Bayou Bishops Box Set: Books 1-12

CHAPTER 4

By the time Lesion got the girl to Madame Hag’s side of the Bayou, he was dumbfounded. Was as if she’d never been injured. “So how long have you lived out here? A lot of years?”

“All my life.”

Her smile shone bright in the moonlight, her blue eyes sparkling. “So you’re a tattoo artist too? I always wanted a tattoo. Do you think you can make me one? I wanted a butterfly. Here,” she said, sticking her leg out of his coat and pointing to her ankle. “A monarch. My momma used to tell me I was like a monarch butterfly. She’d fight with daddy all about it. She’d say I was unique and he’d say I was a moth. Attracted to fires and prone to danger. I still don’t know why he thought that, I never once liked fires,” she cried. “You see this?” She pointed to her shin. “That’s a scar. Well, it’s faded but it’s from me catching on fire on accident. I like fires but not that much.” She gave a happy giggle like she’d told a secret joke. “Wasn’t my fault, I blame the shooting star that distracted me. But momma always said no matter how many times life burned me, I would rise out of the flames like a phoenix.” She flew her arms at her side and aimed her smile all around her. “I really do like it out here. I’ve never been in the swamps but I heard a lot of scary stories about the rugaroo. You ever hear of that? He’s supposed to be some kind of monster with these huge fangs and long tail. My daddy said it’s old wives’ tales but momma said there’s always some truth in all tall tales. Daddy said I shouldn’t believe everything I hear but how do you know if everything you hear isn’t true?” she wondered before sucking in a breath. “Is that your house?”

“It is.”

“I love it!” She turned and perched on her knees as he came to a stop at the dock inside the cove. “It’s like a fairytale! And you’re like the prince coming home to your swamp castle!”

She cast a huge smile over her shoulder, officially worrying him. What would Madam Hag say about this girl? How would he explain her to the old woman when he couldn’t explain her to himself?

He climbed out the boat and held his arm out for her. She grabbed hold of it with a huge smile and hopped onto the pier and gave a little clap then quickly shut his coat back tight around her. “Do you have a lot of company out here?” she asked, hooking her arm in his as he headed down the pier.

“Never.”

“I’m your first company?” she wondered, clearly excited about that.

He paused and she paused too, her bright smile and eyes right on him. “Tully…a woman lives out here with me.”

Her face fell as she looked at the small house. “Oh. Okay.” She regarded him. “Is she special to you? I mean…is she your girlfriend or something?”

“She’s eighty-two years old.”

Her face sobered and she nodded. “Momma said age is just a number. If you love her then that’s all that matters.”

“Tully, she’s not…she’s nothing like that to me. She’s like a grandmother.”

Her face bloomed with a blinding joy and she giggled with a hand over her mouth. “I’m glad,” she whispered. “I kind of like you.”

Lesion lowered his head, suddenly confused about the buzzing in his head and body.

“So you’re bringing me home to meet her? Do you think she’ll like me?”

“I’m bringing you here because…” At seeing her genuine curiosity and hope, he wasn’t sure how to say anything. “I’m bringing you here to meet her,” he finally said. “I don’t know what she’ll say when she does. She’s…different from most people.”

She was back at his side and clutching his arm. “Nothing wrong with different,” she assured. “Momma said there isn’t two of anybody on the planet and that everybody has something special to give the world. She said my heart was the greatest gift the world would ever see but I don’t even know how that’s even possible when my heart is in my chest!” Her delighted laughter carried through the trees around them, a tinkling wind chime in woods usually haunted by silence. His woods. His silence.

He decided to leave her at his place while preparing Madam Hag. The second they entered his house, she went on a looking spree full of gasps of awe and wonder. “That man called you Healer.” She turned to him with wide, thrilled eyes. “You really are, aren’t you!”

“Uh, yes. So, I’m going to leave you here for a bit while I go talk to Madam Hag.”

She gasped. “Madam Hag? Is that her real name?”

“You’ll be okay here, just…don’t touch anything. Okay?”

“Well, I can go with you,” she suggested, excited.

“No, I think you should wait here. You probably want to shower.”

Her eyes got huge. “You have one?”

“Yes.” He hurried to that side of the room and opened the door. “I have one.” He demonstrated how to work the shower and she stepped in it while he was still setting the water, naked.

He yanked the shower curtain shut along with his eyes. “Tully…you can’t…you need to have clothes on.”

She peeked her head out of the curtain, confusion on her pretty face. “In the shower?”

“No…I mean when you’re around me, you need to always have clothes on.”

“Oh.”

Her confusion made him wonder what the hell kind of life she’d lived. “It’s not okay to be naked in front of men. It’s wrong,” he reiterated, wanting to set the record straight for her.

“Okay,” she said, her voice lower and lacking all that joy.

Fuck, how had she translated that in her head? “You have to be with the right man before you do that.”

She poked her head out the shower. “Like you?”

“What? No.”

“You’re not the right man?”

“No, I’m not the right man.”

“Why not?”

The genuine question threw him. “I don’t…my life, my vocation doesn’t allow for me to be that kind of man.”

She stared at him. “What kind of man does it allow you to be?”

“The kind that heals sick people.” And kills demons.

“And this makes you the wrong kind of man to be naked around?”

“Yes,” he said, not caring how stupid that probably sounded all while his mind mapped her nakedness.

She gave a surprised laugh. “I never liked being naked around men but I think I would’ve liked it around you, but you’re not allowed because you’re the wrong kind of man who heals people. That is so confusing,” she muttered. “And very sad.”

She sounded confounded while his own brain was tied in knots. “I’ll find you clothes to wear,” he said, realizing she’d need that before leaving the bathroom. And he’d better do that first in case being naked was somehow different than being without clothes to her.

He got black sweatpants and a t-shirt and brought them to the bathroom. “I’m hanging clothes on the door for you. To put on when you get out of the shower,” he added, making sure it was clear. “I’ll be right back. Take a long shower.”

“Okay bye,” she called. “When are you coming back?”

“In five minutes.”

“That’s six hundred seconds!”

“Maybe ten minutes.”

“That’s one thousand two hundred seconds,” she said, like they were playing a math game.

“Yes. Very good.”

“I’m really good with numbers so if you need help counting things, I can count sooo many things!” she said, as if amazed with herself. “I’m so hungry!” she added, maybe just realizing.

“I’ll feed you when I get back.”

She giggled. “I can feed myself, if you want. Or you can feed me, I don’t mind. I might like that.”

Hell, maybe leaving her alone was a bad idea. What if he went beyond the seconds he said he would and she came looking for him? Without clothes? Surely she wasn’t that na?ve. Was that the word for her? Na?ve with a mega dose of four-year-old purity. The idea that she was at that place while being this person put his blood back to an immediate boil. Where were her parents now? How old was she? Not a day over twenty, he was sure. And what about her injuries, he needed to figure those out. He was a little leery of asking now.

He could introduce her to Madam Hag in the morning. It was late. If she’d heard the racket, she would come snooping and find out. Although, she was hard of hearing so maybe she heard nothing at all.

He went into his small kitchen and gathered vegetables for a quick stew then started the fire in his stove. When everything was ready, he wondered what she could still be doing in the shower. The hot was long gone by now. He went to the door and knocked softly. “Tully? The food is done.”

“I think I may have used the wrong thing,” she called.

The smell of eucalyptus hit him the second she said it. He stored all sorts of things in the bathroom, mostly for lack of space. “Put a towel on, I’m coming in.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding distressed. “I thought it was shampoo but I don’t think it was.”

“Are you covered?”

“Yes.”

He opened the door and regarded her pained face. “Are you burning anywhere?”

“No, but it’s really hot all over. And I can’t get it off!”

“It’s eucalyptus and it’s not supposed to be used directly on the skin because it’s a hot oil.”

“It is!” she agreed, nodding.

He considered what to counter it with, not accustomed to such a mistake. He reached in the shower and got the oatmeal liquid soap. “Where does it burn the most.”

“My back and my front. And my legs and my…other places.”

“Get back in the shower and use this all over your body then rinse, and tell me if it’s better.

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said before shutting the door. “I should’ve told you not to use things outside the shower.”

“I thought these were manly things in the shower, and the other stuff smelled lovely and familiar.”

Lovely and familiar. Interesting. He fixed her bowl of food and she called out that she was done. “Is it better?” he asked at the door.

“So much better. Except my back, I can’t reach too good.”

“Stay in the shower, I’ll put it on your back without looking.”

“Okay,” she said as he opened the door and stepped in.

“Just stand in the shower,” he said again. “And hand me that soap I had you use.”

She handed it out the shower and he filled his palm with it then reached back in.

“Turn your back toward me.”

“Okay,” she said. “You can look if you need to see. My back, I mean.”

“I think I have it,” he said, locating her back and spreading the soap all over it. Feeling her vertebrae and ribs told him she had hunger stories he needed to learn but didn’t want to hear.

“Rinse now. Sorry that the water is cold.”

“That’s sweet of you, but it’s okay, it helps the burning.”

Her tone sounded like any normal woman might and it made him pause and need to ponder her. He wasn’t accustomed to people. Maybe he was the ignorant one. Maybe her behavior was more normal than he realized.

She finally got out of the bathroom, her bright smile and eyes all over him. He gestured to the small table near the window where her food was and she spotted it immediately, hurrying to it like rare treasure.

He watched her sit and tear into the food like she hadn’t eaten in days.

He sat across from her, watching. “Good?”

She gave a huge mmm with many nods as she finished the bowl in under a minute. He took it and went back to the stove and filled it up again and brought it back. She gave him a happy smile, accepting it with bubbling joy. Again she ate, not quite as quickly this time and again he studied her, trying to figure which questions to ask first.

“I’m so thirsty!” she said with a laugh after she finished, her tongue sweeping over her lips.

He got up and found the gallon of Madam Hags fresh lemonade in the fridge and poured her a full glass. He set it before her and he watched her down the whole thing. She set the glass on the table and leaned back in her chair with a huge sigh, her eyes closed.

“That was the most amazing food and drink in the whole world,” she whispered, serious as could be.

He sat across from her again. “Can I ask you some questions?”

Her eyes popped open with her mega smile. “Yes, you can ask me anything. Even though you’re not the kind of man for touching me, I still like you and want to touch you. But I won’t. Unless you want me to. You can ask me if you want me to, I don’t usually touch unless I’m made to, but with you, you don’t need to make me touch you. I want to,” she reiterated, making his body erupt with that strange buzzing. Her eyes slowly widened. “Maybe you’re the one I was born to touch.” Her dawning awe had his tongue back in knots. “Momma said there was a man on earth I was born to be with, and one day I’d meet him and know.” She leaned toward him with a light in her eyes. “But I want to touch you with more than my heart,” she admitted before her eyes popped. “I’m talking too much! Daddy said if he had a penny for every word I spoke, he’d be a gajillionaire.”

Lesion’s smile came unbidden and she gasped and stared at his mouth.

“You are so handsome when you smile! And when you don’t do anything you’re very handsome too,” she added like he might take offense. “The most handsome man I have ever met.” He stared at her, feeling like he was in the Twilight Zone. “I’m…talking too much. Again,” she said quietly. “I do that when I like people. Ask me questions,” she urged. “I love questions!”

He studied her flush cheeks and twinkling eyes, ensnared. She was more beautiful and innocent than anything he’d ever seen and wasn’t sure how to process her. “Where is your mom and dad now?”

Her pretty face fell a little. “I don’t know, I’m still looking for them. I got lost when the hurricane came and we had to go to the shelter. Some nice people helped me and gave me a place to stay and they took care of me while looking for them.”

“How old were you?”

“I was thirteen. But I’ve been working to save money to find them. The people I work for put my money in a place to keep it safe.”

“What people?” he wondered, his stomach beginning to burn.

“Well…the place I was at when you found me…” She shook her head a little. “I don’t like that place. Darius only makes me go when he doesn’t have any choice. The people there are very bad and they’d hurt him if he didn’t do what they wanted. Darius takes care of me and saves my money. He said I have a lot of money saved and soon I will be able to use it to find my parents.”

“How old are you Tully?” he asked, raising a careful gaze to her.

Her pretty face faltered again. “I’m…I think I’m twenty-two. I know how to count,” she assured, nodding. “Things just got… confusing when I first got lost.”

She’d been lost for seven years maybe. That would’ve been… Hurricane Sandy possibly. “It’s okay, age is just a number as your mother taught you so well.”

Her perfect mouth bloomed with a smile. “Yes. Just a number. I like numbers.”

“I’m glad you do. I may need your help around here if you’re willing. And I pay my employees well. You can add it to the money you’ve saved.”

Her face sobered with awe. “I could never take money from you after you saved me. I take money from Darius even though he helps me but it’s so I can find my mom and dad.”

“Well, I can do it for the same reason if you allow me to.”

She lowered her smile and nodded. “I could. What would you like me to do?”

She aimed her sparkling blue eyes at him, making it hard to think up a sudden job. There were hundreds that involved counting. “I’ll find the perfect one and let you know.”

“When can I start?” she wondered, seeming ready that second.

“After you’ve healed.”

“I’m all healed now!”

He eyed her, contemplating how to learn of her injuries. “The man that hurt you. What did he do?”

He almost regretted the question at seeing her fear before she lowered her face. “He…he put…” She swallowed, her breaths turning shallow. “I don’t want to tell you.”

“Okay,” he said. “You can tell Madam Hag so she can help you.”

Her eyes shot up to his. “He put things in my privates,” she whispered, shaking her head and making his stomach knot. “Don’t make me talk to her, please.”

“You don’t have to talk to anybody,” he said, feeling sick. “Okay?”

She stared at him, her brows pinched in that way he’d smoothed when she slept. “Okay,” she whispered. “I…need the bathroom.”

He watched her hurry to it and closed his eyes at hearing her vomit until she had nothing left. He waited for her by the door and when she came out, he intercepted her with his embrace.

“I’m sorry, I loved the food,” she barely whispered, placing her fists against his chest. “I’m tired.”

“You’ll sleep and eat in the morning again.”

He felt her head nod.

“You can sleep in my bed and I’ll take the cot.”

“Can’t you…sleep with me?” she whispered, clutching his shirt in her fingers.

“I can until you fall asleep.”

She gave a small nod and he led her to his bed, pulling the covers down. He tucked her in, pressing the covers around her small body then lifted his gaze to her worried one.

He remembered his lights. “Let me turn on the night lights then I’ll come back.”

“How far is it?” she wondered.

“Right by the front door.” He eyed her scared face. “I won’t leave you.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, holding the covers to her chin.

He plugged in the white Christmas lights that doubled as night lights and returned to the bed. She sat up, her smile moving from one window to the next. “So pretty!” she whispered, making him feel like a genius.

She opened the covers for him and scooted over.

Lesion stared at the spot next to her, his mind suddenly blaring with bad idea warnings.

He slowly lay down and she scooted further away from him as if realizing. “I won’t touch you. Unless…you ask me to.”

“Thank you, Tully,” he muttered, staring at the ceiling and closing his eyes.

After a minute of silence, Tully gasped, “What was that!”

“A screech owl. They do that every night. It’s how they speak to each other.”

“There’s more than one? They sound like monsters.”

He smiled. “They’re not monsters. They’re big birds.”

“Birds,” she whispered, sounding fascinated. “Have you seen them?”

“Yes. I’ll show you one tomorrow.”

She suddenly put the pillow over her head.

“Now what?” he wondered, eying her. “You’re not scared of thunder, are you?”

“Yes,” she said, the word muffled under the pillow.

“I love storms,” he murmured, watching the pillow slowly lower.

“You love storms?” she whispered, curious.

“I do. They’re exciting.”

“They’re scary.”

“They can be, I guess. But you’re safe here. They can be exciting when you’re safe.”

“Exciting,” she said, as if testing the thought in her mind. “I’m safe,” she seemed to remind herself.

“You are. Nothing will hurt you here.”

“Because…you’re here?” she wondered.

“Yes.”

“And…you won’t let anything hurt me?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?” she wondered, pulling the pillow to her chest. “Why do you protect me? Why did you save me?”

“Because The Holy Man said I would.”

She shot up, staring down at him. “What Holy Man?”

“The man who owned the house we first went to.”

Her eyes widened. “He’s a Holy Man?”

“He is. He can see things when touching people.”

“And he saw me?”

He nodded, closing his eyes.

“But he’s never touched me.”

“No, but he touched me.”

“But why would he see such a thing when touching you?”

Lesion shrugged. “Maybe you prayed.”

“I did pray,” she gasped. “Do you think he heard?”

“Somebody heard,” Lesion said, sliding his gaze to her only to get stuck studying the purity on her face.

She lay back down, staring at the ceiling with a huge smile. “Wow,” she whispered. “God heard my prayer. Do you think he heard the one about finding my mom and dad?”

“I’m sure he’s been very busy working out that one.”

“You think so?” she wondered, hopeful.

“I know so,” he said, not having to pretend.

“How do you know?” she wondered, looking at him.

“Why wouldn’t he?”

She held his gaze for many seconds, working out the question. “Because…I’ve done things that aren’t….”

“You did what you thought you had to,” he said. “Didn’t you?”

She nodded slowly then faster.

“That’s what he looks at.”

She turned on her side. “Did you save me because…you like me?”

At hearing what kind of like she meant, his brain tied his tongue in knots again.

“You don’t have to answer. I…I don’t want to hear.”

“I do like you,” he said, not about to be responsible for the rejection in her voice.

“Like a sister?”

“Yes,” he said, relieved at hearing an acceptable term. He glanced at her when she turned and put her back to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, the word strained.

“I also like you as a friend,” he added, realizing the sister thing bothered her.

“Thank you,” she said, the words even tighter. “Goodnight Lesion. Thank you for liking me enough to save me.”

He stared at her back, gutted by her quipped words. He reached out and stroked his fingers carefully along her golden hair. “Don’t cry, Tully,” he whispered. “Tomorrow will be a new day. I’ll show you a life where evil doesn’t exist. And the sun in these swamps will never set on your perfect smile.”