Eugenia's Embrace

"Drew, she's pregnant," she said flatly.

"What… ?" he gasped, jumping from the swing, going to a porch rail and hanging his head.

"It's true," Eugenia mumbled. "You Goddamned son of a bitch, you got my sister pregnant. Now what do you think of them apples?"

"It just can't be," he said thickly. Then he swung around to face her. His profile was so keen in the moonlight it made her heart ache.

"I love you, Eugenia," he added. He fell to his knees on the porch in front of her, grasping her hands. "I do. I only love you," he continued to argue, squeezing her hands as she tried to pull them free.

"Oh, Drew," she moaned, turning her head away. She couldn't stop the tears. She knew that she loved him even though he had been unfaithful to her. Even now, before they were to be married. And with her own sister.

"Oh, my love," Drew said, sitting down in the swing beside her, cradling her in his arms. "What have I done? What have I done?"

"You do love me, don't you, Drew?" she said, putting her fingers through his hair, knowing this would probably be the last time she would be able to do this. He belonged to Elizabeth now. He was father to her child.

"Always, my love," he said, then crushed her lips beneath his. The familiar drumming in her brain began to seize her as his fingers worked downward to reach beneath her dress. "Only you, my Eugenia," he moaned.

She jerked away and rose from the swing, feeling flushed from need, and from the embarrassment of realizing he still had such a mesmerizing effect on her.

"I want you to leave here tomorrow," she snapped angrily.

"Leave here… tomorrow?" he gasped.

"Yes. Take Elizabeth and leave," she continued. "Take her to Colorado Springs. Marry her and take her to our house. Give her child a name and a home. You must."

"But I can't. I don't truly love her."

"You must do what you must do, Drew," she said firmly. "You've gotten my sister pregnant, you must do the right thing by her."

"God, Eugenia," he groaned, trying to go to her once again.

"Please don't touch me. Ever again," she hissed. "It only confuses things further."

"What will your Mama think?"

"I will think of a way to explain it all away," Eugenia said. "Tomorrow morning, you just pretend you and Elizabeth are going into town for more supplies. Then take a train from there and go on to Colorado Springs."

"Dammit all to hell," Drew shouted, stomping from the porch.

Eugenia watched his shadow until it disappeared from view. She remembered how he had a tendency to disappear into thin air so she followed him, knowing that she wouldn't let him get from her sight. Even if she had to stay awake all night watching him.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-three

Looking out the small window of the Cripple Creek Special, Eugenia listened to the mournful tune of the train's whistle as it wound around hills and curves. It was a much easier way for Eugenia's return to Cripple Creek. It had been a long ride by stagecoach from her parents' homestead to Florissant where she had heard that a train station had been built. Going by train she had found it possible to take many of her Papa's books back with her to The Towers. Everything else she had sold with the house.

Squinting through the bright rays of the late evening's rosy sunset, Eugenia could see her mountain in the distance. Only the bottom half was visible now, due to the usual hazy fog that captured its top half.

It had been so hard to leave the two graves behind. She felt the emptiness gnawing at her insides. She couldn't help .but feel a bit responsible, but yet she had to make herself believe that she had done all that she could to help her Mama get through each distressful day after Elizabeth's departure. Elizabeth and Mama had been too close, for too many years, for Mama to accept her sudden absence from the homestead.

Her Mama's eyes were such a pale blue. They had shown that she guessed the reason for Elizabeth's leaving, but she had never, not once, spoken that truth out loud.

The winter had been a long, lonely, cold one. Eugenia had fought against the cold winds, cutting and splitting firewood, milking the cow in the drafty barn, idling time away in the hayloft, dreaming that it had been she and Drew stretched out on the straw making passionate love. When the feelings got too strong, she would have to return to the house and her Mama, who had quit living in a sense. Her long days had been spent rocking slowly back and forth, watching the fire dancing in the fireplace. It was as though her Mama had been waiting. But Eugenia hadn't been able to figure out for what. Had it been for her Papa, Elizabeth, or death?

Pulling the pin from her stiff-brimmed, round hat, she rearranged her hat over her red curls, then stuck the pin back in place, watching the people around her. She had so hungered for people those long winter days and nights, to hear some signs of laughter, to make her aware that there was some happiness left in the world. Eugenia could still see her Mama the way she had found her that evening after she had come in from chopping wood. Eugenia had noticed her Mama's bent head. But she had only thought her asleep. Wanting to get her in a more comfortable position, Eugenia had gone to her and touched her arm to awaken her. But one touch had been all that it had taken. Her Mama had been dead for some time.

"Heart failure," the doctor had said.