Savage Arrow

“Heavens, no!” Jessie said. “I would never tell him what you have confided in me tonight.”

“Jessie, can you find a way to help Lee-Lee?” Jade asked, her eyes pleading. “You are free to come and go as you please, aren’t you?”

“So far,” Jessie gulped out.

She stepped away from Jade and began slowly pacing the floor; the rug was thick and cushiony beneath her slippered feet.

After hearing all of this, and realizing just how uncomfortable she was with Reginald, who was a stranger to her now, Jessie wondered about her own future. How could she stay with Reginald now that she knew what a monster he was?

Yet where would she go?

Of course, Kansas City had been her home, yet those she loved . . . her family . . . were no longer there.

But she did have friends there.

She had much to decide now, but most of all she must keep in mind the best interests of her unborn child.

“Jessie, can you help my daughter?” Jade asked again as she came up beside Jessie, causing her to stop pacing. “She is the only tiny, pretty Chinese girl there in that particular set of cribs. The other Chinese cribs are far back from the main street in a portion of Tombstone called Chink Town.”

Suddenly she grabbed Jessie desperately by the arm. “Please, oh, please say that you will help my daughter escape that terrible place,” she begged, her eyes wild with fear.

“Even if I did, where could she go?” Jessie asked. “Reginald would surely hunt her down, as well as the one who helped her escape.”

Suddenly Jessie heard screams of horror . . . of fright, out in the corridor.

Eyes wide, she looked at Jade. “What in the world . . .” she gasped.

“This is becoming a nightly ritual,” Jade said, a slow smile curving her lips.

“What?” Jessie asked, shaken when another terrible scream of horror came through the closed door. “Who . . . ?”

“Reginald,” Jade said nonchalantly.

“Reginald?” Jessie gasped out.

“For some time now Reginald has been having terrifying nightmares,” Jade said, her voice revealing a glad smugness. “Each night his screams of torment get worse than the last.”

Again his screams came through the door.

Now Jessie could even hear him running down the corridor!

“Why is this happening?” Jessie asked. Part of her wanted to go to Reginald, to comfort the boy with whom she had shared such a precious childhood. But now that she knew the sort of man he had become, the rest of her wanted to leave him to his torment, because he did seem

to have brought it on himself by his evil deeds.

“Why?” Jade repeated, staring at the closed door, then turning back toward Jessie. “Because he’s done so much meanness in his lifetime,” she said tightly.

Stunned by how terrified Reginald sounded, Jessie wondered what could be the seed of such fear. Allowing herself to remember the good times they’d shared, she pulled on a robe and hurried out into the corridor.

She stopped abruptly when she found Reginald crumpled to the floor, breathing hard, his face in his hands.

Jessie stood there a moment, staring down at the pitiful sight, then knelt down beside him.

“Reggie?” she murmured, starting to reach out for him.

Reginald’s head jerked up.

The fear in his eyes changed quickly to anger when he saw Jessie kneeling there.