Summary:  Season 15 – Episode 8  A continuation of the Honor Series

Rated: T  Word Count:  2797

Honor series:

Changes
Steps Forward and Back
The Most Important Job in the World
Broken Promise
Reclaimed Love
Whisper My Name
When Little Boys Grow Up
Romantic Interlude
I Do, I Do
Twenty Years
Old Shadows

                                                    Romantic Interlude

Joe dropped wearily onto the ground beside Candy and accepted the cup of coffee from his foreman.

“Lousy day,” Candy echoed Joe’s thoughts of the slightly rainy so therefore damp spring afternoon.

“Agree with you there. Wettest spring we have had in ages. How’s the round-up coming along?”

Joe watched as Candy shrugged his shoulders, the damp fabric tight over his shoulders. “‘Bout like everythin’ else – hard going. I hope that when the round-up is over, you can see your way through to giving us all a day off.”

“It has been hard goin’, ain’t it? I don’t think I’ve been home for supper for three weeks,” Joe also moaned then sipped his coffee. “Beginning to forget what my sons look like!” He didn’t want to mention that the one night he had gotten home early enough, he had fallen asleep on the settee before dinner. And once dinner was over, had gone straight to bed where he had also fallen promptly asleep.

Candy laughed lightly. Joe turned and glared at him. Continuing to scowl, he opened up the sandwich Hop Sing had wrapped up for him that morning. As he did, a small slip of white paper fluttered into his lap. Curious, he picked it up and opened it. There, in fine penmanship, was written:

‘Round her lover’s heart she wove

A ribbon of a delicate azure blue

Silken and scented with her love.

Yet to him she could not bid adieu

So once again she lured him

Into her snug and sheltered cove.

Joe stared at the slip of paper, reading the poetry twice before he realized that it was Honor’s handwriting. He smiled to himself and started to slip the paper into his jacket pocket. Maybe he would cut work short that day and get home early. He took a healthy bite out of the roast beef sandwich and hid another smile in his coffee.

That was when he saw it. Across the open field where they were gathering the herd, at the edge of the trees, fluttering in the damp breeze, was a blue ribbon tied to a branch. Quickly he dug the poem back out and read it again. Muttering under his breath something that Candy didn’t understand, Joe finished his sandwich and stood, tossing the rest of his coffee out.

“You can handle the round-up on your own. I got other things to look after. Catch you later.” With that, Joe was headed for his horse.

Watching Joe carefully, Candy saw him stop beside a tree at the edge of the woods and pull something blue down. Sighing, he poured himself more coffee and complained to no one listening about the weather.

At the tree, Joe had found a small soggy piece of parchment tied to the branch with the scrap of blue ribbon. He pushed his horse further into the shelter of the forest before he opened it to read. There, in the same handwriting, he found:

Along the darkened forest path she rode

Onward, harder, she pressed her white steed

For within her dew soft breast grew the need

To be with him, to lay with him, once more….

He twisted in the saddle, searching for another ribbon then realized he was being foolish. There was only one track through the woods and if he followed it, he would certainly find….he swallowed hard and looked back over his shoulder. No one was even looking in his direction. He puffed out a little breath then gigged his horse into an easy lope.

At the point where the road split hung a white ribbon on the road that led north. He almost missed it, thinking he would find another blue one.

“Well, she said white steed so….” His guess was right. Tied to the white ribbon was another piece of parchment. As he unrolled it, he had to shift in the saddle again but this time searching for physical comfort. In the back of his mind he considered telling his wife what it was like to try and ride like that but then decided not to.

She drew him to her breast in the silver moonlight

There they lay until the morning broke

Then the lovers entwined in sublime delight

Their lives, their bodies, their souls

Joe blew hard and raised up in his stirrups, looking around. The color in the message before had given him the clue to look for and now this message’s color was silver. He urged Cochise forward.

Silver, he thought. I can either look for something silver or I can figure out where she is. Has to be someplace like a cabin or a line shack because her first note said something about a sheltered cove that was snug and warm. Down by the Lake? No, wrong direction. Sheltered cove………..his thoughts skidded to an abrupt halt. He swallowed hard when he realized that the “cove” could have two meanings and he was now sure that it had nothing to do with something he would find on the landscape. Unless he looked upon his spouse’s lithe full body as landscape.

He was about to head across country to where he knew a line shack was located when he saw it. Dangling from a branch shoulder high was a thin ribbon of red and it was tied to a silver corkscrew. Twisting Cochise this way and that, he looked for a piece of paper. There had to be another poem! But he found nothing. Even after he had dismounted and checked in the scant underbrush, he found nothing. Remounting, he put his horse into an all out gallop down the dwindling track.

He almost broke his neck when he spotted the next clue. It was a bottle of wine, laid on its side in the pathway. If he hadn’t spied the fluttering ribbon tied around its neck, he would have run over it and probably not thought anything of it. But once he saw it, he reined in his horse so abruptly that Cochise reared. Settling the animal and his own momentary panic, he dismounted and picked up the bottle. He pulled the note free of the ribbon.

Would he come for her? Take her to heaven’s gate?

She paused, sighing and felt her bosom quake.

Twas only he could make her feel so wanted

So, waiting alone in the dark, she urged him come.

“Come is about right!” he sputtered. “But which–?” He turned this way and that, seeing only rough terrain, boulders and trees. There was no road, no path, to follow. He thought about shouting for her but then remembered the bottle of wine. Its slender golden body felt heavy in his hand. His mouth twitched. He knew another body that was slightly golden and felt good to his hands and he had felt it quake and quiver a time or two as well.

Smiling, he mounted the waiting pinto, shoving the bottle of wine into his saddlebag. The neck of the bottle had pointed to the right. He pushed the horse through the underbrush and around the boulders in that direction. He hadn’t gone far when he found his next clue – a dark blue skirt tossed up on one boulder and on an opposite one, a white blouse. Without getting down, he snagged both of them and placed them in his lap. He took the path between the rocks.

As he rode through the jumble of rocks, stunted trees and sagebrush, he collected pieces of woman’s clothing, all familiar to him. Better find her soon or she’s gonna be riding naked as a jaybird! he quipped to himself then decided that wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. It didn’t matter that she was six months pregnant. He still thought her the most beautiful and desirable woman he had ever had the good fortune to have met. The fact that she was pregnant with their child only made her more so. He swallowed hard, thinking that it had been a long time since he had told her what he thought of her. And it had been longer since that they had set aside their day to day obligations to fulfill this more important one.

When he plucked the white cotton chemise from the sagebrush, he knew he was close since he had the rest of her wardrobe across his lap. He rounded a slight curve and caught a glimpse of water. It all snapped into place for him. He knew about this pool, fed by an underground spring that was warm all year long. There were other places scattered about that had hot water but this one, small and secluded, would be just right for a cool rainy day. He backed Cochise up and as quiet as a mouse in church, alighted and began shedding his own clothes.

He peeked around the rock to see where Honor was. From his vantagepoint he could just make out her head and shoulders above the rising steam. As stealthily as he could barefoot and bare-assed, Joe crept to the edge of the pool and slipped into the slightly hazy water. She still had her back to him.

Perfect, he thought and although the pool wasn’t deep, he ducked under the water and swam towards her. Yet when he got to where he thought she should have been, she had disappeared. He had no choice but to surface. Sputtering and pushing his hair from his face, he rotated once in the water.

“Looking for someone?” she called out, teasing him.”You know your butt is white. The rest of you may be a nice tan color but not it. Shines like a full moon.” She hunched forward on the rock she was perched on, her arms across her knees, hiding as much of her own flesh as she could.

He advanced on her, squinting his eyes and adopting a menacing glare. “You wanna see white? Come here, woman!” He reached for her and began tugging her into the water.

“Hey, remember that I am with child,” she squealed but he was far from hurting her.

“And I recall how you got that way too! You weren’t complainin’ about a white butt that night!” He splashed her with water then gripped her tightly to him. The kiss they shared should have made the water boil. With childish delight and laughter echoing from the rocks, they enjoyed a very adult pastime.

Satiated by the lovemaking as well as the warmth of the pool’s water, they pulled themselves up on the small shore and let their bodies cool. Joe couldn’t help but study her as she lounged like a lazy cat beside him. Her body was again filling out with new life, her belly rounded, her breasts full. He traced a stretch mark with one gentle finger then kissed it softly.

“You know, this was a dangerous little game, young lady. What if I hadn’t been the one to find you frollicking like some nymph in this pool?” While up on one elbow, his fingers stroked her neck delicately.

“I knew it would be you because I wasn’t that far ahead of you on the trail.”

Joe’s brows arched as he considered this piece of information. “Pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?” he chided. “What if I hadn’t seen the first ribbon?”

She stirred beneath his fondling hand. “Candy would have pointed it out to you. Got you going in the right direction.”

“Candy?” Joe yelped, his hand now still. “He was in on this?”

Honor almost giggled at the rise in her husband’s voice. She thought to placate him so when he flopped back down beside her and groaned with his hand covering his face, she rolled closer. Her fingers tiptoed up his chest seductively.

“Did you like the little poems?” she asked and blew in his ear.

He sniffed and smiled, turning his head to look into her eyes. “Very much so. Didn’t think you knew about poetry and such.”

“Oh, I don’t. Adam helped me because I just couldn’t seem to make it work.”

“Adam helped you?!” While it was technically a question, Honor somehow thought Joe didn’t want an answer since he was moaning again.

“Well, your father supplied the bottle of wine. He thought it would be a good way to relax you and get you into the mood, so to speak. You did bring it, didn’t you? I would have forgotten the corkscrew entirely but Hop Sing remembered and ran it out to me as I was leaving. Don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Joe was moaning louder now, both hands now covering his face. “Well, at least you didn’t drag Jamie into this. Or did you?”

Honor, self conscious now of her state of undress, sat back, pulled her legs up as close as her protruding belly would allow and crossed her arms over her knees. “He suggested this place. Said it was close enough but remote enough that we could enjoy ourselves all afternoon and still make it home for Athena’s birthday dinner tonight,” she explained meekly, her chin tucked.

Joe sat up, letting his feet dangle in the water at the pool’s edge. “Is there any one in the family who doesn’t know just exactly what we’re doing this afternoon?” His voice was a little harsh and had an edge to it that Honor cringed from.

“The boys?” she ventured, mentioning their 15 month old twin sons who she had left peacefully napping with Candy’s wife, Anne. “No,” she corrected herself, “I told them that I would be back when their father and I finished our own play time.”

“I think the only person left is Athena,” railed Joe.

Honor couldn’t even look at him. “Who do you think had this idea in the first place?” she muttered.

Unable to stay still any longer, Honor rose to her feet and stepped into the water, then stooped and laid her body against its welcoming surface. She glided easily across the short distance to the other side then rolled over onto her back to float languidly as she studied the cloudy sky above her. She felt the water move and knew Joe had also slid into the pool, the water barely chest deep on him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and rubbed his hand across her expanding waistline. “But I do wish the entire family didn’t know what you and I were up to this afternoon.”

She dropped her legs and stood, pressing herself against him. “We have two children already. A third is on the way. The family is full of adults, most of them married or have been married! They all know I didn’t get this way,” and she covered his hand with hers as it supported her belly, “by drinking some magic potion! Joe, I’m sorry if this embarrasses you, but lately, I just couldn’t talk with you. You’d come home tired after a hard day at work. You be moaning and complaining about everything under the sun, eat supper then stomp off to bed. Most nights you’d be asleep before I got the boys put down. Joe, I’ve missed you! Not just talking to you, not just making love with you, just being with you. And you with me. Yes, I asked the family for help because I didn’t know what to do. And they helped me because they love us. And our love, seeing us in love, makes them happy.”

By the time she finished, Honor was near to crying. Unsure of the reception her words received, she turned her back to him but he would not let her leave him. Joe wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against his chest, his lips beside her ear.

“I’m sorry.” The words came softly and gently to her ear, his breath a warm caress of its own. “I haven’t paid much attention to you lately and I am sorry. That’ll change. Starting tomorrow morning, I promise. And to help me keep on the right track, maybe we need to make a date every week to come out here or do something together.”

“Even if it’s foolish and romantic?”

“Especially if it’s foolish and romantic. But let’s not tell the whole family about it, okay?” To further the acceptance of his plan, he nuzzled her ear.

“It’s a date then,” Honor agreed and pulled his hands up to play with her breasts. She smiled when she felt his response below in the water. The afternoon wasn’t over yet.

And Honor still had a considerable pile of love poems, thanks to her brother-in-law. It was no wonder then that Athena has that smile on her face all the time.

The end…or the beginning?

Next Story in the Honor series:

I Do, I Do
Twenty Years
Old Shadows