An Unexpected Pleasure (The Mad Morelands #4)(97)

“I hardly know where to begin,” Dennis sighed.

“How about with what happened to you?” Theo asked. “I thought you were dead when we left.”

“I was near enough to it,” Dennis agreed. “I don’t know exactly what happened. The last thing I remember was fighting with Coffey.”

“Then he was the one who stabbed you?” Megan asked.

Dennis nodded. “Yes. I could tell that he wanted the things we had discovered in the cave. I could not keep watch on him, because I was tending to you. I was busy with the villagers, too. Trying to find out everything about them.” He paused, then added a little sheepishly, “And talking to Tanta.”

“Who?”

“The woman who healed you, Theo. She was one of the Chosen—a sort of priestess and healer. Only the best and most beautiful are admitted into their company, and they remain there at the temple until they marry, usually to a priest or warrior. I—she was beautiful. And I spent too much time with her.” His expression turned grim. “Time I should have spent paying attention to what Coffey was doing.”

“Did you catch him trying to steal something?” Megan asked.

“Yes. I found a sack beside his belongings, and I saw that there were goblets and bowls in it. I heard him in the inner cave, and I went in there to confront him. He—when I saw him, I realized how far gone he was in his desire for their gold. He had draped that golden cloak about him, and when I walked in, he was trying on a magnificent mask. It was gold, a jaguar mask, with an elaborate headdress attached to it. The eyes were emeralds. I told him to stop it, to take it all off. I told him he would anger the villagers, that they would hurt him for mocking their religion. He looked at me and said he was not mocking it.”

Dennis gave a little shiver. “Even now, it unnerves me. It was so eerie, looking at him in that unearthly mask. He scarcely even sounded like himself. I went forward to jerk that mask from his head, and that is when he picked up the knife and attacked me. I was so stunned, I didn’t move quickly enough. He had slashed me before I knew what he was about. Of course, I fought back. We stumbled back into the main cave in the course of our struggle. You came to.” He nodded toward Theo. “You tried to help me, but he pushed you away and you fell. Hit your head or passed out from your illness, I’m not sure. He had cut me several times. I was growing weaker. I stumbled and fell, and he was on me. He stabbed me, and that is the last thing I remember. When I woke up, he was gone. So were you. Hell, I wasn’t even in the cave anymore. I was down in the village. The villagers had carried me there and tended to me. They saved my life—pulled me back from the very brink of death.”

“I thought you were already dead,” Theo repeated. “God, Den, I’m sorry. I—when I came to, Coffey told me you were dead. You looked gone, and I never doubted him. I was so weak. I didn’t want to leave your body. I wanted to take you with us, but he insisted that we did not have the time. I regretted it a thousand times that I let him rush me off. I should have stayed. Or taken you with me.”

“It is just as well that you did not,” Megan pointed out crisply. “Mr. Coffey would have finished Dennis off if you had taken him with you.”

“She’s right,” Dennis agreed. “The villagers healed me. If I had been with you, I would have been dead by nightfall.”

“But I don’t understand, Dennis,” Megan said, moving closer to him and looking intently into his face. “Why did you stay there? Why did you not come home after you recovered?”

“Because I had fallen in love,” he answered simply. “I married Tanta.”

“But you could at least have told us!” Megan flared. “All those years we thought you were dead. Don’t you know how Da grieved for you—how all of us grieved for you? We blamed Theo for your death. And he labored under a terrible guilt because he had been too weak to save you or even to take your body with him. Why couldn’t you have sent us word? Just a letter to let us know you were alive?”

“It is a very remote place, Megan. It’s not that easy to get mail in or out.”

“In ten years? You could have made one trip out of the jungle, couldn’t you? Couldn’t you have gone to a less remote village and given a letter to someone to send?”

“Yes, yes, of course I could have. I am sorry for your worry, Meg, and your pain. It’s no surprise if you and Da and everyone hate me.”

“Of course I don’t hate you,” Megan replied. “Nor will they. We could not hate you. But I don’t understand why you didn’t think about how we must have been feeling!”

“I did!” He looked at her with tortured eyes. “You must not think I did not care. But I could not tell you. I was sworn to secrecy.” He looked toward Theo. “You know how we had taken an oath, the three of us, not to reveal the existence of that village. We could not let it be destroyed by outsiders.”

“But that would not have happened!” Megan exclaimed. “I understand that this village was untouched, but just because you told Da about its existence, that wouldn’t have meant the whole world would have found out about it. Even if people had learned of it, surely it wouldn’t have brought hordes of visitors to such a remote place.”

“No. You don’t understand. It isn’t just that it is pristine and beautiful, though it is. Very. It isn’t just that the people have not been subject to our diseases, have not been corrupted by the greed of the outside world. It is—well, even Theo doesn’t know just how special the village really is.”