He caught her hands in his, holding them together in front of him. “Then please stop this,” he said. “Please leave me alone. Don’t follow me, don’t touch me, don’t mother me, don’t put salve on my back, don’t cry when I get mad at you. Don’t do anything. I’m begging you, please.”
Chris leaned toward him. “It doesn’t matter to me that you were in prison. You may think that I’m of a different class than you but I’m not. Ty, I think I may be in love—”
He put his hand over her mouth. “Don’t say it. Don’t ever say it. I couldn’t bear to hear it. We’ve only known each other for a few days and in a few more we’ll never see each other again.”
“The number of days doesn’t matter. Do
you know how many men have asked me to marry them? I receive proposals in the mail. I’ve been to dinner parties and had two proposals by the end of the meal, but I’ve never even been tempted—not by marriage or by their attempts at seduction. But you, Tynan, you’re the man I want.”
Ty’s face went through one contortion after another and for just a moment, he leaned toward her as if he meant to kiss her. But the next second, he ran from the dry rock cropping, out into the rain.
“Don’t you understand that I CAN’T? I can’t make love to you. Now get up! We’re going back to camp and don’t come near me again.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her out into the rain with him, then half pushed her up the steep bank. Once on the trail again, he didn’t touch her, just pointed the way back to the camp.
Chris knew that some of the water on her face was a deluge of tears but she didn’t know how much until she reached the camp. There were three tents set up, one for each of them. Under a tree, its opening facing away from the other two tents, was a tarpaulin that she knew was Tynan’s.
Ty stood back, arms folded over his chest while she went into the tent he pointed to.
It took Chris an hour to change into dry clothes, because her tears kept running down her cheeks. She cried all night long. The first man she’d ever loved and this had to happen.
When morning came, her face was red and swollen, her nose half again its usual size and her head was aching. When Tynan came to tell her that they’d stay in the tents until the rain stopped, she couldn’t look at him, but just kept her head down and nodded.
By noon, Chris was exhausted from so many hours of crying and thinking, but she’d made some decisions. Slowly, she built a little fire under the dry leaves of the tent and heated some soup left from the day before.
She took her rain gear from the pile of garments in a corner. There was no furniture in the little tent, just a sleeping roll, a few clothes and now the little fire under the flap outside.
With her back rigid, Chris left the tent. The rain was coming down very hard and when it hit the hot kettle, it gave off wisps of steam.
Tynan had rigged himself a piece of canvas supported by two poles in the front. It left the sides and the front open and, as long as the wind didn’t blow the rain about, the occupant could stay dry. Ty was stretched out, his head on his saddle, a book in his hand when Chris arrived.
“I brought you some soup,” she said above the rain.
Sitting up, he reached out and took the pot from her as she withdrew biscuits from under her slicker. “May I sit down?”
“I don’t think that…yes, of course,” he said at last, looking at her hard. No one could miss the fact that she’d been crying for many hours.
“I’ve been awake all night and I’ve been thinking about what you told me and I’ve come to some decisions.” She took a deep breath. There was no use stalling. “First, I’d like to say that I thank you for telling me what you did. I’m sure it’s not something that you tell everyone.”
She lowered her head and didn’t look at him as he stared in open-mouthed astonishment. “I think the best way to say this is just to get it out. I don’t know very much about love, never having experienced it before, at least not love between a man and a woman, but I think I have sense enough to recognize it when I see it. I don’t know how or why, but I’ve fallen in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know your secret now and, after much thought—I don’t want you to think that I say this lightly—I know it doesn’t matter. I’ve never made love to a man before so I’ll never have any idea what it is that I’m missing and, as for children, I have some contacts in New York and if it’s all right with you, we can take in an orphan or two.”
Chris stopped and looked up at a sound from Tynan. For a moment, she was astonished because he seemed to be having a sort of fit. Was epilepsy what was wrong with him?
“Tynan,” she said, moving toward him.
He had his hands on his stomach, his legs drawn up, his mouth open and he didn’t seem to be breathing.
She was ready to call for help when she suddenly realized that he was laughing.
She sat back on her heels, watching him as he finally caught his breath and began to laugh as she’d never seen anyone laugh before.
“An orphan or two!” he gasped. “I don’t know what I’m missing. I’ll take you anyway.” With each word, he doubled over harder and laughed more deeply—and Chris’s backbone grew more rigid.
“I am certainly glad that I am a source of amusement for you, Mr. Tynan. May we pretend that this conversation never took place?” With that she moved out of his shelter and started back to her own tent.
Ty caught her skirt hem. He was still laughing and weak from the effort. “Don’t be mad, Chris, it’s just that I—” He broke off and went into fresh peals of laughter at a new memory and Chris wondered how she could ever have thought she loved this idiot of a man. At the moment she wished the earth would open and swallow him.
“Come in out of the rain,” he said, making a valiant effort to control himself, but his lips were twitching and his eyes watery.
“No thank you. Please release my skirt so I can get back to my own tent. I don’t think we have anything to say to one another.”