Chapter 9
All seemed to hear the sound of the car at the same moment. There was a general frozen pause, then all rushed to the door. As the car turned into the lane, they saw that it was George and that he was alone.
Jane strained her eyes to try to read some expression on his face. She knew that Ma and Grace were doing the same thing. From their distance, it was impossible. When George scrambled out of the car almost before it stopped, he was carrying a box under his right arm.
As she felt her body go limp with relief, Jane suddenly knew that her father had kept his promise. He had paid the fifty thousand. She sensed somehow that he had kept the bargain all the way and hadn't called in the police. She felt an overpowering surge of love for the man. When the chips were down, when his daughter was in trouble, he had come through.
George ran through the door ignoring the babble of the questions that poured from his mother. Standing in the middle of the floor, he uncovered the box, turned it upside down and let the crisp bills pour in a shower to the floor. The entire amount seemed to be made up of tens and twenties.
"Did you see my dad?" Jane asked when she could find her voice.
"Sure did. He gave me the money hisself. He didn't even look mad or nothin'. Just asked if you was okay. I told him you was and that you'd be home soon. He seemed real relieved."
It had been a long speech for George and he looked tired. Ma, Grace and Don were hunched on the floor grabbing at the tangle of bills. All their lives they had lived in abject poverty, now they were handling more money than they ever could have imagined. George had been wildly elated when he crashed into the house. He was strangely subdued now.
"What's wrong, George?" Jane asked. "Are you afraid that it was a trap? I know Dad wouldn't do that. He promised me he wouldn't."
"It ain't that, Jane." How could he tell her that having saved her life, he had shattered his own by making it possible for her to leave? What right did he have to fall in love with a rich, beautiful young woman? It was over now and he would never see that lovely body again, never touch it again. He would return to Grace and their old ways, but it would never really be enough, not after what he had tasted.
Jane's arm moved around his waist as he stood looking down at his family as they scrambled through the scattered bills. Her hand rubbed his back comfortingly. Her womanly instinct told her some of what was going on in his mind.
She urged him toward the bedroom with her hand still on his back. She closed the door and returning to him, threw her arms around him, pressed her cheek against his.
"Thank you, George. Thank you for everything. For trusting me, for saving my life, for everything."
He was embarrassed. He felt her arms press him tightly, felt the warmth of her body through their clothes.
"George," her voice was small and warm, "will you come to bed with me now and take me? I want to give you everything."
He stepped back as if stung. He threw her arms away from him.
"You don't owe me nothin'." His voice was hard, angry. "We kidnapped you and we got our money and now you kin go. You don't have to give me nothin'."
"I know that George," her voice remained calm in the face of his bitter anger, "I don't feel I have to give you anything. Maybe you have to give me something. Maybe you have to listen to me."
As he looked in her eyes, the anger melted from his face but the hurt remained.
"I know George that you did kidnap me, that you were prepared to kill me. You didn't though and I know why you didn't. I won't say why, but you know it and so do I."
She wanted to say more, but he stopped her. "All right, Lady Jane, maybe you're right and maybe you ain't, but its stupid and you know it."
"No George," she interrupted, "it's not stupid. It would be stupid if either of us thought that anything could ever come of it, but as two people, something human happened between us. Out of all the ugliness of the past few days, something good happened. I'm not ashamed of it and there's no reason why you should be."
"I dunno, Jane. You make it sound real good. Like we was all friends or somethin'. Like I was good as you. Now you know that just ain't so."
"Who's good George and who isn't good? I've had all the advantages in the world and yet I wouldn't say I'm any good. I know what I am."
"I don't know what you are, Lady Jane, but you wouldn't of done the things we done."
"Stop punishing yourself, George. You got tired of living in poverty and saw a chance to get a lot money by kidnapping me. My old man paid the ransom and he'll never miss the money. I'm going to go back to my crazy, empty world and in a little while I'll forget about the fears I've lived through here. Maybe with the money you got, you can fix up the farm and make it a good place again. Maybe you can get a fresh start in life. Who knows, George, maybe a lot of good will come out of all this."
"You're a very strange woman, Lady Jane." His hand moved out, he ruffled her untidy hair.
"George, you ain't seen nothin' yet. A minute ago, I asked you to take me to bed. You wouldn't do it because you thought I was just doing it out of gratitude. Well I've got news for you. It wasn't just gratitude.
"I've been through a lot of hell for a while, George, and now I'm just a bundle of nerves. I need something. I need it so bad I can taste it an it doesn't taste good. I've got a body full of great big womanly hunger, George, and I need a man like you to make me feel good. I mean that. There's one change though, I don't want to get in bed. I want you to hold my hand and walk in the woods with me. When we find a nice quiet spot, I want to lie down with you and make love. Will you do it?"
"Will I do it? Oh Lady Jane I just can't wait."
"Come on then." She took his big hand and they walked out of the room together. In the kitchen, the other three were sitting on the floor stacking the money into piles. Suddenly, Don seemed to have achieved equality with Ma and Grace.
"Where's you two goin'?" Ma's voice stopped them as they stepped through the door.
"We're goin' for a little walk, Ma. We'll be back in a while. Don't fret none."
It was as if she wanted to argue about it, but she knew from her son's voice that she would lose this argument so she dropped it. Instead, she busied herself with the task of counting all that lovely money, watching the nice, neat piles growing before her eyes. Somehow, she had always known that some day she would lead her family out of poverty and now she had done it. She didn't stop to ponder the morality of it, she just accepted it.
Outside the house, George and Jane walked quickly through the rubble of the yard. They didn't talk, they didn't need to. Jane's small, warm hand was lost inside his, lost in a comforting way. He steered them toward a barely noticable break in the brush. It became a path and led toward the bigger trees on the side of the hill.
It was as if they had entered a new world. It was a world of clean air and bright sunshine and beauty. Birds sang and made quick, excited sounds as they fluttered away. The grass was greener than any she had ever seen. When they reached a small clearing, they stopped by mutual consent.
Without exhibitionism or shyness either. Jane began to undress. In a minute, she stood naked. George had also started to strip, but he had stopped to look at her, to drink in the beauty of her. When she looked at him, he returned to his task so that in a minute, he too was naked.
They came together easily, without urgency but with great warmth and mutual need. Their bodies clung, flesh cleaving to flesh in a ritual as old as time itself. She raised her face to him and their mouths met in a kiss that did not recognize different stations of life, different backgrounds. It was a kiss between a man and a woman in need of each other. It lasted for a long time.
Later, they lay together on a firm bed of grass and leaves. His strong muscular body should have been a crushing weight, but instead it was a comforting warmth. As their act of man and woman progressed, the sun seemed to shine a little brighter, their bodies were bathed in the warmth of sky and earth and each other. When completion arrived for both, they lay together silently in complete unison.
Later, hand in hand they walked naked down the hill to the stream at the bottom of the valley. The water was just cool enough to be refreshing. The sparkling water didn't wash away anything dirty because there was no dirt to wash away, only the human residue of physical exertion and the act of man and woman who have shared everything.
But it did more than that. As it took away a fatigue, it imparted a new life, a renewal of healthy desire, warm, comforting hunger which must be appeased. They walked back up the hill, their bodies glistening wet in the warm sun.
Without a word, without haste, they were on the grass again. Their arms found each other, their; lips met, his mouth sought and found her many hungers and appeased each in quiet order. When her thighs parted for him, they were pearly gates of the eternity of woman and his response was the pillar of humanity which answered the need.
After they had dressed, when they walked back down the path toward the house, there were no needs left in the world. The old house hadn't really changed, the yard hadn't been cleaned up, yet somehow, the whole thing was less ugly now. It still was far from beautiful, but it was tolerable.
She stopped him suddenly just as they reached the yard. Her voice was anxious, nervous.
"George, there's something I have to say. Please listen and try to understand. I made Ma a promise about Don after this was all over. Can you understand if I want to keep that promise? Will it spoil what we just had?"
"No, Lady Jane. Can't nothin' spoil that. For a little girl, you got a real big heart in there. You gotta do what you gotta do. I ain't never gonna forget this day and ain't nothin' ever goin' to spoil it."
If his speech was less than articulate, it was sincere. She knew that he meant every word of it, knew that he understood. They walked quickly back to the house.
The money was on the table now and the piles were still being rearranged. It seemed that there was no end to the arrangements that could be found to stack fifty thousand dollars in tens and twenties. Their return was almost unnoticed except by Grace.
Grace wanted to devote her entire attention to the wonderful mounds of money, but she could not overlook the appearance of her husband and this intruder. If it is possible for eyes to register love and hate at the same time, she achieved it. The hatred was directed at a human, the love was directed toward the lovely piles of paper.
Jane caught the old woman's eye and they walked outside the house together. The walked far enough into the yard to be out of earshot of the house before they stopped.
"Look girl," the old woman said, "I don't rightly know that what you and George done was a good thing, but I ain't condemning it."
"Ma, a lot of things have happened that were not good. What we did out there in the woods was not bad at all. It was a good thing, Ma, a very beautiful thing. Don't scold him about it, just let it be."
The old woman was plainfully confused. She knew that this beautiful young woman could weave an irresistable spell over her son, knew that it could be dangerous, but yet, she had to think of all the things that had happened during Jane's stay at the farm.
"Ma, I made you a promise about Don. I want to keep it."
"You don't have to do that, Jane. You kept your part of the bargain, your dad kept his, that's enough."
"This is going to sound awfully strange, Ma, but please try to understand. When my life was at stake, I made promises. Now that it's all over, I want to keep every one of them. I know how much you love Don and I know why. I've never been a mother, but I am a woman and I guess I can feel these things.
"If you want to take a couple of hundred dollars out of that pile, we can give Don the greatest day in his life. It won't make him any different when it's all over, he'll still be what he is, but it will give him some beautiful things to think about for the rest of his life."
The tears were obvious in the old woman's eyes. "Jane, you are a very strange young woman. Why should you care anythin' about Donny, after all we done to you? You do though, I can tell."
"Yes, Ma, I do. I don't know why. I guess maybe it's because I don't see Don as a man really, I see him as a mixed up little boy who knows there are a lot of things going on in the world that he can't have and can't really understand.
"Yesterday, I thought I was going to die. I was afraid. I made a lot of promises then. Now that everything is right again, I feel I owe something to him. If I don't pay that debt, I'll be ashamed of myself as long as I live. Can you understand that?"
"Yup, Jane, I guess I can. We called you Lady Jane, kind of makin' fun of you, but you're a real lady."
"Thanks, Ma. Will you drive into town with me right now. Not Kingsville, too many people know me there. Clanton isn't too far away, let's go there and get all the things we need. How about it?"
The old woman caught the excitement of the moment and was swept up in it. "Come on, Lady Jane, what are we waitin' for?"
They hurried back into the house. While the old woman applied her toilette in the form of a cold water splash, Jane told George of their plans. He approved.
Deciding against the ostentation of the big Lincoln, Jane drove the old Chev. They arrived in Clanton in lots of time to do all the shopping they had in mind.
The proprietor of the Clanton Ladies' Wear was amazed at selling a complete bridal outfit without any elaborate fittings or alterations. While he was still trying to figure out his profit on that, he had to take time out to supply all the rest of the trousseau. He would have to compute the profit later. Right now he was much too busy selling. He didn't know who this beautiful young woman was or why she was with the ugly old hag, but he wasn't about to question fate.
When they left the store, they were loaded with parcels. When Jane dumped hers into the car and moved back to the sidewalk, Ma did the same but she couldn't understand it. What now, she wondered.
The next stop was the Clanton Bakery. They didn't have a proper wedding cake in stock, but Jane bought the fanciest one they had and decided it would do. Their last stop was the liquor store where she picked up six bottles of champagne. This was going to be a party to remember. It would have to be. It was going to have to provide a lifetime of memories to a young man. A not very healthy young man who never had dreamed that anything like this could ever happen to him.
With the back seat of the old car groaning under the weight, they began the drive back to the farm.