We rode back to The Angel with sober thoughts and a clearer understanding of what had happened to Cal.My heart broke o’er the turn her life had taken, for only dreaming of having a husband to care for her and love her.She’d been such a carefree and happy soul when we’d first met her.I’d no doubt she’d had her share of troubles by then, being the person she was, but nothing compared to thinking she’d found love and finding cruelty and maltreatment instead.And Trick was right.Cal was a husk of herself.It seemed the only thing keeping her going was those three kids.
But maybe, if we could let her know we didn’t hold what she did to Albert against her, and if we could help her make a life for herself and those children, Cal would come back to us.
’Twas all we could hope for, I reckoned.
* * * *
As we got ready for bed, Oscar seemed sad and forlorn, and I felt a weight in my chest, as well.
“I don’t know why people gotta be so mean,” Oscar muttered.
“What?”
“This Albert Webster, what tricked Cal into trusting him then led her into such a—a vicious act.”He gazed at me.“You knew Cal, like I did.She didn’t have a nasty bone in her body!I never even thought she’d have been capable of something like that.”
“I reckon she didn’t think so, either.But when a person gets beaten down like that, on a daily, unrelenting basis, and they don’t know how else to escape it, they do desperate things,” I said, thinking back to our encounter with Spook and Whitlaw, and how I’d not hesitated to kill them in cold blood in order to save Oscar.
Oscar must have realized where my mind was turning.
“Yeah, that’s true,” he said, in a soft voice, as the angry look on his face dissipated.“They make murderers outta good, innocent folk.”
I shrugged, not enjoying where this conversation was leading.
“That’s true in Cal’s case.But I ain’t innocent.I was never innocent.”
Oscar walked o’er to where I’d sat on the edge of the bed, in my shirtsleeves and nothing else.He stood before me, pressing against my knees until I moved them apart to let him slide himself between them.He was still in his trousers, but he’d taken his shirt off.The pale lines of his shoulders and chest shone in the moonlight.
“I reckon you was, Jimmy.You musta been pretty innocent before the gang got hold of you.”He reached out and ran his fingers through my hair.It needed a trim, but Oscar didn’t seem to mind it on the longer side.
I closed my eyes, enjoying his gentle, loving touch.
“Maybe.Sure, I guess,” I admitted.“But that was a long, long time ago.”
Oscar nodded.He was quiet for a moment, then his mouth quirked at the corner.
“Well, I reckon you were pretty innocent before I gotta hold of you,” he said, in lustful, low tones.
The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach lifted like fog blown away on a crisp breeze, and I gazed at him with gratitude for changing the subject.
“Oh, I know that’s true,” I said, reaching forward and pulling him against me.“You and your wicked wiles… You done turned me into a wild, ravenous beast.”
Oscar laughed and took my head between his hands, guiding my mouth to his.He kissed me—soft and sensuous—to show me what good care he would take of me, like he always did.
Oscar could be a lewd and adventurous fella in the sack, ’twas true, but when he was in this kind of a mood, things ran more to the soft and romantic.We were married, after all.I supposed we had a right to be sweet and gentle together.
Sure enough, Oscar pulled back and gazed down at me, still holding my face between his hands.
“I ain’t in the mood for anythin’ rough or rude tonight, Jimmy.But I wanna lie with you, with no clothes on, and just see where that leads.All right?”
I blinked, my heart bursting for this man.
“All right.Of course.”
We finished getting undressed then slipped under the blankets and cuddled up together.Oscar was still so slight compared to me.I liked it, and he did, too.He said it made him feel protected and cherished, to be close to a big fella like me.And I felt good to be able to shield him from things.
Cuddling with no clothes on led to other things, but ’twas languid and lazy, and only involved moving together and taking each other in hand, until we were spent and able to sleep.
But as I drifted off, the difficulty and cruelty of Cal’s situation lingered, and I truly wondered what would happen to her and the children, if we couldn’t think of something.
