, I mean. But then, it’s your voice that I’ve come to love. I don’t care what you sing. You could sing the Lancaster Treaty papers for all I care and I’d love to hear it.”
“I have sung some popular songs and I’ve been told that I’m rather good.”
“Good!” He gave a derisive snort. “You’re so good I worry that God may soon take you off this earth because He wants you to lead His heavenly choir.”
“Really? I mean, Captain, how could you say such things? There are other singers alive today. There’s Adelina Patti singing”—her voice dropped an octave—“this week in New York.”
“I told you, didn’t I, that I’d heard her sing.”
“I vaguely remember something of the sort being mentioned.”
“I can tell you that the sound of her voice certainly never made my very bones ache with wanting her.”
Maddie smiled in the darkness at him, then she lost her smile. “Wanting her? What does that mean? That my voice makes you…want me?”
“Well, sure, you know that I like to be around you. I keep hoping I’ll slay that dragon for you and you’ll sing just for me.”
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed. Did you think I meant something else?”
“No…no, of course not. There wasn’t anything else that you could have meant, was there? So I couldn’t possibly think that you meant anything else, could I have? There just wasn’t anything else to think, so of course I understood what you meant.” She shut up.
“Good, I’m glad for once that you understand me. As much as I’d like to trade you the key for a song, I can’t. All the pleasure on earth isn’t worth risking your safety.” He yawned. “As much as I’d like to continue talking to you, I think we’d better sleep. Good night, my angel.”
Maddie started to protest his calling her that, but she didn’t. She was still angry at him, but his words about her singing had gone a long way toward relaxing her. She closed her eyes and in minutes she was asleep.
’Ring turned on his side without moving the chain that lay on the ground between them and looked at her. He couldn’t help smiling. She really was impossible. Impossible, yes, but the most magnificent woman he’d ever encountered. Wanted her, he thought. No human in history had ever wanted a person as much as he wanted her. But she wasn’t ready yet. As yet she was only beginning to see him as a person. Him, not just any man, but him. And that’s what he wanted more than anything else on earth, more than he’d ever wanted anything: he wanted her to want him as much as he wanted her. He wanted her in every possible way that a man could want a woman—but he wanted her to want him in the same way.
He smiled at her in the darkness. I just have to make you more aware of me, that’s all, he thought. I have to make you see me as a man. I want some of that passion that you give to your music. He stretched his free hand across the space between them and touched her fingertips. She curled her fingers around his like a baby would. Smiling, he went to sleep.
“Maddie,” ’Ring said softly, “wake up.”
Slowly, she came awake and she smiled to see him so near her. “Good morn—” she said, but he broke off her words by putting his lips on hers. She experienced a moment’s astonishment before closing her eyes. Then his lips began to move against hers, but he wasn’t kissing her, he was talking to her.
“Someone’s coming. Please obey me. Please don’t do anything foolish. Follow my lead.”
She nodded against his lips. She wanted to continue kissing him, but she could see that his attention was now on the sounds coming from the woods around them. It was very early morning, the light gray and cold.
Quickly, in one motion, he pulled her into his arms and tucked her underneath him. She knew that he was doing this mostly for protection, for at the same time that he’d pulled her to him he had also moved his pistol under her. He had the other hand on his knife, but she didn’t mind. She slipped her free arm around his neck and opened her mouth under his as he kissed her again.
“I can’t concentrate when you do that,” he said, and she could feel his heart beating against hers. “I’m going to try to unlock these. Maddie, swear that if I tell you to run that you will.”
She began to think about what he was saying then. The person he heard (her heart was beating much too loudly for her to hear anything) couldn’t be Hears Good because if he wanted to sneak up on someone, he’d do it, he wouldn’t make enough noise that he’d be heard.
Before ’Ring could get the handcuffs unlocked, she felt his big body go rigid with tension and his hand clamp down on the gun under her back. He rolled away from her as far as the chain would allow and sat up, but he wasn’t fast enough. Standing over them was a man lounging against a tree, holding a pistol aimed vaguely at ’Ring’s head.
“What do we have here?” the man asked. “A couple of lovebirds, all chained together. What’s the matter, mister, can’t keep your girl so you have to chain her to you?” He motioned to ’Ring to toss his gun aside, and ’Ring did so.
Maddie looked at ’Ring, saw the way he glared at the man, but he said nothing.
“What do you want?” Maddie asked. The man didn’t look like a robber or any kind of villain she’d ever met. He looked like a gambler or cardsharp. Maybe he’d come to the Jefferson Territory to cheat the miners out of their gold.
“Ah, so the lady can talk but the man can’t.” He looked back at ’Ring. “You got anything to say, mister?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Seeing what I can find out. You have any money on you?”