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She turned with a start when Leonida and Sage came into her hogan. She tried to get up, so that they would not realize that she was so ill, but it was too late. They had already seen her.
She did not even bother getting up. She did not dare to, anyhow. Every time she had tried to move to her feet and walk around today, she had retched. The quieter she lay, the less excited or upset she got, the less she would be ill.
Leonida went quickly to Pure Blossom’s bedside. Sage stopped long enough to roll more logs onto the fire in the fireplace, then came and stood beside Leonida as they both stared down at their daughter, concern in their eyes.
“Darling, what’s the matter?” Leonida said, sitting down on the bed beside Pure Blossom. “You are so pale. You’re ill. Tell me where you hurt, darling. I’ll try and make it better.”
Pure Blossom looked guardedly at her mother, then her father. Not wanting them to know the full truth, she cowered away from them and turned her eyes toward the wall.
But there was nothing she could do to stop the bitterness that was rising into her throat once again. And this time it came too quickly for her to flee outside. She leaned over the side of the bed opposite the side where her parents were standing and retched all over her neatly swept dirt floor.
Leonida paled and grabbed for Pure Blossom’s shoulders, holding her until Pure Blossom was through. “Sage, get a basin of water and a cloth,” she said over her shoulder.
Sage hurriedly did as she asked, then stood over them as Leonida bathed Pure Blossom’s face with the damp, cool cloth. “As pale as you are, I would suspect that you have thrown up quite often this morning,” she said, her voice drawn. “Was it something you ate, darling?” She cast a glance over at the stove. “I’ll see to it that all of the food you have recently cooked is thrown out.”
Pure Blossom knew that it would be as simple as that to let her parents think that her illness had been brought on by food. But she did not like the idea of putting off the inevitable. As tiny as she was, she would soon be showing her pregnancy. Then no excuses on this earth could hide the truth.
“Mother, Father?” Pure Blossom said, easing the cloth away from her face. She scooted up into a sitting position. She combed her fingers through her long, loose hair. “It is not fair to you to keep the truth from you any longer.”
She could hear the intake of their breaths and could see the weariness in their eyes, yet she knew that nothing they were thinking could be anything close to the truth, especially since it included Adam.
“No blood that comes with the moon visited me this time. I carry a child in my belly,” she blurted out, wincing when she saw a horrified look creep into both of her parents’ eyes.
“You . . . are . . . pregnant?” Leonida said, her heart feeling as though it had plummeted to her feet.
Sage was so stunned, he could not find any words to express his disbelief.
“Yes, I am with child,” Pure Blossom said, suddenly wailing as she flung herself into her mother’s arms. “And the seed was not put into my womb by a man who loved me. At the time, I thought he did. But now I know that he was only using me. I am ashamed. So ashamed.”
“This man,” Sage said, his hands tightening into fists at his sides. “What is his name? Is it the one I fear?”
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sp; Pure Blossom became silent. She looked sheepishly up at her father. “You will not hate me if I tell you the truth?” she said, her voice breaking.
“I could never hate you,” Sage said, sitting down beside Leonida. He took Pure Blossom into his comforting arms. “This man used you. You are innocent. You perhaps loved too easily because it was the first time for you. His name, daughter. Give me his name.”
“Adam,” Pure Blossom said in a weak whisper, yet loud enough for both her parents to hear.
Leonida turned pale and gasped.
Sage’s heart felt as though it had just been cut out.
He rose quickly to his feet and left the hogan. He ignored Leonida when she ran after him, asking him to stop. She knew him well enough to realize where he was headed. He was hell-bent on finding Adam, to beat him to a pulp. He was repulsed by the very thought of his daughter having slept with that man, much less that she now carried his child inside her body. Adam had taken advantage of his daughter’s innocence.
He mounted his horse and rode away. He pushed his horse into a hard gallop all the way to the train. When he finally arrived there, he dismounted and stormed up the steps to the private cars. Not sure which one was Adam’s, he opened one door and stepped inside.
“Where are you?” he shouted as he entered. When he realized that no one was there, he left that car and went into the other one.
Disgruntled to find that car also empty, he was tempted to tear up everything there and burn all of the belongings, but held his temper at bay and left. He felt it was best to deal with this later. His anger had become uncontrolled. He wanted to save it, until later, when he had Adam’s throat trapped between his fingers.
Needing to find some peace within his heart over the pain that his daughter was suffering, he decided it was best to go and find a high place so that he could pray for guidance.
He had to wonder where he had gone wrong as a father, or what he could do to turn the tide back in his favor.
He had never felt as helpless as he did now.
His one blessing, as she had always been, was his wife, Leonida. She had always been there for him. She always would be. She was his past, present, and future. In her he would find the solace that he needed. He would return to her, instead of going to pray alone in the mountains.
