After restoring the kit to the ranger, Beth decided to try and be of some use around camp. She dumped the water out of the camp chairs, leaving them topsy turvy to dry while she disposed of the crumb heap on the table and gathered trash around camp, tossing it into the fire pit. Then she nipped quietly into the tent for her novel, noting with pleasure that Jenna slept peacefully. Before she could zip the tent closed, Kara and Lucy met her at the door.
"How is our poor little patient, Beth?" Kara's tone of earnest concern brought Beth up short. Had the moon's gravitational pull on the earth been disrupted, upsetting the earth's axis and inciting odd behavior?
"She's getting a cold, but I think she'll be okay - she just needs rest." Beth hoped they would get the point from her overly quiet tone.
"Poor thing," Lucy crooned, a hand splayed across her heart in empathy. Her concern didn't come off as well as Kara's. Beth decided that Lucy was probably more sincere and that Kara was simply the better actress.
Lucy stood in her show of concern, but Kara had a devastated expression as she looked beyond Beth, into the tent. Beth scowled and followed her line of vision, not understanding the sudden change in her countenance.
"Beth," Kara began sweetly, finally tearing her tortured face away from the tent door and rearranging it into a hospitable grimace, "you really should bunk up in our tent tonight. I can't believe the four of you squashed up like that in there last night. Lucy and I have air mattresses; I'm sure we could work something out."
'Working something out' would most likely mean trading her bed on the floor of this tent for a bed on the floor of theirs, but Beth kept this observation to herself.
"I'd probably better stay in here with Jenna. Can you imagine Les trying to help her to the outhouse in the middle of the night?"
The silence was awkward, to say the least. Beth stole a surreptitious glance into the tent but could see nothing offensive - just Jenna cocooned in her bedroll, Les's blanketwich next to her, and then Beth and William's things. Had she seen the empty Pringles can and the chocolate wrapper?
"I'm tired, Lucy," Kara announced abruptly. "Let's get some rest so we can help with Jenna when she wakes up."
"Jenna's probably contagious, anyway," Lucy agreed.
Kara glared at Lucy, presumably for blowing her altruistic cover. Then she hooked Lucy by the arm and hauled her off in the direction of their palace-tent.
We have a regular Mother Theresa on our hands, Beth thought wryly as she zipped up the tent and wandered over to the fire pit.
The up-ended chairs had dried and been righted, and Les sat in one of them, looking dazed and worried. Beth, deciding that Les was the only person she could remotely tolerate at the moment, pulled up another chair and seated herself beside him. The self-same instant he launched an assault of inquiries about Jenna. Once he was finally out of verbal ammo he fell silent and thoughtful.
William was at the picnic table gutting and cleaning the trout. Beth wondered what Kara's reaction would be if she found a slimy pile of fish entrails on her pillow. Would asking William for the innards raise any suspicions?
"Les, how long have you known William?" Beth asked in a low voice.
"I guess it's been about five years now. We were roommates in college. Complete opposites," he admitted, grinning. "I majored in art and he majored in finance."
Beth smiled at Les's confession. "You're still good friends, after all this time, though. I guess opposites attract."
Les shrugged, smiling.
"What's his family like?"
"He just has one sister, Gianna. Both his parents passed away before I met him."
"What happened?"
"His mother died when he was really young….she got sick or something. His father just died a few years back…..a heart attack, I think." Les looked as though the gears in his mind were creaking with the effort of calling up the details. "Anyway, since then he's had legal guardianship of Gianna. He takes good care of her. She goes to some kind of private school for girls, so during the school year William kind of travels around."
"How old is she?"
"She just turned seventeen, I think."
"That makes William……?"
"He's twenty-six, a year older than me."
"Hm," was all Beth said. A few minutes later, "What does he do? I mean for work?"
"He's an investment banker - independent. He's been working from my house. He has an office in New York, though, and an apartment - where Gianna comes home for holidays and that sort of thing."
Beth's eyes fell on William as she digested the information. As if she'd called his name he glanced up, doing a double take when he took in the continuity of her gaze. She looked away casually, glad to hear Les talk about something else.
"Jenna says you guys have known each other practically your whole lives."
"Pretty much. She moved to our town when we were four." William joined them now, drying his hands with a paper towel.
"You must know everything about each other, then," Les said, looking hopeful.
"Ooooh, yes. No secrets."
"Typical. That's how all girls are," William piped up, plopping into the chair on Les's far side. He closed his eyes and leaned back, as if trying to take a cat nap. "They're not happy unless they're talking." He unscrewed a bottle of water and took a drink. "Blah-blah, blah-blah, blah."
Les passed a hand over his eyes.
Any discomfiture Beth felt melted away as her irritation flared up. "I agree completely," she began airily. "Bonding time is much better served over Sports Center and X-box with a hand down your pants."
William opened his eyes and let his head loll forward. Looking directly at Beth, he said, "You need two hands for X-box."
When Beth's affected indifference melted into a glare, his face split into a wide grin. A grin that showcased his perfect white teeth and made his dark eyes dance.
"Your serve," he prompted, still smiling.
When Beth didn't answer, William sat back in triumph. Holding up his hand he ticked off his fingers one by one. "Game. Set. Match, sweetheart." Then he winked.
Beth stood. "This has been fun, boys, but I'm going to check on the invalid."
~:~
William watched Beth's progress to the tent with a smirk.
"Dude." Les said in an accusatory tone. "You're shooting yourself in the foot."
"Nope," William said in a firm tone, swigging his water generously. "I'm coming in at an angle."
"You honestly think she's ever going to like you if you keep this up?"
"I'm not onto the 'liking' phase of my plan yet. Right now I'm on 'getting her attention even if it's negative.'"
"She's going to hate you," Les said candidly.
"She already does. But love and hate have a common denominator: passion."
Les just shook his head.
"Oh, go back to your angelically passive girlfriend, and leave me alone," William said somewhat grumpily, shoving Les's head.
"Better not," he laughed, running his fingers through his hair. "Beth might come out here and kill you if I leave you alone."
William's head tilted in concurrence. "There's no might about it."
STARGAZING
"Those who do not complain are never pitied."
~Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
Beth spent the remainder of the afternoon in the tent with Jenna, reading her book after pulling its sodden pages apart. Jenna's nap spanned several hours, and Beth came to the last chapter when she woke. As sorry as she was for Jenna, she was somewhat glad to have an excuse to stay in the tent, rather than mingle with the rest of the happy campers outside. When she finally ventured outside around dusk, she found everyone except Les in a bad mood.
Kara and Lucy were uncomfortable, and did not scruple to keep their complaints to themselves. Gone were the barely audible whispers and the secretive huddling. The high point in the evening came when Kara choked on a fish bone and Les had to perform the Heimlich maneuver. Maybe William had
purposely left a few bones in. As soon as her airway was cleared, Kara robustly expressed her displeasure that fish were not boneless, and continued to abuse the poor vertebrate creatures all night. ("What do they need spines for? They have fins!")
At that point William declared his intention of turning in, and Beth was certain that, had he been the only other person besides Kara in the camp, she very likely would have choked to death.
Beth waited over an hour after he left, then followed. No one was awake when she finally climbed in her knapsack, for which she was grateful.
The next day passed relatively uneventfully. Les and William went fishing for a couple of hours, and as Kara and Lucy found themselves quite bored during this time, they visited Jenna at the sick tent, bringing a deck of cards and some of Kara's homemade cookies. Beth took one to be polite and had to exert a great amount of self-control not to spew it all over the tent. She guessed that Kara had perhaps substituted flour for sugar. They were the texture of lumpy concrete and tasted about the same (not that she'd ever actually eaten concrete). Beth shrewdly saved Jenna (and her teeth) by telling Kara that she was allergic to gluten.
The swelling in Jenna's ankle went down considerably, although her cold was as bad as ever - but Beth could tell she was feeling better. The four girls played a couple games of spades, and when Les and William returned (bearing more fish, much to Kara's dismay) everyone, Jenna included, grouped around the campfire. Les assisted Jenna into a camp chair and propped up her ankle, then sat faithfully at her side.
Beth, lacking the patience to deal with Kara and William by herself, felt immensely grateful to Jenna for joining them. Jenna's being beside her, and looking better than she had in days, made Beth feel light and free. Even William, lobbing imaginary tennis balls up in the air and then spiking them in her direction, couldn't douse her mood.
After a dinner of roasted hot dogs and potato chips, the chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers came out for s'mores. Beth was quite amused to see that in Kara's attempts to captivate William's attention, she kept char-broiling her marshmallows until they resembled chunks of coal. She would peel the blackened skin off, only to stick the gooey innards of her marshmallow back into the coals and pull out another briquette. Kara had finally gone to her tent fuming when Lucy, trying to extinguish her own marshmallow by waving it around in the air, accidentally launched the charred goo into Kara's hair. That was the marshmallow that snapped the roaster, so to speak.
Beth's first impression of Kara at the quad movie had been that she was calculating, artful, even smart. She decided that the assumption may have been a little too generous.
The recollection drew her eyes to William, and she found him staring up into the night sky. She looked up as well, awed to see billions of pin-pricks of light peaking through the expanse of blackness. The moon was nearly full, casting a luminous silvery glow over everything. She could even make out one of the arms of the Milky-Way, and thought she spotted Jupiter, set high in the sky with a steady peach glimmer, almost directly above them. Her stargazing was interrupted when she heard Jenna laughing; the sound was like discovering an endangered species. Searching for the cause of Jenna's glee, Beth saw Les strumming a guitar, attempting You Are My Sunshine for Jenna. Beth smiled broadly - likely first authentic smile she had allowed herself in days.
When Les finished, Jenna and Beth applauded enthusiastically. Kara and Lucy rejoined the group after taming the marshmallow-streaked tresses into a baseball cap. It actually suited Kara quite well. Beth watched her for a moment, deciding that she could be pretty if she didn't try so hard. Then her eyes shifted a fraction to the left, and found William scrutinizing her with a look that was part amused, part…..something she couldn't name. Their eye contact was broken when Les, in response to something Jenna said, bounced over to Beth with guitar in hand.
"Why didn't you tell us you played?!" he accused, holding the instrument out to her.
"Oh, no - that's okay," Beth tried to refuse, but Les wasn't having it.
"Please, Beth," he begged. "Jenna told me how good you are."
"Maybe she's just got stage fright," Kara suggested innocently. "You really have to have a lot of self-confidence to perform in public."
Any reservations Beth harbored died quickly and painlessly. Cause of death: Kara trying to show her up and William's smirk. Fueled by adrenaline and a desire to prove them both wrong about her, she took the guitar and plopped back in her chair.
She began tuning the guitar absently while mentally flipping through the songs in her musical arsenal. Strongly considering something by Alanis Morrissette, and almost settling on You're So Vain by Carly Simon, she finally chose a folk song from her childhood. Moonshadow by Cat Stevens. Her father used to sing it to her when she couldn't fall asleep, or when a bad dream made it impossible to go back to bed. Beth strummed softly for a few bars, and then she began singing.
I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
Leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
And if I ever lose my hands
Lose my plough, lose my land
Oh, if I ever lose my hands - Oh, if...
I won't have to work no more
Her voice grew stronger as the song progressed, and she strummed louder. A sense of peace settle over her as she remembered clamoring onto her father's lap in her flannel night gown. Suddenly it didn't matter that she was baring her soul for people who despised her.
And if I ever lose my eyes
If my colors all run dry
And if I ever lose my eyes - Oh,
I won't have to cry no more
Yes, I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
Leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
And if I ever lose my legs
I won't moan and I won't beg
Oh if I ever lose my legs - Oh if...
I won't have to walk no more
And if I ever lose my mouth
All my teeth, north and south
Yes, if I ever lose my mouth - Oh if...
I won't have to talk...
She let her eyes settle on William during the bridge, wanting to make sure he knew that he didn't affect her. But in place of the self-pleased expression she'd anticipated, she found him watching her solemnly with dark eyes. When his expression progressed to discomfit and then pain she continued, pleased with herself.
Did it take long to find me?
I ask the faithful light
Did it take long to find me?
And are you going to stay the night?
I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
Moon shadow, moon shadow
As she finished, applause broke out from Jenna and Les, and she couldn't help smiling. Lucy could have been a bystander at a golf tournament for all her clapping, and Kara looked remarkably like a deer in the headlights, wearing the same devastated expression she'd had outside the tent earlier. William sat rooted to his camp chair, looking positively uncomfortable and possibly even nauseous. So, she'd done it. She'd gotten through William Darcy's bravado and unsettled him. The impression was confirmed when he stood abruptly and strode out of camp, vanishing into the hulking trees.
It was clear he couldn't stand her. He didn't scruple to conceal his dislike for her the way Kara and Lucy did. In a way, she had a certain appreciation, if not respect, for his honesty.
Kara and Lucy retired to their tent complaining of violent fatigue (code for their urgent need to gossip), and Jenna looked tired and spent. Les had eyes for no one else as he swept Jenna up into his arms and carried her to the tent.
Beth stared into the fire for several minutes, then began picking another tune on the guitar. Might as well get a practice in, she told herself. Maybe I'll be drowsy enough for bed after. Twenty minutes later
, she was as far from tired as she was from being BFFs with Kara. She carefully propped the instrument against the empty chair beside her, and leaned back to take in the show of stars. It occurred to her that she might be able to see more of them away from the firelight, so she stood and stretched. Then she left camp, walking opposite the direction William had gone. It simply would not do to run into him.
~:~
William strolled along the bank of the river, taking his time getting back to camp. A cool breeze had picked up, teasing the leaves into a rustle. The moonlight was brilliant, casting a cool blue glow over everything. The water, dark in some places but luminescent in others, broke over the protruding rocks with patient splashing. He had traced almost a complete circle around camp, leaving in a northern direction, and coming back in from the south. Now he stood in the same place he'd been when Beth had shown up two days ago.
The very recollection of the sight of her tonight still stopped his heart for a beat or two; Beth strumming the guitar, her face bathed in a golden glow from the fire and her long, dark hair falling around her face and shoulders in thick waves; and her voice. There were no words to describe it. It was lower in pitch, soft and somewhat raspy. When the song began he'd been brewing up a snarky comment to deliver after, like 'who sings that…..? Oh, you should let them.' But afterward, he couldn't even bring himself to look at her, let alone speak. He could only walk away, the tightness in his chest making it impossible to draw breath. The only other thing that made William feel so powerless - well, it wasn't something he liked to think about.
Feathery steps whispered in the leaves, pulling him from his dark thoughts. A shadow approached, silhouetted against the rushing liquid onyx of the river.
~:~
Beth didn't know what had drawn her toward the river. Maybe she needed its rushing to fill her and flood out all the other sounds in her head. Maybe it was the attraction of throwing off all restraint without regard for the consequences. Maybe it was the savage pleasure of knowing she'd offended William to the point that he couldn't be within ten feet of her.
Pride's Prejudice Page 6
