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When Elvira Met Bettie Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2023-01-14 17:00:02 +0000 UTCThe noon meal was ready. Danny ate, quietly and fixedly, as if thinking about every ounce of energy that was going into him and what it would be used for. He said the food had tasted good, then took his pistol and went to relieve Gordon, who was on sky-watch at the top of the ridge.
Bettie watched him leave. Big as he was, he moved lithely, rapidly. Grudgingly Bettie admitted how attractive he was, how virile, projecting confidence in everything and fear of nothing. It was as repellant as it was beguiling, that damnable confidence.
In a few moments, Gordon came down from the ridge to eat. Bettie served him.
“Hell of a time,” he spouted. “Something in the woods, all morning… moving around and breathing heavily. Never got a clear look at it, but when I was coming down I saw a big paw print… had to have been a grizzly bear…”
“Surely there aren’t any grizzlies in this part of the country!” Bettie said to him.
Gordon hedged. “Maybe or maybe not… but it was a big paw print! I can’t think of what else would leave such a huge imprint as that!”
Bettie shuddered, not much wanting to speculate more about a grizzly being in the woods when there wasn’t anything they could do about it either way. What she wanted to know was when they would be rescued.
Gordon scoffed at the subject: “We’re not going anywhere just waiting around hoping Danny pulls a new plane out of his ass. If we want to get home, we’ll have to walk out!”
“Okay, but which way? And how far?”
Gordon sneered contemptuously. “You’d really listen to that mug you haven’t known a single day yet?”
“No,” Bettie flung back. “But if you don’t have a better idea than walking in some random direction and hoping we stumble upon civilization, we’re better off waiting with the plane and hoping civilization comes to us!”
But she didn’t want to argue on behalf of Danny, even if she agreed with him, so she left the cooking fire to wash the dishes in the stream. Gordon soon went off himself, going to gather firewood. When she was done, Bettie took a fresh cup of water to Izzy.
He was awake when she found him, lucid. She helped him sit up, then fed him. Izzy still winced in pain with regularity, complaining of something like a migraine, a migraine like he’d never felt before. She tried to take his mind off the pain by reporting on the situation: all the opinions on what they should do, Danny’s and Gordon’s and her agreeing with Danny and Elvira seeming like too much of a space cadet for anyone to care what she thought.
“What do you think, dear?”
“I think we should stay here,” Bettie asserted.
“Me too…” Izzy shook his head gingerly. “Gordon’s a dog with a bone… he’ll stick to the first answer that pops into his head, even if he ought to second-guess it.”
“I’m glad you agree, Irvin. I don’t think you should be moved.”
Izzy smiled halfheartedly. “That’s no good reason… you could always leave me and bring back help.”
“Oh, Izzy—we’re not doing enough for you as it is!” Bettie cried.
As if set off by the raised pitch of her voice, Izzy clutched at his head. He laid back down on his sleeping bag, eyes shutting, a groan coming to his lips. Bettie felt suddenly frantic, torn between guilt and worry—the combination so much worse than either would be alone.
“Oh, Izzy! Izzy! I’m so sorry, my darling!” she sobbed helplessly. God, please! Stop letting him hurt like this! How can You do this to such a good man?
At least Izzy was soon unconscious again. Bettie watched him closely, both wanting him to wake up again and wanting him to remain asleep, where hopefully he wouldn’t feel the pain he had to muddle through to recover.
Izzy didn’t wake up. There was nothing more she could do for him; maybe Elvira could do more, but she was incapable of… that.
Bettie left him, going to the stream and then following it up the ridge to where she was expected. Danny was stretched out on a blanket. He watched her approach like it was a show put on just for him. Yet, momentarily, Bettie didn’t mind. She hadn’t been up on the ridge before and there was a spectacular view of the countryside. She looked around, more stunned by it than repulsed by Cannon.
“It’s gorgeous,” she panted, out of breath from the steep climb.
“Yes,” Danny agreed. “Not what you’re used to it, is it? Wild and rugged! But at least you can appreciate it still!”
“Not so much… Gordon told me he saw a great big paw print. He thought it might be a grizzly.”
“There’s a chance,” Danny shrugged. “Just because a map says that this place or that is an animal’s habitat—doesn’t mean they’ll stay there. Animals follow their instincts. They go where they feel… welcome.”
“If a grizzly feels welcome here, we’ll all be in trouble!” Bettie said in a high voice, trying to reproach him for the glee he seemed to take in the possibility of a bear being on the loose.
“There’s no need to worry. Wild animals mostly stay away from humans. They either don’t know what to make of us… or they know exactly how dangerous we are!”
Bettie sat on a fallen log. She didn’t look at him; handsome as he was, she still preferred the jumble of rocks and forest that formed a kaleidoscopic view for her. Virgin wilderness. It was dangerous, but unlike Danny, at least it wasn’t targeted at her.
She heard an axe splitting wood and thought it had to be Gordon. The plaintive sound of far-off physicality, pathetically plinking in the distance, made the silence between chops all the more immense.
Bettie felt the need to explain herself and wondered if her voice was all that different from those ax-blows. “Danny, I didn’t come here to make any bargain with you. I came here to ask you… please… look into your heart. Feel some sympathy, some compassion, and give Izzy what he needs. Forget how much you must want me; you couldn’t have me without soiling me. I just couldn’t have that!”
“Why not?” he asked gently.
“Izzy and I, we’re not married. But we’re going to be. We’re going to get engaged and we’re going to get married. I want to live by the vows I take that day, even now. I want to wear white and go to the altar knowing that I won’t fall short of my wifely responsibility.”
“So if we hadn’t crashed… would you have taken Gordon Vought to bed?”
“No!” Bettie blurted out. She would’ve put more venom into her words if the question weren’t so surprising she couldn’t even be properly shocked. “Of course not! Not ever!”
“Then we don’t have a consensus. Because I overheard bossman Gordon saying that you were going to.”
“You must’ve heard wrong!” Bettie insisted. “Misunderstood something… a joke…”
He smiled. “My hearing’s fine. Maybe you just haven’t been listening.”
Bettie hated to humor him, but she had to know. “Who was Gordon talking to then?”
“Izzy, of course!” Cannon gloated.
“That’s insane! It’s impossible!” Bettie cried. “Izzy loves me… he would never agree to… to share me… trade me…”
“No? Not even for a shot at that Elvira babe?”
Bettie was overwhelmed. She couldn’t continue on another step, another thought. Tears boiled in her eyes and she twisted her head away from Danny, promising herself that no matter how badly she hurt, she wouldn’t let him see it.
Danny lifted himself up on an elbow and went on talking to the strong, unbowed profile Bettie let him see. “Or was it a promotion? Maybe a raise? But then again, that Elvira is quite a lady. She might’ve been all Gordon had to offer.”
“Irvin wouldn’t… he wouldn’t… he’s already gotten a promotion… a raise… even if he hadn’t… we love each other. He wouldn’t do that to me. Not for another woman; not for anything!”
“Not for anything, no, but for something he’s desperate for?” Danny cooed suggestively. “Maybe you can figure that out yourself. Do you give him what he wants when he’s in bed? Or are you the cold fish you’re being now?”
“I’m a c-cold fish? How can you say that—say such a thing—when you’re so oversexed? Making me b-bargain with you—give up my body—for something my beloved desperately needs!”
“You think a guy can look at a doll like you and not have needs? No way, baby! Your boy wants to stop hurting… well, so do I!”
“But why me?” Bettie demanded in a sort of panic. “Why not Elvira? Or is she just below me on the list?”
“No, above you. I already had her!”
“Good God!” Bettie flared, her polite lack of profanity fleeing to make room for the caustic words he’d finally harvested from her. “You’ve got such sass, you know that? Not only doing such a thing, but bragging about it… just a great big satyr, that’s what you are! I can’t believe there are men like you roaming around when so many guys are so nice and gentle… how do all of them put up with you!”
“They put up with me because they wish they could do what I do. And Gordon at least does, when it’s him holding the steering wheel! But right now I’ve got it! And I’m going to have as much fun with it as he ever did!”
“Such conceit… you really think it’ll be as easy as checking me off on your list of conquests, don’t you?”
“You’re here, aren’t you? That says a lot more to me than all your oh-so-vocal disgust. Ha! If it really had you so bent out of shape, I’d never be able to get you up where you are. But the fact is, you don’t just hate the thought of fucking me… you’re at least as curious as you are dismayed. All those womanly parts of yours can’t put up a unified front when some of you is inviting me in! And some pretty big parts, too!”
Bettie felt trapped—like coming up here had been the same as sticking her foot in a bear trap. Danny wouldn’t, couldn’t change his mind. He was as single-minded as any hungry animal… and she was alone with him. Such a strong man. He could grab her, force her to submit!
I won’t let him… I’d rather die… to think, I could deny him the satisfaction of my body and he’d take it anyway… no, never! I won’t even let him touch me!
Without further thought, with thought impossible, Bettie spun around and ran. She didn’t need to rush so headily, the downward slope giving her wings, but the feel of the air chilling her as it rushed speedily by seemed the only thing to soothe her feverish skin.
Danny jumped to his feet, catching her within ten yards. His arms went around her, holding her tight until she stopped her futile struggles. He grinned wolfishly: “Easy now. It’s a steep hill we’ve got underfoot. You’re not careful, you’ll roll all the way down it and crack that pretty head on something. And I like those pretty bangs of yours too much to let that happen.”
In spite of her panic, her nipples tingled where they were held to his brawny chest. She felt the stiff musculature of his thighs and his loins—though nothing so obscene as his manhood itself, she knew the shape of a man’s hips and where those bulging muscles led. There was a heat pressed against her own lower body, but she knew it wasn’t the ultimate heat… she knew what it was a precursor to.
It relaxed her. Why? She didn’t know. Maybe, after all her apocalyptic thoughts, it was calming to think of it as so simple as him being a man… and her being what a man needed.
“I know I’m not one of you Hollywood types, but isn’t this the part where you tell me to let you go?” he crooned.
“It’s not so bad to make me waste a raised voice…”
“And if it gets you Izzy’s pills?”
“Maybe nothing could be so bad as what he’s going through… and what I’m going through… knowing there’s something I can do to stop it but not… you know you’re a bastard, don’t you? To know what your fellow man is going through and not care.”
“Of course I care. But a man has to have priorities. You may think it’d be common decency to give him the pills—what’s common decency against a girl as rare as you?”
“No one can ever know… you mustn’t tell…”
“I won’t,” Danny assured her. “It’ll be our little secret.”
“But you told me about Elvira,” she insisted.
“You really think she minds being known as a slut? She’d probably consider it free advertising.”
“And what you told me about Gordon and Irvin—was that true?”
“Why would I lie? The whole upshot of a deal like this is I don’t have to lie a girl into bed. I just have to lay out the facts for her like they’re the Gospel truth.”
She turned in his arms, reflexively appreciating the looseness of his grip, the easy feel of his body brushing against hers. Bettie faced up the hill now, back up to the ridge, to the bed Danny had made for her. For them. For her to trade her body for Izzy’s relief… Izzy, who had already bargained for her body… sold it even before she stepped onto the plane.
“Fine. I’ll do it,” she said with finality. “I hope you can enjoy my body knowing you’re only getting it because of another’s pain!”
“I can live with it if you can.”
