It seemed that everything was ready for the trip within minutes. Since there were no nylon tents to pack, no propane stoves, no bags of dehydrated trail mix, everything seemed to fit easily into one heavy canvas bag that Cole hefted onto his strong back. To Kady’s amazement, he already had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung across one shoulder.
“Knives,” Kady said as they stepped onto the porch, a small pack on her back, with a basket tied to it.
“You don’t need those rusty things from the cabin,” he said, echoing her own sentiments about the knives. “I have knives with me. Ready?”
As Kady pulled the cabin door shut, for a moment she searched for a way to lock it, then turned and smiled at him. “No lock.”
“No, no locks,” he said in amusement at the very idea of locking the door to a cabin in the mountains.
Cole led them up a winding trail that he said had been made by elk. After an hour, he paused, told her to be still, then pulled his bow from his back, fitted it with an arrow, and prepared to shoot a beautiful deer. After a second’s disbelief, with a great leap, Kady fell against him, sending the arrow soaring into the trees.
“Why the hell did you do that?” Cole demanded. “You made me miss him. We could have eaten for weeks off that one deer.”
A flood of words came from Kady as she told him that in her time there wasn’t much game left because hunters had killed so many animals over the centuries.
Cole listened in silence, then reshouldered his pack and bow. “I don’t think I would like your time very much,” Kady heard him say as he began walking again.
A few hours later he stopped and asked her permission to shoot a rabbit. “You haven’t killed all of them off, have you?”
Kady didn’t like his insinuation that she personally had rid the world of game, but she told him rabbits were all right. Within seconds he had shot two arrows and brought down two rabbits. As he retrieved his arrows, Kady asked him to give her a knife; then she field-dressed the rabbits in the blink of an eye. When Cole insisted that he was going to cook them, Kady headed toward a little stream, saying she’d find them a salad.
Minutes later, she returned with a basket filled with watercress, wild sorrel, prickly lettuce, and a couple of violets. Without oil, the best she could do for a dressing was to chop a few ground cherries on top. When she presented Cole with this lovely salad with its different colors of green, various-sized leaves, topped with the tiny purple violets and red cherries, she was quite proud of herself.
But Cole wouldn’t touch it. He acted as though eating anything but meat would destroy his internal organs. After a few comments about his immature taste buds, Kady happily ate all the salad by herself.
Cole wouldn’t allow her to help him with the cooking. “Don’t you know that a man is supposed to wait on his wife on their honeymoon?” he asked as he handed her a delicious quarter of roast rabbit.
“I’m not used to being waited on at all,” Kady answered. “By anyone.”
“
What about Garvin? Doesn’t he bring you gifts, shower you with every bauble a woman could want?”
“Of course he does,” Kady snapped. “Gregory has bought me a house in Alexandria, plus all the furniture in it. He’s rich and he’s generous.”
“He must have a few vices. How is he at the gaming tables?”
She smiled sweetly. “Gregory does not gamble, drink, or do drugs. He’s a hardworking, clean-living man, and he loves me very much.”
“How could any man not love you? I just want to make sure that my wife is going to be taken care of, that’s all. So, tell me, how did this man make all his money?”
“I’m not your wife. Not really anyway. Gregory makes his money from buying and selling land. And from the restaurant,” she said. “People like my cooking and they pay for it.”
“Is he planning to retire and live off you?” he asked with eyes full of false innocence.
“Certainly not. He’s thinking of running for mayor of Alexandria and eventually becoming governor, then, who knows? Maybe president.” Cole opened his mouth to speak again, but Kady interrupted him. “Why don’t we talk about you? How did you make your fortune? Why is there a mosque in Legend? And are you sure those men were trying to hang you because of some cows? Maybe you said something so awful to those nice men that you deserved to be hanged.”
Cole turned away, but Kady could see his mouth curve into a bit of a smile, and she couldn’t help smiling herself.
“You ready to go?” he asked, standing, kicking dirt over the fire he’d built.
As he helped her on with her small pack, he kissed her cheek. “I am a bit jealous of this Guwain.”
“Oh? I hadn’t noticed.”
His eyes were twinkling as he said, “I never want you to leave me, Kady. Never.”
With a frown, Kady turned away from him. She shouldn’t have agreed to these days, she thought. Maybe her body was safe with him, but her heart wasn’t. There was something so old-fashioned and protective about this man that he appealed to something she’d never known was inside her. He was like a grown-up boy, someone who hadn’t yet been beaten down by the world.