“The doctor says not to try too hard and the memories will come back in time,” Raoul told her.
“Will they?” Cantara wondered if she wanted them to. She knew bad things that gave her nightmares and pain had happened to her. Now she felt safe. Why not start her life anew from today?
“Sure they will.” Raoul kissed her cheek. “But now, I’m gonna cook us something to eat and then I guess you’ll want to sleep. You have a lot of adjustments to make.”
“Yellow!” She jumped with excitement. “You promised me a yellow room.”
They shared a glance and smiled simultaneously. “And we keep our promises,” Raoul said. “Well, most of them,” he added, scowling at some memory he didn’t choose to share with her. “Come see for yourself.”
He was like a little boy on Christmas morning, bursting with excitement as he took her hand and led her down a corridor. Zeke opened a door and she found herself in a huge room, painted sunshine yellow, with windows on three sides. A huge, very comfortable-looking bed dominated the room, and the lightwood furnishings and floral drapes were just what she would have chosen for herself. She gasped with delight.
“I saw a room like this, inside my head, when…I don’t know when. But I saw it.”
“We kept it for you, even though we thought you were…” Raoul shot Zeke a look and his words trailed off. “Well, we haven’t been in here for a long time.”
She wondered why not, but didn’t ask. “Your clothes from before are in there,” Raoul said, indicating the walk-in closet. “They’ll be too big right now, but we can get you new things. And the bathroom’s right through that door.”
“Do you want to rest before supper?” Zeke asked. “You’ve been through a lot today.”
“No, I want to stay with you all.” She blinked, surprised by the spontaneous admission.
“Come on then, darlin’,” Raoul said, holding out his hand. “You can sit in the other room, while we fix you a welcome home dinner.”
Zeke sat with Cantara while Raoul busied himself in the kitchen. She seemed distant, but less anxious than she had been, hopefully at ease with them here in the home they had built for her, never expecting her to occupy it. The yellow room had been made for the three of them to share. Neither he nor Raoul had set foot in it once the decorating and furnishing was done and they had filled it with Cantara’s possessions. A shrine to the woman they loved and had let down when she’d needed them the most. Same went for Iesha. She was the perfect mare for Cantara—spirited, beautiful, and just a little wilful. Breaking the mare to saddle had somehow made Zeke feel closer to Cantara’s spirit.
Now, against all the odds, they were blessed with the return of the woman herself. This time they would not fail her.
“Thanks, bud,” Zeke said as Raoul handed him a beer and placed a cup of Earl Grey at Cantara’s side. She looked at it for a protracted moment, as though wondering what she was supposed to do with it, and then smiled.
“Thank you, Raoul,” she said in a soft, sultry voice that sounded as though it hadn’t gotten much use over the past few years.
Raoul’s smile was wider than the Mississippi. “It’s entirely my pleasure, darlin’,” he replied, briefly touching her face because, like Zeke, he could get enough of touching her.
“It’s hard for me,” she said, surprising Zeke by speaking without being asked a question. It was virtually the first time it had happened and caused Raoul to stop chopping vegetables and look up at her expectantly.
“What is, sugar?” Zeke asked, knowing full well what she would most likely say.
“Not being able to remember who I am. It’s like someone has drawn a curtain through my mind. Occasionally it flaps open and I see glimpses of things.”
“Like the yellow room?”
“Yes, like that.”
“It was important to you, sugar. That’s probably why. So was coming to live in Wyoming, and you remembered that name.” Zeke paused. “And our names, too.”
“I thought you weren’t real,” she said. “I kept seeing your faces but I thought I was dreaming again when you came to get me from that plane.”
The pathos in her tone broke Zeke’s heart. “We’re real, sweetheart, and we’re never gonna let you out of our sight again.”
“I’m figuring you’ll remember more and more real quick now,” Raoul said from the kitchen as he supervised his grilled fish. “Every day you’ll feel a little stronger, a little safer, and your mind will be ready to unlock itself.”
She looked distressed. “But what if it doesn’t?”
Zeke picked up her hand and kissed each of her fingers in turn. “Then we’ll help you, sweet thing. Never doubt it for a moment.”
“We’ve got a specialist coming to see you tomorrow,” Raoul said. “I just spoke to his office and fixed it up. He doesn’t usually make house calls, but for a special lady like you, he’s willing to make an exception.”
She tensed up. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”
“I already told you,” Zeke said gently. “You never have to be alone again.”
“But why can’t I remember?” she asked, frowning. “Why do I know what some things are instinctively and yet I can’t remember what happened last week?”
“You hurt your head,” Zeke told her, because she didn’t seem to know. “Bad bangs to the head sometimes cause memory problems.”
“Oh, perhaps that’s why I get so many headaches.”
“You need to tell the doctor about those tomorrow,” Zeke said. “He’ll be able to help you, I expect.”
“Yes, perhaps he will.” She shared a protracted glance between them. “The lady on the plane told me I was going to meet my husband. Is one of you my husband?”
How to answer that one? “Would you like one of us to be?” Zeke countered cautiously.