Iris Johansen - Across the River of Yesterday

He became very still. "Lord, I wish you hadn't said that. I'm trying to remember what a youngster you are." His hand resumed its gentle stroking. "Listen, before you came I was lying here thinking about you, about us. When I was over in the Far East I picked up a lot of kind of strange ideas and one of them is about destiny. I believe some things are meant to be. Some people are meant to be together." He paused. "I think we're meant to be together, Serena. I know it sounds crazy, but almost from the first I realized we were right for each other. Can't you feel it? We're meant to love each other, to pleasure each other and help each other to be everything we can be. Why else were we both in that bar tonight? I think it must have been because we've been heading for each other all our lives and the time has come for us to be together. Now you're going to belong to me and I'm going to belong to you."

Serena felt a wild surge of joy. To belong to Gideon would be to belong to gentleness, laughter and beauty. Then her spirits plummeted. It wasn't possible. Sin. She couldn't take any more than she already had from Gideon. "No, I can't…"

"Hush." He placed two fingers over her lips to silence her. "I know you're not ready to think about any of this yet, but I wanted you to know how I felt. I'm not going to push you. You've still got some growing up to do, and I have to make enough money to keep us comfortable. But after all that's taken care of, we'll be together. It's important we both know that's going to happen."

Serena felt her throat tighten painfully. In a way this pain was worse than what she had undergone before. "Gideon, there's no way."

"There's always a way. We'll just have to find it." His fingers moved from her lips to cover her eyes. "I'll start working on it in the morning. Go to sleep now."

He wouldn't listen. He was already assuming control with the loveable autocracy she was beginning to recognize as a primary element of his character.

He never stops. Not ever. Ross's word came back to her and she felt a wild surge of regret and despair. He would face that ugliness and try to conquer it, but she couldn't stand that to happen.

"You're worrying again."

She shook her head. "No, not really."

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"Your Hopi Indian friends." Now. Snatch joy and safety now, for it might be a long time before she felt this happy again. "Tell me how you came to know them. Tell me all the places you've been and the people you've met and… oh, everything."

"Bedtime stories?" He laughed softly. "Okay. I guess I can think of some that aren't X-rated. I've done most everything at one time or another, from riding the rodeo circuit to roughing it on an oil rig. I never finished high school so I had to stick to what I knew. Once when I was about your age I got a job on a freighter to the South Seas and…" His voice murmured on, spinning stories, sharing experiences, giving her glimpses into a life rich with color and the sheer joy of living.

He finally stopped and she could sense him looking down at her. She knew he thought she had fallen asleep. He carefully settled her closer against him and she felt again the gossamer touch of his lips against her forehead. She didn't move and kept her eyes firmly closed. Soon she felt his long, lean body relax and the sound of his breathing. He was asleep.

Serena's eyes opened and she stared unseeingly into the darkness.

The rain had stopped by the time the gray of predawn touched the horizon. Serena paused in the doorway to look back at Gideon still asleep in the big double bed. His tawny hair was rumpled on the pillow and he was sprawled like a weary little boy tucked into bed after a long day at play. She experienced a moment of maternal tenderness before she forced herself to turn and walk quickly across the hall. She hurriedly slipped on Ross's khaki shorts, but left on the blue shirt in which she had slept. It belonged to Gideon and surely it wouldn't hurt to keep a remembrance.

She had to try two doors along the corridor before she found Ross's room. She moved quietly across the shadowy room to stand beside his bed. "Ross?"

The figure beneath the sheets growled, mumbled and then raised himself on one elbow. "Serena?"

"I want you to take me back to the waterfront," Serena said quietly. "Now."

"The hell you do." He sat up and the sheet fell to his waist to reveal a brawny hair-roughened chest. "Gideon would cut my throat if I took you back to that bar."

She looked at him in surprise. "Why would I want to go back there? I wandered in there by mistake and…" She made an impatient gesture with her hand. "I just want you to take me to the waterfront and drop me off. I'd walk, but I don't have any shoes and I'm not sure of the way."

"Just drop you off." Ross's lips twisted. "Drop you on the streets of one of the wickedest cities in the Caribbean, barefoot and with no place to go."

"I have a place to go."

"Then wake up Gideon and tell him about it."

"I can't." She moistened her lower lip with her tongue. "You remember what you said about Gideon not having made up his mind about me yet?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think he's made it up now."

Ross's dark eyes narrowed on her face. "So?"

"It's impossible."

"Gideon doesn't understand the meaning of the word."

"Ross." She swallowed and then drew a deep breath, "I'm married."

He went still. Then he gave a long, low whistle. "Trouble."

She shook her head, blinking rapidly to keep back the tears. "Please, I don't want to hurt Gideon. I'm all right now. It will be perfectly safe to take me back."

"To your husband?"

She closed her eyes for a fraction of a moment and then opened them again. They held only sadness and determination. "To my husband."

He hesitated. "You're sure this is what you want?"

"I'm sure."

"Then I'll take you. Go on downstairs and wait in the jeep while I get dressed."

She turned away.

"You know this probably won't do you a damn bit of good. Gideon's not going to give up."

"He'll give up." Serena started for the door.

She heard a sharp bark of laughter behind her. "You don't know him at all if you think that." His voice was soft and slightly amused. "Tell me, Serena, did you ever drink the rest of the orange juice?"

She paused, her hand closing on the door knob. "That was different."

"Was it?" The amusement deepened. "Ill do what you ask, but don't think running away will do you any good if Gideon decides he wants to find you."

She drew a shaky breath and opened the door. "Please hurry. I want to be gone before Gideon wakes up." She closed the door behind her and walked quickly down the hall toward the curving staircase.

"Now, don't get excited." Dane's voice was soothing. "It's not as bad as it sounds."

Serena Spaulding counted to five. "What do you mean, it's not as bad as it sounds?" She pronounced every word distinctly into the telephone receiver. "How could it be worse? You tell me you've been flung into a Latin American jail on a drug charge, and that they're threatening to throw away the key and forget you ever existed. Sounds fairly serious to me."

"But it's all a mistake. You know I'm not into drugs. I think they even know it's a mistake, but they want to save face by putting on a big show of authority. All you have to do is come down and vouch for my character and they'll release me into your custody."

"Dane, they don't put people into jail and then release them so easily. I'd better call the American Consulate."

"No!" Dane's voice was suddenly sharp. "You know the first thing they'll do is call Mother and she'll call-" He broke off. "Look, it's very simple. Ill be off this island within a day, if you'll just come down and sign their damn papers. I tell you, they know they're in the wrong. I'm not even in a regular jail. They've put me up in a fancy hotel and they're wining and dining me as if I were a VIP. They even sent me a call girl last night. Does that sound like you're going to run into any trouble?"