SOUTH
Wesley had a plan. A stupid plan. A terrible plan. The worst plan. But it was the only plan he had. And he could only hope that Nora, who was the queen of stupid terrible plans, would go along with it. It started with a horse.
“I’m not getting on that thing.” Nora stood at the white fence while Wesley walked his horse past her.
“You don’t have to get on this thing. This thing, which is actually a saddlebred stallion, is my thing. Your thing is still in the stables.”
“Is my thing much shorter than your thing?”
“Much shorter and much tamer.”
“Good. Then let’s get this dog and pony show on the road. Where’s the dog?”
“We don’t have a dog. It’s just a pony show.”
“I can live with that.”
Wesley dismounted from Bob for Short, the most trustworthy and sure-footed of the two dozen saddlebreds his parents kept on the farm, and tied him to the fence while he took Nora into the stable. He saddled up a mare named Purse Nickity and handed Nora the reins.
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” Nora said as they walked the horse out in the sunshine.
“Making you do what? Go horseback riding with me?”
“Yes. After this morning? And last night? And yesterday afternoon?”
Wesley stared at her blankly. Nora rolled her eyes as she came to stand directly in front of him.
“Young man, you have fucked me raw.” She poked him in his chest. “I am saddlesore and I haven’t even been on a saddle.”
Wesley winced in sympathy. “Ow. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…I’m sorry.”
A huge grin spread across Nora’s face.
“I’m not. Let’s do this.”
She put her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle, not even flinching as she adjusted her seat.
“Come on, Wes. If I’m not sore after sex, I assume someone did something wrong.”
Wesley laughed, hopped in the saddle, grabbed his reins, trotted Bob up to Nora.
“Well, I’m glad you’re just sore and not in actual pain. I know that’s kind of your thing, but I’m afraid it won’t ever be mine.”
“It’s okay,” she said as Wesley led them out of the pasture and onto a well-worn trail that wound through a few acres of hardwoods. “I don’t miss the pain as much as you’d think. It’s been kind of nice not feeling like I have to pay for the pleasure with a day off my life. Not that I’m complaining or anything. Kinky sex is intense, to say the least. But being with you…” She turned and smiled at him. “It’s been good, Wes. Better than I ever would have dreamed. Better than I wanted to dream. What about you? You doing okay being with a woman old enough to have given birth to you had she gotten knocked up at age fourteen?”
Wesley gripped the reins and pulled Bob around so he’d be looking Nora straight in the eye when he answered. “More than okay. It’s been the best thing ever.”
“Ever?” she asked, her face flushing. Wesley prayed the color on her cheeks was inspired by his compliment and not simply the exertion of riding in the last summer heat up the side of a sloping hill. He could have picked an easier trail, but he had something to show Nora and the only way to get to it was up. “Ever’s a long time. Almost as long as forever. And definitely longer than for-fucking-ever.”
“I kind of like the thought of forever,” Wesley said as they passed under a canopy of bowed tree limbs and came out on the other side into the early morning sunlight. “Don’t you?”
Nora shrugged. “Depends on the forever we’re talking about. Forever waiting for something you want is another definition of hell in my book. Forever with someone you love? That’s the other definition of heaven.”
“Want to know my definition of heaven?” Wesley asked as they reached the top of the hill.
“Does it involve a swimming pool full of mud, me in fishnets, a hunting horn and seven-layer chocolate cake?”
“No.”
“Then yes, tell me.”
“Here. I’ll take Zach’s advice and show you instead of tell you.” They paused at the edge of the clearing and looked down. “Just look out there.”
“My God…” Nora breathed, and a smile as wide as Kentucky spread across her face. “Damn.”
“Exactly.”
Damn indeed. Wesley had seen this land, this valley a million times, but until he saw Nora’s face light up when she looked on it, he knew he’d never seen it until now. He was happy that his first time really looking at it was with her. He wanted all his first times to be with her. And his last. And everything in between.
From the summit of the hill, they could see for miles into the valley below them. Winding stone walls carved S-shapes in the lush blue-green grass. A thousand horses pranced and danced behind gleaming, pure white fences. The pond glimmered like a diamond in the sunlight.
A diamond glimmered in Wesley outstretched hand.
Nora’s eyes widened at the sight of it.
“Wesley?”
“Everything you see down there is mine. Or will be. I hate being called the Prince of Kentucky, but only because it’s kind of true. I have a kingdom and that’s it. And there’s nothing in the world more beautiful…except you.”
“Wes…you…”
“Stay with me, Nora. Stay here. Forever. Everything you see…I can give it to you. And you can love it and keep it, or hate it and burn it to the ground. I don’t care, as long as you’re here with me and you never go back to him. I know he can give you things I can’t—loneliness and pain and shame and humiliation. But I can give you a few things he can’t. Marriage. Kids if you want them. No kids if you don’t. A life together out here in the sun, where everyone can see us. You’d never have to hide if you were with me, or pretend. You’d have the whole world. You’d never have to work again. You wouldn’t have to even write another book if you didn’t want to. Or you can write until your hands fall off, and I’d hire the best doctor in the world to sew them back on. You can name all our horses, like you name your characters. You can drive my parents crazy by making riding crop and pony jokes every single day of your life. You can…” Wesley’s voice faltered. Bob grew restive underneath him. Drawing a breath, Wesley took Nora’s hand in his and held it tight, the diamond ring pressed into her palm. “You can be safe and no one will ever hurt you again. I won’t hurt you and I won’t ever let anyone else do so. Not now. Not ever. Not even if you go crazy and decide you want them to. I’ll make you happy. I’ll keep you safe. Just please say yes or no before these damn horses bolt and kill us both.”
Nora stammered and shook her head. “—I don’t know, Wes. I mean, are you asking what I think—”
“Dammit, Nora. You always have to make things harder than they are. Will you marry me? That’s what I’m asking. Yes? No? Maybe?”
Nora pulled her hand away from his, but took the ring. He waited, praying she’d put it on her finger. Instead, she only stared at it.
“It was my great-great-grandmother’s on my mom’s side. It would have been my sister’s had I had one. Lucky me—only child.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“They said my great-great-grandmother was the most beautiful woman in all of Georgia in her day. She had men fighting duels over her. I thought that was the craziest thing—two guys killing each other over a girl. Then I met you and I swear the thought of seeing Søren’s body being dragged through the streets behind Farewell to Charms made me smile like nothing else.”
“I’ve had the same thought a few times,” she said with a nervous laugh. “But, Wesley—”
“No buts. You don’t have to answer. You can think about it if you need to. I hope you don’t need to, but if you do…then you do. Actually, don’t answer. Don’t say anything about it. Just think about it. You can tell me yes, no or maybe when we get back to the barn. Okay?”
Nora took a shallow breath as she studied the ring in her palm. Wesley didn’t know much about it other than his mom had once said something about ten carats and two million dollars.
“Okay…” Nora wrapped her hand tightly around the ring and held it close to her chest.
“We’ll head back. We shouldn’t talk on the way down, anyway. It’s pretty steep.”
“Lips are sealed.”
Wesley watched as Nora slipped the ring onto her thumb—close enough to her ring finger to give him hope—before taking up her reins again. They started back down the hill, the only words spoken between them the occasional “watch out there—big rock” and an “I see it.”
A half hour later they made it back to the stables. The return trip had been torturous with waiting, and yet Wesley loved Nora enough not to panic her or push her.
He forced himself to go slow with the horses, to take his time. He unsaddled them carefully and brushed them both down—actions that calmed his racing, waiting heart. He wanted to rush, to get it over with and find out Nora’s answer. But he feared the answer as much as he wanted it, and so went as slowly as he could, delaying what he feared was the inevitable.
“Good girl,” Wesley said to Nickity as he put her back in her stall and offered her a fistful of oats.
“Nice to have such a pretty girl eating out of the palm of your hand, isn’t it?” Nora asked as he ran his hand down the horse’s long nose.
“She’s really not the girl I’ve got my heart set on.”
“Too bad. I hear she’s kinky.”
“Let me guess—she likes riding crops and pony play?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Nora…”
Nora sighed and raised her hand to Wesley’s face.
“Goddammit, I missed you while we were apart. I wish you knew how much.”
“I know how much I missed you, and never want to feel that way again. And I know we never have to. Just say yes. You know he can’t give you the life I can. You know he can’t…Nora?”
Nora’s eyes had left his face and now looked over his shoulder. Wesley glanced back and saw nothing but shadows in the corner of the stable.
“Nora?”
She said nothing, but Wesley saw fear in her eyes. Fear? Of who? Of what? They were alone apart from the horses. Did the thought of marrying him scare her that much?
“Nora, please. What—”
“Yes.” She looked up at him as she wrenched the diamond off her thumb and shoved it onto her ring finger. “Yes, I love you. I’ll marry you. Let’s go tell your parents so they can start the freaking out immediately.”
Wesley nearly collapsed into the straw. His relief trumped even his happiness.
“Thank God.” He started to drag her into his arms, but Nora pulled away.
“Now. Let’s go tell the fam. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and started to yank him forward.
“I don’t even get to kiss you—”
And the world went black and stayed black for a long time. A few minutes, a few hours, he didn’t know and couldn’t tell. When he woke up, all he knew was pain.
Pain, such pain…he’d never known pain like this before. Wesley slowly forced his eyes open and found himself facedown in the straw, still in the stall. Everything hurt…maybe. His head ached so violently he couldn’t even be certain the rest of his body still existed.
“Nora?” Her name came out with the force of a cough. Wesley heard no answer. Pulling himself to his hands and knees, he looked around and found the usually flat, trampled down straw a mess, as though someone had wrestled in it.
He called Nora’s name again as he lifted his hand to the back of his head. His fingers came away red and sticky with blood.
“Oh, shit…” Wesley nearly vomited at the sight of his own blood. Someone…someone had hit him in the head. But where was Nora?
Two parallel lines in the straw led from Nickity’s stall to the stable door. Someone had been dragged, the heels of their boots cutting through the bedding.
Dragged…blood…the fear in Nora’s eyes…
Wesley half ran, half stumbled toward the door. He had to get out, get his parents, call the police….
He had to find Nora.
But he stopped before he touched the door. In the wood someone had carved five words—the five most terrible words Wesley had ever read, even though he couldn’t read them. And he knew he couldn’t tell his parents, couldn’t call the police, could do nothing but pull his cell phone out of his pocket and dial a number he wished he didn’t know. His instincts, however, told him this was the only number he should call.
The phone answered on the first ring.
“Søren…it’s Wesley.” He choked on the words. He’d throw up any minute now. But he had to get it out. He stared at the words carved on the stall door.
“Wesley? What is it? Where’s Eleanor?”
“Je vais tuer la salope. What does that mean?”
“It’s French,” Søren said, sounding both furious and deadly. “It means ‘I will kill the bitch.’ Wesley…where is Eleanor?”
“I don’t know. Someone has her.”
“What do you mean, someone has Eleanor?”
As a small child Wesley had heard the phrase “the wrath of God” in church, and sat and wondered what that meant, what that sounded like.
Now he knew.
“Søren…she’s gone.”
* * * * *
Watch for THE MISTRESS, the next thrilling installment of The Original Sinners, coming soon!