Dragon Moon (12 page)

She waited with her heart pounding, waited for the pain inside her head. Apparently, she hadn’t stepped over the line.

How far could she go? A wayward thought stole into her mind, and she dared consider the subversive idea. Perhaps, if she was careful, she could erect a wall in her mind, a wall that would keep Vandar out.

But this morning she had something else to do, if it wasn’t too late.

Slipping out of bed, she hurried to the window and pulled the shade aside, noting that it was still early. Could she get to the knapsack before Talon Marshall found it?

After using the bathroom, she picked up her sandals and tiptoed down the hallway. Not until she was on the front porch did she put the sandals on.

She’d come here at night, and she’d been shaken up by her rude introduction to this world. This morning, she was seeing Talon’s home in daylight. At the side of the house was something she hadn’t noticed in the dark. One of the horseless carriages. She had seen pictures of them, but this was the first one she had encountered up close. They were called cars, but the simple word did nothing to convey the imposing appearance.

Bright silver, large and sleek, it was nothing like a horse-drawn wagon. She tiptoed over to it and ran her hand over the smooth surface. It was cool and hard to the touch, and the riding compartment was completely enclosed by doors and windows. Inside she saw comfortable seats and an array of dials and other mysterious instruments under the front window. There was a wheel in front of one of the seats, and she could only guess at its purpose.

Yesterday Talon Marshall had asked if she had a driver’s license. A license to operate this thing? She guessed it would be hard to get one.

Looking away from the car, she saw a one-story building with no windows and a large bank of doors in front. After taking twenty steps toward it, she turned around and looked at the house.

It was made of stone and wood, and her breath caught as she stared at the long, low structure with the large windows that brought the outside in. The style was nothing like any dwelling she’d ever seen in Breezewood, but she admired the simplicity and the beauty of the design.

She drank in the sight, marveling that this home sat alone in the middle of the woods. Apparently, Talon wasn’t worried about soldiers or the police attacking. Of course, there had been the shots in the dark last night. But Talon had seemed surprised by the incident.

Sighing, she turned away from the house and hurried toward the woods, stopping when she reached the area where the giant tree had gone down. She didn’t know what kind it was because she had encountered few trees in her life. She only saw that it was big and that it could easily have crushed her.

Beyond it was a blackened patch where the fire had burned. Thank the gods Talon Marshall had put it out before it had reached the place where she was pinned.

After contemplating her narrow escape, she took a deep breath and clambered into the branches. But she was coming at the tree from a different angle, and she wasn’t sure where she’d been when the monster had pinned her.

Frantically, she began to search among the branches, looking for the place where she’d been lying, but there were so many leaves that she couldn’t find the right spot.

The need to hurry made her clumsy, and she tripped over a bough, sprawling in a tangle of leaves. Picking herself up, she wormed her way farther into the mass of limbs and leaves, sweeping debris aside as she searched for the knapsack.

“Looking for something?”

She jumped, losing her balance. She would have fallen off the branch she was on if a strong male hand hadn’t whipped out and caught her arm. As the hand steadied her, she twisted around to stare into Talon Marshall’s face. Although his expression gave nothing away, she was sure that he was wondering why she had come out here so early in the morning.

“I was looking for my carry bag.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to change my clothes.”

He tipped his head to one side, regarding her. “The clothes you had on are still wet?”

She hadn’t even checked the jeans and shirt in the bathroom, so she raised one shoulder.

“Let me help you find the knapsack.”

“You don’t have to.”

“You seem to be having trouble.”

“Yes.”

He let go of her arm, sat down on a bough, and closed his eyes. She watched as he breathed deeply. After about a minute, he looked to his right.

Without speaking, he stood up and worked his way to a dense section of foliage. Reaching down into the leaves, he moved his hand around. When he brought it up again, he was holding the knapsack.

“How did you find it?” she asked.

“I followed the scent,” he answered, as if there was nothing unusual about the talent. Was that true—here?

She could only stare at him. “You smelled it?”

As she had done before, he shrugged. “One of my woodsman talents.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s take it back to the house and get those clothes.”

Her nerves were jumping as he helped her clamber back through the foliage to solid ground.

She wanted to run into the woods and disappear, but she knew he’d simply catch up with her and haul her back.

With no other option, she walked beside him, stealing glances at the carry bag slung over his shoulder.

In the dining room, he dumped the contents of the main compartment onto a large table. Then he riffled through the small pockets, taking out the objects he found there.

“What is it you didn’t want me to see?” he asked in a conversational voice.

“Nothing,” she managed to answer as she watched him emptying the bag.

When everything was on the table, he began sorting through the items. He picked up the clothes first, shaking out the shirt and pants before pushing them toward her.

She clutched the fabric of the shirt and stood with her pulse pounding, watching as he inspected the contents of the knapsack.

He unwrapped the bread and cheese and stared at it. “Your mother bakes bread?” he asked.

Her throat tightened. She hadn’t seen her mother in months. And Mama had bought her family’s bread from the baker up the street. But Kenna nodded because that seemed to be the answer Talon Marshall expected when he saw the rough slices.

He continued to stare at her, and she wondered what her expression had given away.

“You don’t have plastic sandwich bags?”

She swallowed. “I guess not.”

He rummaged through her possessions and found the talisman—a green polished stone disk about an inch in diameter, mounted in a gold setting.

“What’s this?”

“A keepsake,” she said.

“It looks expensive. Did you steal it?”

Outrage bubbled inside her. “Of course not!”

He gave her a long look, then picked up the leather pouch with the gold beads. Opening the drawstring, he poured some of the beads into his palm, moving his hand so that the beads clanked together. “Gold?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Also keepsakes?”

“They’re in case I need . . . custom.”

“Custom?”

She flapped her arm. “Need to pay for something.”

“Ah.”

“That’s not the right word?” she asked in a low voice.

“Most people around here carry money issued by the U.S. Treasury.”

“I don’t have any.”

“Apparently.” He kept his gaze on her as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Your background is . . . out of the ordinary.”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Are you going to tell me why?”

She wanted to—so much. But she knew it wasn’t possible. Not yet.

“Can you give me some time?” she asked, her breath freezing in her lungs as she waited for his answer.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

TALON LOOKED AT Kenna’s pinched features. She was afraid to tell him the truth about herself.

Fighting to keep his voice even, he asked, “I don’t suppose you know anything about a box buried in the woods?”

The quick change of subject left her looking genuinely confused. She had secrets she wasn’t willing to share, but from her reaction he was pretty sure they didn’t have anything to do with the money he’d turned over to the state police.

Relief flooded through him. She wasn’t here to spy on him. Or was he seeing what he wanted to see on her face?

Remembering why they were standing in the dining room, he looked down at the table where her belongings were spread out. Quietly, he began to stuff everything back into the knapsack. When he was finished, he said, “Let’s go have breakfast.”

She scuffed her sandal against the rug. “Does that mean you’re going to let me stay?”

“Yeah,” he answered, watching the hope bloom on her face. “We’ll work out a barter system. Room and board in exchange for work.” He didn’t mention that the gold beads could easily have paid for her room and board.
What the hell would he do with gold beads?

“Yes. I want to pay my way.”

“After breakfast, you can help me do some laundry. I had a group here last week, and I left the sheets and towels for later.”

“Just show me where to find the washtub,” she answered, then looked toward the window. “And I didn’t see your clotheslines. Do you put it out each time?”

“Washing machine and clothes dryer,” he corrected, struck once again by her lack of familiarity with the simplest accoutrements of the modern world. What the hell kind of community did she come from? Apparently, one where cheap manual labor took the place of modern conveniences. When was she going to tell him about it? He started for the kitchen, weighing the advantages of turning the meal preparation into a cooking lesson.

TRYING not to be too greedy, Kenna ate scrambled eggs, bacon, and the toasted bread that Vandar had asked her about. Back then she’d thought the idea was weird. Now she realized you could get used to the stuff, particularly when it was slathered with butter and something called blackberry jam.

Talon had taken the slices out of the freezer and put them into the toaster thing.

He’d showed her how to do everything, and she was hoping she could accomplish it by herself next time.

He ate only a bit of eggs and a lot of the bacon, but she didn’t ask about his expensive dietary habits.

Then he took her to the laundry room and showed her how to use the washing machine and the dryer. If machines like that had existed in her world, an adept with psychic talent would have run them with mind power. Here, the power came from electricity.

It could do a lot of things. But it was dangerous, too. Talon had showed her where the metal prongs on the end of the cords plugged into the wall and warned her not to poke anything in there.

The morning set the pattern for the next few days. Polite interactions, work assignments, lessons on life in his world, and more leisure time than she’d expected.

She’d pictured herself sweeping his floors with a broom. Instead, he pulled a vacuum cleaner out of a closet. Another machine. It picked up a lot of dirt, but it was clumsy to drag around.

He had a special brush to scrub the toilets. And another brush for the shower and the sink. And cleaner that came out of a bottle when you pumped the top.

When she wasn’t working, Kenna spent hours watching and learning from the television and reading the magazines that were stacked around the house.

And Talon—she was getting comfortable calling him “Talon”—didn’t confine her to the house. In the afternoons, she started taking long walks in the woods where she discovered there were several other dwellings within a mile of Talon’s lodge, although none was as nice as his.

Their days settled into a routine. Talon was outside most mornings, using a loud kind of saw to cut up the fallen tree and maybe going off in his pickup truck for food or other supplies. He brought back frozen food he thought she’d like. Something called twice-baked potatoes was wonderful. So were pizza and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. You baked the pie, then put the ice cream on top.

In the afternoons, he did office work at his computer and on the telephone, ordering supplies and talking to clients. She gathered that he had a trip coming up, and he was finalizing the details.

TALON stepped out of his office and walked down the hall, checking the rooms. He’d thought he heard Kenna go out half an hour ago, but he wanted to make sure she wasn’t around.

When he established that he was alone in the house, he consulted his phone book and found the name of Ross Marshall. He hardly knew the guy, but he’d decided it was time for a call.

Still, his chest tightened as his fingers hovered over the phone buttons.

“Either make the call or forget it,” he muttered to himself. Finally, he pressed the buttons, then stood up and looked out the window so he’d see Kenna if she came back. Because the back door was locked, the only way she could get in was through the front door. Which meant he’d have plenty of time to terminate the call if he needed to.