Chapter 7

7

" T ravis! Ew!"

"I was married to that jerkface, and only a fool would do that again." Shanna's voice came from behind him. He'd heard that she got married, but he hadn't known to whom, only that they had a couple of kids and got divorced. And he thought that information came from one of his brothers, not Ellen. She didn't typically relay the gossip in town when they talked. She talked more about her animals, what was happening on the farm, her ideas and things she hoped to do, and she seemed very interested in what was going on with him.

"Shut up. Who asked you anyway?" The man spat in Shanna's direction.

"Let go," Ellen said to him, tugging on her arm. She said it in a low voice, like she was appeasing everyone, and Travis hid a smile. If the man hadn't been so annoying, he probably wouldn't have. But he was guessing that Ellen just wanted him to let go so Travis wouldn't end up in a fight. He could almost hear her saying it now.

"I'm not letting go. You're coming with me. It's too crowded around here," he said and started dragging Ellen away.

Travis hesitated for just a second. Maybe a split second. He wasn't going to allow that man to drag his best friend away. Was he?

He didn't know how else to stop it, other than to take three large strides forward, grab the man's shoulder, spinning him around, and growl, "Let go of her."

At least he was holding onto her with his right hand, so if they were going to fight, assuming the man was right-handed, he would have to let go of Ellen first.

"Get ready to duck, kiddo," he said to Ellen.

"Travis," she said with a warning note in her voice, and Travis wasn't sure whether it was because he called her kiddo, which she didn't really like, or whether it was because she didn't want him to get into a fight, which he didn't really have a choice about.

He didn't take his eyes off the man in front of him to try to figure out which thing Ellen meant.

"Chalmer, let me go. Travis is a lot bigger than you are."

Travis didn't think he was any bigger than Chalmer. In fact, Chalmer definitely outweighed him. They were about the same height, though.

Chalmer sneered. "That toothpick? He's not bigger than me."

Maybe Ellen was just trying to convince Chalmer that he was going to lose the fight. Travis couldn't be sure who would win, but he couldn't not do something.

"He'll go down with the first swing," the man said, grinning for one second before his grin faded, his eyes narrowed, and he swung at Travis as hard as he could.

Travis was not expecting it. He was more concerned about telling Ellen to get out of the way. He had his mouth open when Chalmer hit him square in the jaw.

The blow felt like a sledgehammer hitting him in the face. Travis stumbled back. Immediately something warm and wet started running down his face, and the world seemed to dip and sway and get black or red, he couldn't really tell what color it was. He felt dizzy, like he was going to fall down at any second.

But in some subconscious quarter of his brain, he knew he couldn't just walk away and tend to his wounds. He needed to fight back. He must have been softer than what he realized, because the temptation to just sit down and hold his head in his hand for a few seconds was strong.

But he couldn't do that and risk Chalmer grabbing Ellen and walking away with her. The only witness was Shanna, and she didn't seem to be the slightest bit concerned about Ellen's safety. Nor did she seem to care about anything other than the fact that he hadn't listened to her and followed her across the parking lot.

So he stepped forward, his eyes on Chalmer as he smirked.

He tried to channel his fighting days from high school as Chalmer faked a jab with his left before powering forward with his right hand.

That time, Travis was ready, or maybe Chalmer's aim was a little bit off, because the blow glanced off his shoulder, and he was able to get in a blow of his own, hitting Chalmer in the jaw with a satisfying thud that jerked his head around. It also sent sharp arrows of pain from his knuckles up his arm and out his shoulder. He had forgotten that punching someone hurt that bad. It almost felt like he hit a tooth.

Chalmer recovered much faster than Travis and came back, this time with a fake right and a hook with his left, while he threw a leg out to kick, aiming for Travis's groin, probably just for good measure.

It was more than Travis could fend off, but considering that he already felt dizzy and a little confused, the blows didn't have quite the same effect the first one did. The left hook caught him in the stomach, but not a solid blow, and Chalmer's foot hit him in the thigh, rather than its intended target.

He was able to get two good hits in on Chalmer's face and one in his stomach as he vaguely realized that someone was screaming and someone else was shouting. Women, it sounded like, although he didn't stop to try to figure out what they were saying. Instead, he hit Chalmer again, and that time, the man dropped to the pavement, groaning.

"That's enough, Travis," Ellen said, walking toward him and touching his forearm lightly with her fingers.

"Sorry," he said. Not sure what he was apologizing for, but feeling like he needed to do it anyway. Maybe it was the look on her face. Did she look disappointed?

"What was going on?" he said, wiping the back of his hand across his face and seeing blood come off on his wrist.

"It's a long story, but he bought me at the auction. I was supposed to spend the evening with him, and give him five days this week. Not for anything inappropriate, just…work or company or something like that."

"He wasn't to grab a hold of you."

"No."

"Come on. We're going in to lodge a complaint, and I'll buy him out."

"Travis. I'm not a possession."

"I know." He stopped moving and focused his eyes on her. Of course he knew. How could she think otherwise? Their eyes met, and the fun and camaraderie that normally lay between them wasn't there. Something else seemed to shimmer in the air instead. Something a lot more serious. Something that reminded him of the night that he left ten years ago, when they'd been in the barn together.

It felt warm and dangerous and he had to shake his head, because this was not the time or the place. Behind him, Shanna said something, although she had to repeat herself before he heard it.

"Where are you going? We're supposed to be eating together. Did you forget about me, hello?!"

Chalmer groaned, and Travis looked at him on the blacktop. He didn't want to hurt the man. But Chalmer had thrown the first punch. Surely that would count for something, although he had to admit he was definitely out of practice when it came to knowing what the law said about fistfights anymore.

"I think he's going to be okay," Ellen said softly, looking from Chalmer to Travis and lifting her hand to touch his face with the tips of her fingers. "I suppose you will be too, but I think it's gonna look worse before it looks better." Her hand seemed to linger for a moment, and Travis held his breath, content to allow her soft touch, not wanting anything else more than he wanted Ellen, whatever he could get from her.

"Let's go get this taken care of," he said softly, not wanting to move but not able to stand the idea of Ellen being in Chalmer's "possession" for another minute.

"Travis."

He stared down at her. "Please."

At that word, he could see her resolve melt away. It almost made him smile the way she capitulated. Her shoulders lowered and her head nodded, even though her lips were flat.

"What about me?" Shanna said from his other side.

"I'll be back in a minute. Walk over to the swing set where your kids are."

"You promise?" she asked, and while her voice was shrill and almost shrew-like, he detected a note of insecurity underneath it. He figured that all along Shanna had been insecure, and here he thought he had been that one. But sometimes people covered their insecurities with a lot of bluster and bluff.

Very seldom, at least what he had found, was that people were rotten to the core. There was almost always good mixed in with the bad, some kind of redeeming features. After all, humans were created in God's image. God loved them, so there had to be something there to love.

It wasn't his job to figure Shanna out though. His concern was for his friend, and he looked back at Ellen.

She still had her lips pulled back, but she fell into step beside him as he started toward the door. He opened it, and she walked through. The bright light gave him an almost instant headache, but no one looked in their direction as he strode in. It hadn't been that long since he walked out; Mr. Higginbotham and the lady at the table who had taken the money were still conferring together. Probably totaling up the amounts.

He walked straight to the table.

"I'd like to pay for Ellen. Whatever Chalmer paid for her, I'll double it."

They looked up, and the woman gasped. "What happened to you?"

"You can't pay for her. You already bought a lunch bucket. You can't have two."

"Technically, I didn't come with a lunch bucket, remember?" Ellen spoke, and Travis was grateful. His brain still wasn't processing at its normal speed. "It was just me."

That made Mr. Higginbotham close his mouth, and then he nodded. "I guess you're right. Although, the spirit of the law would be that you can't have two, but… I suppose that there isn't anything specifically saying that you can't purchase someone's bucket and also purchase a person." He smirked a little before his eyes went back to Travis's face. But the man didn't say anything about it.

"What about Chalmer? Is he going to be okay with that?" the lady asked, apparently deciding that she wasn't going to say anything more about his face, either. Maybe it didn't look as bad as it felt. Which was pretty bad. Although the headache was much worse.

"He was trying to drag her away, and she was saying no. He wouldn't listen."

"Is that so?" Mr. Higginbotham said.

"That's terrible," the lady said.

"It's true," Ellen confirmed, like they needed a witness.

"So, he didn't agree to sell her to you?"

"No. I'm demanding that I buy her. Because she is not going back out with a man who won't listen to her when she says no."

The lady nodded her head firmly, but Mr. Higginbotham appeared slightly reluctant. He was a stickler for the rules, probably didn't care as much about the personal side of things. A typical man, perhaps.

Travis could see himself being the same way, and he hoped he wasn't.

"All right then. If that's the way it is, Chalmer has forfeited his right to this purchase, if he couldn't obey the basic laws of assault."

Ellen nodded slowly, although he could see her cringing a little at the idea that Mr. Higginbotham was calling what had happened an assault. Chalmer had assaulted Travis. He wasn't quite sure that Ellen would agree that he had also assaulted her.

But maybe Ellen didn't understand how quickly the situation could have escalated with her defying Chalmer.

In Brazil, things were a little looser, and Travis had experienced how quickly a man's temper could escalate and all of the terrible results that could occur. Not often, but enough to know that Ellen was probably in more danger than what she thought she was.

"All right, it's changed," the woman said and then named the sum that Travis owed.

He pulled the money out of his pocket, thankful that he typically kept a little cash in his wallet for emergencies. This was definitely something he would term an emergency.

"Thank you," Ellen said as Travis nodded his head and echoed her words of appreciation.

"You probably ought to get that looked at," the woman said, nodding at Travis's face.

"Maybe I'll assign that task to my new servant," he said, some of the tension and anger draining out of him at the fact that it was done and Ellen was out of harm's way.

"Are you serious?" she said under her breath, annoyance and affection and amusement all evident in her tone.

He smiled at the contradictions. It was just like Ellen. Only, now that he had a chance to really look at her, she was all grown up. So much more mature than last time he had seen her in person. He couldn't believe how much older she looked. Not old as in decrepit, but old as in mature. She didn't look like a young girl anymore, she looked like a woman. How could he have been gone so long and thought that nothing would change?

"You're not married, right?" He remembered his fears from earlier, and the question came out unbidden.

"What made you ask that?"

"Some things that you and Chalmer were saying made me feel like maybe you had gotten married and not talked to me about it first."

"Come on. That would never happen."

She gave him a look that made him feel like he was being ridiculous. Maybe he was. But the look also made him feel like maybe she hadn't considered him for a marriage partner. Just that she would tell him if she did. That wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear.

"You go on outside. Shanna is expecting you. I'm going to go get some ice."

What was that in her tone? She sounded a little…annoyed?

Maybe she was annoyed that instead of having a nice conversation with him, she was going to be fixing up his face. He wasn't sure. Regardless, he said, "Do you think you can get yourself outside without some other dude trying to drag you off?"

"You know, in all my life, I've never had a problem with men wanting to drag me off somewhere. Figures you'd walk in on the night where that suddenly became an issue."

"I think maybe you just have never noticed."

She laughed. "I don't think so. But if you want to phrase it that way, I guess I'm not going to argue with you."

"I'm glad I walked in when I did," he said, his eyes serious.

Some of the amusement faded out of her face as she nodded in agreement. "Me too." Then she smiled again, but it didn't seem to reach her eyes. "Go on. I'm coming."

He jerked his head up, still watching her, because she just wasn't acting quite right, and he knew that once they went out with Shanna, he wouldn't have a chance to ask her about it. But she turned and started walking away before he could say anything, and so he walked outside, determined that whatever it took, he would get to the bottom of it.