The Willows (35 page)

She found the boy down by the bank,
looking out over bayou, outlined by a patch of moonlight. When she
called to him, he smiled with a large awe. “The muskrats have
come,” he whispered. “Look, see them swimming over
there?”

Following his pointing finger, she saw
the slick, dark heads moving about, doing and great job of cleaning
up the bayou surface. “That is why you have called me?” She asked,
keeping her voice low. “I thought something had happened to
you.”

“
I got scared. I heard you
outside, and I thought you were running away again. Don’t go,
please? I don’t care what Jude said. We need you, I need
you.”

His words had her square in
the chest.
Them babies, they need
you,
Jeffrey a told her, and looking at
Christopher, so small and so young and so marble in his frumpy
night skirt and trousers, Gwen knew Jeffrey was right. It was no
fun facing life without a mother; she knew how felt to be alone.
Her heart open up to the boy. “Oh Christopher-“

“
Shh, you will scare off the
muskrats.” All Boy, standing his his dirty bare feet, he turned
back to view the activity on the bayou. “There is a little one,” he
whispered, “a baby. I think he needs help getting up on that
log.”

Looking at the distance, Gwen didn’t
realize that the boy meant to go into the water to help animal.
“Christopher, no,” she called out as she rushed down the bank. It
was too late at the night to be getting wet. In law really knew
what was in that water.

Even as she thought this, the log began
to move.

Her flesh pricked, then danced with
gooseflesh as she recognized the long, dark form. Slithering
towards Christopher. An alligator.

Images race like phantoms through her
brain. Michael yelling at her for leaving the dishes in the bayou,
her mother’s frail and broken body, fathers accusing gaze. But most
scary of all, she saw Christopher, so innocent and helpless, trap
within of those teeth.

She did not stop to think of the
consequences. She ran into the water, screaming Michael’s
name.

***

Michael heard the scream as he rounded
the cabin, his anger and resentment evaporating in an icy flood of
dread. Gripping his rifle, he ran to the bank, reaching it as Gwen
scooped Christopher up in her arms. As she turned quickly for the
shore, he saw the dark form gliding in their direction. In her
clinging shift, weighted down by the wiggling boy, she had no
prayer of eluding her stalker. The alligator slid easily through
the water; Gwen had dislodged through the mud.

He raised the rifle, sick with fear. He
had one shot, and it had to be a good one. As Gwen looked up to
meet his gaze, her plea was unmistakable. Though his insides felt
like jelly, he kept his hands steady as he aimed. Here’s protective
anger filled him. “When I shoot,” he told her, “run for the
porch.”

At the crack of the rifle, Gwen jumped
and Christopher whimpered, but the beast barely paused. If not for
the gaping hole where his left eye had been, Michael might have
thought he missed, for he continued to move and Gwen was frozen in
her spot.

Michael grasp the barrel of his rifle,
pair to use it as a battering weapon, when he heard a second shot.
The gator then sank beneath the surface, thumping its tail in the
final burst of rage.

Michael dragged her and the boy out of
the water. She continued to clutch Christopher in her chest, he
noticed. She was still trembling from all the fear that
happened.

He turned his attention to Jude,
standing behind him, clenching her father’s old shotgun as she
stared at the creature’s remains.

Michael gaze shifted back to Gwen,
standing immobile, eyes firmly shut. Unnerved by his relief at
finding her unharmed, he fought for emotional distance. “I told you
to run to the porch,” he snapped at her, taking the boys from her
grasp. “Can’t you do anything right?”

As she set Christopher on the ground,
the child faced him with the ugly glare. “Don’t yell at
her!”

“
I am sorry.” Gwen spoke
softly. Though her eyes had opened, her gaze remained unfocused. “I
guess I am not very good in emergencies.”

“
You are, too. Without you
the alligator would have eat me, if you do not pick me up.” As if
realizing narrow escape for the first time, Christopher, too, began
to shiver. “It could have eaten you to.”

Michael surprised, Gwen threw her arms
around the little boy. “I cannot let them hurt you,” she said on a
half sob. “Thank God you are all right.”

“
Yeah, well, everything’s
grand,” Jude said. “What are you all doing outside so late at
night?”

Jude’s gaze went straight from her
uncle to Gwen, taking in the damp, clinging underwear. The girl
missed nothing, Michael thought irritability

Gwen stumbled through a confusing
explanation about how neither of them had known the other meant to
take a bath, but stiff and serious, Jude clearly didn’t buy any of
the story.

“
It’s time you children went
to bed,” Michael said, cutting her short. He earned a collection of
moans from the porch column or the boys had gathered to watch. “Go
on now, the excitement’s over.”

“
You don’t know that,” Jude
said stubbornly, looking at the bayou. “No telling what the other
gators will do. Maybe someone should stay up tonight, and make sure
his buddies don’t try anything.”

She was right. This would draw more
predators. “I will drag it off, maybe down to Jeffrey’s house. He
will be happy for the meat anyways.”

“
We could sure use the meet
ourselves, come winter,” the girl pressed. “I will be happy to stay
up and stand watch.”

Michael is tempted, for the gator would
go a long way toward feeling their stomachs, but he’d come to close
to losing one child this evening; he was not about to risk another.
“I will be taking it to Jeffries,” he told everyone sternly. “Now
the rest of you go to bed.”

“
But Michael-“

“
Go to bed, Jude. And give
me that gun. I don’t recall giving you permission to use
it.”

For a moment, he fear she might argue,
so he frowned at her, holding his hands open. There was bust ration
– and no little hurt – in her expression, as she handed over the
weapon. Michael new he was being a bear, but Jude was a child, for
heaven sakes, a little girl we should be playing with dolls, not
weapons. He wanted her snug and warm and safe in bed, not sitting
up all night guarding the house with a gun. Especially not with the
memories this weapon must hold for her.

Dragging Christopher behind her, Jude
slowly walked up the steps, gesturing for her brothers to follow
her inside the cabin. With a sigh of relief, Michael turned to
Gwen. “Take this,” he said, thrusting the shotgun into her hands.
“I have got to go.”

“
You’ve got to be kidding
me. “She held it away from her body with obvious disgust. “You take
this away from Jude to give to me?”

Apparently she cannot shoot, either. It
was no major crime–few ladies were expected to master the military
arts–but for some reason, her inability–as well as her
feebleness–merely fueled his anger. How could she be so helpless,
so in need of protection? Her hair was tangled and her underwear
covered with mud–how in hell could he still find her
beautiful?

“
Jude is just but a child,”
he bit out, turning toward his boat. “You are supposed to be the
adult.” Reaching for a rope, he wrapped it into the water and
around the nose of what remained of the gator.

Gwen followed him. “That child just put
a bullet into a charging alligator, Michael. I’m not much of a
gambler, but faced with an emergency, I would put my money on Jude.
I would certainly hand heard the gun.”

“
But then, she is not your
niece, is she?” With more force than was needed, he tightened the
rope, then attached the rope to his boat.

“
How dare you. You accuse me
of talking down to those kids, but what of you? It wouldn’t hurt to
praise her marksmanship, you know. To give Jude credit for saving
her brother’s life.”

“
So all of a sudden, you’re
her champion? Or is it just that you’ll seize any excuse to fight
with me.”

“
No.” Her voice went soft,
lost its edge. “For what it’s worth, I don’t try to make you angry.
I don’t know why I always manage to do and say the wrong
thing.”

Clutching the shotgun, she stood still
as a statute, her trembling the lower lip the only sign of
movement. She looked so hurt and bewildered, he almost apologize,
before reminding himself it was just an act. She was doing it
again, twisting him around her little finger, making him want her
so badly, was all he could do to pull away. “Go to bed, my lady,”
he said, getting into his boat.” “We can talk when I get
back.”

“
Talk?” She asked, her voice
trembling like her lip, “or just exchange more
accusations?”

“
What else do you have to
exchange? As you are so fond of pointing out, we come from
different worlds. I’m beginning to agree that bringing you here was
a lousy idea.”

Pushing off, he left her standing there
on the rise. Enough, he told himself, but her image remained with
him. Even when she was no longer insight, he could still see her
pale, lifeless face in the moonlight.

***

Jude waited on the porch, ease dropping
on their conversation, needing to know what the woman meant to say
about her. She expected complaints in the long list of criminal
acts, so it came as a total surprise to hear her praise. Did when
it really think she was good with a gun?

Having Michael’s ear, Gwen could have
complained about the snake, about the awful meals and unwashed
dishes, but she did not say word. Uncomfortably, Jude found herself
thinking that there was more to her than they’d expected, that none
of them knew Gwen at all.

Glenn’s shoulders sag as Michael went
pulling off. Against her will, Jude felt sympathy. Why did Gwen
just stand there? Didn’t she realized another gator could come
along?

Jude tried to tell herself it was none
of concern if the stupid female got eaten, but she kept seeing
Gwen, leaning down to hug her little brother, so plainly happy to
see him alive. It had been so long since anyone had hug him. Hug
any of them.

For pity’s sake. She thought as she
stopped over to Gwen; some people just couldn’t think for
themselves.

As Jude touched her arm, Gwen gave a
little scream. “Oh, you startled me,” she said it
breathlessly.

“
Yeah, well, it’s late.
Considering there is probably still gator’s guts around, it’s not
exactly safe to be standing so close to the water.”

Gwen looked at her feet, then with a
quick shiver, part her lips. Turning to Jude with a measured
expression, she handed over the shotgun. “Here, you take this. You
know what to do with it.”

“
But Michael said
–“

“
Between you and me, I don’t
think he knows what he wants. He certainly doesn’t know much about
women.”

“
I don’t know –“

“
Look, Jude, I can’t hit the
broad side of a barn with that thing. Giving it to me was a
mistake. Giving it to you makes sense, which your uncle would
realize if he weren’t so stubborn. So you take it and do whatever
you must with it, and since Michael isn’t here, he need never to
know. It can be our own little secret.”

Despite herself, Jude could not stop a
slow, growing grin as she looked back to the shotgun. “Code of
honor?”

“
Code of honor; I won’t
tell” hugging herself, Gwen stared down the river into the
darkness. “He is an angry man, your uncle,” she said in a broken
voice. “He doesn’t like me very much.”

“
Michael is all right.”
Though she felt compelled to defend him, Jude knew he had been
especially mean to this woman, that he’d given her no chance to
explain. And must hurt, facing his anger like that. In Gwen’s
place, she, too, would feel the need to cry.

“
He was right about one
thing,” Gwen said suddenly. “We’re all tired of this. I guess it’s
time we headed for bed.”

“
I will be in one minutes. I
want to make sure everything is all right.”

Gwen looked uncertain. For a moment,
Jude feared she would order her into the cabin, but with a sigh,
Gwen nodded. “Stay on the porch, though. Your brothers need you too
much to risk you getting hurt.”

She turned and went into the house,
leaving Jude washing with confusion. Gwen seemed so subdued, so
much a stranger; could she trust what had just happened between
them?

She hated that woman, she insisted. One
brief, moonlit conversation couldn’t change the fact that they had
to be rid of her. Come tomorrow, Gwen would be putting on ruse
again, treating them like dirt beneath her feet, so there was no
call for Jude to change her mind about her.

Looking over her shoulder, she thought
of the lizard, waiting the need Gwen’s bed, and cursed softly under
her breath. She went into the house, insisting again and that
nothing had changed, but for tonight, maybe that lizard could sleep
somewhere else.