Shane: Dragon’s Savior – Ménage Erotic Fantasy (Dragon's Savior Book 4) (18 page)

Her straw hair was a little worn in places, missing in others, but was still yellow and soft. The dress had more than likely been made from Sally’s sons’ clothing; it was dark and the buttons too large for the size of the clothing. The face on her was stitched to be a happy one…red thread that made a smile, blue for the eyes. There were even little freckles on her cheeks.

“I had left it there the first day because I was fearful that Mother would accuse me of stealing it. I couldn’t read then, not well, but I knew that the first letter was what my name was, so I came to take it. For several days after, I would go back, having not played with it at all, waiting for someone to take it back.” Laying the little doll in front of the headstone, she continued. “Mother never knew about us. No one did. I was careful, as you told me, to come only when your boys and husband were away. Picking mushrooms with you gave me so much. Not just food in my belly when you’d bring me things, but how to find other foods in the forest that I could eat.”

The second item that she pulled from the bag and placed on the headstone was a book. It too was worn; its cover was nearly worn to the pages in some places. The binding on it had been coming off, so she learned how to repair it and had done the work herself. The book, like the other things, had kept her from harming herself over the years. Just the thought of the woman that had given them to her had been enough.

“You must have known that I wasn’t able to read this. But you helped me with that as well, didn’t you? No one had bothered to help me read or write. And numbers were as much a mystery to me as the workings of my body.” She thought of how Sally, a woman with six sons, had given her all the information to go from child to woman so that she’d not be alone in that as well. “I found the notes attached to different things. A tree with the word on it. There was a rose with a drawing, as well as the way it would be spelled out. I might not have been able to read big books, but the one you gave me became easier and easier after that. And now I can read as well as any scholar, and understand even more.”

In a gentle way, Sally Benson had taught her not only to read, but to be adventurous as well. Finding the notes, the drawings, as well as learning something as magical as the written word, had kept her grief at bay. Her mother was gone; her sister had shunned her. Even the people in the town had very little to do with her. Lelani figured out later, decades later, that it had more to do with the fact that she looked like her sister so much, not because of who she was. For she doubted that anyone knew of her.

There had been other items, but many had long since been eaten or worn out. There had been a pretty dress, the first one she’d ever owned that wasn’t a cast off from her sister. A ribbon for her hair that she’d lost once when she’d forgotten to remove it before going into the house. Her mother had beaten her but good for her not telling her where she’d gotten it, but Lelani never did. It was hers and given to her with love. There had been blankets, warm coats. Knitted hats and gloves. All treasures to her and cherished more than anyone could have guessed.

“When Jacob told me that he’d never known about me, I was hurt. You and I, we had so much together that I was injured that you’d not told him. Then I thought about how much we had shared, how you and I would talk quietly, how you’d listen to my heartbreak. It was then that I realized that what we did, how we’d meet, was more special because of that.” She pulled out the next item and flattened it out on the grass so she could remember more. “You made this for me. I know that you’d made the boys all a sweater that year as well. I wore mine when I was not only cold from the weather, but when I needed the warmth of your love. Had it not been for this sweater, knitted by you for me alone, I would have found a way to have ended my life. Even in the darkest of times this would bring me comfort like nothing else could.”

She laid the sweater—worn at the elbows, the neck of it stretched out, the color faded now that its age was countless to her—over the woman who had given it to her. The ribbon around it with another note, another declaration of love, was still there as well. Lelani kissed her fingers and took them to the sweater. She wished that she could, one more time, hug the woman who had been more of a mother to her than her own had been.

“I don’t know how you found out that it was my birthday. I mean, I did figure it out and for a time, I thought that you were feeling sorry for me. That you were making these things for me because you knew that no one else would have cared. There wasn’t anyone around to wish me well. For a brief moment in time, someone loved me for me. And you gave me that, Lady Sally.” She pulled out the small tin and opened it now. The last thing that she’d received from the woman who had not only loved her when no one else had, but had kept her alive, quite literally. “When you passed, I grieved for months. I wasn’t here when you died…I was far away, licking my own wounds when I’d been hurt by Erin. After I heard I came here nightly, just to sit with you, talk to you. Jacob’s passing hurt me as well. You talked of him so much, and your boys, that I felt as if I knew them as well as I did myself. I have.... Oh Sally, I have missed you so very much.”

When she’d gotten the tin, it had been filled with a scone and a small gauze bag filled with a fragrant tea. There had been a cup as well, long since broken, but a piece of it was now in the little box that had held the other things in it. The gauze bag, dark with the stain of the tea, still lay in the bottom with the string attached.

Lelani had gone to the creek by the cave where she’d been staying to get water. Because of Sally, she’d been able to not only start a fire, but she was able to find enough sweets of the earth to have a sweet cup of tea like a proper lady. She’d used the tea up, having several cups of the brew, each taste of it weaker as she used it, but no less wonderful for her.

The tin was also now filled with dried petals that had been laid upon Sally’s grave. They’d once been roses, blue as the sky during a storm, but were now only reminders of the worst day of her life.

A mushroom from the garden that Sally had picked from the very day that she’d gotten sick was in the tin. There was also the knife that had forever been in Sally’s pocket when she’d gone out. Lelani had found it in the mushroom garden a month after Sally’s passing. Treasures she knew that meant everything in the world to her.

“When I left this area, the pain of you gone being too much for me to bear, I also left my sister. You said that I needed to spread my own wings, to get out and find my own path, so I did. I would see her on occasion, talk to her; or rather, have her tell me what she was doing, what she was accomplishing. But she never asked about me, as you said she wouldn’t, nor did she care that I was still alive. Hoping, I guess, that I was as dead and cold in the ground as our mother.” Lelani thought of her own mother now, the blood of her blood. “Erin had her killed. I know that now. And I think, as you told me, she would eventually get around to doing the same to me. My power and hers, it was what she wanted all along, something that was gifted to me over her.”

Lelani laid on the grave now, no longer caring that it was cold around them. The woman here, the only person that had ever loved her all those years ago, was close now, and she could talk to her when she wanted. Lelani knew that she would too, that she’d come out there to talk to her, tell her things of her day, memories that she was making. And stories of her new son.

“I love Shane and Keion. They’re so good to me, giving me everything that I ever wanted, some that I never realized I would. You raised them all to be good men, caring and loving. And I think you’d love Mark as well. Taking him in, it mellowed me a great deal. Makes me think of my words in the event that he should hear them.” She fingered the ring on her finger, thinking of all the changes in her life, both now and then, that were because of Sally Benson. “I love you, Sally. I miss you so much and love you with all my heart.”

Closing her eyes, she let the tears flow down her cheeks and onto the earth below her. There was no need for her to quiet her sorrow so she let it go, sobbing out the pain of her loss that she’d held so tightly to her for too long. As she laid there, her heart hurting, her mind full of memories, she heard the hard crunch of the frozen earth breaking, felt the arms of love wrap around her, and hoped that she’d come home. That Sally had somehow known she was there and had come to hold her again.

Before You Go…

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Kathi Barton, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband who is an artist and potter.

Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans.
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