CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“I don’t see why I can’t go and visit my own husband,” complained Heather. “This is a hospital. Surely there are wheelchairs?”
“Maybe you should stay in bed a little longer.” Amber’s face was a picture.
As surely as she knew her own thoughts, Heather realized her twin was fibbing. “What’s going on?” she demanded.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Amber’s face flamed scarlet. She was as poor a liar as Heather was.
“Is he worse?” If Patrick was dying, would Amber really keep it from her?
“He’s fine.” Amber tried to smile. But her face stayed red.
“It’s no good, Amber. Something’s up. You better tell me.”
“He’s gone.”
He was dead. She was lying down but she still felt faint. Amber bent over her. “Heather.” Her voice was urgent. “What is it? Is it the babies?”
“Is Patrick dead?”
“Of course not.” Amber clutched her hands fiercely. “Don’t be foolish. I only meant, he’s left. Gone back to Colorado. His father and uncle showed up at the crack of dawn and took him away in an ambulance.”
She couldn’t believe Patrick had left without a word to her. Not unless he was incapable of that word. “I thought he was getting well,” she said softly.
Amber shook her head. “The wounds on his legs are badly infected, and the doctors were back to talking about surgery – if changing his antibiotics didn’t work.”
Heather swallowed hard. Jeremy Bascom thought she was trash. He would snatch Patrick without a thought for his wife’s feelings. But she liked Gilbert Bascom. She found it hard to fathom that her Aunt Debbie’s husband would regard her as of so little account that he would take her husband away without bothering to inform her. Not unless Patrick was a lot worse than Amber was letting on.
Her twin’s face was set in stubborn lines. And she was biting her tongue. She knew her sister didn’t like Patrick – it had caused a rift between them. Not a chasm, more of a hairline crack, but she was so used to her sister being there for her that it seemed worse than it was. But right now she needed her twin to be her rock.
Breathe. She had to breathe and stay calm for her babies. She rubbed her stomach in big concentric circles willing her muscles to stay loose. She counted her breaths until she felt less edgy. “Why doesn’t he answer his cell?”
Amber shook her head. “Same reason you don’t answer yours. It’s probably turned off and in a drawer.” She opened the night table and took out Amber’s mobile. She tried to turn it on. The screen stayed black. “It needs to be charged.”
It was plausible that no one had thought about charging Patrick’s cell. In fact, it was more likely that his family didn’t want people bothering him. He was a big wheel at B&B Oil. Lots of people would be calling him on business as a matter of routine. It wasn’t just his no-account wife that his family would want to keep from disturbing him. Even if it felt that way.
“You better call Aunt Debbie and see if she knows what is going on,” Heather said. “And get my cell charged.”
Amber looked guilty.
“‘Fess up,” she said softly.
“We didn’t want every old cat in town calling you to get the dirt on you and Patrick,” Amber admitted.
Heather nodded soberly. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Nasty old gossips.”
“What are they saying?”
Amber’s lips were a straight line.
“That bad?”
Amber nodded. “Yeah. They are having a field day with the second wedding and what it means that you had it after the shivaree and honeymoon.”
A bubble of laughter rose in Heather’s chest. “If that’s all they can find to gossip about, the poor things need another scandal.”
“They are adding two and two and making five. Or six.” Amber’s chuckle was hollow. “What they will have to say about Patrick’s taking off, I do not know. But you can bet they will be burning up the telephone lines.”
“He’ll call me as soon as he’s able,” Heather said.
Amber’s eyes were round. “O-of course,” she said.
* * *
None of Gideon’s animosity had mellowed. Apparently, the fact that Patrick and Heather had married not once, but twice, made no difference to his backwoods cousin. Resentment rolled off the other bear’s muscular body in waves.
But Gideon merely exhaled into Patrick’s face. His breath was at once more potent and less comforting than Uncle Pierre’s. Once more Patrick felt empowered and healed. Gideon moved away and his place was taken by Jeremy. Compared to the Pierre and Gideon, Jeremy’s breath was feeble, but he too had something to contribute.
They went around and around, in a slow circle while overhead the sun got higher and began to sink into the west. The clearing grew gloomy. Patrick felt stronger and stronger. It was all he could do to hold still.
The two youngsters were almost bursting out of their skins. And it was only the physical pressure of the older bears on either side of them that kept them from romping. And still the healing circle continued, until Uncle Pierre nudged Patrick into the circle and Gilbert and Zeke pushed Jeremy into the center.
The bears continued to circle, breathing onto Jeremy. When it was his turn to exhale into his father’s face, he sensed some icy barrier in Jeremy dissolving. As if his father was finally able to take a deep breath after years of pain. And then it was Gilbert’s turn to breathe into his brother’s face.
Pierre let the circle revolve only twice more before he signaled that it was time to stop. He sat down on his haunches and smoothly changed back into a human male. He left the circle and walked over to the tree where he had left his clothes and began to dress again as calmly as if he were in his own home. Perhaps he was.
“You boys don’t need me for this. You take him into the woods and have yourselves some fun.”
Patrick felt completely well. Stronger than he had before. He just hoped that fun meant going for a swim, rather than having to wrestle with Heather’s cousins. Jeremy shook his head as if he didn’t understand what had happened to him. For the first time that Patrick could ever remember, Jeremy smelled like a bear. What the fuck?
As if released from school, the white bears bounced high, almost seemed to spin in the air, and took off at a gallop through the trees. Lenny and Joey padded after them. Zeke and Gilbert urged him after the others and fell in behind. Even though he felt better, Patrick felt a bit groggy. Not weak and sick as he had before, but discombobulated. As if he had been drinking. As if the floodgates had been opened on his senses.
He wasn’t sure if it was sedatives still in his system, or if it was another effect of the healing circle. Bear fucking magic. He would not have believed it before. And he wasn’t sure he believed it now. But he certainly didn’t feel like he needed a stretcher. It remained to be seen what would happen once he was back in human. But right this minute he felt reborn.
By the time he got to the riverbank, the young bears had already cannonballed into the water and Joey and Lenny were shaking water from their fur. They opened their mouths and huffed as if they found the youngsters’ enthusiasm amusing. And then they plunged in after them.
Patrick waded into the river. It was cold. As soon as it got wet, the dried blood on his legs began to stink, before the current washed it downstream. He had forgotten that he had been bleeding when he took bear.
Jeremy and Gilbert didn’t seem convinced that all was well with him. They buttressed him on either side. Zeke plunged into the deep water and swam in great happy circles.
Gideon and Asher had disappeared. He wished he knew why, they certainly didn’t seem thrilled with him. Were they planning an ambush? He was thirsty. Desperately thirsty. He gulped the pure, cold river water. That too seemed to purge some weakness from his system.
His bear senses were more alive than they had ever been. The sunlight glinting off the water, and the rippling melody as it rushed over rocks, and the chittering of the squirrels and the singing of the birds formed a rich patchwork of overwhelming sensation. His thoughts became a blurry kaleidoscope. He let the sounds and sights of nature flow into him in a healing torrent.
Gradually Jeremy and Gilbert relaxed their vigilance. They let him immerse his entire body in the rushing water and follow the other bears upstream. Cord and Hunter had found a place where the rocks had narrowed the river and created some rapids. They were rafting down it on their backs whooping and chuckling.
Although he felt invigorated, Patrick wasn’t sure he was ready for such exertions. He contented himself with paddling in the pool below those rocks. But Zeke and the Benoit twins clambered up the rocks as eagerly as the boys and threw themselves down.
For the first time since he had woken in hospital, Patrick felt hungry. He stretched out a paw and helped himself to a steelhead. It was delicious. He had another and another. And then he had another deep and refreshing drink followed by another swim.
He was pleasantly tired when Lenny or Joey – he wasn’t close enough to be sure which – decided it was time to head back to the clearing. The boys were still prancing and bounding with the energy of youth. Even Jeremy had more of a spring in his step. And he no longer seemed weighed down by fear. Had Jeremy been that worried about him?
When they returned to the clearing, Uncle Pierre and Gideon and Asher were gone. They all started their change back into human. It was obvious there was a friendly competition. Lenny and Joey were the fastest. The boys were nearly as quick. Zeke was faster than he was. Gilbert faster than Jeremy. All the men took an enormous interest in the back of his body. The proof of the magic working.
“Those wounds are completely closed,” Zeke said with satisfaction. “Nice pink, healthy scars.”
Patrick put a hand up and felt the back of his neck. The skin felt new and thin and no warmer than the rest of his body, instead of hard and scabby and hot with inflammation. He turned his head carefully. It hurt no more than it had when he was in bear. Not yet perfect, but not as though it were going to fall off.
“Thank you.” His eyes went around to the other men who were nearly dressed.
“A healing circle is powerful magic,” Joey Benoit said. He turned his attention to the boys. “You heard your Uncle Pierre. This is private bear shifting business. You don’t speak of it anywhere. Not at school. Nowhere. Got that?”
“Yes, Uncle Joey.”
“When do we eat?” Hunter demanded.
Joey laughed. “Lenny, you got something for these bottomless pits?”
Lenny was also guffawing. “I’m hungry myself. Erin made us a picnic. It should be in your truck.” Erin was the boys’ sister and Lenny’s wife.
It was something of a comedown to realize he was now going to have to put on that damned hospital gown. Fortunately, Zeke had brought along a spare set of clothes. Patrick got dressed in jeans and plaid shirt and laced up Zeke’s second-best boots. They sat around the tailgate of Joey’s truck and ate sandwiches and drank black coffee from an enormous Thermos.
“What now?” he asked.
“Gideon and Asher returned the ambulance,” Lenny said. “It would be best if you didn’t go back to the hospital for a bit. Be some hard to explain why you’ve healed up so fast and where your stitches went.”
Jeremy and Gilbert nodded soberly.
“Maybe you should think about heading home, son,” Jeremy said.
“Just as soon as I collect my wife.” Patrick frowned. He turned to Lenny, “I promised Heather a house here in French Town. How do I make good on my word?”
For the first time, Leonard Benoit’s smile looked more friendly than threatening. “That’s easy. My cousin Lisa Marie and her husband just built themselves a house over in Hanover. Their old house is standing empty. I’m sure they would like a tenant, or a buyer – if the clan decides you and Heather are eligible to buy that land.”
Gilbert clapped a hand on his shoulder. He squeezed hard to tell Patrick to bite his tongue. “Most of the land around here can only be sold to members of our clan. I’ll have a quiet word with Uncle Pierre and see what he thinks before he broaches it to everyone. The others will go along with him.”
“You do that thing.” Lenny closed his huge picnic cooler. “You tell Uncle Pierre that I’m in full agreement.”
Joey chipped in. “For the record, I don’t see why Heather shouldn’t get permission to buy clan property. She’s as much a part of this clan as any of us.”