Elsie went to the kitchen, where she found Paul emptying the
dish drainer. “Paul, sit down. I need to talk to you.” She motioned to the
table. “Look, Paul, you haven’t had many girlfriends, and you’ve never housed
crossers before. The combination of inexperience with the added anger and
frustration is probably too much for you to handle. Why don’t I talk it over
with your father and see if we can relocate Sara somewhere else?”

“No. I said I’d care for her, and I will.”

“Be careful now. Don’t commit to this if all you’re trying
to do is one up Sam — or prove something to me, for that matter.”

“I’m not.”

“Alright, then you need to clear your head and get down to
business. There’s absolutely no room for egotism, pride, or self-pity when it
comes to taking care of a crosser. You need to deal with your own personal
issues in private and not involve your crosser. Do you understand?” Paul’s
shocked face at her bluntness was answer enough. “We don’t know anything about
this girl yet,” Elsie continued. “Where did she get all those injuries? Who’s
responsible for them? We don’t know how much trouble she’s in. She may be
dangerous. This is information you need to get out of her. That’s step two of
housing crossers.”

“What’s step three?”

“Keeping your relationship on a professional level.” Elsie
stood up and walked over to the medicine cupboard and pulled out some ointment.
“Crossers come and go. Some make impressions on us, while others are quickly
forgotten. She will leave at some point. We’ll probably never see her or hear
from her again. You have to understand that, Paul.”

“I do.”

“Good. I told her you’d bring in some ointment for her back.
You’ll need to apply it for her, but wait a moment until I warm up this broth.
She’s still cold and needs to keep her belly filled with warm liquids.”

“Thanks for understanding, Mom.”

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s what I
do best.”

Paul entered the bedroom, holding a tray with assorted items
on it. “Hi,” he said. “I’m supposed to put this cream on your back. Mom thought
you might need some pain killer too.” He handed her a couple of pills and a
glass of water.

She swallowed the medicine. He handed her a mug of warm
broth. Sierra could see immediately that his mood had lightened.

“Eat up,” he encouraged.

“But I’m not hungry. I just ate all that other food.”

“You need to keep warm fluids in your stomach to help warm
you from the inside out.” He reached down and pulled the blanket off of her
pained foot and examined it closely. Then he uncovered the other foot to make
comparisons.

“Your ankle is definitely swollen,” he said. He gently ran a
finger down the inside of her left ankle, and she flinched. “Did that hurt?”

“Sort of. It tickled more than hurt.”

“Can you move your foot at all?”

She tried to wiggle it, but any movement brought pain. “It
hurts too much.”

“I think it was already injured when I brought you here last
night. Probably when you hit the ice. There’s no way you hurt it when you
bolted out of bed this morning.”

“Yes, I think your right.” She sipped the broth, trying not to
make any annoying slurpy sounds. “I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” she said. The
tension between them lingered like the morning fog off Slater Lake.

“Look, Paul, I’m sorry if I said — ”

“Forget about it.” He smiled at her as he carefully covered
her feet with the blanket again. He paused for a second, looking thoughtfully
into her hazel eyes. “Sara, what did you do in Rendier? Why did you have to
cross?”

Chapter 4

“Wow, you don’t waste any time do you?” asked Sierra.

“I need to know why you’re here — how much danger you’re
in,” Paul replied.

“Alright,” she said and inhaled a deep breath. “I am being
forced to marry Victor Rawlings.”

“Who’s that? Is he related to Reginald Rawlings?”

“Yes, Victor’s his son.” Paul didn’t know who Victor was?
Everyone knew who Victor was! At least that’s the way it was in Rendier.

Paul’s eyes opened wide, and she could see the white all
around his dark irises. “You’re supposed to marry the dictator’s son?”

“Yes.” Good. At least he realized the intensity of the
situation.

“So when’s the big day?”

“Three days from now.”

“Smart of you to bolt, but how did you get all those marks
on your back and the bruises on your legs?”

“I wasn’t as submissive as Reginald thought I should be, so
he decided to teach me a lesson.”

“Reginald Rawlings beat you?!” Paul couldn’t believe what he
was hearing.

“Yes, quite a few times. I guess it’s a requirement to be
submissive if you want to live in the palace.”

“Did it work?”

“What do you think? I’m here, aren’t I?” She smiled at him,
and his heart melted, making the knot in his stomach tighten even more. He
cleared his throat because it suddenly felt thick, and clearing it seemed to
help. He took her mug and set it on the table. “Here, sit up and I’ll put this
stuff on your back.” He adjusted her pillows and helped her sit forward.