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"Don't worry."

Jack saw the welts on my legs that had resulted from Buster's whipping me with his leather belt.

"Maybe I should get you to a doctor or a traiteur," he suggested. "That doesn't look so good."

"It's all right. The skin wasn't broken. I'll put some ice on the bumps afterward."

"I forgot," he said smiling. "You're on your way to becoming a doctor. Comes in handy having you around."

I felt so dirty after what I had been through that I stayed in the shower until Jack knocked on the door to see if I was all right.

"Pearl!"

"I'm okay," I cried. I just stood there enjoying the warm water in my hair. I heard him open the door.

"I'll leave the clothing here," he shouted. I turned off the water and pulled back the curtain to peer out. He had given me a pair of his dungarees, one of his plaid shirts, and a pair of his slippers and socks.

"You can keep the pants on with this piece of rope," he said when I laughed. "I'm sorry I don't have any skirts."

"It'll do for now. Thanks."

"You okay?"

"I a now," I said. He beamed,

"I made some hot tea, and I've got biscuits and jam waiting."

"Thanks, Jack."

After I dried myself and put on his clothes, I wrapped the towel around my hair. He looked up from the stove when I emerged.

"I feel like a new person, especially in these clothes," I said. I had rolled up the legs on the dungarees to make them shorter, but they were still much too large for me, as was Jack's shirt. "I guess I'm a pretty funny sight, huh?"

"You look great to me. Never knew my clothes would look that good on anyone." He smiled and then his smile turned quickly into a stern expression. "Now sit yourself down," he said, pointing to the chair.

His anger took me by surprise, and I sat down quickly. "What's wrong?"

He folded his arms across his chest and straightened his shoulders.

"How dare you go off with someone like that and just leave me a note? Do you know I came this close," he said, pinching his thumb and forefinger together, "to missing it? And when I read the name Trahaw, I almost had heart failure. I still can't believe you went into the swamp with that low-life scum."

"Jack, he said he knew where my mother was so ,,

"For a woman who is supposedly so intelligent, you sure do dumb things."

I looked down, my chin quivering.

"I'm sorry I'm bawling you out, Pearl, but when I saw you were gone and I realized you had gone into the swamp with that guy, I felt about as low as I ever felt in my life. I thought for sure I was never going to see you again."

I lifted my tear-filled eyes to him and saw he was very sincere.

"I'm sorry, Jack. It was stupid of me. I should have talked with you first."

"Yeah, well, maybe. He probably would have tried to stop you, though, and that might have even been worse," he offered in a compromising tone.

"I can't imagine it being worse than it was, Jack," I said.

He nodded and then turned when the teakettle whistled. He prepared me a cup of tea and gave me the biscuits and jam.