Gold (26 page)

“
Be you wanting more to eat?” he asked.

“
No.” She spoke the word so low he could
hardly hear her.

He stood looking down at her pale face haloed
by her golden hair.

“
I want you to take me home,” she said, glanc
ing at him for the first time.

“
You’re in no fit condition to travel.”

“
I can ride.”

“
I ain’t got a horse. I had a mule that died on me a month ago. You’d have to walk and you
can’t.”

“
Send for someone in town to come for me.
Send for . . .” She started to say Rhynne but thought better of it. “Send for my mother.”

“
I ain’t had a horse since the fire,” Varner said.
“When I had to sell it to pay my debts.” He closed
his eyes and saw the flames licking along the sides
of his store and erupting upwards into the night
sky. His breathing quickened. “You and Rhynne,”
he said, “you fired my store.”

“
I had nothing to do with the fire.”

“
I saw you kissing him while you both watched
my store burn. I saw you on the hill. The devil
himself, Rhynne is, and you’re his handmaiden.
The devil’s mistress is what you are. You’ll both
burn in the everlasting fires of Hell.”

“
Mr. Varner,” she said, “don’t talk that way.
You don’t know what you’re saying. Remember,
you were the one who threatened to burn the Em
pire. Have you forgotten that? I’m telling the truth
when I say I knew nothing of the fire at your
store. Nothing,”

Varner went on talking as though he hadn
’t
heard her. “They tie witches to the stake,” he said.
“They tie them hand and foot and throw torches
on the kindling. You can hear the flames spit and
crackle; you can see the fire licking its way to
wards the evil women. When their gowns catch
fire they scream for their protector but he never
comes.” His voice rose. “You can hear their
screams and smell the burning of their flesh as
their souls are doomed to everlasting damnation.”

Selena turned her face to the wall.

Varner trembled. He swung about and walked
to the door where he leaned his head on his fore
arm. He drew a deep shuddering breath as images
circled in his mind. He felt his body being swept around and around as by a great whirlpool while
he struggled to keep from being sucked into the
depths.

As his head slowly cleared he opened his eyes
to see the pine boards of the door. Exhausted, he slumped into a chair at the table and laid his head
on his arms. How long he slept he didn’t know but
when at last his head jerked upright the cabin was
much darker than he remembered.

Selena was asleep.

He walked across the
room to stare down at
her fair skin and her blond hair tumbling loose
over the blanket. He watched the rise and fall of
her breasts beneath the blanket and, when she
turned in her sleep, he saw her body outlined on
the bed.

Gently he lifted the top of the blanket and drew it down until only her feet were covered. The side of her robe was torn from just beneath the shoul
der to the knee. Through the rent he saw the bruised skin of her back, the curve of her hip,
and the white of her upper leg. He shivered as he felt excitement grow in him, the desire so long
denied. Selena twisted on the bed, moaning in her sleep. A moan of pain? he wondered. Or of re
membered passion?

Quickly Varner covered her with the blanket.
She was a temptress. He must put away all tempta
tion, put Satan behind him. Going to the table he
struck it with his fist, three, four, and five times until his hand throbbed with pain. Slowly the ex
citement waned, lessened without dying, receding
to the edge of his consciousness.

Walking about the kitchen area of the cabin,
Varner collected all the old tin cans he could find,
then took a thick ball of twine from a shelf. His
arms full, he went outside. Only when he was
halfway to the bottom of the hill did he remember
his rifle. Putting the cans and twine on the ground,
he hurried back to the cabin. Selena still tossed
in her sleep. Varner took the rifle from beside the
door and retraced his steps.

On the low ground around the knoll, he tied the
end of the twine to the bottom of a shrub, un
wound the twine, cut it and tied the other end to
a can which he had filled with pebbles, all the
while keeping the cord as taut as he could. When
he had encircled the knoll with trip-cords, he
stepped outside the circle and walked some dis
tance away. Then he turned and approached the
cabin as a stranger might, noting the most visible parts of his warning system.

By the time he was finally satisfied, the sun was
behind the hills and the cabin lay in shadow.
Carrying his rifle, he climbed the hill and went
inside. Selena’s eyes were closed, her breathing regular.

Varner struck a lucifer to light a lantern. With
rifle and lantern in one hand and the bucket in the
other, he walked the half mile to the stream. He
returned, taking care to avoid the trip-cord, and
heated the water on the stove. When it steamed, he
poured the water into a pan and carried it to the
bed.

He shook Selena by the shoulder, watching as
her eyes slowly opened. She was awake all along,
he told himself. He nodded to the pan of water
and, going across the cabin, put more wood on the
fire. The lantern on the table threw his shadow
onto the cabin walls. When he looked over his
shoulder he saw Selena sitting on the edge of the
bed with both feet in the water.

Varner went outside, returning with the cloth
he had used to bathe her feet, and knelt beside
the bed.

“
Give it to me,” Selena said, reaching for the
cloth.
He shook his head. “It’s my penance,” he told her, dipping the cloth in the water and anointing her feet. He cleansed her ankles, stroked higher, pushing aside the thin cloth of her nightgown.
Selena drew her feet up onto the bed. When she
leaned forward to cover them, the blanket fell
away from the top of her body and Varner saw the
white skin of her throat and the shadow between her breasts. She pulled the blanket up around her
neck.

Varner reached down and took the blanket and
yanked it from her hands. He threw it into a cor
ner of the room. Selena screamed, her hands rush
ing to cover her breasts.

“
The Lord has decreed,” Varner said, “that
harlots shall be stoned until they are dead!”

“
I’m not a harlot!”

“
Men pay a hundred dollars for the chance to
satisfy their lusts on your wanton body. You’re
being sold by Rhynne to every man in the diggings
willing to pay his price. Who will enjoy the charms
of the beautiful Selena? Who will sate himself on the pleasure offered by her flesh? Who will look
upon her dove-white breasts? Who will have car
nal knowledge of her? And you’re not a harlot?
Not a whore?”

He gripped the top of her gown in both hands
and tore both gown and robe, sundering them,
leaving her half-naked. When she twisted away, he
pinned her wrists above her head with his hands. She screamed from the pain of his fingers on her bruised skin. He stared at her writhing body, then
threw himself on her, releasing her hands to
roughly caress first her breasts and then her legs
while she beat at his face with her fists, screaming
at him to stop.

All at once his body went limp. Selena moaned,
shifting away, extricating herself from beneath
him. Pulling her robe together, she tried to cover
her nakedness as she cringed away from him.
Varner lay face down on the bed beside her with
his shoulders heaving. She realized he was crying.

“
Even now,” he said, “my faith is no proof
against the weakness of my flesh.”

She looked down the length of his body and saw
the hilt of a knife projecting from a sheath on the
side of his boot. Sitting up, she leaned forward and
took the hilt in her hand, then, watching Varner,
eased the knife out of its sheath. Once freed, she
held it in her hand, staring at the curved and
deadly blade.

She held the knife so that it barely touched the
side of Varner’s flannel shirt. She closed her eyes,
gathering courage to plunge the blade into him.
No, she couldn’t. Yet she had to. Varner was
mad. There was no telling what he might do. She
tensed and thrust the knife forward. The blade met nothing but air.

She opened her eyes to see Varner standing
beside the bed watching her. “Give that to me,” he demanded, holding out his hand.

Selena, crouching on the far side of the bed, shook her head. As Varner reached for the knife, she slashed wildly at his hand. He stepped back,
watching her warily. She saw his eyes go from the
knife to the floor and back to the knife. He smiled
as he stooped beside the bed. Standing again, he
swung the pan he had used to bathe her feet, hurling the water into Selena’s face.

She gasped, blinking and spluttering as he
clambered across the bed to grasp her wrist. He
twisted her hand and the knife dropped onto the
blanket between them. He released her, seized the knife and stood up. His eyes seemed unfocused as
they stared at the foot-long blade.

Mumbling to himself, Varner snatched the roll
of twine from the table and began cutting it into equal lengths. When he was done, he threw the
knife to the floor, where it quivered point down in
a pine board. He approached the bed with the
lengths of twine in one hand.

Selena huddled against the wall at the head of
the bed. When Varner reached for her, she
screamed. He took her hands in his, trying to draw them together. She fought him, striking out at him
with all her strength. Though he was short, her
own height at the most, Varner’s shoulders were broad and his arms heavily muscled. When he pressed his body on hers, she knew she was no
match for him, yet she struggled on, stopping only
when she lay exhausted beneath him.

He lashed her hands to the head of the bed, one
on each side, and though she pulled and twisted
she could not loosen the bonds. Kneeling beside
her, he grasped one of her ankles while she kicked
futilely at him. He tied her ankle to the foot of the
bed, circled the other with cord and tied it to the
other side so she lay spread-eagled on her back.

Varner then drew the tattered robe and gown apart so that she lay naked to the waist. She saw
his mouth working as he looked down at her, saw
his chest rising and falling in what were almost
sobs. He stepped back to take the hilt of the knife
in his hand, easing it back and forth until the
point came free. He came toward her.

Selena screamed.

“
When I have finished with you,” he said in a low voice, “you’ll no longer be able to tempt men. I’ll be free of your wiles. Men will gaze upon you
only to turn away in revulsion.”

She stared in horror at the knife blade glinting
in the light from the lantern. Varner reached
down. She closed her eyes, twisting from side to
side. She felt a slicing pain above her right breast.
When she opened her eyes she saw he had traced
a circle in the skin around her breast, leaving a
thin red line on her flesh.

“
No, no, no,” she moaned.

Smiling, he stooped to pick up the wet cloth
from the floor. He pushed the cloth into her mouth
and tied the ends behind her head.