Free Ravensong by ML Hamilton Page B

take lessons. I
guess she figured it was a cultured thing to do.”
    Elena leaned against the
piano and furrowed her brow at him. “Cultured? What did that
matter?”
    “ I was raised on the
reservation until I was five.”
    “ I didn’t know that,” she
said, intrigued.
    He nodded and then laughed.
“That’s where my mother met Adam, my step father. He was...is a
doctor. Then he was young and idealistic, believing he could change
things on the rez if he gave us some health care, vaccinated the
children.”
    “ Go on, this is
fascinating.”
    He shrugged. “Didn’t seem
so at the time. Anyway, my mother took me to be vaccinated. I can
tell you he scared the hell out of me.”
    She laughed at his pained
expression. “Why?”
    “ He was huge, six foot
four, and I was small. Not to mention his blond hair and pale skin,
and when he opened his medical bag and removed the needle...”
Joshua shuddered in memory.
    “ What did you do?” She
leaned her elbows on the piano, bracing her head with chin on
hand.
    “ I ran like hell. He was
mortified and took after me with my mother on his heels.” Joshua
paused and laughed again. “I guess they fell in love trying to
track me down. It didn’t take long before he asked her to marry
him. He’d been married before, but the wife died. Left a small boy
and girl behind. Well, my mother had no objection to taking on
other kids, especially not to getting off the rez. So we
left.”
    “ Do you like your step
father?”
    Joshua considered her
question a moment in silence. “Truth?”
    She nodded.
    “ He’s the man I consider to
be my father. He was always good to me. Took in a half-wild kid and
tried to raise him the right way.” His eyes clouded over and he
lowered his head. “And when I disappointed him and nearly killed my
mother with worry, he never turned his back on me.”
    She swallowed at the obvious pain in
his voice.
    “ When I woke from a drug
induced coma at the hospital...” He stopped for a moment, shaking
his head. “Hell, I was so scared. They had me strapped to the bed
so I wouldn’t hurt myself or anyone else. Adam was there and I
remember him talking softly to me for hours. I’ll never be able to
repay him for that. It meant more to me than anything else, but I
just disappointed him again as repayment.”
    When he shut his eyes,
Elena couldn’t help herself. She dropped on the bench beside
him.
    “ He must think of you as
his son, Joshua, or else he wouldn’t have been there.”
    Joshua nodded, but didn’t
say anything. After a long moment, he lifted his head and looked at
her.
    “ I’m sorry, don’t know why
I spilled all of that.”
    “ Maybe because you needed
to.”
    He reached out and touched
her cheek with the back of his hand. “There’s something about you,
Elena Harris, that plays hell with the wall I’ve built around
myself.”
    “ Seems like you’ve been
rearranging some things in my head I thought I had figured out
too.”
    He slid his fingers down to
her chin and lifted her face. “Like what?”
    She twirled her engagement
ring around her finger. “I’m wondering why I’m engaged to a man I
really don’t like very much.”
    He sat back and stared at
her. “Truth?”
    She nodded. “I had it all
figured out, neat as you please, until you came and started
throwing logic in my face.”
    He chuckled. “Well?” He
looked at the sheet music on the piano and fingered it. “What got
us on this topic?”
    “ I said I didn’t know you
played.”
    “ Oh, yeah, the cultured
thing, I remember. Anyway, once I started school and learned how to
fit in with all the other good little white kids, my mother decided
I needed to learn how to play the piano. So I did.”
    “ From the sounds of it, you
didn’t just learn to play, you’re a regular maestro.”
    “ Music’s always come
easy.”
    “ I’d heard you played the
guitar.”
    “ Yes.”
    “ What else?”
    “ Bass, drums, harmonica if
I want.”
    “ Hell, Joshua