Page 24 of Texas Destiny
“It has its moments.” Just as she did. Sweet moments, gentle moments. Moments that filled him with awe.
She smiled softly. “I should stop pestering you and let you go back to sleep.”
He unfolded his body as she rose gracefully to her feet and turned away from the fire.
“Oh, look. I can see the shadow of a moth that’s flying inside the tent. Isn’t it pretty?” The smile eased off her face. “I can see the moth’s shadow,” she said in a hushed voice, “and everything inside the tent.”
Houston stiffened as her gaze streaked to his pallet. With his saddle at one end, it didn’t take much imagination to figure out which way he’d been lying or what had been in his line of sight.
Her gaze flew back to the tent, then to the pallet before she snapped accusing eyes his way. “I can see everything. Everything. Have you been watching me each evening?”
Sweet Lord, he wanted to speak but anything he could have uttered would have condemned him. As it turned out, his silence condemned him.
As she drew back her hand, he forced himself to give her an easy target. The blow came, jerking his head to the side.
She stormed into the tent, the flap momentarily billowing and slapping after her. Her shadow reflected as much hurt and anger as he imagined she felt. Then the shadow disappeared into the darkness as she extinguished the flame in the lantern.
Houston felt as though all the light had suddenly gone out of his life. He broke out in a cold sweat as his gaze swept over the camp. He’d told her he was alone, but until this moment he didn’t know the true meaning of the word.
She’d shut him out of her life with a single breath. She’d ask no more questions of him, of that he was certain. He should have been relieved. Instead, he thought he might keel over and die. With trepidation, he neared the tent. “Miss Carson?”
A thick heavy silence was her reply. For some reason, he thought he’d feel a sight better if he could hear her sobbing orthrowing things around.
“Miss Carson, you need to step outside and slap me again. The side you hit is mostly dead. You need to hit the other side of my face so I can feel it like I should.”
He could hear nothing but the heavy pounding of his heart. He could see nothing but a vast emptiness filling the coming days. Dear God, what words could atone for what he’d done?
“Miss Carson, I know what I did was wrong. It was shameful, and I regretted it even as I did it, but dear Lord, woman, I swear to God, I’ve never seen a sweeter shadow than yours … and that’s all I saw. Just your shadow.”
“Without clothes! Washing up! Enjoying a few moments of freedom!”
Sweet Lord, yes, and he’d enjoyed her moments of freedom most of all, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate hearing that at this moment.
“Miss Carson, if I could undo what I’d done, I would. But I can’t. If you just knew how beautiful—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Mr. Leigh. Just leave me alone.”
“You have every right to be upset—” He heard a sob. He’d been wrong. Hearing a noise was worse than hearing the silence.
“Miss Carson, I’d do anything on God’s green earth to make this up to you. I’d pluck out my eye—”
A light flared inside the tent, and the flap flew open. She stood before him, her eyes rimmed in red, and he could see the faintest trail of tears along her cheeks. In all his life, he’d never loathed himself more.
She sniffed. “Do you mean it? Would you do anything?”
He glanced at her hands, expecting to see the knife she no doubt planned to use to remove his remaining eye. But her hands held nothing but the cool night air.
He swallowed hard. “Yes, ma’am. Anything.”
She folded her arms beneath her breasts and swept out of the tent like a queen granting her least favorite subject an audience. She held her chin high with a dignity unlike any he’d ever seen. Dallas had been right to refer to her as the Queen of the Prairie.
She spun about and looked down her nose at him—as much as she was able, considering the top of her head didn’t reach the height of his shoulder.
“You may sleep in the tent tonight.”
Although her words had come softly, she’d spoken them with the force of a hissing snake. His gut clenched. He wasn’t exactly sure where she was headed with this train of thought, and he wasn’t certain that he wanted to know, but she appeared to be waiting on him to respond.
“Excuse me?”
