hold again.
“What is it?” Malcolm said.
“Gordon.” Dinah tore a corner from her bread and nibbled at it nervously. “He saw you here.”
“Do you think he guessed I’m an alien?” If so, it hadn’t seemed to trouble him.
She gave this due consideration and then shrugged it off as unimportant. “I doubt it. But he knows you’re a man. I’m pretty sure he knows we were naked when he got here. And he probably knows what that implies. All the way up the hill I tried to think of something safe to tell him. What if I had whispered to him that your existence should be our little secret? I thought about it. Then I worried it would make it seem an even bigger deal. So I said nothing. Maybe he’ll forget or shrug it off. I just hope to God he doesn’t tell someone. I’m done for if this story gets around.”
“Because you’re hiding me?”
Dinah blinked. Her face went blank, and then she shook her head. “Well, that’s not good either. But to be perfectly honest, your being from another planet isn’t really the big issue here. If and when Earth First gets wind of it, you’ll be long gone. But this is where I live. If someone hears I had a man in here…”
“What.” Malcolm’s jaw was tightening, and his blood was running hot again. “What happens if somebody finds out you were with a man?”
She got up, all but throwing things into the sink. “There aren’t a lot of women here. The smart ones all got out of town after the secession. What this region isn’t short of is horny bastards. With Cy, I was completely safe. He grew up here. Everybody knew him. Everybody liked him. He was that kind of guy. Even as his widow, I’ve had some protection. But, I promise you, if word gets around that I’ve been fucking someone…” Her face went still. Clearly, what she saw beyond the blankness in her eyes did not look good. “You fuck one guy, you have to fuck them all. That’s what men call thinking around here.” She was busying herself again, opening the cupboard, putting some things in, and taking some things out.
Malcolm watched, this time through the gauze of anger. Inside his thoughts he entertained a vision of a man approaching her. A man intent on “forced seduction.” He saw his own hand closing around that man’s throat—squeezing, clawing, turning until something snapped and the offender fell. He’d see to it no one ever got a chance to harm her.
“What are you going to do?” Outwardly he made himself stay conversational. Inwardly he viewed his bloody battlefield with relish.
“You mean what do I do if Gordon tells?”
He nodded.
“There aren’t a dozen choices,” she said staring down into the tea leaves. “I could deny there was a man here and make Gordon out to be a liar, which would be a shitty thing to do and probably ineffective. I could make up some horseshit story about you being a drifter I hired to cut wood.” Dinah brought the teapot with her to the table and sat down. “Forget that last one,” she said with disgust. “That’s not going to work. No one would ever believe that for a second. And even if they did, there’d just be a line of bastards tearing up the hill to ask if I needed any ‘work done.’ Ugh.” Dinah hung her head a moment. Malcolm bristled at the sight of her despair.
“What I should do is find someone else like Cy,” she said rallying somewhat. “Marriage would be a preemptive strike. But A, there isn’t another man like Cy, and B…” She sighed, looking exhausted by what was clearly a long-standing argument within herself. “I just don’t want to be married again. Once was enough.”
“You could leave.”
The look she gave him said he’d just betrayed her. Horribly and thoughtlessly. He didn’t want to see that look again.
“Why not just kill myself,” said Dinah with a flair of temper.
“So,” said Malcolm, after a short pause, “if I understand correctly, I’ve ruined your life.”
“Not you.” She fidgeted to
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