Her Tortured Bear

Chapter 14

The leaves scud over the ground and take small flights into the air. As I toss my head back and raise my eyes to the sky a smile spreads from freckled cheek to cheek. The branches sway like the arms of a soccer crowd and it their chaotic dance they are hypnotically beautiful. My mind relaxes and I feel the happiness of my life bubble up from within. The light I keep inside begins to escape from my pores. Were it not for the passers by I would spin like a little girl again, arms out wide and fingers spread, but instead I keep my hands in my pockets and inhale deeply. This wind carries the fragrance of the woodland, the essence of my childhood days...

“I hope you understand the gravity of the situation that we are in at the moment,” said Salem in a gruff voice. And I was back from my world of thoughts.

“No no I do understand Mr. Bloom. I am just recalling back how it was like to come to these woods when I was younger and my Dad used to let me walk bare feet like this. I mean, I don’t usually hurt my feet but definitely I am very excited,” I replied as he nodded at me.

“ I am going to take you to my house and then I shall attend to your feet. Do you want a doctor to take a look at you?” asked Salem and I said that crepe bandage would be more than fine. I was not feeling that intense pain any longer. How strange the world could be and as stranger as the world we live in.

Yesterday afternoon I was engaged to a bastard like my step-dad himself who would make sure that I was under his thumbs for the rest of my life and if I did not listen to him then I would be raped every single night once he got the chance to have me in bed. And if I still could not be broken then I would be sent off to a mental home and my entire lands would be taken over by that bloody bastard who married my mother just for the sake that he would have a chance to control the things on which he did not have any kind of business being around. But I was not going to say anything at all to him, this man who had just helped me out.

“See we are almost home,” said Salem as he pointed at a quaint little cottage in the direction of his finger and then we could see that a dog was leaping over the boundary in a single leap and I muttered,” That must be Jax.”

“Yeah!! He is. I think you better stay behind me,” said Salem as he made a gesture of keeping me behind him as we both slowed down.

“Whoa boy!!!” said Salem as Jax leaped into his arms and then in his lap. He was not at all fierce or anything of that sort when I saw him and he lapped up Salem’s face like asking him,” Why did you leave me alone for so long? Do you know how much I have missed you!!!”

And I could not help but laugh. Salem was absolutely flustered and my duffel bag fell on the road with a thud. Thankfully there were no people nearby to look at this at all. And then Jax turned his attention towards me. He was growling low in his throat and Salem was going to say something when I nodded my head saying no.

I sat down on my knees and I ignored the pain in my foot and then smiled at him softly. I waited for him to come to me. I did not put out my hand or anything else because I knew that he would see that as a sign of aggression. Jax came down from Salem’s arms and he looked at me and then sniffed me and then waited for me to make some kind of movement. But I sat still and looked at him in the eye. I knew that he would be able to sense that I was not going to harm him in any way and I was there just to love him and show him care and affection just like this man was.

And he started inching towards me slowly and I did not move even one inch. And then he sniffed me and growled lowly and Salem said,” Jax, be a good boy.”

And I winced at the pain in my ankle and he immediately looked at my face which was slightly contorted and then as if asked me where I was hurting. I showed him my ankle and Jax started sniffing me causing me to fall flat on my hips on the road and I looked at Salem who shrugged as if saying I invited this myself. Then suddenly he licked my slightly swollen foot and then licked my face and I smiled widely.

“You know you are the second person who did that?” said Salem as if he was shocked at this happening before his eyes.

“Nope. I had no idea. Who was the first?” I asked as I looked at him and Jax nudged my hand asking me to scratch his head and his throat.

“He likes you and that is a huge deal for me. It is almost as if you passed the first test to coming in my house,” said Salem as he picked me up but he did not answer my question.

“I did not know that there was a test to come in your house as well Mr. Bloom,” I said as I could feel the warmth of his hands shoot straight to my parts where I had never felt warm before. I mean, what the hell was happening to me? He was looking at me with a deep penetrating gaze which I could not fathom at all. But I was feeling all different and I could not understand at all what the reason that I was feeling so was.

“Come on Jax. Leave her be. She is coming home with us only,” and Jax yelped in happiness and I smiled. This was a beautiful dog who was as I said was a seriously misunderstood creature. He opened the wicker gate and I looked at the cottage properly for the first time. It was not wooden or made of bricks. It was made of stone and that itself blew my mind away.

“Did you build this cottage?” I asked as I stared at the cottage with my mouth hanging open.

The cottage looked as if it was straight out of a fairytale with a happy ending or a picture book for little kids. It looked like many things. It was rusty, old and dusty, but rather welcoming. The whole house was made of dark red bricks. A tiny stove, two small wooden chairs, a circular table, a not-so-large matress and that was quite it. Hedges and vines and honeysuckles and so much more. A green gate with paint falling off was the door to the property. Then came a narrow dirt path with small pebble, a tiny pond with lily-pads and a few ducks, maybe a frog or two. A two-metre hedge surrounded the property. Vine grew up the archway and the arched wooden door with brown planks. The grass was green and yellow, scorched by the hot, blazing sun in the summer. Two huge trees, one with red and orange leaves. One of the trees was hollow. A family of squirrels lived there. Occasionally, a woodpecker or an owl would come to visit too.

But that was me thinking like I always did. Like a mad girl whose head was in the clouds. That bastard Dennis always used to tell me that it is not good for girls to dream and they should not also because that only led to more problems in the future.

“Oh no no…I did not. My grandfather built this cottage for my grandma. They both spent the last of their lives here and he wanted me to have this. My family lives a bit inside closer to the city but I wanted some peace and quiet and that is why I chose to come and live here,” said Salem as he opened the door and helped me inside. It was a warm and beautiful on the inside. The kitchen was absolutely modern with all the best kind of fittings and pipes and you would not even know that you were in a stone cottage.

“This looks absolutely comfortable. I mean, how could anyone even build this? Oh dear!!! They must have loved each other very much, isn’t it?” asked I as I looked at the picture of a couple in black and white on the mantle.

“They were. And they loved each other till the end of their lives. I must not boats but my parents are also like them. I mean, they don’t talk so much like Pas and Gran but they are definitely in love. With my parents they will speak so many things without even properly speaking and no one will even know. Sometimes it feels like as if they are connected to each other with their minds,” said Salem and he smiled fondly remembering his obviously precious memories.

“Take a seat on the couch and I shall be back with the first aid kit,” said Salem as I moved towards the couch and felt that the pain was increasing slightly and Jax sat beside me on the couch as I placed an arm over him and he nuzzled my cheek.

“They say such bad things about, don’t they now? But you are such a good boy, aren’t you? Who is a good boy?” I asked Jax in a childish voice and he licked my face again and then he lay down and placed his face on my lap.

“I must say that it seems like you have bewitched him,” said Salem as he came forward with a box in his hand a small pouch in another.

“No nothing of that sort. Love can change anything and everything and I firmly believe that you are an exceptionally good master to him. But you know there is something different about a woman’s touch and saying that nothing can replace a mother’s love except mother herself,” I said with a smile as I place a smacking kiss on the top of Jax’s head and Salem looked at me as if I had grown horns and tail suddenly.

“Now don’t tell me that you have not done that like in ever,” said I as he nodded his head saying no.

“Ahhh!! There lies the basic problem,” I said as he smiled and then knelt on his knees before me again.

“So I am going to apply this ointment which would help to cool the inflammation which is happening in this area and then I am going to tie up the crepe around your feet. Alright? Any questions?” asked Salem and I nodded my head saying no. He might be saying that he was not a soldier any longer but strangely it seemed that the habit had not gone at all. The ointment was cold and I ooohed a slight bit but I did not say anything at all. Salem Bloom took great care in looking at my ankle and then taking care of it. The crepe was tightly wound and in a slight while I could not feel my foot any longer.

“Is the blood flow cut off?” asked Salem and I nodded again and then he said,” Exactly what is necessary, now to make things normal we are going to take a bit of walk in the garden so that you can have the sensation back in your feet as soon as possible.”

He helped me get up and Jax also leaped along with me.