Maddie’s upper lip began to sweat. “Certainly,” she said, her voice cracking just a bit. “That kind of love.”
“With virgins you need to lead up to that.”
“H-how?”
“Talk to her, for one thing. Virgins love words. Tell her that you’d like to kiss her ears and her hair. Touch her breast. Not hard, mind you, that comes later, but just lightly at first. Kiss her closed eyelids. Virgins love that. Make love to her hands.” He lifted Maddie’s hand and entwined her fingers with his, his thumb rubbing the center of her palm. “Some people don’t realize how sensitive hands can be, how very much fingertips can feel, or all the body parts that fingertips can touch and stroke and caress. But you know, don’t you?”
She didn’t even try to speak but looked at his big hand holding her small one and nodded.
“Yes, virgins need to be wooed and courted. They need to have attention paid to them. A virgin needs to care for a man before she can relax and love him back.”
Abruptly, he dropped her hand and pulled back from her. “Look at that. I was so busy talking philosophy that I forgot about the fire.”
Maddie looked over the little blaze at him. Her throat was dry and her body tingled from her toes to her hair line. She was afraid to try to stand because she didn’t think her legs would hold her.
He sat back and grinned at her. “What an odd subject of conversation.”
“Yes,” she managed to say.
“What do I know about women, anyway? You’ve heard why my father hired Toby and you’ve heard Toby say that I’m not interested in women, so how could I know anything about virgins, or any other type of women, for that matter? Whatever made us talk about this anyway? Oh, yes, I remember, the fire. You know, we really should have used that snare that you say you have before we made the fire.” He grinned at her. “But then, maybe fires are like virgins and they can be rekindled if you know the right kisses.”
He stood up, and as he did so, he pulled Maddie up with him. Her legs buckled under her and he caught her under the arms. “Are you all right? You don’t look all right. You’re pale as a ghost and you’re sweaty. You aren’t getting sick, are you?”
“Keep your hands off of me,” she whispered. Before I make a fool of myself and throw myself at you, she thought.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, releasing her so abruptly that she almost fell. She grabbed his belt as she started down. He, the unaffected so-and-so, just stood there and watched her, his hands held out at his sides to show that he wasn’t touching her.
She was able to recover herself before she hit the ground. She stood in front of him, as far from him as the chain would allow. “Let’s g-go—” Her voice, that usually perfect machine of hers, betrayed her again.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go anywhere,” he said with concern. “I’m not sure you’re well.”
“Rabbit,” she managed to say at last. “Catch rabbit.” Maddie started walking, pulling ’Ring behind her, so that she didn’t see him pull out his handkerchief and wipe at his face then scrub at his sweaty palms, then wipe his face again, then reach inside his trousers and adjust himself, then wipe his face again, then, after watching her walk, close his eyes so hard that he shed a few tears. When she looked back at him, he was smiling at her as though he didn’t have a concern in the world.
Chapter 12
Maddie had never been so confused. She had always known what she wanted to do with her life and she’d planned it accordingly, but now, with this man, she never knew what was going to happen. She not only didn’t know what was going to happen, she couldn’t explain what was happening.
She kept asking Captain Montgomery what w
as going on, but he just smiled at her. One minute he seemed to desire her, then the next he didn’t seem to know that she was alive—or that she was alive and female.
He helped her with the buttons on her riding dress (even though they were down the front) and he helped her with the ties of her corset, which they used to make a snare for the rabbits. He laughed at her when finally she could stand it no longer and went behind a bush to relieve herself. After that, whenever she had to go, she made him sing even though the sound was grating to her ears.
She couldn’t seem to figure him out. One minute she thought she had him pegged as a pompous know-it-all who wasn’t worth her time, then the next minute he was telling her about his sister Ardis. One minute he seemed cold and uncaring and the next he seemed full of pent-up emotions. One second he seemed to desire her and the next he didn’t look at her.
What a day it was, Maddie thought as the sun began to set. They had used the fish hooks she’d had inside her skirt to catch a few big mountain trout, they’d lain side by side for over an hour waiting for a turkey that they’d heard to come near them, then ’Ring had pulled the snare made out of her corset ties and caught the big bird. Maddie had plucked it and he’d laughed because he didn’t believe she knew how.
In the late afternoon ’Ring had followed a swarm of bees to their hive and Maddie had begged him not to try to get the bees, but nothing would make him stop. He’d lit a torch of dried cedar and used the smoke to dull the bees, but as soon as his hand was in the nest, the bees had come awake and taken after him.
He came down the tree and started running, dragging Maddie behind him, and when she couldn’t follow fast enough, he tucked her under his arm and kept running to the stream.
They evaded the bees, but they were soaking wet with icy water. When Maddie started to scold him, he grinned and held up a fistful of honeycomb. Unfortunately, it was honeycomb that was covered with angry bees.
In seconds they were swatting at bees, Maddie trying to keep her balance as she danced at the end of the chain linking her to ’Ring. But, no matter how many bees attacked them, ’Ring still hung on to that comb.
Now they sat together by the big fire that ’Ring had built, huddled in their wet clothes. There was nothing else to wear, nothing to cover themselves with if they should remove their clothes. And there were no hot drinks to warm their insides.
“I’m sorry that I got you into this,” ’Ring said. “If I’d been more alert last night, that man wouldn’t have been able to—”