“Sure,” Jecca said. She could stand some mild exercise. She just hoped it would be active enough to get her blood flowing. Afterward, she’d like to set up her camera and take some photos.
But an hour of leg lifts or whatever would be a welcome break. And besides, she liked the idea of being with these two older women. She didn’t really remember her mother, and since she’d spent her life with men, she’d always wondered what it would be like to be around such women.
Five
“Tristan?” Jecca said into the dark for the third time, but there was still no answer. “Stood up by a man I’ve never even seen,” she mumbled, then groaned at the pain in her shoulder.
There was a crack of lightning, followed immediately by a clash of thunder. Great, she thought. Now I’m going to get soaked. When the first drops hit her, she turned back toward the house.
“Psyche,” she heard Tristan’s voice. The rain started coming down harder.
She couldn’t see anything, but she felt his arm go around her shoulders in a way that drew her head down onto his chest. When he started running, she went with him.
They went through the dark woods at a fast pace. A couple of times she felt a tree graze her arm. If Tristan hadn’t known exactly where he was going they would have slammed into one another, but he never hesitated in his run.
“Duck!” he said as his hand came up to her head and pulled it down. He stepped back as she went across what seemed to be a threshold and under a low doorway. When she stood up again, she was inside a building, and if possible, it was darker than outside. “Where are we?” she asked.
“You are in . . .” he said.
She could hear him moving about but could see nothing. There was a sound of cloth, then he handed her what felt like a small quilt. She wrapped it around her upper body.
Tris Nn tm"he htan put his free hand on her shoulder and began to pat her. “Sorry about the rain,” he said. “You’re in the Aldredge playhouse. My niece is th
e fourth generation to use it.”
He moved to her back to smooth the quilt over it, then returned to her front. “Better?” he asked.
“Yes and no,” she said.
He stopped moving. “What does that mean?”
“I worked out with Mrs. Wingate and Lucy today.”
“No!” he said. “I thought those things were an urban myth.”
“I wish they were,” Jecca said and pulled the quilt off and handed it to him. “You must be dripping.”
“I’ve been more dry,” he said as he took the quilt and put it around his shoulders—and gave a shiver.
“Did your sling get wet?” she asked in a scolding way. “When you heard the thunder, you should have stayed home.”
“And miss seeing you?” he asked in a low voice.
“You can’t see me, and you could have called.” She was patting him dry, walking around him, her hands on his body. In spite of what she was saying, she was pleased that he’d shown up.
When she got back to the front of him, he kissed her cheek. “I like it when you’re concerned about me.”
Outside, the rain was lashing hard. “Is there a place to sit down in here?”
He took her hand, again told her to duck, and led her into a second room. Guiding her, he pulled her to what seemed to be a bed.
“I don’t think—” Jecca began.
“No seduction, I promise,” he said.
Jecca thought, Then why am I here? but didn’t say it.
The bed was short and surrounded on three sides by walls. She turned and leaned back against one end of the bed, and he took the other, but she kept her legs bent. To extend them would mean entwining their legs.