Page 71 of My Heart Will Find You

It was nicely warm. “Beautiful Cornelia, my competition.”

Max gave her a quick kiss. “If it was a contest, that means I’m the prize. I can assure you that you won.”

Etta smiled. “That’s like winning an Olympic gold medal in every sport.”

He rolled out a blanket on the ground. “Not sure what that means, but I like it. Get in bed.”

She readily obeyed, then looked up at Max. Moonlight glowed around him. “Come to me.”

“In a minute,” he said.

She heard no more as she went to sleep.

Yet again, she woke to the smell of bacon frying. For the first time, she didn’t feel terror that she was back at Henry’s house. She could smell the pure, cool air of Kansas. It was early, and the birds were beginning to chirp.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. Max, in clean clothes, his hair damp as though he’d taken an early morning swim, was at a campfire. A skillet full of bacon was sizzling.

“Good morning,” he said.

She came up on her elbows with a groan. She was sore. “Did you sleep at all?”

“Enough. We need to go. Today will be hard.”

“As opposed to the ease of yesterday?”

He smiled. “That was all your doing. I just watched.”

The image of him on horseback, barely dressed, made her lie back down. Smiling. She had lascivious thoughts.

“No time for that now.”

“But it’s our honeymoon,” she said.

He stood over her, looking down at her. “I think we can make it to a real town tonight. If we do, we can stay in a hotel.”

She looked up at him with interest.

“There’ll be a bed with clean sheets. We can go to a bathhouse where they have tubs full of hot water.”

She lifted up. “How hot?”

“Like you’re a piece of Kansas beef on a grill. They’ll have a laundry service, and everything can be washed.”

She sat up. “What about flush toilets?”

He gave her a blank look.

With a sigh, Etta raised her hand for him to help her up. “It was worth a try. What’s for breakfast?”

“Tortillas and bacon.”

“And three leafy greens,” she muttered, but she was still smiling. Memory of what they’d done the day before was coming to her. “Did they get away?”

He knew who she meant. “Yes. And with your help, they took a lot of meat.” He nodded to the pendant around her neck. “That’s for a chief’s family.”

She looked at the necklace Lester had given her. It was round, decorated with a combination of metal and glass beads. Quite beautiful. Her hand closed around it. “His family. That’s appropriate.” She knew he was waiting for her to tell more, but she didn’t know how to explain how she knew Lester. “Where are my clothes?”

He looked at a wide rock by the pool. Her gaucho pants, the only pair she had, were stretched out there. He had washed them and set them out to dry. He must have done it last night after she went to sleep.

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