He glanced over at Kate, who was still cradling her backpack, her eyes closed, the hat he had made her lying on the ground next to her. He couldn’t think about Renee. He didn’t want to go through painful memories, and yet Kate brought all those remembrances to the foreground. What was it about her that reminded him of his wife? They certainly didn’t look anything alike. Renee had been drop-dead gorgeous with long blond hair and green eyes that a man could get lost in. She had been nearly six feet tall, not a petite little thing like Kate. And Renee hadn’t had an ounce of extra fat on her.
They had one thing in common, though: their deep devotion to the Lord. That devotion had drawn Slader to Renee. But that love of God hadn’t saved his wife in the end. She’d been taken, along with his unborn child.
“Is something wrong—Slader?”
He snapped his head around. “What could be wrong? I personally love running for my life. How about you?” Why did she make him feel as though she could see into his soul with her big, blue eyes?
“Besides that.” She slowly rose to a sitting position wincing as if the effort was almost too much. “Is anything else wrong? You looked—upset. More than usual.”
He wasn’t going to get into his personal life with her. Instead, he said, “Slick will realize we aren’t on the river and backtrack. I’m hoping it takes him a while to discover that little fact. But you can’t count on it, especially the way things have been going.”
“He doesn’t know where we’re going. We cut our own path through the jungle back there.”
“That path can be found and many people in the area know the general location of where your brother went down. He’ll assume that’s where we’re heading.”
“Okay. But you said yourself that location was a large area.”
“Slick’s been down here a few years, making quite an unsavory reputation for himself. He knows this area almost as well as I do.”
Kate brought her knees up to her chest and clasped her legs. “Is this where we’re camping tonight?”
“Yes.” Slader spoke to Miguel and Pedro, giving them instructions about setting up the camp, then he turned back to Kate and said, “Hang your hammock, then gather firewood. I’m going to scout the area and look for food. Pedro is staying in camp. Miguel is going out to hunt for food, too.” He rose.
* * *
After watching Slader disappear from view, Kate examined the shadowy jungle floor, then the huge trees jutting upward with lianas hanging down from the canopy above as though they were thick cables dangling to the ground. Little sunlight bled through the green ceiling above them, making it seem as if it were perpetual dusk. But below, it was relatively free of vegetation, making their progress the past few hours easier than when they’d first had to hack their way through thick brush near the river.
She looked down at her slacks, torn in places as though the jungle had clawed at her the whole way, trying to keep her from going forward. If it weren’t for the insects, she’d consider cutting the pants off above the knees. At least for the past couple of hours she hadn’t had to worry about getting sunburned.
But still the dark shadows about her gave her imagination a field day. Anyone could be lurking behind one of those big tree trunks, readying himself to jump out when they least expected it.
She placed her hands on the spongy ground of decaying matter to help herself stand. Before she had a chance to gather her energy to lumber to her feet, something crawled across her wrist. She let out a squeak and leaped up, shaking both of her hands and stamping her feet. Peering down, she saw a line of ants carrying torn leaves. Her shoulders slumped forward in relief.
Not everything in the rainforest was scary and bad. In fact, very few animals and insects in all the ones who populated the jungle were. Well, one good thing about the ants was she was on her feet and ready to collect the firewood. Without their “help” she might have still been on the ground contemplating getting up. They also got her blood pumping through her body. Sucking in a deep breath of the moisture-laden air, she closed her eyes for a few seconds. A calmness descended.
That calmness lasted the whole way through picking up pieces of wood for the fire. It disappeared the second she saw Slader return to the camp. Again, her heart began to beat too fast, and she found herself breathing shallow, quick gulps of air. He was so different from any man she’d known. He didn’t live by the same rules as she did. She hurriedly turned away, searching for that serenity she’d possessed only a moment before.
On the top of his backpack, he placed some strange-looking pieces of…she guessed fruit, but she wasn’t really sure. When he straightened, he surveyed the campsite.
“You weren’t gone long,” she managed to say. Why couldn’t he have taken a little longer? This tense nervousness was wearing her down. She was wound as tight as a spring. She couldn’t keep this up, or she was afraid something would give.
“This breadfruit wasn’t too far. But I found something I want to show you. Bring some soap and shampoo if you have it.”
“Soap? Shampoo?” She stood still, not sure she’d heard him correctly. Both those items sounded wonderful.
“Hurry. It won’t be light much longer.” Slader bent and rummaged through his pack until he found his flashlight. He started back the way he’d come.
Kate stared at his retreating figure for a few seconds before she set in motion. Soap usually meant cleaning something. She was hoping it was herself that she would be cleaning. With that thought, she rushed after Slader before the jungle swallowed him up and she lost sight of him.
* * *
Slader heard Kate trampling behind him as though she were a herd of wild peccaries racing toward the river with a jaguar on their tail. He smiled at that picture. At least any animal nearby would hear her and get out of her way.
When he arrived at a creek that ran through the jungle, he stopped at its bank and waited for Kate. Twenty yards upstream the creek formed a pool that was so clear he could see its bottom, three or four feet down. Perfect to wash off in, he had thought when he’d discovered it.
He was beginning to regret the impulse. He should have hunted for more food. He should have scouted the area better. But no, instead he had bolted back to Kate so fast that it could have made a person’s head spin. She would read the wrong thing into this, he was sure of that.
He should forget—
“A creek! Where does it go?”
Her question interrupted his momentary panic. “To the river.” He pointed toward the way they had come earlier that day. “Eventually.”
“I mean this way,” she said, gesturing in the opposite direction.
He shrugged. He could still get out of this and not show her the pool. But when she stepped to the bank of the creek and knelt to cup the water, her sighs as she splashed the cool liquid onto her face caused him to say, “There’s a pool not far from here.” The second he finished the treacherous declaration he clamped his jaw shut, hoping any further revelations would stay in his thoughts only.
“A pool.” She practically breathed the word on another sigh of contentment. “Will it be safe to wash in?”
Rising next to him, she toweled her wet face with the sleeve of her dirty, sweaty shirt, leaving a streak of mud on her cheek. She had come a long way from the woman he had first met at the Blue Dolphin, her dress neat and clean, her hair pulled back in a tight bun. Now her auburn tresses were tied up in a ponytail with a wisp of curls framing her face. Her cheeks and forehead were sunburned. He wondered what her hair would look like down about her shoulders.
Whoa, there. Don’t go down that road. His panic returned full-fledged as he strode toward the pool with visions of Kate, her hair down, her face scrubbed clean, her eyes shining in delight.
He was so absorbed in his fantasy he nearly stumbled over a root in the path. He caught himself before falling, then banished any thoughts of Kate other than as Miss Prim and Proper to the dark reaches of his mind, never to be uncovered again—if he knew what
was best for him.
Her squeal of joy made a mockery of his promise to himself, especially when he pivoted toward her and found her pulling out the band that held up her ponytail. Her hair fell about her shoulders in a mass of reddish-brown curls that were in direct contradiction to the woman she presented to the world. Her brown hair, seared with a touch of fire, gave a hint of her true personality, which he suspected she kept bottled up inside, much like her tresses bound in its severe bun. He stared at her, hoping his mouth wasn’t hanging open.
“This is perfect. Thank you. Thank you. This is the best gift you could have given me.”
He had known she would do this and still he had brought her to the pool. “It’s nothing,” he grumbled, frowning at the idea she had thought he had given her a gift—as a friend would. No, they were not friends. They were worlds apart. He wouldn’t go back to her world, and she would never stay in his.
Kate walked partway around the pool, peering into the water as though making sure what lay beneath was harmless. “Do you think it’s safe enough for me to go in totally, not just wash up on the bank?”
The tumble of her fiery-colored hair hid her face from him, but he could imagine her teeth nibbling at her full lower lip, as she so often did when perplexed about something or worried. “Yes. If you want, I’ll go in with you, or I can stand at the edge and keep guard.”
She turned toward him, the light streaming through the trees catching her face just right. How had he ever thought she was plain? She tilted her head and contemplated his offer.
“I have plenty of soap. I can share it with you.”
He chuckled. “Is that your not-so-subtle way of telling me I stink?”
She laughed, a warm, light sound that permeated the area, prodding him to join in her merriment. “No, but I thought, like me, you might enjoy cleaning up. We have no idea when we’ll have another chance.”
“True.” He removed his shoes and socks.
For a brief second Kate’s eyes grew round. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t care to get my hiking shoes any wetter than they already are. Besides, my socks could use a washing.”
“Oh,” she said simply as she took off her shoes and socks, too.
“I’m not taking off anything else, la—Kate. You don’t have to worry.”
“I wasn’t—okay, I thought you were going to.”
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know you’ve led a very sheltered life when it comes to men.”
She blushed, her cheeks reddening even more beneath her sunburn. She averted her face.
“Believe me. You’re perfectly safe with me.”
She jerked around. “Have you just insulted me?”
He started to give her a sarcastic retort, then realized he didn’t want to because he did respect her beliefs. In today’s society, a woman like Kate was rare to find. He was just beginning to realize that about her. “No, I think I’m paying you a compliment.”
Surprise flitted across her face before a brilliant smile graced her lips. “Thanks. Can I ask a favor?”
He nodded.
“Will you go in first?” she asked, clutching her bar of soap and washcloth in her hands.
He checked the pool in front of him before diving into it and coming up halfway across. He stood and the water came to his lower chest. “It feels great. You’d better hurry.” He glanced toward the sky. “We don’t have long before it gets dark.”
She followed suit, slicing through the water and emerging a few feet from him. “Oh, you’re so right. This is wonderful.”
“Just remember you said that when you start arguing with me later.”
“That it’s wonderful or you’re right?” The imp stared at him.
He dragged his hand across the top of the pool, sending water spraying into her face. “That I am right. That’s important to remember.”
“Oh, you are?” She splashed him back, her giggles peppering the air.
He dove beneath the water and came toward her. She backed away, but he pursued her, gaining on her rapidly. Putting her hand out in front to stop him, he grabbed it and tugged her beneath the pool. He came up for air at the same time she did, spluttering, flailing her arms.
“Where’s the soap?” she asked, the washcloth still grasped in one hand.
Knowing the importance of it to Kate, he immediately said, “I’ll find it.” He went back under the water and searched the bottom. He did that three times before announcing, “I can’t find it.”
She smiled sweetly and produced it from her pocket. “Oh, I seem to have found it.”
He stalked toward her.
She held up her hand, taking a step back. “Remember it’s getting late. We need to wash up and get back to camp.”
“You weren’t too worried about the time when I was looking for the soap,” he mumbled, but halted.
Quickly she lathered her washcloth, then passed him the bar. “Well, I am now.”
He watched her run the cloth over her face and neck, along the expose skin on her arms after she rolled up the sleeves. He did likewise, using the suds in his hands. When she took the soap back, she began washing her clothes while still wearing them, as well as her socks, then his socks at the side of the pool. That touched him more than he wanted to acknowledge. He couldn’t remember someone doing a chore like that for him in a long time.
When she was through washing, she gave him the soap again to use. He took care of his clothes as best he could while still wearing them. He would have to be satisfied with this partial cleanup.
While he finished up with his clothes, Kate pulled a small bottle from her pocket and poured some pink liquid into her hand. “Do you want some shampoo?”
With a nod, he held out his palm while she gave him some, then put the bottle back into her pocket. The scent of roses drifted to him. He almost rinsed the shampoo off in the pool without using it, but he knew his hair needed a washing, too, even if he would smell like a rose garden. Untying the leather strap that tied his long hair at the nape of his neck, he massaged the pink liquid into his scalp, then dunked down into the pool.
When he resurfaced, he saw Kate with her eyes closed running her fingers through her sudsy strands. The scent of roses overpowered every other smell, and the pure beauty of seeing such enjoyment on her features sucker punched him. He looked away as though he had intruded on a private moment he didn’t have a right to see.
But he heard her enjoyment at being able to wash the sweat and grime from her hair. Each sound sent a longing through him that took him by surprise. His life was far from ideal, but it was the life he had chosen for himself. Suddenly he questioned that choice. Anger swelled to the surface, and he directed it at Kate, the woman who made him doubt himself.
“We need to get back to camp. Now!” Although he faced away from her, he sensed her disbelief at his sharp tone.
A sound of splashing greeted his order, and he looked over his shoulder to see her emerge from beneath the pool and shake her head. Water sprayed everywhere. Her gaze locked with his, a hurt look in their blue depths that she hurriedly masked by dropping her eyelids. When she peered at him again a few seconds later, there wasn’t a bit of emotion in her expression, which was quite unusual for her. Most of the time he could read, on her face, every feeling flitting through her mind. Suddenly he regretted his harshness and started to apologize.
She waded past him, looking toward shore and the quickly growing darkness of the surrounding rainforest. “Don’t just stand there. We need to get moving. Isn’t that what you said?”
“Yes.” This woman was playing mind games. He didn’t know if he was coming or going half the time and he didn’t like it one bit.
By the time he had put his shoes back on without his socks, the dark shadows had closed in on them. They had stayed too long. He found his flashlight and said, “Stay right behind me. Step where I step. In fact, put your hand on my shoulder.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, but she did a
s he asked.
The feel of her hand burned into his shoulder. He flicked on the flashlight and determinedly focused on the path before him, not on the woman behind him dogging his every step as he had commanded.
Going swimming had not been his wisest move, he decided as he fumbled around in the dark jungle. The light before him marginally showed the way. He had allowed Kate’s wishes to influence him. He took a deep, fortifying breath and the smell of roses accosted him. Roses! What man wore the scent of roses?
Through the darkness he saw the fire that Pedro and Miguel had started. He hastened his pace, needing to distance himself from Kate as quickly as possible. Her presence behind him, her constant touch, was driving him crazy with thoughts of smelling like a rose garden and kissing the woman senseless as he ran his hands through the wild mane that was loose about her shoulders.
* * *
Sitting across from the fire, with Slader as far away as possible and still be in camp, Kate wondered what had changed on the walk back from the creek. They had actually been on friendly terms—almost downright playful—for a while back at the pool. Now he hardly said a word to her, and when she caught him staring at her, he immediately looked away. They were back to being strangers, and she wasn’t sure what had happened to change that. If only she had more experience dealing with men, then maybe she could figure it out.
As before, Pedro and Miguel went to bed first because they were taking the second and third watches. Slader remained across from her, drawing circles in the dirt with a stick as if he had nothing better to do. A roar penetrated the constant jungle noise. Kate tensed.
“A jaguar,” Slader said, cutting the silence between them for the first time since they had returned from the pool. “Probably a male defending his territory.”
Into the Darkness Page 9