BRAZEN PART 2

 

 

            Lisa Hutto looked up as all six of the Forresters dismounted and sauntered into town about a month later.

            "Howdy," Buck greeted her, with an unmistakable twinkle in his eye.

            "Hey," she responded faintly, warily.

            "How's your cousin?" Mill-wheel was obviously taunting her. His brothers grinned confirmingly.

            "Right bad. Jest as you planned, and figgered," she said evenly, refusing to be ruffled.

            "Did you tell him what I asked you?" Buck prompted.

            "I done so."

            "What'd he say?" Buck was struggling not to grin too broadly.

            "What he said...a lady don't repeat."

            They guffawed.

            Buck went closer to her. "You don't gotta listen to him."

            She eyed him. "We got family-loyalty, too. I love my cousin. And respect his judgment."

            "Oh, I see." He looked her up and down boldly. "So, you don't make no decisions for yourself?"

            "Ain't said that." She squirmed in discomfort at his intense appraisal.

            "But he's gotta approve your fellers for you."

            "Well, he is older'n me."

            "Do that make him wiser?"

            Arch remarked, "He don't seem too wise, to me, to take on three o' my brothers."

            Lisa eyed him harshly, but refused to take the bait.

            Buck made a tentative gesture and another step in her direction.

            But Lisa backed off fast. "Don't be grabbin' me none this time, sir."

            He tilted a half-grin at her. "Seems to me you started it last time, gal, jumpin' on me during the fight."

            She blushed awkwardly. "I...know...but...." She looked sheepish, and then cast a self-conscious gaze toward the townsfolk entering and leaving the store, who were frankly staring at her and her unlikely companions. "Hit's...jest...folks 'round here ain't too kind to ary gal who pays too much attention to you-all. Gossip, you know." She continued to uneasily watch the onlookers.

            "Oh izzat so?" Lem turned an angry glare at the watchers, who then hastened on into or away from Boyles' Store, without a further glance in their direction.

            "Why sure. Don't you-all know you're the town terrors and bogeymen? And ruin to the reputations o' gals?"

            Lem appeared even angrier, not at her, but at the town.

            Lisa shivered anyway. Then, she began to step away from the men, feeling that there was nothing left to say to them in any case.

            Seeing that, Buck abruptly requested, "Meet me behind the church in a half-hour."

            Lisa blinked. "Why should I trust you?"

            "I'll not hurtcha, gal."

            She could see that he appeared sincere. Even so, she asked, "What's the point?"

            "I like talkin' to you."

            Lisa regarded him extremely dubiously, but did not say no. Nor did she say yes.

            Buck nodded at the uncertainty. "You got a half-hour to decide. I'll be there." Without further glance or word, he and his brothers turned and went into the store.

            Lisa stared after them, remembering that a month earlier, she had strongly leaned toward "yes." But then she also recalled Oliver's lecture and warning. Her head spun.

 

            A half-hour later, Lisa leaned, trembling, against the back church wall. She heard his brothers' low chuckles upon seeing her, even before she heard Buck's quiet approach. When she sensed him standing before her, only then did she look up at him.

            "I...don't even know why I'm here," she stammered.

            "You don't?"

            She shook her head. "I...jest...didn't wanta never see you agin."

            "Now why is that?" The twinkle in his eye was back once again.

            "I...keep rememberin'...a month ago...when you...kissed me..., I...felt...."

            "Yes?" he prompted. "How did you feel?" Buck was carefully keeping triumph out of his voice, ...barely keeping it out, in fact.

            "I...need..., I mean, I...want...." Lisa tried not to reach toward Buck. She tried and failed.

            Buck chuckled low in his throat and took her into his arms. This time, she did not try to push him away from her. This time, her own arms wound around him. From a few yards away, the other five Forresters chuckled knowingly.

            This was a long kiss. And then, Buck scooped her up into his arms like a baby.

            Lisa looked scared. "You'll...not...force...??"

            "I'll not force nothin'," he soothed her. He grinned. "'Ceptin' more o' these sweet kisses."

            Reassured, Lisa glanced toward the other Forresters, and saw that they'd all come equipped with their horses in tow, ready to go. Mill-wheel was leading Buck's horse as well as his own; he handed over the reins. Lisa was up on his horse, still in Buck's arms, before she knew it. They galloped off toward the scrub.

 

            For a time, Lisa nuzzled into Buck's soft beard, savoring the memory of his most recent kiss.

            When at last she raised her head and observed her surroundings, she saw nothing but scrub. And then more scrub. And scrub again, in all directions, at all distances.

            In the center of all that were six horses carrying six Forresters. And Lisa Hutto was in the arms of one of them.

            She gasped. And cried. And sobbed. And soaked his beard.

            "Whoa! Fellers, wait! Hold up! Whoa!"

            Buck's brothers reined in around him, and asked what ailed him. He pointed out his sobbing passenger.

            "Hey, here now, honey, what's wrong? Why're you upset?"

            "Where're you takin' me???" she gasped.

            "Jest into the scrub. We live here."

            "Oh god, I'm doomed!"

            "Why're you so scared?!"

            She babbled/blubbered, "You-all'll rape me and beat me and kill me!!"

            Mill-wheel demanded, "Now where in tarnation d'you git all that??"

            Her volume dropped timidly, "Oliver...said...."

            Buck looked irked. "He said we'd do all that, did he?"

            She looked up at him plaintively. "I'm a Hutto. You-all hate Huttos."

            Lem put in, "No, we jest hate Oliver."

            Buck clarified, "But we'd never hurt you. Nor his ma. Nor nobody, on account o' what he done."

            "I'm completely at your mercy! You have me helpless!"

            Buck soothed, "And all I'll force on you is kisses. I don't want you scared." His twinkling eyes returned. He winked, and said, "Less'n we decide that's fun, too."

            Slowly, tentatively, Lisa began to smile in return. Timidly, self-consciously, she requested, "Kin I have another o' them kisses right now? It he'ps."

            Buck's grin broadened, and he zestfully delivered.

            Then, it was her turn to be playful. "Also...."

            "Also...?" he prompted.

            Lisa eyed him slyly. "I figger you...oughtn't spank me in front o' the townsfolk no more...."

            His brows rose expectantly, nonverbally urging her to continue.

            She finished, "You should keep that private."

            This time, his grin nearly split his face.

            Mill-wheel teased, "But we kin watch, right?"

            Lisa blushed prettily. "Reckon that's a'right."

            Her reward was another kiss.