Chapter 18
hey did not overtake Li Sung until late afternoon of the next day.
“Li Sung!”
Li Sung stiffened at Ruel’s hail and then turned to confront them. The relief Jane felt immediately turned to concern. Li Sung’s usually golden skin was parchment-pale, his mouth set in lines of strain, and his expression distinctly forbidding.
“You should not be here,” he said.
“Neither should you,” she said. “Are you ill? You look terrible.”
“So do you.” Li Sung smiled faintly. “And you are the one who has been ill. I have merely been enduring the usual agonies inflicted when riding on this equine beast for too long.”
Even a half-day’s ride was painful to Li Sung, and he had been driving himself unmercifully for three days. She hid the pity the thought brought and said lightly, “It serves you right for going after the elephant without me.”
He grimaced. “I did not trust you not to soften when I caught up with him. Your heart is too tender. I want to shoot him, not adopt him.”
“You shouldn’t have worried. He’s not a dog or a cat, and he destroyed my tracks,” Jane said. “Do you have any idea how far ahead he is?”
“Not far.”
“How do you know?” Ruel asked. “Have you heard him?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?” Ruel persisted. “He could be angling back toward the crossing by another route.”
“He is not.” He gestured impatiently as Ruel opened his lips. “And I do not know why I am sure, but I am. I tell you, he is just ahead.”
“I’m not arguing. I have a firm belief in instinct,” Ruel said quietly. “If he’s just ahead, then you won’t mind stopping for the night. This clearing seems to be as good a place as any. We can fetch water from that pond we passed a quarter of a mile back.”
Li Sung frowned. “It is still early. If I keep on the trail, I might be able to overtake him.”
“And you might not.” Ruel got off his horse. “And even if we do catch up with him, we might be too tired to be any threat.”
Li Sung stiffened. “I am weary, not helpless.”
“I wasn’t talking about you.” Ruel reached up and plucked Jane from the saddle. “Jane’s been ill, remember?” He met her gaze warningly as she started to protest. “You may be able to drive yourself without collapsing, but you might think of someone else besides yourself.”
“She should not have come.”
“We’re here,” Ruel said flatly. “Deal with it.”
Li Sung hesitated before nodding reluctantly. “Very well.” He got off his horse and then had to grab the pommel of the saddle to steady himself as his stiffened legs threatened to give way.
Jane hastily averted her eyes from this betraying sign of weakness. “I’ll gather the wood.”
“I’ll do it.” Li Sung released the saddle. “Danor has left more than enough torn up trees in his wake to accommodate our needs.” He limped toward the path left by the elephant.
“It was clever of you not to let Li Sung know it was him you were concerned about,” she said in a low voice.
“Hell, I can’t claim any great degree of cleverness. I only told the truth. I am worried about you.” He turned away before she could speak. “I’ll set up camp. You go after Li Sung and see if you can persuade him to stay here while I go after the elephant.”
“Alone?” she asked, startled. “Don’t tell me you were a hunter too at one time?”
He shook his head. “The only animals I ever hunted were the rats in the London sewers.”
She vaguely remembered him telling her he had been a rat catcher that night at Zabrie’s. “A rat is hardly in the same class as an elephant.”
“The principle is the same. At least, I’m more qualified than you or Li Sung.” He unfastened the girth of his saddle. “Go to him.”
She stood there, watching him. The mere thought of him stalking that mad elephant alone sent panic racing through her.
“Go on,” he repeated.
She hurriedly turned and followed Li Sung.
“This was very foolish of you,” she said quietly as she fell into step with him. “I told you we’d find another solution.”
He didn’t answer her.
“You can’t claim you’re here to stop him from doing more damage. That’s just an excuse. You just have some insane desire to destroy the elephant.”
He didn’t reply.
She had to say something to break through that wall of silence. “Ruel wants us to stay here while he goes after Danor.”
“No!” Li Sung whirled to face her, his eyes blazing. “He’s mine!”
Shock rippled through her. She had never seen Li Sung display such passion about anything. “I didn’t say I’d let him do it. I just said he—”
“This is not your concern. Go back to the crossing.”
“You’re my concern. Just as I’d be your concern if I were the one running after that crazy elephant.”
The emotion faded from his face, and he looked away from her. “You are right. I would feel the same.”
“Then we go after him together.”
He nodded reluctantly. “Very well.”
They walked in silence for a moment.
“But you are wrong.” His gaze went compulsively to the path Danor had made through the trees. “I am not running after Danor anymore.”
She looked at him inquiringly.
“He is waiting.”
“What?”
He whispered, “He is waiting for me.”
“And what will you do when you catch up with him?” Ruel asked as he stirred the wood of the fire. “Shoot him,” Li Sung said.
“There can’t be many vulnerable spots on an elephant.”
“I’ll aim for the eyes.” Li Sung stared into the flames. “Dilam said that’s the only way to assure a quick kill.”
“You’re not a wonderful shot,” Jane pointed out. “And you may not get a second chance.”
“I’ll think about that when I find him.”
“You’re not thinking at all. You’re just feeling.”
“Perhaps.” Li Sung’s gaze lifted from his coffee. “But it is useless to try to dissuade me.”
Jane had suspected this but she had to make the attempt. “I don’t understand it. Why?”
“He tried to kill me.”
“You’re acting as if he set out to do it deliberately. He’s an elephant, for God’s sake.”
Li Sung shrugged and didn’t answer.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Ruel asked suddenly. “It’s because he is an elephant.”
Li Sung stared at him impassively.
“Power,” Ruel said softly, his gaze narrowed on Li Sung’s face. “Tell me, are you going to eat his heart too?”
“What?”
“In Brazil I heard about the men of a tribe who ate the hearts of captured enemy warriors because they thought that by doing so they would absorb their foe’s strength and courage.”
“And you think I’m privy to such superstition?”
“Are you?”
“I am no fool. I realize that the only thing I’ll win from killing Danor is revenge. Sometimes that is enough.”
“And sometimes it isn’t,” Ruel said wearily.
“You surprise me.” Li Sung smiled faintly. “I would have thought you would understand my feeling in this.”
“Oh, I understand.” Ruel glanced at Jane. “No one could understand revenge better than I do. Isn’t that right, Jane?”
She sensed beneath the self-mockery in his voice an underlying pain that hurt her. She wanted to reach out and touch him, soothe him. She spoke hastily to Li Sung. “We’d better get some sleep if you intend to start out at first light. Why don’t we—”
An elephant trumpeted in the darkness.
Li Sung sat upright, his gaze flying to the path leading west. “Close.”
He was right, Jane thought, Danor must be very close, but there had been a puzzling difference in the elephant’s cry from the angry trumpeting she had heard that night at the track. It was as if—
Li Sung was on his feet, grabbing his rifle.
“Li Sung, wait until daylight,” she said, alarmed. “If he’s that close, a few more hours aren’t going to make any difference.”
“Now!” Li Sung slung a cartridge belt over his shoulder and limped from the campfire. “You wait until daylight. I don’t need you.”
“The hell we will.” Ruel was already extinguishing the fire. “Can’t you at least wait until we saddle up?”
“No need.” Li Sung’s words trailed behind him as the jungle closed around him. “He’s close….”
Jane jumped to her feet and ran after Li Sung.
She heard Ruel call her name but she paid no attention.
The elephant trumpeted again. Beckoning. Calling. Calling Li Sung toward destruction.
“Blast it, Li Sung, wait for me!” Jane called to the shadowy figure stalking ahead.
“Save your breath.” Ruel pulled aside a thorny shrub to let her pass. “There’s no stopping him. Just try to keep up.”
How could Li Sung travel so fast with his crippled leg? He was moving through the jungle at almost a run.
The elephant trumpeted again, closer.
Alarm, uneasiness, and bewilderment tumbled through her. There was something in that cry that bothered her. Of course it bothered her, she thought impatiently. The blasted elephant was drawing Li Sung into danger. “Li Sung!”
Li Sung must have decided to heed her plea to wait, she saw with relief. He had stopped a few hundred yards ahead of them. Then, as they drew closer, she saw he was staring straight ahead, his body peculiarly rigid.
“Is it the elephant? Be care—” She stopped as she and Ruel came abreast of him and she saw what had startled him.
Skeletons.
Gleaming white bones everywhere, covering the vast clearing before them in a macabre blanket. The moon had gone behind a cloud, but the skeletons seemed to give off a chilling shimmer of their own in the darkness.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“An elephant graveyard,” Li Sung said. “That must be why they make the trek west.” “I don’t understand.”
“Dilam said that when an elephant senses he is going to die, sometimes he travels many miles to a place of death.” Li Sung’s gaze traveled over the bone-littered landscape. “This appears to be such a place.”
Jane shivered. “It certainly does.”
“But why did Danor come here?” Ruel asked thoughtfully.
Li Sung moved his shoulders as if shaking off the oppressiveness of the sight before him. “How do I know?” He smiled grimly. “Perhaps he senses I’m going to kill him.”
The trumpeting sounded again and Jane’s gaze flew across the graveyard. At the edge of the trees she could barely discern the massive figure of the elephant, his trunk lifted.
Li Sung made a low sound of satisfaction and started across the bone-strewn clearing.
Jane and Ruel followed quickly, but Li Sung had already reached the middle of the graveyard by the time they caught up with him.
The elephant stood watching them approach.
“Why isn’t he charging?” Jane murmured, remembering the elephant’s bloodshot eyes and thundering attack at sight of them at the crossing.
“I’d just as soon he refrained,” Ruel said dryly.
Li Sung had come within range of the elephant. He lifted the rifle and sighted down the barrel.
The elephant did not move.
The moon came from behind the clouds and lit both the clearing and Danor’s face with pale clarity.
“Wait!” Jane grabbed Li Sung’s arm. “There’s something—”
“Let me go.” Li Sung tried to shake her off. “No, not yet. I see something …” She ran ahead of him toward the elephant.
“Jane!” Ruel called.
“He’s not going to hurt me. Can’t you see …” She stopped only a dozen yards from the elephant, making sure she was in Li Sung’s line of fire. “Don’t shoot him, Li Sung.”
“Get out of my way, Jane.”
“Come here,” Jane called, her stare never leaving Danor. She had been right, the moonlight revealed something damp and shimmering on the elephant’s face.
“So he can try to trample me again?”
Ruel reached her side. “Dammit, Jane, do you want to get killed? Why the hell do you—”
“Shh!” She pointed to a shadowy bulk on the ground to the left of Danor. “I think he’s … isn’t that …”
“Another elephant.” Ruel moved cautiously forward, keeping a wary eye on Danor. “Stay behind me. I’ll take a look.”
Danor lifted his trunk and trumpeted again, this time in warning.
Ruel stopped in his tracks. “I don’t believe I’ll go any farther. He doesn’t appear to like me.”
“He doesn’t like anyone in this world.” Li Sung limped toward them, the rifle cradled in readiness in the crook of his arm. “And if you’ll step out of the way, I’ll send him out of it.”
“He’s not going to hurt anyone,” Jane said. “I think he’s only protecting— Can’t you see? He’s weeping , Li Sung.”
“Nonsense.”
“You’re not even looking at him. I tell you, he’s mourning.” Jane pointed to the fallen elephant. “We’ve got to see if there’s anything we can do to help.”
“After I kill Danor, we’ll look at the other elephant.”
“Stop it!” Jane said in exasperation. “You don’t have to kill him now.”
“Necessity doesn’t always coincide with desire.” He lifted the rifle.
Jane started toward the elephant. “I said no.”
Danor shifted back and forth, turning on her threateningly.
Ruel reached out and grabbed her arm. “He doesn’t like you either. How ungrateful when you’re the only one determined to save him.”
An explosive sound came from Li Sung as he moved ahead of them toward the elephant. “I knew I should not have let you come with me. Must you be shown how vicious he is?” He strode toward the elephant, the rifle in readiness. “Come after me now, elephant.”
Danor stood unmoving, his stare on Li Sung. Another tear rolled down his leathery face before he slowly lowered his trunk to the head of the fallen elephant and began tugging as if trying to lift the beast to its feet.
Li Sung stopped in back of the fallen elephant, staring in frustration and challenge at Danor across the animal’s body.
“Is the elephant dead?” Jane called.
Li Sung glanced down at the elephant. “I don’t know.” He reached out and touched the leathery hide. “Warm. Perhaps not.”
“Then why was Danor trumpeting?” Jane edged closer. “Is it a female?”
“Yes.”
“Then she must be his mate.”
“Possibly.” Li Sung scowled. “And now I suppose you’re feeling so soft-hearted toward him you’re going to let him tear up the rest of the railroad to assuage his grief.”
“I didn’t say that. But we have to help her if we can. We can’t let—” She stopped as Danor’s head lifted and he fixed his gaze on her. “You’ll have to see if there’s anything we can do. He’s not going to let anyone but you near him.”
“Which shows how stupid he is. He does not know an enemy when he sees one.” Li Sung moved around the fallen elephant. “The female is dead. Her eyes are open and—” He stopped in midsentence.
“What is it?” Jane called.
“A baby.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” Li Sung took another step closer, his gaze on something obscured by the female’s bulk. “It’s a baby elephant.”
“Alive?” Ruel asked.
Li Sung nodded. “He’s trying to nurse.” “How old?”
“How do I know?” Li Sung asked testily. “A few days, I suppose.”
“I want to see him,” Jane said.
“Of course you do. Another helpless creature for you to cosset,” Li Sung said caustically. “This is not a stray puppy, Jane.”
“I want to see him,” Jane repeated. “Danor seems to accept you. Come back and take Ruel’s and my hands and lead us to the female.”
“Then I could not hold the rifle.”
“You won’t need the rifle,” Jane said in exasperation. “Look at him. It’s enough to break your heart.”
“I’ll carry the rifle,” Ruel said. “You’d better do as she says, Li Sung. She’s going to go over there anyway.”
Li Sung moved toward them. “I know.” He surrendered the rifle to Ruel, clasped both of their hands, and led them toward the elephants. “Now he’ll probably trample all of us into the rest of these bones.”
“Hush, Li Sung.” Jane tensed as Danor lifted his head and stared at the three of them. No anger, she saw only overwhelming sadness, resignation … and acceptance.
Then the elephant lowered his head and resumed poking and prodding his fallen mate, urging her to rise to her feet.
“I think it’s going to be all right.” Jane moved around the female’s body.
The baby elephant was lying with his legs outspread, nuzzling his mother’s teat.
Jane felt the tears sting her eyes. “Poor baby.” “No!” Li Sung said sharply. “No, Jane.” “We can’t let him die.”
“We can’t save him. He needs milk to survive and his mother is dead. Who is going to nurse him?” Li Sung’s gaze went to the bones of the graveyard. “One of those?”
“If we can get him back to the herd, maybe one of the females will adopt him.”
“The herd could be a hundred miles to the east.” “Then we’d better start right away.” “And how are we going to find the herd?” Jane gestured to Danor.
“You think he’s going to lead us to the herd like a horse going back to his stable?”
“Dilam said he had superior intelligence.” Her brows knitted thoughtfully. “It could be that’s why he tore up the tracks.”
“He tore up the tracks because it pleased him to do so.”
She shook her head. “Maybe he wanted us to follow him. Perhaps he knew he couldn’t save his mate but he wanted to give the baby a chance. We’ve got to give him that chance.”
“No,” Li Sung said flatly.
“Yes,” Ruel said.
Li Sung swung to face him. “You agree with this madness?”
“She wants it done.” Ruel shrugged. “So we do it.”
Jane looked at him in surprise.
He smiled as he studied her face. “I told you I’d work on it,” he said softly. “I have to start somewhere.”
She tore her gaze away from him. “Li Sung, you’ll have to get the baby away from the mother. I’m not sure Danor would let us do it.” She started back across the graveyard. “I’ll go back to camp and pack up. Ruel, you stay with Li Sung. He may need help.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ruel said meekly.
···
An hour later Li Sung and Ruel appeared at camp, driving before them the tiny elephant. The baby was only three feet high, tottering and weaving uncertainly with every step. He was big-eyed, clumsy, and totally endearing.
“Did you have any trouble?” she asked Ruel.
“Not with Danor. He let Li Sung do whatever he wished with the baby.” He made a face and nodded toward the elephant. “But we had trouble convincing this little fellow to leave his mother, and it’s not easy to shift a hundred-and-fifty-pound infant anywhere he doesn’t want to go.”
“Where’s Danor?”
“Still trying to wake her,” Ruel said. “We may have to find the herd on our own.”
“He’s so sweet.” Jane reached out and gently caressed the baby’s trunk. “We’ll have to give him a name.”
“Why?” Li Sung asked. “So you’ll have a name to mourn him by when he dies?”
“He’s not going to die.” The elephant curled his trunk about her wrist. “I’ve always liked the name Caleb. We’ll call him Caleb.”
Li Sung made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a snort.
The elephant released her wrist and started to totter toward her.
Jane’s brow knitted worriedly. “He doesn’t seem too steady on his feet.”
“He’s weak.” Ruel said. “There’s no telling how much milk the mother was able to give him before she died.”
“What can we feed him, Li Sung?”
Li Sung looked at her without speaking.
“Li Sung?” she prompted.
“He will die anyway.”
“We don’t know that. Tell me what to feed him.”
“Water or milk,” Li Sung said reluctantly. “He’s probably too young for anything else.”
Caleb’s legs gave out, and he fell in a heap to the ground. Jane felt a melting tenderness as she looked at the helpless baby.
In spite of his disapproval, Li Sung appeared to be similarly affected. “He needs milk, but perhaps water will help ease his hunger. I will go to the pond and get some.” He snatched a canteen from the saddle and stalked off down the path.
“It isn’t like Li Sung to be so hard,” Jane murmured as she stared after him. “I don’t understand him.”
“I do,” Ruel said. “He feels cheated. He was braced for a warrior’s battle and now he finds himself acting as nursemaid to his foe’s offspring. It’s not easy for him to accept.”
“Danor doesn’t think of him as a foe.”
“He can’t accept that either.” He started down the path. “Stay by the fire and don’t let Caleb wander off. I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do?”
“He’s not going to be able to walk long. I’m going to find some branches to use as poles and fashion a stretcher I can fasten to my saddle and drag him behind.”
“Ruel.”
He glanced over his shoulder.
She reached out and gently touched the baby elephant’s trunk. “He is going to live, isn’t he?”
“You want him to live, he’ll live,” Ruel stated unequivocally. He strode out of view into the shrubbery.
It was absurd to feel this rush of relief at his words. Yet the mandarin had spoken, and if he had been capable of jerking Ian back from the gates of death, why not this big, clumsy baby?
Nugget made no protest when Ruel attached the two poles to the saddle but went into a bucking fit when Caleb was placed on the stretcher close to his hindquarters. Li Sung’s horse and Bedelia had a similar reaction when Ruel tried to attach the stretcher to their saddles.
Ruel swore beneath his breath. “Dammit, I didn’t need this.”
“What do you expect when you try to put an elephant and a horse in tandem?” Li Sung asked.
Jane frowned worriedly. “What can we do?” Caleb would never be able to make the trip on foot, when he could stand on his feet for only short periods before collapsing.
“We don’t seem to have any choice,” Ruel said grimly. He unfastened the poles from Bedelia’s saddle and began forming a harness with a rope. “You’ll have to lead Nugget and I’ll be the beast of burden.”
“Much as I approve the benefit to your character of such a humbling experience, may I remind you he weighs over a hundred and fifty pounds?” Li Sung said.
“And I’m sure I’ll feel every pound before we stop for the night.” Ruel slipped the harness over his shoulders. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Jane took two shirts from her saddlebag and crossed to Ruel to tuck them under the harness to protect his shoulders from the ropes. “I’m afraid they won’t help much, dragging that kind of weight.”
He smiled. “Thank you.”
“I’m not the one dragging Caleb through the jungle.” She got back on Bedelia. “Tell us when you need to stop and rest.”
“Don’t worry.” He made a face as he lurched forward. “I assure you I will.”
They stopped to rest twice during the night but did not make camp until just before dawn. Jane reined in at a small clearing near a stream and got down off her horse.
“Li Sung, grab two canteens and get some more water for Caleb while I make a fire.”
“I live only to serve,” Li Sung said sarcastically as he took the canteens and moved stiffly toward the stream. “Now I am water bearer for an elephant.”
“And what task am I assigned, memsahib?” Ruel asked.
“Li Sung and I can do anything that needs doing,” she said as she began gathering wood from the side of the path. “Sit down and rest.”
“Am I being pampered? How unusual.”
“It’s hardly pampering to let you rest after you spent the last six hours dragging an elephant behind you.”
“I won’t argue.” He unfastened his harness and sat down on the ground beside Caleb’s stretcher. “Pamper me.”
Weariness layered the usual mockery in his tone. She turned to look at him, but it was too dark to see his expression. He was only a shadow figure hunched beside Caleb’s stretcher. “Did the pads help to cushion the ropes?”
“Well enough.” He changed the subject. “We’ll have to replace this blanket I stretched over these poles before long. It’s wearing thin.”
“I’ll give you one of mine before we start again.” She knelt beside the pile of wood and kindling and lit the fire before glancing over her shoulder. “It’s a wonder it lasted this long, pulled over that rough ground with Caleb on—”
There was blood on Ruel’s shirt.
She jumped to her feet and hurried to his side. His face was pale in the firelight, his lips set with strain. “I thought you said the pads helped. You lied to me.”
He shrugged. “They did as good a job as could be expected.”
She fell to her knees beside him and started to unbutton his shirt. “We’ll have to double them tomorrow.” She unbuttoned his shirt. “And I can help. I can take one pole and help pull.”
“You’re still weak from that damn fever. I’ll manage alone.”
“Don’t be foolish. I’m getting stronger every day, and there’s no reason why I can’t—” She broke off as she pulled the shirt off his shoulders and saw the ugly chafing caused by the ropes. His right shoulder was crisscrossed with angry red marks, the flesh cut and bleeding across the collarbone. She whispered, “Good God, this must have been terribly painful.”
“It wasn’t pleasant.”
“You should have told me.”
“So that you could weep over me as you did over Caleb?” He smiled. “Doesn’t it touch your heart that I’ve shed my blood for your sake?”
“Don’t joke,” she said huskily. She fetched a canteen and handkerchief from her saddlebag, knelt again beside him, and began to wash the lacerated flesh. “Why do you always have to joke?”
“To show what a brave and stalwart specimen I am. I understand it’s considered the thing to do.”
Her hand was shaking and she had to steady it before starting to wrap the cloth around his shoulder. “We’ll have to think of another way to help Caleb. You can’t go on like this.”
“Yes, I can. I can do anything I have to do.”
“It was my decision to bring Caleb. I can’t let you suffer because—”
“I’m going to do it, Jane.”
“Why?”
“Because then you’ll know that every drop of blood I shed is for your sake.” He held her gaze. “And every time you care for my wounds, it will bind you closer to me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You said it yourself, Jane. You’re a caretaker.” He looked down at her hands binding the bandage at his shoulder. “And when you take care of someone, they belong to you. I want to belong to you.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
A sudden smile lit his face as he glanced at Caleb. “Besides, I like this little fellow. I’d do it even if I weren’t courting you.”
“Courting?” That word brought a rush of memories of that night on the veranda in Kasanpore. “We can’t go back,” she said stiltedly.
“I don’t want to go back. I want a new start.”
“We can’t do that either.” She finished tying the bandage and glanced at his left shoulder. The halter hadn’t damaged it as much as the other, but he should have stopped long before this. His shoulders were rope-burned almost as badly as they had been after he had come up the slope from Lanpur Gorge dragging Ian behind him. No, that wasn’t true, she recalled. His flesh had been in bloody rags then and she had—
“What’s the matter?” Ruel’s gaze was on her face. “What the hell is wrong now?”
“The halter,” she whispered. “I just remembered Lanpur Gorge.”
For a minute his expression hardened before he forced a smile. “You can’t go back,” he repeated her words. “So stop thinking about it.”
She shook her head. “It’s not possible.”
“Everything is possible.” He glanced at Caleb. “What were his chances of living two days ago?”
“Not much better than now.” Li Sung came toward them, carrying the canteens. “I see he marked you. Truly his father’s child.” In spite of his harsh words, both his hands and expression were gentle as he knelt beside the baby and gently poured water into Caleb’s mouth. “No doubt he will also grow into a killer rogue.”
Jane was too weary and shaken to argue with Li Sung. And if she was weary, what must Ruel feel like? “Go to sleep,” she told both of them as she went to her own blankets by the fire.
“I believe I’ll do that.” Ruel stretched out next to Caleb on the blanket and closed his eyes.
Jane frowned. “You can’t sleep there.”
“Watch me.” He closed his eyes. “Too tired to move …”
“I’ll make up your blankets for you.”
“I’m fine …” He turned on his side. “Four hours. No more. We can’t afford the time. We have to get Caleb to …” He trailed off, and Jane realized he had fallen into an exhausted sleep.
Li Sung soon followed him in slumber, but she lay there unable to sleep in spite of her weariness. Ruel’s words and actions had thrown her into a turmoil of emotion—worry, tenderness, admiration, and a multitude of other fragmented feelings too dangerous to examine closely. Just when she had thought herself free of the mandarin, he had changed and become a man, a vulnerable man whom she was beginning to find … lovable.
Dear God, what was she doing searching her soul when she should be sleeping? she thought impatiently. She huddled down in her blankets and closed her eyes. The heat from the fire felt warm and soothing, the crackling of the logs a cozy song in the darkness.
But an early morning chill lingered in the air.
Ruel was several yards distant from the fire.
She got to her feet, grabbed one of her blankets, and marched over to where Ruel and Caleb were lying. Ruel was sleeping soundly, but Caleb opened his glowing eyes as she tucked the blanket over Ruel. The baby elephant’s trunk lifted to touch her cheek. “Shh.” She patted his head, got to her feet, and went back to her blanket by the fire.
Caretaker.
Well, what if she was? There was nothing wrong with sharing a blanket with someone who had sacrificed so much for her sake. Nothing wrong at all.
The crashing of shrubbery woke Jane, Ruel, and Li Sung from sleep on the second night of their trek back to the crossing. Jane opened her eyes to see Danor standing, looking at them from the edge of the trees. His eyes glittered in the campfire, and she had an uneasy memory of that moment on the tracks when she had thought the elephant a mad rogue.
Fear vanished as she saw Danor come slowly forward to stand over the stretcher by the fire where the baby elephant lay. His trunk curled around Caleb’s neck and then began probing gently, inquiringly, at his body as he had at that of his dead mate’s.
The baby was too weak now to do more than raise his head, his trunk seeking and then locking with Danor’s.
The sight was inexpressibly touching, and Jane felt the tears burn her lids.
Then Danor disentangled his trunk, backed away, and lumbered past the fire and into the jungle.
Li Sung said sourly, “He disturbs our sleep and then leaves it to us to care for his child. We will probably not see him again.”
“He went in the direction of the crossing,” Ruel pointed out.
“So he’s rejoining the herd. That does not mean we will see him again.” Li Sung lay down again and closed his eyes. “Which will be the most fortuitous circumstance occurring since we arrived in Cinnidar.”
Jane shook her head in resignation as she pulled her blanket around her shoulders. She had never seen Li Sung as stubborn as he was being about the bull elephant. He was wrong. She knew Danor had been concerned about the baby.
He was not the only one concerned. Her gaze went to the baby elephant. He was growing weaker. They had been feeding him water to assuage his hunger, but how long could he live without nourishment?
“He’ll live.”
She turned to see Ruel’s gaze on her face.
“Will he?” she whispered. “Even if we reach the herd in time to save him, we might not find a nursing cow who will accept him.”
“Then I’ll ride up to the Cinnidar village and bring back some goats for milking.”
In spite of her concern, she had to chuckle at the unlikely thought of Ruel as shepherd. “It would take an entire herd to feed him.”
“Then I’ll bring a herd.”
Her laughter faded as she met his gaze. She had no doubt he would do it. His patience and determination in caring for Caleb had been a great comfort to her in the past two days. “You may have to.”
“Will you please cease your chatter?” Li Sung asked.
“It is enough that Danor has burdened us with his offspring, you do not have to talk about him all night.”
“Do you like it?” Margaret’s eager gaze searched Ian’s face. “I couldn’t manage the Glenclaren coat of arms, so I just settled for your initials and a stalk of heather.”
“It’s very fine.” Ian gently touched the gold seal with his index finger. “And just what I wanted. A coat of arms would have been much too grand for me.”
“Nothing’s too grand for you.” She sat down on the stool beside his chair. “Are you not the laird? I had to do it twice. I ruined the first one. Naturally, that heathen Kartauk didn’t have the courtesy to tell me I was erring and made me do the entire process over. He said you always learn better from your mistakes.”
“That sounds like Kartauk. He always believes in drinking deep of every experience regardless of later regrets.”
“Not every experience.”
A note in Margaret’s voice caused Ian to lift his gaze to her face and found to his surprise that a flush had risen to her cheeks.
“I mean, he’s not as heedless as you might think,” she said quickly.
“No?”
“His work—” She stopped and then rushed on. “He’s very careful….” She jumped to her feet. “It’s time for your supper. I’ll go tell Tamar.”
“I’m not hungry yet.”
“You will be. You must eat.”
“Margaret.”
She stopped at the door, her spine rigid. “Yes.”
“Ask Kartauk to join us for supper.”
She did not turn around. “Why?”
Fear. She was afraid. His Margaret, who feared nothing and no one, was afraid.
“I need to sharpen my chess game, and he has not supped with us for a long time. I miss his company.”
He could see the muscles of her back ease. “He’s been busy.”
“He can spare one evening.” He kept his voice carefully light. “I wish to thank him for helping you fashion my fine seal.”
“I will tell him but I cannot promise he will come.”
“Shall I write him a note?”
“No!” She turned to face him. “You really wish to see him?”
“One always wishes to see a good friend,” he said quietly. “And it’s been too long, Margaret.”
“Very well, I’ll see that he joins us.” She turned on her heel and left the chamber.
His smile faded and he leaned back, closed his eyes, and let the pain wash over him.
God in heaven, why could you not have been merciful? Margaret did not need this additional cross to bear.
Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it was not true.
He would know when he saw them together.
“Tamar, will you fetch another bottle of wine?” Ian made a face before glancing down at the chess board again. “This vintage doesn’t please me.”
“Certainly, Samir Ian.” Tamar instantly moved toward the door. “I regret I failed you in this. Perhaps whiskey instead? I know you like that better.”
“You know he can’t have whiskey, Tamar,” Margaret said. “The doctor said he was to drink nothing stronger than wine.”
“He should not have forbidden him whiskey, if that is what he likes,” Tamar said with a frown. “Whiskey, Samir Ian?”
“This wine tastes fine to me,” Kartauk said.
“If Samir Ian says the wine is bad, it is bad,” Tamar said with a touch of belligerence.
“Just another bottle of wine, Tamar,” Ian said quickly.
Kartauk chuckled as the door closed behind the servant. “Good God, I see what you mean, Margaret. Is he always this obliging, Ian?”
“Always.” Ian smiled faintly. “The Cinnidans are so robust themselves, they have a horror of ill health. Tamar would have drowned himself in the sea before he would have become the crock I am. He sees no reason to deny me any pleasure just to prolong my life.”
Margaret frowned. “You’re not a crock and he should not have offered you—”
“He meant only to make me happy,” Ian interrupted. He changed the subject. “Margaret has been raving about your workmanship on Ruel’s seal, but I cannot believe it finer than mine, Kartauk.” Ian moved his knight on the board. “An elephant is all very well, but it lacks a certain dignity.”
“Are you saying the apprentice is more talented than the master?” Kartauk looked up from the chess board with a grin. “Blasphemy.”
“I’m saying I should judge for myself. Let me see Ruel’s wondrous seal.”
“Now?”
Ian nodded. “I’m tormented by curiosity. I must see it.”
“Then I’ll go fetch it from the studio.” Kartauk started to get up from his chair. “It will take only a minute.”
“No, not you.” Ian turned to Margaret. “Would you go and fetch it, love? I plan on checkmating this rascal within the next few moves.”
“If you wish.” She moved immediately toward the door. “Though you’ll be disappointed. My work is a mere dabble compared to Kartauk’s.”
“You never disappoint me, Margaret.”
The chamber was silent for a time after the door closed behind her.
“Well, you’ve gotten rid of both of them,” Kartauk commented as he moved his queen. “Why did you want Margaret gone?”
He should have known Kartauk would realize the seal was only a ploy, Ian thought with relief. Thank God Kartauk’s bluntness was equaled by his perceptiveness. “She was uneasy. It was an uncomfortable evening for her, poor lass.”
“Was it?”
“You know it was.” He kept his gaze on the chess board, but he could sense Kartauk’s wariness. “Which is why I will not ask you to come here again.”
“Why did you ask me tonight?”
“I had to know. I had to be certain.”
Kartauk’s sudden tension was so well masked as to have been imperceptible if Ian had not been watching for it. “Certain about what?”
Ian hesitated, searching for words. “I don’t mind for myself, you know. Oh, at first there was a sting. I’ve loved her all my life and gotten used to thinking of her as mine. I remember walking up that hill beyond the castle with her when she was only a lass of ten and thinking, all of our life is going to be like this. All of our life we’ll be together. Such happy times …” He trailed off and then smiled with an effort. “But those times are over, aren’t they? And I’d be a true dog in the manger to blame anyone but fate and myself for their passing. Margaret didn’t leave me; I’ve been the one leaving her these last years.”
Kartauk was silent for a moment. “I suppose I should deny it.”
“No lies,” Ian said. “Please, no lies. We have no time for them.”
“No lies.” Kartauk was silent again before he said haltingly, “I did not want to love her, but I do not regret it.”
“You should not,” Ian said gently. “Love is rare and beautiful. It enriches life.”
“Margaret has never been unfaithful to you.” Kartauk shrugged. “I am not like you. I do not think any pleasure is a sin. There was a time … but it never happened.”
“I know, and it never will.” Ian raised his gaze from the board. “It’s only fair you realize that truth. She may love you but she will never leave me until the day I die.”
He grimaced. “And I can’t even promise to do that with any great dispatch. I cannot bring myself to commit a mortal sin by taking my own life, or I would have been out of the way long ago.”
“No one wants you out of the way,” Kartauk said gruffly.
“No one but me.” Ian smiled sadly. “I pray for it every night but I’m never taken.” He went on brusquely. “But that is neither here nor there. The important thing is to keep Margaret as content as possible.”
“You wish me to leave Cinnidar?”
“Of course not. I would not deprive Margaret of your company. You will continue to keep her amused and busy, to protect her and love her as you are doing right now. However, I must deprive myself. She is so guilt-ridden, it’s clearly a torment for her to see us in the same room.” He met Kartauk’s gaze. “And she must never know we’ve had this talk. You agree?”
“I agree.” Kartauk nodded slowly. He blinked rapidly and looked down at the chess board. “You’re a fine man, Ian MacClaren, and stronger than I would be in the same situation.”
“Strong? I don’t feel strong.” He leaned wearily back on his pillows. “I’m just trying to do what needs to be done to help us all survive. I can’t let Margaret suffer any more than she—” His gaze flew to the door. “She’s coming.” He quickly moved his bishop and then looked up with a smile as Margaret walked into the room. “You’ve been very quick. I still haven’t defeated him. Come here and let me see the seal.”
She handed him Ruel’s gold seal and stood beside him as he examined it. “I told you it was much better.”
“It’s quite splendid.” Ian put it beside his own seal on the bed. He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. “But I prefer the one you made for me. Ruel may have his elephants. My stalk of heather reminds me of Glenclaren.”