Page 15 of Savage

Now that she said that it came back to him. He remembered hearing the movement of her sleeping bag. It had taken him a moment or two to register that she was shivering. “Were you warm enough the rest of the night?”

“Yes, thank you. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it. You’ve done so much for me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You don’t need to. I want to help you. Help you find your feet, whatever you need.”

“Thank you anyway.”

“I guess I should get up,” he said. “I found out yesterday that the men are in charge of the food this trip, which makes sense there are a lot more of us. I should go help.”

She started moving, trying to get away from him and out of her sleeping bag. Her movements seemed almost frantic.

“Are you all right?”

“Outside. I need to get outside. Now.” He sat up, made it to his knees and unzipped the tent door while she struggled out of her bag. She hurried out, before he had a chance to say anything more. He didn’t think he’d shed a bedroll faster, and in moments he was outside, barefoot and following Donna as she hurried away from the tents, then fell to her knees and vomited.

At a loss as to what might be wrong, he bent, pulled her hair back out of her face to keep it from getting dirty, then knelt beside her and gently rubbed her back while he waited for her to finish. Was it something she’d eaten? Unless she’d taken a bottle back to the tent with her, he didn’t think she’d had too much to drink the night before, and it didn’t smell like alcohol.

Several minutes passed, she vomited several times then sat hunched over, while her stomach heaved, trying to rid it of anything else. He wanted to help but knew until her stomach settled there was little that could be done. Eventually, her stomach seemed to calm. Donna slowly sat up then ran the back of one hand across her lower lip.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Are you okay? Was it something you ate?”

Her face turned pink. She looked down and shook her head.

“No. Not something I ate and now that I’ve been sick, it will pass.”

“Are you sure? Do I need to take you in to see a doctor?”

“I’m sure. It’s gone for now, but might come back.” She looked down at her hands, then lifted her gaze, but looked out across the prairie, refusing to meet his gaze. “A doctor won’t be able to help.”

Savage couldn’t keep the concern from his voice. He couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong. He put a finger under her chin and gently turned her to face him, but she dropped her gaze, still not meeting her eyes.

“Tell me what it is, babe. I’ll help if I can.”

Her face turned pink again, then she spoke, her voice so soft he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. “I’m pregnant.”

16

Donnadidn’twanttosee Savage’s face. He had to be disgusted with her now and seeing it would break her heart. He would look at her differently, she had no doubt. She didn’t know if she could take it.

“Okay. I guess that explains a couple of things. Come on, it’s cold out here. You don’t need to get chilled.” He stood and tugged her to her feet beside him. She realized that he’d followed her in nothing but his underwear. He hadn’t even stopped to put on shoes. Not that she had but she’d needed to get as far away as she could before getting sick.

He walked with her back to the tent, helped her inside then followed. After sitting her down, he put his sleeping bag back on the mat where it had started out then sat himself.

“First, it’s still cold, you should get dressed. Or climb back into your bag. You don’t need to get chilled.” He waited until she’d pulled a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt out of her bag and pulled them on, while he did the same. She was still pulling on her socks when he spoke again.

“Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. There’s a couple of things I need to know. First, and I know this is hard, but I need to know. Were you forced?” His voice was both gentle and steel hard. She didn’t know what to think.

She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Forced?”

He swallowed, reached out to touch her then stopped before his hand reached her. His voice was gentle as he found another way to phrase it. “Did they rape you?” There was a growl in his voice she hadn’t heard before but oddly, it didn’t scare her. She felt like he was getting angry on her behalf, and it made her feel better, at least a little.

“No. I wasn’t raped. At least not like you mean.”

“What do you mean, not like I mean?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her fingers knotted together in her lap, she kept her eyes on them to keep from having to watch his reaction as she explained. “I said I joined the commune with my friend. That was true, as far as it went. What I didn’t say was that it was my boyfriend. We’d been together for about a year before we joined the commune, sleeping together for at least half of that.” Donna still didn’t look up, she didn’t want to see the judgement on his face.

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