TESSIBEL'S DISCOVERY
Frederick stood for one tense minute watching Tessibel hurry over the
rocks. Many times he had pictured this interview, ... even framed the
sentences in which he would express his remorse and win her forgiveness.
It had never occurred to his brooding thought that the years of absence
which had increased his own ardor, might have lessened the squatter
girl's regard for him. But the meeting wasn't working out as he'd
planned. He'd been almost paralyzed at her coming, speechless except for
the few halting words of entreaty. Now, it dawned upon him that she was
going away without a word, that she was taking the child with her, and
that he might never see either of them again.
"Tessibel," he called hoarsely. "Stop, or ... I'll tell Waldstricker."
His words brought Tess to a standstill. The threat filled her with fear,
for well she knew the elder's power. Still keeping hold of Boy's hand,
she retraced her steps.
"Why did you come here?" she asked, fear and distaste making her voice
cold and hard.
"To see you and ... him." Frederick pointed to the child, who was now
hiding behind his mother's skirts.
"Well, now you've seen us."
Frederick stared at the speaker, his lips pursed with surprise. Was this
Tess Skinner, the squatter girl? The voice was hers, but its tones were
resonant with contempt! Face and form he recognized, but not the new
poise, the dignity of her motherhood. The brown eyes he remembered as
lighted by love, now expressed unutterable abhorrence.
"Tess, dear Tess," he pleaded, "let me talk to you."
Tess stooped over the child, rearranged his little waist, and pushed
back the curly hair.
"Boy go home now, and mother'll come directly."
She kissed the bewildered upturned face. The baby couldn't understand
what was going on.... Mummy seemed sad, and the nice man, who was so
white and sick looking, had spoken angrily to his beautiful mother.
"I'd rather stay wif you," he lisped.
"But Mummy asks Boy to go," said Tess, and to the dog, "Here, Petey, go
home with Boy."
Placing his hand on the dog's collar, the child turned slowly and
unwillingly toward the house. He'd taken but a few halting steps along
the rocks before Frederick's voice rang out.
"Tess, Tessibel, let me hold him ... kiss him once more. Don't shake
your head! Don't say no! I've wanted him so all these years. Oh,
Tessibel!"
His pitiful pleading touched the listening girl. At last, face to face
with the man whose cowardice and selfishness had brought her so much
trouble, her one desire was to escape ... to run away. But he was
begging for her to be kind, to allow him to hold her baby!... What right
had he to kiss him?... To be sure, the child was his, too, but--but--
"Oh, No! No! I don't want you to!" she cried, protesting. "You can never
be anything in his life. Why don't you let us alone?"
Frederick had walked very close to her side by this time, his white face
twitching.
"I must kiss him once more," he persisted.
Tess turned to the loitering child. She could see that at a word of
assent from her, Boy would rush into the outstretched arms Frederick
held toward him. The mother, with a twist at her heart, recognized the
tie which drew together this man and her son. A dreadful fear clutched
her. Would Frederick do as he had threatened, hoping that he might thus
come in contact with his son? Her mind flew to Deforrest Young.... He
must never know the name of Boy's father. She could feel the blood
coursing madly through her temples, and her head ached dully.
Nevertheless, she went back and took hold of the child's hand.
"You may kiss the gentleman ... good-bye," she said in a constrained
voice.
"The pretty man was goin' to be my faver," said the child, pleadingly.
"I want a daddy awful bad."
"Yes, yes, I know," Tess returned tremulously. "Now hurry, dear, and
then run home."
Only too gladly did the child jump away and bound into his father's
extended arms.
"Mummy says I has to go home," he whispered.
While the tall man silently caressed the dark curls of her boy, Tess of
the Storm Country endured such pain as she'd never known before. The
mutual attraction between the two, so differently related to her, seemed
anomalous and impossible.
Frederick unwillingly allowed the child to slip to the rocks and after
Tess'd started Boy and the dog on their homeward way, she stood before
him, her lips quivering. She knew he, too, suffered, and she waited
quietly as he dried his eyes and recovered his choking breath.
She was sorry he'd come. She'd hoped never to see him again. But, now,
she must be assured that he would continue the deception in regard to
the past. As anxious as she had once been to have him claim her as his
own, to tell the world she belonged to him, she, now, wanted to keep
silent.
"It was useless for you to come," she chided presently.
Frederick made an impetuous movement with his hand.
"Oh, no, it wasn't.... Won't you let me atone, let me make up for all
the things I've done ... and haven't done? I want--oh, how I want--"
"It's too late," interrupted the girl. "Much too late."
"But, Tessibel, I know you love me. You can't have forgotten. And I'll
make the boy love me. He does now! Didn't you hear him call me father?"
"He has no father," she responded coldly. "And I--I haven't any love
left for you."
The words were low but distinctly spoken.
"I don't believe it!... I won't!... You shall love me!... I won't have
you with Young. ... He can see my boy every day ... be with you hour
after hour.... I hate him!"
"You hate him!" Tessibel's eyes burned and flashed with indignation.
"When you should be grateful, because he's done everything you should've
done.... You've said all you can. You can't make up to us ... the baby
and me.... Won't you please go?"
Frederick felt he was losing his reason. The love he'd nursed in secret,
the passion that had wasted him away, shook his frail frame. He wouldn't
be denied!
"God help me, I won't go!" he gritted, the words carrying on his
thought.
With one sweep of his arms, he encircled Tess in a close embrace. She
made frantic efforts to free herself, but Frederick, strong under the
emotion consuming him, only hugged her closer.
"Let me go!" Tess almost screamed the words. Then, her voice changed to
a tense whisper, hoarse with loathing. "How can ... oh, how dare you!"
But she could not protect her face from the searching mouth. Violently,
Frederick twisted her around and for one moment his lips fell upon hers.
Deep groans came between the kisses he thrust upon her.
A moment later the sound of advancing steps lifted Frederick's face from
hers. Muttering an oath, he threw Tess forcibly from him, for there in
the path was Ebenezer Waldstricker, about whose sagging lips played a
supercilious smile.
"So I was not mistaken," he sneered, looking his brother-in-law full in
the face. "If Madelene doesn't care, I do."
"Well?" growled Frederick. "You've found me here, now do what you cursed
want to, I don't care."
"Perhaps you'll care before I finish," said the elder grimly, and he
included the girl in his baleful glare. "I think you both will."
Tessibel's mind flew to Boy. What could these two men do to her darling?
She went forward toward Waldstricker, her eyes raised appealingly to
his.
"Won't you make Mr.... Mr. Graves keep away?" she petitioned. "I don't
want him here."
"Yes, it looked, when I came around the corner, as if you didn't want
him, miss," scoffed the elder. Then he laughed, and the laugh cut the
throbbing girl to the quick. "Very much as if you wanted him to go....
Now, then, sir, what's this girl to you?"
"I'm nothing to him, Mr. Waldstricker," she asserted, without giving
Frederick a chance to speak.
Graves still felt that maddening passion, that demand for his own.
"She lies," he said in low tones.
Tess turned to him passionately.
"You know what I say is true. You came here without my desiring it! I
don't want anything to do with you.... Haven't you both harmed me
enough?... Do I ever come around and hurt you?... Why don't you tell the
truth?"
"All right," he shouted, his irritation at her resistance overcoming his
fear of the elder. "If you want the truth, here it is. I'm----"
"Don't! Don't!" screamed Tess.
"Ah!" hissed Waldstricker's lips like a jet of steam.
He'd caught within his powerful net the girl he wanted. He'd bring to
light the secret that'd preyed upon his sister's spirits so long. For
the squatter girl he felt no pity, for Frederick only contempt. They
were both weaklings that he'd sweep away in his pursuit of Young and the
squatters.
"He's sick," said Tessibel, trying to discount Frederick's confession.
"Your brother-in-law's sick. You can see that!... He thinks ... why,
he's mad!"
"I'm not mad!" Frederick turned upon her fiercely, then back to the big
man whose eagerness bent him forward. "I'm the father of her boy."
The blood left Waldstricker's face, so that it looked like carved
marble.
"So 'tis so," he got out, "and you admit it, you cur, and you dared to
marry my sister? Now, as God lets me live, you'll both suffer for this,
and as for you, Tessibel Skinner, look out for that bastard of yours!"
The squatter girl uttered a heart-broken cry, and turning, fled around
the rocks into the lane and up the hill.