Page 54 of Swamp Kings 2

“Thank you. Brother.”

He sat on the log next to her, ready for answers. “Why did you lie about your name?” he asked, deciding to get that out of the way first.

She stared at him with her stunned jaw dropped then snapped her eyes tothe fire. Green eyes, he confirmed.

“Well, I was…”

It suddenly hit him. Her accent. “Where are you from?” Was she possibly a stray?

“Well, now see, about that,” she said, carefully, regarding him with furrowed brows. “I-I’m very sorry to have lied to you Mr. Voss, but I’m just trying to survive here.” She shot her gaze around, as if to count her threat before pleading her case. “When I first came to be with the… lovely Amish folks here, it was a very strange set of events.” She tugged the fur pelt closed as she faced him more. “I’m from England, you see. I’m a nurse. I came to America to work, and no sooner had I stepped foot off my plane, the country decides to collapse right under my bloody feet. A flurry of catastrophes found me and many a soul roaming back roads, lost and scared and hungry with no place to go. One day, a wagon of Amish passed and kindly offered me a ride.”

“Did they,” he muttered, having a hard time believing that one.

“I think… maybe I was possibly dressed like an Amish, I don’t really know, and let me remind you that I was terrified, I had no idea who was foe or friend so upon asking my name, I couldn’t find the courage to give it or any word of any kind, and they took pity on me, assuming I was mute from the trauma of the events that rolled out like a red carpet straight from the bowels of…” She stopped short, catching herself and redirected her eyes to the fire. “I lived with them for weeks without uttering a word because I feared if they knew I was a foreigner they’d put me out, or find me fit enough to leave if I was capable of speaking, but…”

Voss studied all the delicate angles of her troubled face, waiting for the rest of this interesting story.

“The Amish life does not appeal to me, Mr. Voss,” she confessed upon facing him before rushing out a, “No offense, I think it’s a beautiful uh… way of life. For some. For those who…” She faced the fire again as if all her lies were getting too burdensome to continue.

“I made friends, you see, with some of thegirls. Malinda, Rosalynn and Naomi.”

This news twisted his guts with anger but also curiosity. He waited very patiently for the rest of the words and when he got a chance to read her eyes, his spine straightened at what he saw. “And?” he ordered, feeling the eyes of every brother in earshot now.

She seemed to sense it too and glanced around. She looked back at him, a woman on a cliff with the option to jump off or fight a legion of demons.

She suddenly shot to her feet before the fire, letting the fur fall as she chosefight the demons. “And listen here,” she ordered, turning to fully face him, her small hands in fists at her sides, the surprising stance intriguing him. She aimed a finger at him now. “I took a vow to protect and heal, even at the risk of myself. And what those girls are being put through is wrong, I don’t care what your religion is, forcing anybody to remove all their perfectly healthy teeth is cruel and it’s disgusting and the moststupidthing I’ve ever heard of. To save money,” she cried, horrified. “Because they may have dental issues later!” she added in utter disbelief.

The hunger to punish any one of those Amish Elder bastards cooled in his blood. Voss didn't like the custom either, but thosestupidthings as she called them were choices, not rules.

“And I will say to you what I said to those mindless mouth breathers,” she continued on, bringing his humored intrigue with her comical theatrics regarding thosemouth breathers.

“What sort of bloody faith is that?” she demanded right at him. “You can believe God to make a whole human, but you can’t believe Him to take care of your teeth? Bloody hell,” she cried, marching along a path of fury next to the flames while his brothers also remained tuned in to the entertainment.

“How can you be a people of the land and not bloody know that it’s the food you eat that rots your teeth?” Her green eyes were huge on him now. “They’ve got bloody diets as strict as the Queen’s protocol and twice as joyless, which makes me wonder just what the hell is really going on! And now they’ve forced those… precious girls,” she gasped, her chin quivering as she slapped the tears from her cheeks with shaking hands, bringing Voss’s blood to an instant boil.

“Forced them to what?” he carefully asked.

“To wearridiculousplacards in front of everybody,” she strained, wiping more tears. “Because they shaved their legs!” She suddenly sat heavily on her log, teary eyes aimed at the fire, no longer bothering to control her emotions. “And you never met more sweet girls, just being girls.”

He eyedMaryin a new light, now. Again, he agreed one million percent that they were all nuts, but placards of humiliation didn’t warrant his intercession. But it seemed she had tried to. “Is this why they put you out?” he asked.

She wiped her face and nodded. “Can you believe it?” she said, her brave voice tiny now. “With nothing, no clothes, no food, in the dead of winter. I may have died,” she told him, as if he didn’t already know that. “But I wasn’t leaving,” she assured, back to a fighter, finger aimed at him. “I was going to find shelter and in the morning, find a way to help those angels.”

A new look took hold of her face as he realized there was no expression so far that wasn’t a facet of beautiful. Whatever was suddenly on her mind, had him watching and waiting for the entertainment.

“So...” she gasped, grabbing her knees in both hands. “I have a proposition to make.”

Voss couldn’t keep his grin back, or keep from liking her spirit. “I’m all ears.Mary.”

He watched her face fall in shame, before casting her hesitant gaze at him. “Mabel,” she confessed. “That’s my real name. At least… it starts with an M.”

A few chuckles echoed behind them, indicating he wasn’t the only one entertained with her. Mabel. “Tell me your proposition. Mabel.”

Her excitement immediately returned and swept the little lie under the rug. She got back in her announcement position, facing him. “So… I don’t know what you…dedicated young men have done to become one of their shunned, but, I’m thinking… that maybe we are perhaps… at least on the same side of their moral rubbish bin and....”

Voss felt the eye of every brother on her as he didn’t bother resisting his grin. “Go on.”

She looked around at the men then back at him. “Well, I came here to help people. I’m a nurse,” she reminded. “It’s my passion,” she reiterated. “And I know that everything comes with a price, and…” She wiped her face as if in an audition for the punchline to a joke.

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