"If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all."
"Well it is about time," Marguerite complained as she looked over at the handsome man beside her. "I mean, we've only be out here three days. Honestly Roxton, sometimes I wonder how you gained your reputation as a world-renowned hunter!"
With a hassled look at the infuriating woman beside him, Roxton simply said, "You know, I have a reputation for being world-renowned in another area." Lifting his eyebrow at her in a suggestive manner he added, "Maybe you would like to see how I gained that one."
Marguerite decided not to comment on his offer, his blistering sensuality leaving her at a loss for words. Instead she walked over to the large hog he had just shot. They had left the treehouse a few days ago to replenish their food supply and this was their first kill. She was becoming increasingly frustrated with the trip. She had to choke down roots and berries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not to mention the fact that she hadn't had a decent bath the entire time. She refused to admit that the main reason she ached for a bath was because she knew she looked horrid and, much to her chagrin, she always wanted Roxton to see her at her best.
"Let's get this packed up before the scavengers arrive," he ordered, taking out his knife to cut into the wild beast.
"Ugh, I think I'll wait over here," she said over her shoulder as she walked to a nearby rock.
He looked at her and sighed. She is undoubtedly the most obstinate person I've ever met! Unfortunately, she also happened to be the woman he had fallen head over heels in love with. As much as he had struggled against it, he finally realized a few weeks ago that the reason this woman got to him the way no one else could was because he adored her. This must be penance for the wicked days of my youth, he thought with a smile. His eyes traveled over her slim body as she wiped the sweat from her face. Her hair was down, which was unusual for her in this hot weather, and he dug his knife savagely into the hog to keep from walking over and running both of his hands through the thick ebony curls.
"Roxton, go easy! It's already dead, it isn't going anywhere," she remarked as she saw the force with which he was cutting into the pig.
"Well, actually, if we don't hurry up and get the hell out of here, I'm sure it will be going into the belly of a raptor with only us to keep it company."
She rolled her eyes and got up to help him. "Fine, fine . . . I don't know what you'd do without me."
"I'd much rather think of the things I could do with you, my dear," he teased, the attractiveness of his lopsided grin increased by the twinkle in his eyes.
Her heart skipped a few beats and she had to force herself to breathe slowly. This man is nothing but trouble, she reminded herself for the millionth time. And like so many times before, her heart didn't heed a word she said.
***** *****
"It'll be dark soon, we best camp here," Roxton informed the dark heiress wandering closely behind him. She was breathing heavy and he almost felt sorry for her. At least until he remembered the reason he had pushed them so hard. That tongue of hers could cut one of her precious diamonds in half, he reflected as he thought of all the insults, complaints, and grumbling that she hurled at him since they had left the hog. His personal solution was to push her hard and travel fast so that she would be too exhausted to talk, much less complain. Crude but effective, he thought, using a favorite phrase of hers to explain his methods.
"The way you've been running through the jungle, I'm beginning to think you can't wait to be rid of me," she observed as she dropped her heavy pack to the ground and began taking off her gun holster. Her face was flushed and her feet ached terribly but she was too tired to say anything about it. But when he pulled out a sack full of dried berries, she couldn't stop herself from moaning, "Not again! I cannot take another meal of berries! Why the hell did we kill that damn pig if we're not even going to eat it?"
"Fine, if you want to cook some up, be my guest."
She looked at him doubtfully. He must have caught some kind of fever traipsing through the woods! She sighed, "Hand over the berries."
He had to resist the urge to laugh at her defeated expression. Taking pity on her, he said, "Okay Marguerite, I'll make you a deal. If I make dinner tonight, you have to do my laundry for a month."
"A month! Your dirty socks? I don't think so. Nothing is worth that much, least of all your cooking."
"Have it your way," he said as he threw the sack of fruit at her.
Opening the bag, she looked in and her stomach growled. This just isn't going to do, she thought as she looked resentfully at Roxton who was happily devouring a handful of the dried fruit. "How about if you cook dinner tonight, I'll let you sleep in my bed for a week," she offered, knowing how much Roxton admired her big, soft mattress.
"Will you be in it at the time?" The look on his face was positively devilish.
"Roxton!" she exclaimed, acting shocked at his forwardness in order to hide the rush of pure delight that came when she pictured the two of them together in her large bed.
Taking her shout as a no, he said, "Then no deal. Enjoy the berries, I'm going to bed." He proceeded to roll over and fall sound asleep.
As much as she wanted to be mad with him for not cooking her dinner, his flirtatious attitude made it impossible for her to muster up any anger. She stared at his broad back and contemplated the relationship she had with the rugged man in front of her. For a while she thought she had succeeded in spurning his advances and was surprised to find that she was thoroughly disappointed by how easily he gave up. But lately, it seemed as though he had made her his primary objective. She caught him staring at her when he thought she couldn't see him and he was becoming bolder, almost daring her to take him up on his numerous offers. It took all her strength to hold out against his boyish charm and a body that was anything but boyish. She felt her face burning and she forced herself to lay down and get some sleep. Roxton, what am I going to do with you?
***** *****
A rough hand gently shaking her shoulder awakened her. Immediately she complained, "It can't be time to go already, I just went to sl—" She looked up angrily as her words were cut off by the same callused hand that had just shaken her awake closing over her mouth.
"Shhh! Someone is approaching the camp . . ." he whispered in her ear, trying to ignore the fresh scent that seemed to cling to her no matter how hot or dirty she became.
She stared out into the darkness anxiously as she reached for her gun. She took Roxton's hand and allowed him to help her up. They remained half-crouched behind a tree until a form slowly came into their line of vision. Although they were too far away to make out any definite features, the person was moving slowly and the faint moonlight was reflecting off long white hair. The person stopped by the dying embers of the explorer's campfire and called out, "Hello? Is anyone here?"
"Stay here," Roxton quietly ordered before he cautiously stepped out from behind the tree and asked, "Who are you?"
"Just a poor old woman, I wish you no harm."
Relaxing a bit but still not completely dropping his guard, he asked, "Are you hurt?"
Giving him a serene smile that made her look years younger, the stranger introduced herself, "My name is Aria. I'm not hurt, merely hungry." As if to accentuate the point, her legs nearly gave way underneath her frail weight.
Convinced she had no ulterior motive, Roxton propped his rifle up next to a tree and rushed to help the old woman sit down. "I'm Lord John Roxton," he started and then motioned towards the tree at his companion, "that is Marguerite Krux. We'd be happy to offer you some food and a place to rest until morning."
"Bless you young man. There is a storage of truly noble people in this world and I'm lucky to have found two such people," she said with a smile.
Marguerite snorted behind Roxton and pulled on his shirt. Giving Aria a reassuring smile, he followed her to the other side of the camp. She cornered him and asked, "Just what do you think you're doing?"
"Helping a fellow human being, I wouldn't expect you to understand," he said harshly, aggravated by her tone.
"Well correct me if I'm wrong, but did we or didn't we eat almost all our berries last night . . . I refuse to give my breakfast up for a stranger!"
"A few hours ago I practically had to beg you to eat the fruit, now you're refusing to share it?" The look he gave almost made her back down.
"There aren't enough berries for all of us so what do you think she's going to eat?"
"The wild hog, of course," he responded, grinning from ear to ear.
So he won't cook me dinner but he'll get up in the middle of the night to make something for a complete stranger who was probably only looking to rob us in the first place!
Instead of attacking him she decided to try reasoning with him first, "Roxton, I hate to be the one to bring this up but if we eat the pig now, we won't have anything to take back to the treehouse.""How little confidence you have in me, Marguerite," he admonished her. "I'll just have to kill something else before we go back."
"Yeah, you did such a good job of it last time," she muttered, the idea of spending another few days in the jungle instantly putting her in a bad mood. "Look at her, she's ancient. Even if we give her food she probably won't make it too much longer."
Getting annoyed at her selfishness, he cut her off before she could say anything else. Giving her a hard look he said, "We are going to help this woman, Marguerite. There is nothing you can do about it."
With that he turned to make his way to Aria. Marguerite stared at his back and had to fight down a feeling of shame that began to course through her. There's nothing wrong with taking care of yourself first, she tried to convince herself as she followed behind Roxton.
Aria had watched and listened to the whole exchange in silence. Although she looked old, as the dark-haired woman so tactlessly pointed out, she was actually a fairy. She often took on the form of an old lady as she meandered through the forest looking for good Samaritans. She rewarded those who acted gallantly and punished those who didn't.
The fact that the noble man was obviously in love with the callous woman did not escape Aria. This makes it much more difficult, she said to herself. Normally she would just banish the 'bad ones' to Noin, a mystical place where the people were shown the errors of their selfish ways until they were reformed. However, to banish the woman would wound this good man dreadfully. What to do, what to do, she pondered as the handsome gentleman approached her.
"Just rest for a few minutes while I whip up something in the kitchen," he teased her gently as he worked on getting the fire restarted.
She smiled at him and a brilliant idea came to her. This just might work . . .
***** *****
The next morning the explorers awoke to find their visitor gone. Marguerite threw Roxton a harried look as she quickly went through their things to make sure the stranger hadn't stolen anything.
"Oh Marguerite, she was a little old woman, don't be silly," he remarked when he realized what she was doing.
She opened her mouth to remind him how many times little old people had taken advantage of them since they arrived on the plateau and was horrified to find no sound coming out. She closed her mouth with a snap and looked at Roxton in alarm.
Seeing her frightened eyes, he grabbed his rifle, "What is it? Did you hear something?"
She shook her head no and tried to say 'That's the problem, I'm not hearing my own voice' but once again she couldn't produce any sound. Utterly terrified now, she grabbed her neck and tried to calm her racing thoughts.
Roxton rushed over to her and removed her hands, fearful that she might have been bitten by something. However, after a close examination he didn't discover any bite marks and he pulled away with a puzzled expression.
"Well? What is it? What's the matter Marguerite?"
Obviously the problem is that I can't talk you idiot!!
She opened her mouth again and attempted to force some sound out only to be greeted by silence. As panic threatened to overwhelm her, Roxton took her hand and said, "Have you lost your voice Marguerite?"She nodded in agreement. Not being able to resist he said, "Then this must be my lucky day!" At his words, she saw red and started pounding on his arms and chest with her fists.
"Calm down, I'm sorry," he murmured to her as he got her under control and hugged her tightly. He delighted at having her so close to him for a few moments, aware that under normal circumstances she would have pulled away by now. "It'll be okay Marguerite, I'm sure you're just worn out. Once we get back to the treehouse, you can get some rest and your voice will come back." He wished he was a sure as he sounded. The truth was that he was troubled. Something very strange is going on here . . .
Her eyes expressed her gratitude for his calming words. Funny, but I never noticed how expressive her eyes were before, he thought. "Come on," he said putting an arm around her waist, "we don't have too much further to go."
Silently, they gathered up their packs and guns and made their way back to the treehouse.
***** *****
Malone greeted them as soon as they stepped off the elevator. "We were getting worried, if you didn't show up by tonight, we were planning to start searching for you in the morning," he said with a grin as Roxton dropped their share of the wild animal on the floor.
"I see you were successful," Challenger commented, looking up from the table where he was once again studying the maps they had made of the plateau.
If you call roaming around the jungle for days and only finding one miserable animal successful,
Marguerite thought sarcastically. She knew she wasn't being fair to Roxton but she was too upset to care at the moment. Besides, it's not like he can read my mind and I certainly can't say anything aloud . . .Veronica looked at the moody expression one the other woman's face and waited for her to start a tirade about the hunting trip. She was baffled when the seconds stretched out and Marguerite didn't say a word. I wonder if something happened between them, she thought as she analyzed the pair for any sign that something was amiss.
Malone noticed the dead silence from the heiress and asked, "Marguerite are you feeling all right? You're being uncharacteristically quiet."
Roxton cleared his throat and fought to sound solemn as he announced, "It would seem that our dear Marguerite has lost her voice temporarily."
As his words sunk in, one by one the rest of the group started grinning widely. I can't believe this! They are actually happy I can't talk! She fumed as her friends started chuckling uncontrollably.
Hard as he tried not to, he couldn't help but join in their laughter. He really did feel bad for Marguerite, but he couldn't say that he didn't relish the idea of a few days away from the sharp side of her tongue. There are so many other things she could be doing with it . . . Trying to keep the idiotic smile off his face at his wayward thoughts, he put a consoling arm around her shoulders, only to have it shrugged off by the angry woman.
"What's the matter Marguerite? Cat got your tongue?" Veronica asked, still laughing at the situation the self-centered beauty found herself in.
"Whoa," Malone said to Veronica, referring to the look Marguerite threw her, "I'd be careful if I were you, her bite is definitely worse than her bark right now!"
Being the first to compose himself, Challenger suggested Marguerite should follow him to his lab to make sure it wasn't anything serious. Having not considered it might be something dangerous, Veronica instantly felt sorry and offered to make Marguerite a cup of tea.
***** *****
"Is she okay?" Roxton asked anxiously, as his two friends rejoined the group in the living room. He could tell that she was disturbed but Challenger didn't look distressed.
"I can't find anything wrong with her," Challenger explained. "It must just be fatigue. Nothing a little rest won't cure."
Roxton breathed a sigh of relief. It might be unpleasant for her, but at least it isn't life threatening. "I think we could all use some rest right about now," he said as he watched Marguerite head off to bed without so much as a backward glance. He knew she was angry but deep down it hurt him that she could dismiss him without a second thought. "Goodnight, Marguerite," he sweetly called out after her. His only answer was the sound of her slamming door.
***** *****
Two weeks had passed and not a peep out of Marguerite. Challenger had examined her many times and was still at a loss to explain her bizarre illness. At first they had all enjoyed the peace and quiet that accompanied Marguerite's lack of voice. However, by the fifth day an eerie sort of silence had seeped into the treehouse and even Veronica admitted she missed the other woman's whining.
The four friends sat around the table and looked at each other. Without Marguerite's constant banter and frequent complaining, no one really had anything to talk about. The events of the day could be summed up in a five-minute conversation and everyone was thoroughly bored.
Roxton was the most effected by the change in Marguerite. He felt responsible for it, knowing that whatever happened had occurred while she was hunting with him. But even his feelings of guilt were overshadowed by the emptiness within him. He had grown accustomed to having their little arguments almost daily and he felt only half-alive these past couple of weeks.
The fact that she was avoiding all of them did not help matters. Malone had given her one of his blank journals and a pen so that she could communicate with the group but she had only used them a handful of times. Mostly she just stayed in her room, only coming out for meals and her daily bath.
Sighing deeply, Malone asked Veronica, "Are you sure your parents never mentioned an illness like this?"
"Like I told you the other twelve times you asked, no they didn't," she answered crossly.
"Sorry, but there's not much to talk about . . ."
"I guess we can all learn a valuable lesson from this," Challenger stated grimly. When the others looked at him curiously, he added, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!"
***** *****
"Marguerite, hold on!" Roxton called after her as he rushed to get his rifle and hat.
Pretending she didn't hear him, she continued her way to the pond. Why does he insist on following me everywhere? He's probably only coming along to laugh at me some more, she thought negatively.
A hand on her shoulder brought her back to the present. "How many times do I have to tell you it's not safe to go wandering around by yourself?"
Giving him a bored look, she pulled away from his touch and resolutely continued her march to the pond. He followed in her path silently, enjoying the tempting sway of her hips as she walked in front of him. "You look very beautiful today," he complimented her.
Swinging around quickly, her eyes flashed in anger. She took out Malone's journal and began writing furiously in it.
What the hell does she have to be upset over? I just said that she looked beautiful
, he thought as he shook his head in confusion. I will never understand women . . . especially this one! She handed him the paper she had just written on and he read it to himself. Grinning he said, "No Marguerite, I've always thought you to be a very desirable woman . . . a little vicious, but beautiful nonetheless. I wouldn't say it just because you can't 'defend yourself'." His voice dropped lower and he added in a more intimate tone, "I can't say I understand why you feel you have to defend yourself against me at all."Trying to decide whether to believe him or not, she just stood there for a few seconds. Their eyes met and he didn't look away. She wasn't used to being around people who were so honest that they could maintain eye contact. She finally broke their gaze and changed directions to go back to the treehouse.
"Where are you going now?"
Stopping to write in the journal she handed him the paper when she was done. Resuming their trek back home, he read it as he trailed behind her . . . I'm going back to the treehouse before I do something that both of us will regret. Stopping in his tracks, he thought of what she might possibly mean and he felt his heart rate speed up as his whole body came alive with the possibilities. Finally drifting back to reality from the romantic fantasy playing out in his mind, he couldn't see Marguerite and he hurried to catch up. Unfortunately, by the time joined her they were at the treehouse and yet another opportunity was lost to him forever.