Tuesday Teaser 8/20/19 Gina’s Wolf Part 50

Thank you, everyone, for your kind thoughts. Putting Merry to sleep was a difficult thing to do. Was it too soon? Could she have had a few more months? And poor Masuka, who had been her constant companion for 13 years, has been crying pitifully for the last week. But it’s done. Merry is no longer suffering from arthritis. I think she and my mom are taking care of each other in heaven.

I didn’t do a great deal of writing this past week, but I’m in a scene that I hope will allow Gina and her mom to re-connect. Throughout the book I’ve tried to show that Gina resents her mom for putting Gerald Todd before her own daughter. I’ve kind of cut this off in mid-scene but I’ve run out of time to write more tonight. Tomorrow two of my brothers are coming for supper, so I need to clean the bathroom and the kitchen tonight. I worked only 9.46 hours today but my third brother called while i was trying to finish this scene, so it will wait for Friday night.

But we’re getting close to the end of this at last!

Chapter 15

When Gina next work she knew immediately there was no one in the bed with her. “Cole?”

“He’s out, helping bring Ray home from the hospital.”

Gina turned her head around and saw Patia sitting in the chair five feel from the bed. The room was dimly lit. “What time is it?”

“A little after seven,” her sister-in-law replied. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

Gina sat up in bed, feeling her head throb, but not as viciously as it had last time she’d been awake. She wasn’t sure if breakfast would be a good idea. “You didn’t go with them?”

“Dad says it would be dangerous. Lots of Omaha men are still celebrating the victory.” She made a face. “Drinking all night,” she added in disapproval. “Dad says they might be drunk enough to bother me.”

Her tone said any man who tried to bother her was stupid and would deserve whatever Cole did to him. “When will they be here? Cole, I mean. Are they coming here or taking Ray to Mayor Madison’s house?”

“Ray’s coming here.” Patia’s voice was very firm. “The hospital is full and the Mayor’s house is for the overflow of people hurt in the fight.”

“Is he well enough to move? Is there an ambulance or will they carry him on a stretcher?”

“He’s getting better. Ray’s dad took the bus. Dad thought it would take them maybe an hour or an hour and a half, but the streets are full of people, so it might take longer to get through the crowds.”

The last time Gina had seen Ray he had been awake but weak in a hospital bed. “Were many people hurt?”

Patia’s face clouded over. “Over forty from Omaha were killed and about the same number hurt. My brother Wolf’s Howl was shot and so was my cousin Eagle, but it’s not serious and they’ll be fine in a week or so. But my cousin Red Feather is dead.”

Red Feather’s youthful face flashed in Gina’s mind. One more in a long line of sins to lay at her stepfather’s feet. He destroyed lives wherever he went. He had destroyed hers one bit at a time until at last he’d tried to kill her. If her mom hadn’t…

“I want to see my mom,” she said abruptly. “Is she here?”

Gina glanced at the door. “She’s down the hall. I can take you there.”

Gina used the bathroom and took a moment to look at herself I the mirror. She wouldn’t win any beauty contests anytime soon, but she thought she looked better than she’d expected. Walking carefully, she went back to the bedroom and dressed slowly. Surprisingly, her head didn’t hurt very much. But she felt weak and trembly, grateful for Patia’s arm to lean on when she left the room. Over the mezzanine railing she saw the public dining room set up for guests but deserted.

“No one’s coming for breakfast?” she asked.

Patia shook her head. “Not with injured women in the house. Cole is amazingly tolerant, considering that you are hurt. He threatened only three people since he brought you home. But Jay? I’ve never seen him so growl-y. He’s taken protecting us to a new level of crazy. No one is getting near your mom.” When she glanced at Gina’s face, she gave a little laugh. “Not you; you’re her daughter. But when that little driver, Sal, tried to help the men carry your mom into the house, Jay leaped on him and pinned him to the wall so fast he didn’t know what had happened.”

They stopped in front of the door to the room at the corner of the mezzanine. Patia tapped on it very softly, so softly that Gina didn’t hear it, but it opened at once to reveal a tall man with silver gray streaks winging through his black hair at his temples to be lost in the twisting braids that hung past his shoulders. His somber face was handsome, dominated by a proud nose, and black eyes that went immediately to Gina. He nodded silently, as though in answer to a question, and stepped back to let them in.

Gina looked across the dim room and found her mother laying on her pack in the bed. Her legs shook when she looked at her mother’s swollen face. Both her eyes were surrounded by deep bruising, and only one could open. Her lips were puffy, and her forehead and one cheek were grotesquely swollen.

“Uncle Jay, Gina’s still not very strong,” Patia whispered.

Without a word, he picked her up and carried her a few steps to a chair next to the bed.

“Gina,” her mother croaked.

Gina fisted her hands on the arms of the chair. “Oh, Mom,” was all she could say. “Tanner did that to you?”

A vicious growl behind her lifted the hairs on her arms.

It looked painful when her mom lifted her eyes to look over Gina’s head. “Jay, I need a few minutes alone with my daughter.”

The growling stopped. “Okay,” said the man behind her in such a deep rasp that his voice barely sounded human. “I’ll be right outside. Call if you need anything.”

The door closed quietly, leaving Gina alone with her mom. She examined the older woman’s face again, noting each bruise, lump and abrasion.

“Are you alright?’ she asked.

Her mom’s head moved restlessly on the pillow. “I will be.” Her hand twitched, as if she wanted to reach out to Gina, but it went still again. “I’m finally free. We both are. Free of Gerald Todd.”

The fierce satisfaction in her voice surprised Gina. “You loved him.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Gina remembered all the times her mother had bowed to Todd’s wishes, telling Gina to do the same. How many times had her mom brushed off her daughter’s unhappiness? How often had she showed impatience with Gina’s yearning to have her own life? She tried to keep accusation from her voice. “You married him.”

“I did.” Her mom’s bloodshot eye gazed blindly toward the covered window. “I was a widow, alone with  a small daughter to protect, when I met Gerald. He was attractive. Oh, not handsome,” she added, correctly interpreting Gina’s expression. “But charismatic. There was something about him that made me feel cherished and safe. I married him because there had already been two attempts by men to steal us and force me to marry them. I thought he was our best choice.”

“He was a monster,” Gina said flatly.

“Yes, he was, but I didn’t know that at first.” Even with the swelling and bruises, the bleak expression was plain on her mom’s face.

“Then I found out that I was wife number two.