Chapter Nineteen #2
Aidan considered for a moment. “Probably down by the creek,” he said at last.
“The creek? There’s running water around here?” she asked.
Aidan looked at her for a moment like she was teasing him. “Oh. Right. You haven’t seen it.”
“No,” Alexandra retorted, her patience already wearing thin. “I haven’t. I’ve scarcely been anywhere off the ranch.”
“Not really a proper creek,” he said, gesturing for her to follow him farther into the hills. “It’s just the run-off from the snow up in the mountains. It fills in the spring, and dries out during high summer. It might still have some water in it.”
Alexandra followed him, using her arms for leverage as they traversed the terrain. She started to slip on a slight incline, and he reached out to catch her elbow. She pulled away.
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
Aidan shrugged and continued onward.
They came upon a groove cut into the ground by millennia of water.
The creek bed was situated in the little valley between two hills.
As promised, the flow was down to a trickle, leaving behind a gravelly dry bed.
On either side of the creek bed, bushes spread out, their leaves almost impossibly green in this setting.
Pink flowers, their petals shaped like perfect hearts, bloomed in defiance of the harsh landscape.
“Oh,” Alexandra breathed. “Hello, little friends,” she murmured. “Aren’t you a welcome sight!”
Though far less thorny than their domestic cousins, the roses still made her cautious, and she bent the stems away from the prickers lower on the bushes. She pulled the petals free and placed them in her basket.
I can make syrup of roses, or use them on a cake, she thought merrily.
“Do you always talk to the plants?” Aidan asked, intruding on her thoughts.
“Yes,” she answered without turning. “The conversation is extremely stimulating.”
“So the plants talk back, then?” he asked, and she could hear the skepticism in his voice.
“They did for Alice,” she said glibly. “Why not for me, too?”
“Who?” he inquired.
Alexandra glanced over her shoulder and found him watching her with his brows beetled together. She laughed at his expression. “Never mind,” she said, turning back to the plants. “I don’t expect you’d understand.”
“I probably wouldn’t,” he agreed. “I expect it’s one of your book things.”
Alexandra didn’t answer him. She refused to be drawn into one of his clumsy attempts at conversation, as it more often than not led to a disagreement.
He watched her silently harvest the roses for a while.
From the corner of her eye, she saw him shuffle closer to the creek bed.
He bent and picked up a smooth rock, then tossed it into the trickling water.
“Must you?” she sighed.
“Yes,” he answered directly. He tossed another rock.
Alexandra wasn’t sure whether he was playing with her, so she moved slightly farther upstream.
“So,” Aidan said, absently shaking a few pebbles in his hand, “you like… flowers?”
“What gave it away?” Alexandra replied automatically, her tone dry as the dirt around them.
“I suppose most women do,” Aidan said, his voice thoughtful. “Have you ever received flowers before?”
“Lisa liked to keep them in our home,” Alexandra answered. She stretched a bit, reaching for a rose bloom. “She’d give me a posy on my birthday sometimes.”
Aidan rattled the rocks in his hand again. “Yes, but… perhaps from a gentleman?”
Alexandra froze, her hand midway to a flower. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” Aidan said hurriedly. “I just figured… I mean, since you had a suitor previously.”
“What?” Alexandra said, whirling around to stare at him. “Where did you hear that?”
“Your aunt said you’d been disappointed in love before, that’s all,” Aidan said, blank-faced. “It helped put some things in context.”
“Things,” she repeated sharply. “What ‘things’ might that be?” Inwardly, she made a note to lovingly throttle her aunt for telling tales about her past. The joke did not hold. Lisa had given it away, and to him of all people, and there would have to be words about it.
Aidan shifted, his expression unsure for a moment. He shrugged. “It just made your willingness to come out here more understandable.”
Alexandra said nothing for a moment. She clutched her basket handle so tightly that she could feel the wicker twines biting into her palm.
“Oh, I see,” she said, her tone acidic. “Clearly, I was so pathetic and unwanted that I had to travel across the entire country to secure a husband, as no one else would have me.”
“That’s not—” Aidan started to protest.
“No, no,” Alexandra said, waving him off. She gathered herself up and began marching back down the hill toward the ranch. “I’m sure you’re right—only the most desperate and pathetic of men would want me.”
“Now, see here,” Aidan said, dropping the rocks from his hand. They clattered as they joined their fellows on the ground. “I never said—”
“You’ve said plenty the whole time I’ve been here, believe me,” Alexandra sniffed. Without waiting for him, she walked on, choosing to stick to the creek bed where it was easier going.
Her thoughts were decidedly uncharitable as she walked, not exactly stomping, but definitely making herself known. She was so busy nursing her irritation with Aidan that when something shifted on the path in front of her, her first thought was, Why is the creek bed moving?
But it wasn’t the ground moving at all—it was a snake.
All of her muscles tensed at once, and she was prepared to spring away. The scaly beast was coiled in front of her, glaring at her with flat, expressionless eyes.
“Alexandra?” Aidan called from behind her, concern in his voice. “What’s wrong? What is it?”