Jake strolled the wagon seeing no particular reason to rush to an empty home. His elbows were practically resting on his thighs as they went along enjoying the break from the brightly burning sun. The evening sky was taking over as clouds blasted forth like the foaming crashing waves of night waters. Sizzling magenta cracks and cool violet hues ripped through the flood of slate waves dying the sky in a motley of brilliance. Jake allowed his mind to wander as Lucy's voice filled the background. She was scrunched down under the high bench beside Izzy. Her arms wrapped around the babe gently holding her in place as the wagon jostled about the unevenly worn road.
"The young boy warned the men, to leave the skunk be. But thinking him just a boy the men ignored him and swatted at the animal incurring its wrath. What's more, Grandpaw says only a fool thinks spring water could wash away a smell that bad," Lucy giggled half whispering the next line into Izzy's ear. "Now stripped down tah their johns they continued their journey still to stubborn to listen to a boy so young. But the boy knowing the importance of the task rode out away from the fools and let his good sense guide him."
Jake sighed at the memory. To this day, he continued to believe that the Reverend had faked crashing into that sign.
"…for the third time another yelled, 'That's the same rock!'" Lucy laughed as Izzy clapped her hands together.
He wanted to be mad however, his mind flew to other things, other plans. Teresa would be home in the next day or so, and Jake wrestled with the notion of asking Cloud Dancing to take the girls for the night. A nervous flutter grew deep down in the pit of Jake's stomach. Rubbing his thumb down along his jaw line, he wondered how he looked. He hadn't the time to properly shave himself, considering the amount of time combing through Lucy's ringlets took every morning. Unsure whether this sudden uncertainty in his grooming was the affect of Lucy's skunk story or his own reality he surreptitiously sniffed at himself.
With his guard self-consciously down, Jake had no time to notice the way the birds fluttered in a rush to escape the path of what was barreling down through the trees. As her horses flaring nostrils broke through the thicket, Jake instinctually braced himself shielding his girls from the unknown. The sudden halt of the wagon shattered Izzy's calm sending her into a screaming fit. Jake reached down plucking her up into his arms soothing her against his shoulder. As her racking sobs subsided slightly she tucked her chubby face into the crook of his neck seeking comfort in his familiar scent.
Jake turned a cool eye in Celina's direction as she smiled out of breath from her perch on the horses back. Wiping at her glistening forehead she brought the mare parallel to where Jake sat on the high bench. "I am so sorry," she exhaled her slender heart shaped face mimicked that of remorse. "I got lost again. I couldn't find the road and I guess I panicked."
"You fall from your horse too?" Jake gestured with his free hand at the purpling blush showing beneath the cuff of her wrist.
"Oh!" she modestly pulled at the hems of her sleeves. "No… but I do suppose I deserved it. Mr. Lawson warned me not to be too reserved with the cuts of his umm young ladies dresses. Rest assured I am at fault."
Jake nudged his head back in shock, continuing to rub calming circles into Izzy's back. "Hank grabbed you?"
"Oh you mustn't be harsh with him. I should have cut the bodices low like he'd asked," now she gathered her hair to her opposite shoulder, giving Jake a glimpse of the huge broadly shaped bruise blooming along the side of her neck.
Jake shifted uneasily. The news was a blow beyond a doubt. He'd known Hank to be hot tempered and considering his past, he was capable of manhandling a woman. However, things were different now. Weren't they? As Jake battled against the evidence before his eyes and the man he knew Hank to be, Izzy had turned toward Celina. Her arms reaching out to the woman in much the same manner she'd reach for Teresa. Now seeing the casual way Celina outstretched her arms to Izzy, Jake couldn't help but feel some sense of alarm. Feeling a gentle tug on his sleeve Jake glanced at Lucy's frightened face.
"I can hold Izzy Papa," she offered up her little palms to him. All the while her stormy eyes, poignantly round, shifted fearfully between his face and Celina's.
The atmosphere grew thick around them and the illuminating kaleidoscope of colors in the sky began to fade with the growing dusk. Handing a squirming Izzy to Lucy, Jake leaned back with his arm on the back of the bench, in order to face the woman head on. He took her in, as she smiled wantonly at him. Jake pushed the curved brim of his hat back on his head, "Where did Hank grab yah?"
Celina waved her hand as though clearing the air, "You needn't worry, I'm fine."
He squinted one eye, as he observed her fidgeting demeanor, while she backed her horse closer to the trees. However, a freak breeze pushed up behind her, eddying in the space between them before blowing up warm and familiar into Jake's face. His lips pressed inward and to the side while he considered the array of crooked information she'd fed him. Flipping back into position Jake grabbed hold of the reigns, turning his back to Celina.
"I need tah get my children home," he growled cracking the thick leather straps forcing the horse along faster and with purpose. He didn't wait for a response, nor did he turn back to be sure she wasn't following him. Clenching his teeth the entire way, he was unsure how to take any of what had occurred. She did seem to appear everywhere he was, and now this business with Hank. Weren't they rather flippant with one another at the shop? Then again, he couldn't know for sure what had transpired, once he'd left with Lucy and Izzy.
These thoughts plagued him, robbing him of his excitement to have his wife home. They followed him all the way to the house, and festered on his heavy shoulders while he ushered Lucy up the stairs. As they entered the front parlor, Jake slowly followed Lucy through the square alcove and up the steps. With Izzy sleeping soundly in the crook of his arm, Jake disappeared into the nursery's open doorway. He moved around their bedtime routine in a zombie state, pushing reactions and events together for his own dissection. Not an ounce of comfort could be had from laying Izzy down in her cradle. As he trudged from the nursery down the hall into Lucy's bedroom, he leaned into the door jam staring off into space.
Lucy timidly approached him tugging on his hand before turning around. She waited patiently while he stooped down to button the back of her nightdress for her. Jake crossed the room digging into her chest of drawers until he found her tiny fawned moccasins. Manipulating the velvety texture of the smooth leather between his fingers, Jake waited until she was tucked up in her bed. He reached up under the light linen fabric of her bed sheet sliding them onto her little feet like socks.
"Goodnight honey," Jake planted a warm kiss on Lucy's forehead. Her hands slid drowsily across his face as he pulled away.
"G'night, Pa…pa," she yawned.
Quiet as a mouse Jake crept from the room, reaching the hallway he bounded to his own bedroom. He crashed down in front of Teresa's vanity searching frantically among the fat glass perfume sprays, brushes and pins. The contents glittered up at him unlabeled but beautifully refined. Jake cursed under his breath. He'd bought all these things, why did nothing look familiar. How many times had he sat there and watched her getting ready every morning? Every night! Finally, it caught his eye sparkling in all its aquamarine hued glory, wedged between the crystal bowl she kept her silver pins in, and the mirror. His large fingers suddenly seemed awkward as he lifted the tiny glass vile. Exhaling with what he wished to be wrong, his thumb pushed at the angular cork, releasing the condensed intoxicating scent of his wife. He breathed her in clutching the tiny vile of rose oil in his hand.
She'd put drops of it in everything. In her makeup, in her shampoo when she washed her hair, in the bath water where she bathed, Teresa's rose scent. Now he was certain he knew how Celina had been able to hold Izzy without her screaming like a banshee. He'd smelled it on her in the road in the woods. Jake resolved never to allow her to catch him alone again. And he would make damn sure she never laid a hand on his daughter either.