Chapter 22

A week later the beans ran out. When Mary got up from her crouch, bending over to pull a helping of beans from their burlap sack, her expression was one of total bewilderment. This should not have come as a surprise. Lou had watched her retrieve beans at each meal and the dwindling supply was evident even from where he lay clear across the room. Logic seemed to be another of the many victims of her fits. She'd been surprised when he rejected her intimate advances. She tied him up, made him live in his own filth, and then expected him to want her sexually? Now, she showed surprise at having run out of beans.

Lou watched Mary's reaction to the end of the beans closely. This most recent fit of hers had gone on day after day, and Mary spent more and more time staring off into space, talking to her voices, and just plain acting weird. He wasn't about to try and guess how she might respond to this turn of events. Nothing would surprise him. If he could find a way to use this development, it could be a real opportunity. Anything was worth a try.

"What are you gonna do?" Lou prodded when Mary's silence drug on over several minutes. From the non-plused look on her face, he knew she didn't have an answer. So far she hadn't tipped her head to listen to the damn voices, so he had a chance, if he struck quickly. Once Lucifer started talking, Lou knew he wouldn't have a chance of working this one to his advantage.

"We'll figure it out. Don't you worry about it." But this new situation seemed to have Lucifer temporarily stymied as much as it did Mary.

For a moment, the way her face scrunched up and her eyes got all moist, Lou thought she might even start crying. She didn't though. She just continued to crouch next to the empty bag of beans. Cocking her head to one side and then the other, Lou thought she was seeking her voices. Apparently they weren't talking. Just maybe he really had a decent chance. Just maybe he could come up with something that Lucifer would accept before the crazy bastard came up with his own answer. Lou kept talking. If it was going to work, Lou knew he had to keep Mary's attention away from Lucifer. "Look, I've already promised not to try and go anywhere. Why don't you let me up from here and we'll figure out an answer together."

"I've already told you. You aren't going to get up. I can't let you go off and leave me. Lucifer will have a solution, just you wait and see."

"Well I don't have a hell of a lot of choice in the matter. Now do I?"

The pout on Mary's face told Lou he was right. The voices had left her holding the bag, as it were. "I'm telling you, we'll find a way to feed you. Trust us that much."

He couldn't help responding to a statement as dumb as that one. "Lady, trust is what got me into this blanket. I don't think you and your friends are gonna find any answers to this one."

"I can't eat the goat meat, plain and simple. Hell, I could hardly do it when I had my teeth. Sure as hell can't chew it now." Lou shifted on the bed, throwing his weight to turn onto his shoulder and hip and make stronger eye contact. "Look. If you let me up, I can take you and me to town, we'll get us some beans, maybe a few other supplies, and come right back."

Mary sat on the floor next to the empty bean sack biting at her lower lip. At Lou's suggestion, she shook her head. Then stillness overtook her, that blasted pose she struck when listening to the voices.

Damn, Lou cursed, one more hope dashed against the demented mind of his crazy young captor.

Lucifer was adamant. "If you let him up, he's going to get you. He'll beat the living shit out of you."

"I don't like the two of you having him all bound up like that in the first place, but Lucifer's right," Mother agreed. "If you turn him loose now, he would most probably want revenge. Wouldn't you, if the tables were turned? I don't want to see my little girl hurt."

"Don't worry, Mother. I'm not about to let him up. Not ever! We'll just have to find another way to take care of him."

Abruptly turning away from the voices, Mary pushed herself up off the floor. Frustration pulled at her mouth. Lucifer hadn't had an answer. What was she supposed to do? It wasn't fair for Lucifer to put her in such a position. Her lower lip began to tremble slightly. She looked across at Lou. He's helpless as a babe, she thought. He needs me now, and I don't have an answer. She pulled her eyes away and focused on her fingers twisting and twining in her lap. It isn't fair, she thought again, for the umpteenth time. With a long, deep breath, Mary pulled her spine erect. She did not need Lou trying to finagle around and use this turn of event to his advantage. It wasn't difficult to see that he was trying, but even though, as Mother said, he couldn't be blamed for a perfectly normal reaction to his situation, Mary did not need the extra pressure. With or without Lucifer's help, by Heaven, she'd find an answer. She would not let Lou up. She looked over at Lou and put her hands on her hips. His scheming needed to end. "I've told you and told you. I'm beginning to be annoyed at having to continually repeat myself. You aren't going anywhere. We aren't going to let you out of that blanket. Do you understand?"

"I do, Mary. I do understand. But we're both going to get hungry. I'm just offering to help, is all."

Mary cocked an eye at Lou. Was his offer genuine? Could the last few days have resolved Lou's affections, brought him to realize he cared for her too deeply to ever want to leave her? He'd said they could go to town and come right back. Mary's heart began pounding its rhythm in her ears. Maybe she could trust him. He'd been as cooperative as she could hope for, well, outside of his turning down her sexual attentions. Breath catching on hope, Mary's gazed lingered on Lou's calmly helpful expression. Surely she could trust him.

She'd no more than thought that thought than Lucifer jumped back in. "Don't be an idiot. That lousy bastard will say anything to get control. If you let him go, he'll wrap you up in that blanket and be down the canyon faster than fat fries in a fire. If you don't control him, I'll take control. Understand?" he hissed.

"Lord knows I hate to say it, but he is right, Mary. Don't give Lou a chance to get control back. Don't worry, dear. We'll find a way to feed him."

"And he won't starve while we figure it out," Lucifer added. With a cackle, he finished the argument. "If Mother is agreeing with me, I must be right."

Mary sighed. "You are right, I can't take the chance." Finally, Mary spoke to Lou again. "I can't be letting you go. Not now, not later, not ever."

"Lucifer doesn't like for you to keep asking me to let you free, either. For your own sake, you have to remember, he really does have a fearful temper. I'm afraid he'll have me do something to you, something terrible." Even as she plead with Lou, her mind replayed her dance for the devil. A shiver worked its way through her, right up her spine and across her shoulders. Lucifer had made his point quite well. If she didn't keep her thumb on top of Lou, Lucifer would be calling every move she made.

Lou lay in his blanket roll, arms cramped into stiffness from lack of movement, legs near numb. Pushing for Mary to let him up seemed to be getting him further from getting out, not closer. One thing he knew for a fact, though. He did not want to find out just how much crazier this whole situation could get. Whatever he said to Mary now, he needed to keep from getting Lucifer angry. Her warning was clear enough. It was time to back up a little. But he wasn't about to give up. Not yet.

"Alright. I won't ask again. I got that clear. But you still have a real problem, Mary. What are you going to do about feeding us?"

"I don't know. Maybe Mother will have an idea. I'll keep looking. We'll figure out something."

Lou's eyes followed Mary as she sank back onto the chair at the plank table. Half moons of worry set beneath her eyes. She didn't look as if she believed her own words, but her back remained straight. Who's more crazy, Lou wondered, as once more he found himself caught up by a mix of fondness and loathing. Throughout this entire conversation, from the time Mary found the bean sack empty, he watched her slip from frustration to anger to determination. When a pout pulled at her lips, lips that had passionately pressed against his, he felt the pull inside. As her frustration transformed to anger, Lou's gut curled into a tight ball. And despite himself, despite the crazy center of this fragile, auburn haired female, when Mary's spine straightened in determination, Lou felt admiration. Damn, I am as crazy as she is, he decided. Laying here trussed up like a Christmas goose, if I can forget for one minute how I got here and who's responsible, I've got to be out of my mind.