Chapter 6

Champ paced nervously back and forth in the locked service porch. The house had been silent for some time. He knew that the man he so hated had left but still no one had come to let him out of the room. A growing sense of desertion was sweeping over him. There had been such a sense of trust and love between him and Ws young mistress that he felt doubly betrayed by her incomprehensible treatment of him. He had sensed that his duty was to protect her from the man called Hank, but she had stopped him and seemed to be punishing him for his loyalty by locking him up. And then his keen senses had told him that Hank and the girl were having sex, and the jealousy of his own frustration had been added to his unease.

The big dog suddenly stopped his pacing and his ears pricked forward alertly as he heard slow steps coming towards the door. There was a fumbling with the lock and then the door swung open to reveal Patty standing there, her familiar face curiously dull and expressionless. The dog had his usual impulse to leap forward and show his joy at seeing her, but he automatically held back, stopped by something different and unfamiliar in her manner. He felt uneasy and somehow his animal mind connected it with the fact she had earlier spoken harshly to him and locked him up. In his confusion, the handsome animal slunk around her and headed out of the house.

He could not know that Patty was still reacting from the shame and shock of her near rape by Hank. It had been some time before she had been able to get out of bed. Her whole body ached from the strain of the distorted sexual positions Hank had forced her into, especially the tender area between her legs. She felt that her secret parts had been so bruised and battered that she would never be able to make love again. Indeed, she didn't know if she would ever want to. Hank had ripped something from her soul when he had so brutally violated her; her childlike innocence. She would never make love again with quite the animal- like joyfulness that had previously characterized her brief experience with sensuality. She now had a knowledge of evil. She was initiated into the world of men.

The beautiful young girl slowly pulled on her clothes and went to let her dog out of the room in which she had so foolishly locked him. How different it all might have been if she had paid attention to his unerring instincts and had refused to let Hank in the house. As it was, when she opened the door to the porch she could not look the animal in the eye. She, too, felt that somehow she had betrayed his loyalty. Her mind was too numbed by the events of this terror-filled morning to notice at first the dog's reaction to her, and a kind of delayed surprise came over her after the handsome animal had walked wide around her, obviously avoiding her. She watched unbelievingly as he headed out the front door that Hank had left open and vanished into the sun- drenched yard.

She realized that her self-absorption with her own mental pain was cutting her off from the one being in the whole world that she loved next to her mother. She stood frozen for a moment in indecision and then darted toward the front door.

"Champ, Champ," she called her voice beginning to break with pent-up emotion. As she stepped out into the yard, she was blinded a moment by the sunlight. Where was he, where was Champ? She looked anxiously from side to side, and then she saw him. He was running towards her, cutting a path through the long grass that made a jungle out of the yard.

Champ had been heading for a secret place that he had gone to whenever he wanted to be alone. Then he had heard her voice calling his name, and a glad light began to shine again in his eyes. He turned instantly with one powerful motion and began to run back towards the house. He saw her then and she began to run towards him. In a moment they were together, and he leaped up and put his paws on her shoulders and began licking her face. She threw her soft young arms around his powerful neck, and he could taste the salt of her tears.

They went together out into the yard and settled down together, secure once again in the closeness and trust of their relationship. Patty lay on her back, her head pillowed on the great animal's powerful body, while the terror and despair of the morning slowly faded from her resilient young mind...

And that was the way Danny found them later that afternoon.

It had taken all morning for the handsome youth to summon up the courage to come over and talk to Patty. He had felt a deep sense of guilt over trying to take advantage of the younger girl the night before. At first he had been hurt when she had run from him after his fumbling attempt at seducing her, and he had gone home that night sure that he would never see her again.

But the next morning he realized it was only foolish pride that was leading his mind in such gloomy directions. And at the same time he realized all over again how much Patty meant to him. He finally resolved to go over to her house and ask her forgiveness. It wasn't quite that easy, however. Once the Edwards' house was in sight he got cold feet. He sat in a thick slump of reeds and bushes a couple of hundred yards away just watching the place. What if Mrs. Edwards was home, he thought to himself? And what if she heard what they were talking about?

A terrible thought occurred to him. What if Patty had told her mother about last night? He knew he'd die of shame if Patty's mother accused him of trying to seduce her daughter. Just thinking of Mrs. Edwards upset him. There was something about the older woman that made him tongue-tied and nervous in her presence. She was... well... she made him feel... Then he finally blurted it out to himself.

Goddamn, she was sexy! Yeah, that was it, Patty's mother really turned him on. To his horror he began imagining how Mrs. Edwards would look naked. He pictured himself running Ws hands over those big ripe breasts, and his virile young cock started to swell in his pants. With a terrible effort he tore his mind away from these lewd exciting thoughts. Damn, it was almost incest to be thinking this way about the mother of the girl he loved.

There seemed to be nothing moving over at the Edwards' place, and that may have been what decided him to pluck up his faltering spirits and cross the road and start up the long dirt driveway. Probably nobody was home anyhow.

He was moving across the yard just a few paces from where he and Patty had been passionately locked together last night when he saw a quick movement and heard a low warning growl. Champ's fierce head appeared above the grass, his ears sharply alert. Then the big dog relaxed as he recognized Danny. Patty's head popped up along side Champ's.

"Danny," she said with obvious delight. "Oh, Danny, I'm so glad to see you."

"You are?" Danny replied incredulously. Somehow this wasn't the dramatic scene he had expected. "I kind of thought after last night..." his voice trailed away.

"What do you mean?" she said, her face genuinely puzzled. Then understanding came to her. She blushed a little. "Oh, that!"

Then it all came tumbling out of the embarrassed young boy in a rush.

"I'm really sorry that happened," he blurted. "I don't know what came over me--I guess what I did was inexcusable..." To his confusion he saw that the more he said the darker and more threatening Patty's face became.

"Danny Peters," she said sternly, her hands planted on her hips. "What do you think I am, some helpless ninny? It just so happens that I liked making love to you, so don't you go apologizing as if we'd polluted each other." Then she couldn't keep from laughing as she saw the hopelessly lost expression on Danny's face. After a moment he was laughing too, and the next thing they knew they were locked together in a long passionate kiss. It was some time before they came up for air.

"I'm the one that should be sorry," Patty said. "I just couldn't handle it last night. And then Champ started barking and I was afraid Mom would come. Oh, Danny," she said tears brimming up in her eyes. "I wish I had let you, I wish you had been the first man to have me, because now..." she couldn't continue as sobs began to shake her vibrantly young body.

"W-What do you mean?" Danny asked haltingly, his joy at her tender loving words tempered by fear that he was about to hear something he didn't want to. A horrible suspicion was forming in his mind. "W-was there someone else last night?" He had to force the words out, a terrible jealousy making him feel sick to his stomach.

"Not last night," Patty said, hating to tell him of her sordid shame but needing to. "It was this morning. Hank... Hank Jones came over after Mom left. He made me do awful things. He told me he'd kill Champ if I didn't. Oh, Danny it was terrible," the distraught young girl said, her body shaking with shame and grief. "You don't hate me, do you? I had to do it, he forced me!"

Each time she said this some of the guilt she felt for her shamelessly passionate reaction to Hank's loveless caresses dropped away from her. She was beginning to remember only Hank's threats and the pain he had caused her. Deep in her unconscious mind she was building a mental defense which she could reinforce by sharing it with Danny. Then her own wild response would be buried. She would never have to admit that Hank had aroused her as she had never been aroused before. No! It was rape, she had not enjoyed it! She was blameless!

But she had not expected the strength of Danny's response. His face twisted as the blood rushed to it, his jealousy channeled into rage and hatred.

"The dirty son of a bitch," he choked out. "I'll kill him. My dad has a shot gun. I'll go home and get it and kill him. I'll blow his rotten balls off." He was actually starting to turn away, but Patty held tightly to his arm, frightened.

"Oh, no, Danny, Don't do it. He's mean--he'll kill you."

"I'm not afraid of that fat slob," Danny snarled, rage still his master. "And I'm not afraid of the cops either. That pig is finished."

"Oh, no, don't!" Patty wailed. "You'll get us both in trouble. Can't you see? What will people say about me? It's just like telling the whole world what's happened if you do anything crazy like that, and I just couldn't stand having people know."

This fine of reasoning cooled the young avenger's anger a little. It also gave him time to reflect on how dangerous a road he was embarking on. He stood for a moment irresolutely shifting his weight from one leg to another.

"But what'll we do?" he asked in confusion. "We can't just let him get away with it. And what's to keep him from doing it again?"

"Oh, I don't know," Patty said, tears once again coming to her eyes. "I just needed to tell somebody, somebody who would understand. Please don't make things harder for me than they already are." And she sank down in a heap of dejected misery, her shoulders shaking from silent sobs.

Danny stood irresolutely for a minute, not knowing what to do. Then he awkwardly knelt and put his arm around the distraught girl's shoulder. She clung to him fiercely seeing in him some kind of potential salvation.

Danny thought for a moment and then tried another tack.

"I know it might be hard," he said gently, "but maybe you should tell your mother. She might be able to help."

Patty looked up at him embarrassed. "Well..." she started... "Well, it's like this. Mom and Hank have something going. I just don't know what I'd say to her. 'Hey Mom, your boy friend raped me!'"

"You mean that fat slob is your mother's boy friend?" Danny blurted out before he had time to think. He looked up guiltily as signs of anger returned to Patty's tear-stained face.

"Now you just be careful what you say about my mother," she said sharply. And then, "Oh, I'm sorry, Danny. I suppose it looks bad, but Hank really isn't Mom's boy friend, I--I just said that. He comes over to see her every once in a while. I guess she gets a little lonely now that Dad is gone."

She left it to Danny to infer the rest, but he kept his mouth shut this time. The two young people sat disconsolately on the grass together for several minutes without saying a word. The youth had his arm around Patty's shoulder and her head was resting on his chest. Champ came over and sat down against them, his big handsome body adding a measure of strength and protection to the little group. Patty reached out and ran her hand affectionately up and down his back.

"Maybe we'd better just wait and see if he comes back," she said, a brave smile on her lips. "Champ will warn me if he does."

"Maybe we could figure some way to trap him," Danny said with a slight edge of excitement. "Maybe..."

"Oh, lets not talk about it any more," Patty said, placing her hands over her ears. "I want to get it out of my mind for a while," she turned so that her head was now lying in Danny's lap. She smiled up at him. "You'll help me if there's any more trouble, won't you?"

Danny's young heart leaped in his breast. Two days ago this would have been beyond his wildest dreams. The girl he loved curled up in his lap, looking up at him with her big blue eyes, asking him to protect her. At that moment he would have gladly tackled a lion for her. As he looked down at her she shifted to a more comfortable position, and he could see her proudly upthrust breasts sway as if they were alive inside the thin material of her summer dress. She was obviously not wearing a brassiere, and her peaked little nipples were all-too-evident through the flimsy material. The top two or three buttons had been left undone, and his warm, glowing eyes moved hungrily down her firm cleavage, imagining the creamy flesh that lay just out of sight.

Then to his growing horror he realized that his restlessly stirring cock was swelling in his pants as he stared down in sex- starved hunger at this lovely creature lying so intimately against him. My God, he thought. Her head was in his lap, and she couldn't help but feel his growing stiffness. He tried to move so that her head was on his thigh, but it was too late. She, too, felt the burgeoning staff inside his pants, and her eyes widened in surprise. Then a tremendous tidal wave of tenderness swept over her.

She had been brutalized this morning; used as the helpless receptacle for the lust of a heartless savage. She had responded in lust, but without true passion and feeling. Now she was lying in the arms of someone she loved, someone for whom she could feel passion without shame. She sensed that this was the opportunity to wipe out the meaningless degradation of this morning by giving herself unreservedly to Danny. She knew he loved her, she knew they belonged together.