Ben And Meg In The Wild West
Chapter 3
Meg sank down into the bathtub that Mary had filled up for her. The soap water made her skin feel like it was new. A sweet smell of lavender and rosemary filled the air in the small bathroom. The warm water took slowly away the tenseness in her muscles. She was acing all over. The pain got her to remember that forbidden night over a year ago. She had for the first time steeped into he roll as a lover, when she after a governor ball spent the whole night in Timothy Trumans suite. The night she had dreamed of for so long, disappeared into pain.
She got so jealous when some of her married friends talked about their husbands and how wonderful it really was. At that moment Meg had made a promise to her self: she would not experience the act of love until she really was in love.
She shook of the memory. Instead her mind wondered back to the other night.
The dinner had been fabulous. Fried chickens with gravy, small peas and sweet potatoes. Even the dessert: a frosted warm apple with wiped cream was wonderful. But Meg had not been able to eat. It had felt like she had one major butterfly in her stomach.
"He" had been sitting right across her, at the table. Ben Evans. He was even more handsome than she remembered. Two times she had looked over at him and meet his gaze. The first time she was in the risk zone of dropping her wineglass, the second time, she thought she was ready for it, she almost fell of her chair.
After that, the peas on her plate were very interesting, so her eyes had been glued there the rest of the dinner. Ben excused him self after desert and coffee, saying that he still had work that needed to be done. He shook A.J ´s hand and kissed Bette cheek, wising them a good night. Meg held her breath when he turned to her. Their eyes meet and looked, when he slowly reached for her hand. A tingling started in her toes and spread through her whole body, when his warm lips meet her skin. When he released her hand, Meg was ready to faint. He smiled and wished her a very good night, before walking out the door.
Meg felt that the water was begging to be a bit chilly. Carefully, she stepped out of the tub and slipt into a worm robe. Meg walked into her room and parted the curtains in the window. Out side was a wonderful day. It was early November, but the sun was shining like it was July.
" I know what would make me some good. A long nice walk!" she said out loud.
She walked in the direction of the closet…
***
" There has to be something we can do!" Ben said and creased his brown.
A.J shook his head. " You know there is nothing we can do, Ben"
" General Custer is going to win! He’s going to get every young men in this town to join his bloody army!" Ben got up from his chair and walked over to the window in his office at the hotel.
" Ben, listen to me! I know how you feel about the Indians. You have friend among them, but you have to se it from their side. They are scared!"
Ben turned to face A.J. " You know that the Indians would not attack this town or any else for that matters! They are a peace full people, A.J"
" The men here in town, that is joining Custers army are at young age. They have young wives, children on the way, a small part of land. And they are building their houses outside Springfield. They are terrified of a Indian attack!"
" Well, there will certainly be one is the government don´t stop to push the Indians up north. There is no food, no shelter just open land. They will never survive that!" Ben was furious.
A.J rose from his seat and placed a hand on Ben´s shoulder. " I agree with you. But this war is effecting all of us in Springfield. We are awfully close, to the people taking the law in their own hands"
" General George Armstrong Custer is murdering women and children, and the government and the society is calling him a national hero!"
" Ben, you don´t have to tell me that. I think it´s a matter of time, before the Cheyenne Indians starts to pay us back!"
Ben sits in his chair again. " They never had a chance at Chewipa Fall. Custer’s men just moved in and killed fifteen indecent women and children. And his excuse was, We thought that it where rebels in the village! He knew, A.J"
Ben looked strait ahead. " He wanted the Cheyenne’s to fight and by killing their families, he got what he wanted!"
A.J sate down again. He could see his friend’s face. He was suffering with the Indians. Four years ago, Ben had been shoot by some hunters in the forest. They mistaken him for a deer, and left him there to die. A young Indian man, by the name of " Dancing Bear" found him. Ben was badly wounded and brought to the Indian camp. For three days, Ben was unconscious and near death. An old medicine man took care of him, and slowly Ben started to gain his strength. But that was not all that started to grow. The friendship between his savior
" Dancing Bear and Ben took of. In the beginning they never understood the other ones language. Now five years later, Ben speaks Cheyenne and " Dancing Bear" is talking English.
A.J awoke from his thoughts, when Ben suddenly walked pass him.
" Where are you going?" A.J asked. " You are not going to talk to Custer, are you?"
" I would not waste a minute on him!" He retrieved his jacket and looked at his friend. " I’m taking a walk" with that statement he disappeared through the door.
A.J looked at the closed door for along time. He was worried about Ben. Not that something would happen to him; more to what length Ben would go to protect the Cheyenne tribe. Because A.J knew that Ben would die for " Dancing Bear"…
***
Meg took a beep breath, breathing in the fresh mountain air into her lungs. For the first time in months, Meg felt alive. She had left the dress at home, and chosen a long wine-coloured skirt with a cream colored blouse. In her waist was a brown belt. Over her shoulders she was having a shawl in the same color as the skirt. She was happy to be out of the corset and some of the waist slips. But most of all: to have her hair out and feeling it on her shoulders. The soft hair reached her to the waist and she had it in a pin on each side of the head.
They beauty of the place brought tears to her eyes. She did´t want to leave Springfield. But she knew that it was only a matter of time before he would find her, and make her come home. Home to reality. Home to a loveless engagement.
She lifted her eyes to the blue sky as the tears wetted her cheeks…
***
Ben walked through the woods. He was on his way to a favorite place of his. A bluff that had a beautiful view over the open land shape.
Inside he was boiling with anger, and he felt helpless. He knew very well that he, single-handed, could not help his friends and it made him furious!
He reached the bluff, only to se a woman standing by the edge. He swore under his breath, a stranger had invaded his only privet place! Quiet, not to make his present known he turned around to walk away.
But something made him turn to look at the woman.
At the same time Meg got a feeling that she was being watched and looked over her shoulder.
It was her! His heart took a gigantic leap, but then he saw the tears and the pain in her eyes.
It was him. Meg had to look away. She tried to dry her tears, which treated to fall on her blouse, but they would not stop. She had wished to she him again, but she did not want him to se her like this.
Ben thought for a second before he picked up a small handkerchief out of his pocket and slowly walked to her.
Meg closed her eyes when she heard him move towards her. Ben stopped by her side and held out the white handkerchief for her.
Meg eyed it for a long time before she reached out and retrieved it from his hand. She didn’t have the courage to look at his face.
" Thank you, sir" was her silent words.
He smiled, but all he wanted to do, was to hold her and make the pain go away.
The silence between them became awkward.
" Maybe you want me to leave?" he asked. Inside he was begging that she wanted him to stay.
For the first time, sense he gave her the handkerchief, Meg turned to look at him. He saw her whole face so clearly. All the fine lines, even how long her eyelashes were. But he also saw her crystal blue tear-drained eyes.
" No, I dont want to be alone. Please stay.."
" Is everything as it should be?" he gave her a strange look.
Meg laught throw the tears. " You most think I completely lost it"
" Lost what?"
Meg kept looking out over the landscape. " My mind. I’m standing alone and crying."
The tears started to stain her cheeks again.
" I wish I could help you," he said, and she heard that he really meant it.
"I'm beyond help." She turned to face him, and they discovered that their faces where just a few inches from each other. Meg´s eyes locked on his lips.
"What in the world makes you say that?" he did not why he whispered.
Neither of them made any effort to move away from each other. Her elbow keeps rubbing against his arm, with every breath she took.
" How do you explain a person who keeps banging their head against the same wall? I trusted someone and he betrayed me. And now here I am standing all alone waiting for something that's never ever going to happen"
Slowly she looked up and into his kind eyes again. How much she wanted to him to take her pain away. She wanted to hide from the world in his arms.
"Why am I doing this to myself? What makes a person do this?"
He knew that he shouldn’t do it, but he couldn’t resist. Carefully Ben traced her tear path and started to wipe them away. His thumb briefly caressed her soft lips. That movement got her to close her eyes. This man had shown her more gentleness in ten minutes then Tim had in two whole year.
" For love. What else would be worth it?" was his answer. " You can’t give up that easily?"
His words woke her up, and she looked at him with big questioning eyes.
" Easily?" she took a step back. " If you only knew what I've been through. Most people would've given up a really, really long time ago."
He looked at her for a long time, before he said: " You are not most people, Miss Cummings"
A smile spread out over her face. She looked at him shyly through her thick eyelashes. " It´s Margurite Cummings, but everyone close to me call me Meg. So please do that, Mr Evans. And no more Miss Cummings"
He could not help but to join her in that smile. " Its Benjamin Evans, but if you use that name I have to lie. That name is my curse and secret. It´s just Ben."
"Very well, Ben. Will ju do me the honor and walk me home?" she said.
He smiled and held out his arm like a gentleman. " It would be my pleasure, Meg"
Gracelessly, Meg took it and they made their way done the hillside just as the sun begun to sink down into the mountains..
At the train station a train came in, a bit late in schedule. The passages made their way of the train. A man in his early twenty’s stopped on the platform and striated his suit. When he turned towards the sun, his blond hair shined in the last light from the sun. A young boy came up to him.
" Mr Truman, I will make sure that your luggage gets to The Sunset Hotel"
The man did not even spare one look on the boy. He just tossed him some coins, which landed on the dirty ground.
" Make sure that there is not any damage on them" with that statement he left the boy, that quickly collected his small fortune from the ground…