The pillars of creation

He hopped down off the wagon, landing with a thud. She turned to be ready, should he come at her.

"Look, I wouldn't feel right about it," he said.

"About what?"

"I could never forgive myself if I just stood by and let you go out here to your death-which is what it will be with no food, no water, no nothing. I thought about what you said, that there are some things that you have to do, or else life means nothing and isn't worth living. I couldn't live with myself if I knew you were out here going to your death." His tenacity faltered and his voice turned more pleading. "Come on, climb up in the wagon and let me give you a ride?"

"What about your brothers? Before I found out I'd lost my money, you wouldn't rent me a horse because you said you had to get back."

He hooked a thumb behind his belt, resigned to having to explain himself. "Well, we've been doing so well at selling wine today that we made a goodly sum. Joe and Clayton were wanting to stay at the palace, anyway, and have a little fun for a change. It was that Irma, selling her spicy sausages right beside us, that did it." He shrugged. "So, since she helped us do so well, it gives me a chance to come help you. Since she took your horses and supplies, I figure that giving you a ride is the least I can do. Kind of makes it even out a little. It's just a ride. It's not like I'm risking my life or something. Just a bit of help I'm offering someone who I know needs it."

Jennsen surely could use help, but she feared to trust this stranger.

"I'm Tom," he said, as if reading her thoughts. "I'd be grateful if you would let me do this to help you."

"What do you mean?"

"Like you said-some things you have to do to make life a little more meaningful." The briefest of glances took in her ringlets of red hair beneath the cloak's hood before turning solemn. "That's the way it would make me feel… grateful to have done something like that."

She broke the gaze first. "I'm Jennsen. But I don't-"

"Come along, then. I have some wine-"

"I don't like wine. It only makes me thirsty."

He shrugged. "I have plenty of water. I brought along some meat pies, too, They're still hot, I bet, if you hurry and have some now."

She studied his blue eyes, blue like her bastard father's. Even so, this man's eyes had a simple sincerity about them. His smile wasn't cocky, but modest.

"Don't you have a wife to get back to?"

This time, it was Tom who broke the gaze to look at the ground. "No, ma'am. I'm not married. I travel around a lot. I don't imagine a woman would much take to that kind of life. Besides, it doesn't afford me much of a chance to come to know anyone well enough to be thinking about marriage. Someday, though, I dearly hope to find a woman who would want to share life with me, a woman who makes me smile, a woman I can live up to."

Jennsen was surprised to see that the very question made his face go red. It seemed to her as if his boldness in talking to her and offering her this ride might be more forward than was his customary conduct. As affable as he was, he appeared painfully shy. Something about a man that big and strong being intimidated by her, a lone woman in the middle of nowhere, by her question about matters of the heart, put her at ease.

"If I'm not harming you, your business at earning a living-"

"No," he put in. "No, you're not-not at all." He gestured back toward the plateau. "We made a good profit today and we can afford a short rest. My brothers don't mind at all. We travel all over and buy whatever goods we can find at a reasonable price, everything from wine, to carpets, to spring chickens, and then we haul it back here to sell. It would really be doing my brothers a favor, giving them a break."

Jennsen nodded. "I could use the ride, Tom."

He turned serious. "I know. A man's life is at stake."

Tom scrambled up onto the wagon and held down a hand. "Careful, ma'am.»

She took his big hand and put a boot in the iron rung. "I'm Jennsen."

"So you said, ma'am." He gently drew her up to the seat.

As soon as she was seated, he pulled a blanket from behind and placed it in a pile in her lap, apparently not wanting to be so presumptuous as to spread it out over her. As she arranged it on her lap, she smiled her appreciation for the warm wool cover. Reaching behind again, he rooted around under a pile of well-worn packing blankets and came up with a small bundle. Tom grinned his lopsided smile as he presented her with the pie wrapped in a white cloth. He was as good as his word; it was still warm. He recovered a waterskin, too, and set it on the seat between them.

"If you'd prefer, you can ride in back. I brought plenty of blankets to keep you warm, and they might be more comfortable to sit on than a wooden seat."

"I'm fine up here for now," she said. She lifted the pie in gesture. "When I get my supplies back, and my money, I want to pay you back for everything. You keep a tally, and I'll pay you back for it all."