He set her carefully upon her feet, then looked across the clearing and up at the overcast sky. The clouds were bright directly overhead, masking the noonday sun. The wild man hooted worriedly, hesitating, but the governess slipped her fingers around his corded right wrist and pulled, coaxing him forward.
She knew his hesitation could not come from fear, so she supposed that his isolated life among the trees had left him shy or superstitious.
He did not resist her encouragement and soon walked with her in his way, swaying side to side like the upright gait was unfamiliar to him. He seemed more comfortable on all fours, though his height, thick torso and arms might have exaggerated his top-heavy and unbalanced movements.
Gazda had seemed confused when she earlier implored him to take her home—to the others—and she suspected that for a time he had purposefully misunderstood her. However, it had only taken a moment’s break in her fortitude—with tears—to make him relent.
Virginia blushed again thinking of their sojourn in the jungle.
She awoke that morning with nerves still thrumming, electric with the echo of their many couplings. They had done things that even married Christians...
...they had been wanton—insatiable—and for a time after she had wished to stay, to disappear from the world that she knew would judge them harshly. True, Lilly depended upon her, but the girl would soon marry, and then what for Virginia? Would she be cast as an aging governess for the Quarries’ grandchildren?
Or would she remain as consort, and lie forever at her forest angel’s side?
Gazda said much through his open gaze. She knew he wanted her to stay, and yearned to lavish affection upon her, yet there was hesitation in him, as if he feared his strength could harm her.
She knew he had been cautious when they were together, gentle and generous.
Which encouraged her to think him civilized at heart—and who was she to judge?
At least he was a wild man. Virginia had yet to explain herself.
She blamed the jungle in part—though she did not consider their union a sin. Just the same, she felt compelled to honor it in the eyes of God, and she wondered briefly if Captain Seward could perform a marriage ceremony.
In the meantime, she pledged to keep their tryst a secret and honor it with chastity, to wait until they could embrace within the matrimonial state.
Besides, Virginia still had much to learn about the man, and she was certain that with Dr. Van Resen’s help she might discover his true history.
He certainly held himself like a prince...
...when he wasn’t grunting or hooting, or crawling around on hands and feet.
Gazda coughed to catch her attention and patted his chest with a free hand, as he continued at her side, swaying through the grass like a drunken sailor. She knew he would have preferred dropping to all fours, but had sweetly refrained to please her.
The man was a puzzle that would require time to solve. As their hours together had progressed, Gazda quickly came to understand her meaning, if not the phrases.
He preferred to speak his own language though he had picked up a few basic English words in regard to simple actions and things: go, tree, eat, vine, anything that came up. However, Virginia felt it would be a long time before he could be made to understand the true meaning of “marriage” and “matrimony.”
But what was the rush? She still needed time to consider her behavior during their many hours together. True, she was a 36-year-old woman, and able to make her own decisions, but few would understand how her moral fiber or Christian forbearance could have survived intact after what had occurred between her and Gazda.
Short of announcing their engagement, there was little she could do to lessen their sins, and after watching Gazda in the daylight, she had begun to question her feelings about him altogether.
He was a beautiful specimen of a man, and lordly in his air if not in manner, but that was no excuse for her to fall so utterly from grace.
Fear, relief, loneliness and comfort had weakened her resolve. Or had Phillip Holmes’ observation about her age made her second-guess her own appeal?
She was not a spinster, nor was she anyone’s doxy.
Now as they walked hand in hand away from the jungle and toward the little cabin and her people, she experienced a moment of regret.
Perhaps circumstance had made their union irresistible. Beneath the canopy their intimacy had been a natural, even pristine event.
Glancing again at Gazda’s powerful frame festooned with dagger, savage bracelets and loincloth she realized that everything about the wild man ran contrary to the notion of lawful marriage and society, even looking out of place against the rustic charms of this homely tree house.
She imagined the looks of her fellow castaways, and their shock if they knew what had occurred—was it not absurd and sordid?
Surely, this fellow had been marooned in the jungle too long and could never return to civilization, and if he should, how could she consider him a proper mate for herself?
She was governess for a wealthy Texas family of good history and breeding. What would people think? She remembered Gusher Quarrie’s mixed feelings about the upper classes, but he was a Christian also, and would find her behavior with her wild man...oh, Gusher could never know!
None of them could know!
Virginia dropped Gazda’s hand, halting in the grass, blushing as she clutched her sinking heart, ashamed that she could so unfairly judge this dear man who had risked everything to save her life.
Gazda stood by her, tilting his head to left and right, puzzled as he looked at the hand she had rejected.
Virginia had judged him by the very standards that she feared awaited her upon her return.
She hung her head. This man had saved her
