Chapter 9: Rain on the Lodge

It rained all night on the second night, hard enough to drum on the lodge's new tarp.

Demelza did not sleep.

She lay on a mattress in the one good room, with Nan snoring behind a hung blanket, thinking of how Rafe had said two days.

At midnight she got up.

She pulled on her boots and his coat, and walked across the yard in the rain to the old barn, where a light was burning under the door.

Rafe sat on an upturned crate by a camp stove with his sleeves rolled, mending a lantern.

He looked up when the door opened, and the screwdriver stopped.

"It's been two days," Demelza said.

"I know."

"Then why are you out here?"

"Because if I'm in there, I'll be at your door, and you told me you'd decide."

"I have."

He put the lantern down very carefully on the crate.

She closed the barn door behind her and dropped the bolt.

The rain roared on the roof. The stove ticked. The whole place smelled of hay and kerosene and him.

She crossed the floor, took his face in both hands, and kissed him.

He stood up so fast the crate fell over.

His arms came around her, and he lifted her clean off the floor.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him harder.

His hands were rough and huge on her back, and he made a sound against her mouth that she felt in her teeth.

"Demelza," he said hoarsely.

"Don't talk."

"I need to tell you I..."

"Later. Tell me later." She bit his lower lip. "I've waited a year for the wrong man. I'm not waiting another minute for the right one."

He carried her to the far wall, where a heap of horse blankets lay over the straw.

He set her down on them.

She grabbed his collar and pulled him down with her.

"I'm not going to break."

"You've never done this," he said, low. It was not a question.

"No."

"Then I'll..."

"Rafe." She looked up at him, flat on her back in the hay with her hair in her eyes. "If you go slowly, I'll kill you."

He laughed, a short startled bark, and his eyes went gold.

"Understood," he said.

He pulled the coat off her shoulders.

She tugged his shirt over his head, and the lantern light fell on a body that was all hard shoulder and old scars.

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