They were on the road heading out of Franklin before Trey dared to ask the next question: "I take it your folks were less than happy with your graduation speech?"

"I would presume that is a fair statement," Myleigh said. "I did not know directly. I confess, my hero, that I had not thought my plan out sufficiently in advance. All I was looking toward was that supreme moment of telling the school, my parents, and the whole town of Franklin what I thought of them. Only after it happened did I realize the implications. I stole away and spent the next several hours hiding in a secret place down by the railroad tracks that I had used for concealment when things were too distressing around the house. Only after dark did I dare go home, and from outside the house I could detect they were still in a rage. I hid again until the early morning, when they were asleep in a drunken stupor. I gathered a few clothes in a grocery bag, a few papers, most important of them my letter of acceptance to Northern Michigan University, and Blue Beauty, of course. At dawn, I was hitchhiking down this road."

"That was a little dangerous," he said.

"I was well aware of it," she agreed. "A single young girl, alone like that? Yes, I could easily have been prey, but I had no other choice. As it turned out, a rather nice man and woman passing through picked me up and carried me out of town."

"I would have figured you would have gone to your great-uncle."

"I thought about it only briefly," she said. "It would have been the first place that anyone would have thought to look for me. No, as I celebrated my graduation from high school by hiding by the railroad tracks, I realized that I had but one small hope. A distant cousin lived in Marion, a hundred miles north of here. We had visited her when I was young, and I understood that she held my parents in hardly less contempt than I. The couple who picked me up was kind enough to leave me at her door. She did not recognize me, it had been that long, but I explained the situation to her, absent the contents of my speech, of course, to spare her sensibilities. She was kind enough to take me in. Trey, she was elderly and frail, far from good health. I spent the summer there trying to help nurse her and working at washing dishes and mopping floors in a local restaurant. I tried to pay her for taking me in, but she refused, knowing that the few dollars I earned would be all I had to take to college with me. But, she helped me the best she could. Over the course of the summer, we visited garage sales and the Goodwill store to give me something of a wardrobe to take to college. When the time came to leave for Northern, there was no easy way to get there, so she offered to drive me, even though it was a very long journey for a woman as old and sick as she. When she dropped me off at Northern, I had a few more clothes than I had when I ran off into the night, a handful of books I'd found at garage sales, and Blue Beauty. It was all I had in the world, and she provided all the help I ever had from anyone in my family, save my great-uncle, toward my college career."

"That had to have been lonely and scary," he said.

"Trey, I have never been more scared in my life. The only reason I went to Northern at all was that they offered me the best scholarship I could find, and I knew it would not be enough. But consider that it was absolutely the only option open to me by then. My fears were great. As I said, I had no friends, and knew no one there. In fact, I had little practice at making friends, for I did not wish to have them. All my attempts at friendship in Franklin had turned sour on me, and no one wished to have anything to do with that smart little poor girl who talked funny."

"You were using the language like you do now when you were in high school?" he asked. "No wonder no one wanted to have anything to do with you."

"Yes," she nodded. "It came from the old books, of course. At first, it was just using the odd big word, or archaic phrase. But, as time went on, it became stronger. I do not remember any conscious decision to pursue it, or realization of why I did it, but some years later Crystal accused me of creating it as a defense mechanism, and I realized she was correct. Trey, I had been hurt so badly by everyone who came near me, that I didn't want anyone near me, and people who heard me thought, 'Wow, she's weird!' and stayed away. I especially did not care to get close to some boy, for fear that my parents' dreams of me would become reality. In that, it was successful. The side effect, of course, was that it added to the hate and derision I had to withstand in high school. Realistically, my intent in my first years in college was similar. I most especially did not want to get close to a man. By then, the way I used the language was a habit. I can control it if I wish, but my circumstances are different, now. It's become part of who I am, and I really do not wish to tone it down."

"It certainly makes you memorable and noticeable," he smiled. "In fact, I find it one of the more endearing things about you. Most of the time, anyway."

"Thank you, Trey," she smiled. "Most of the time, I fear it still works as a defense mechanism, but you seem to be immune. That just helps endear you to me." She shrugged, and went on. "In any case, I did not see it that way when I stood there in front of the dorm at Northern, as my cousin drove off in her aged Ford. As I said, I have never been so scared in my life. I had no friends, knew no one. I had contacted Northern earlier in the summer to inform them of my address change, and they sent me the name of my roommate. I tried to contact her all summer, but never got a response. I did not then know that her mail was piling up at her home while she was at the Outdoor Leadership Training Academy in Idaho. She got home barely in time to change out her clothes, throw school things into her car, and drive to school. She did not open her mail until I was present. What I most earnestly feared was that she would be another one of those contemptuous, condescending jocks who had so tormented me in high school. Trey, even carrying Blue Beauty, I could carry all my belongings in the world in both hands as I trudged up the stairs to my dorm room in Spaulding Hall. There in the room stood this big, bronzed woman, strongly muscled -- a wild Amazon who looked every part of the jock image I'd learned to detest -- and I was sure that my worst fears had come true."

She was silent for a moment. Trey looked across the car to see tears rolling down her cheeks again. "Myleigh," he said gently. "It's all right, now."

"I know, Trey," she replied in sobs. "I have never admitted this to Crystal, but I did tell Randy once, and swore him to secrecy. I took one look at her and was all but convinced that life was going to continue to be the same old shit. In Blue Beauty's case, there were some sleeping pills I had stolen from my cousin. I came so close, Trey, so close to walking back out the door to take them. . . ." she sobbed for a few moments and pressed on. "I don't know where I found the courage to walk into the room. And she said . . . she said, 'Hi, I'm Crystal. You must be Myleigh. You got any ideas about what we can do to make this dump more comfortable?' The words were nothing, Trey, but there was something about the way she said them . . . something that said she was willing to accept me as an equal, and that she needed a friend as bad as I did."

Trey reached out with his hand, rested it on her shoulder, and leaned over toward her. "Myleigh, it's all right," he said again. "I get the picture. You don't have to torture yourself for me anymore."

"It's not that," she said, trying to pull herself together. "It's just . . . it's just that she saved my life with those words, saved it in more ways than one. I confess I could not have made friends with her had I not been so desperately in need of a friendly word. I did not learn until later that she had been hardly less hated and disdained in school than I. In her case, it was because of her obvious athletic skills, with an obstinate refusal to use them for competition that would benefit the school." Myleigh pulled herself together a little more, and actually cracked a small smile. "She did have it easier than I in high school, because she had that black belt in tenth grade, and there were few who wanted to push her very far. She never told me details, but I believe that it was once attempted, to the tormentor's vast regret."

"Yeah," Trey said with a smile. "Maybe Blake might be willing to try her on for size, but I can't think of very many others."

"She and Blake have worked out, on occasion," she said. "He considers her skills rusty but trainable. She could be as good as he is or better, he says, were she to do the training. In any case, I'm through the worst of the sad part now, my hero. Crystal and I were very much the odd couple on campus. I have had people say to me that they couldn't understand how she and I could share the same planet, let alone the same room. We differ in many ways, and you have seen the both of us together enough to understand just how different we are. But, we did share a couple of important things, the greatest being our drive to reach our separate goals."

"Goals?" Trey said. "Crystal is a nice enough person, but she's a river bum at heart."

"Yes," Myleigh grinned. "That was her goal, to break free of stereotypes and find some niche where she could enjoy active outdoor adventure, and make a living at it. Last spring, you saw her living her dream and her goal, just as I have reached mine. The fact that she stumbled across a family in the process just made it sweeter for her. I cannot imagine anything -- including marriage -- that could get her out of the Canyon. She said once that she thought that everything she'd been through -- and she went through hells of her own -- had been to prepare her for the Grand Canyon. I think she was right."

"Randy came along after that, right?"

"Correct," she smiled. "It took a couple years. I was still very much in my shell and not desirous of friends other than Crystal. I should never have become friends with Randy had she not befriended him first, and my first dealings with him were under her watchful eye. I might add that her reputation as being rather ferocious was well earned. After an incident in our freshman year, where she was forced to thrash a hockey player, the hockey team members called her 'Killer Chladek.' The word around campus was, 'Don't mess with her, she might hurt you, even if she said yes.'"

"I can see that," he laughed. "I'll bet that kept the boyfriends from her door, too."

"Oh, yes," Myleigh grinned. "We had little in the way of romantic dealings from various males about campus for a couple years after that. She and Randy became casual friends, with no romantic interest at first, and I, well, I was still somewhat the outsider, not that I minded. As I said, she was my protector. And then, there was an incident when Crystal was not present when Randy unexpectedly became my protector. Crystal and I did not realize at the time that his skills at physical combat where hardly less than hers, and considerably in advance, now. He does not appear to be the lion that he is, even now, but he is a lion indeed. And, as I discovered, a quite gentle and sensitive lion, who was shamed at having had to use violence to protect me. From that point on, for many years, Crystal and I shared him as our mutual boyfriend, with neither of us ever having an iota of jealousy, although for some time it was a delicately balanced triangle until we all became used to it."

"It still seems a little incredible," Trey grinned. "People have killed each other over less."

"It was strange," Myleigh admitted. "But, we made it work, mostly because neither Crystal nor I were ready for a full-time boyfriend. In any event, Randy, Crystal, and both of their families provided me many kindnesses and courtesies, including the opportunity to meet Jennifer and Blake, and their continuing encouragement was instrumental in my achieving my dreams. I owe both of them much. It was only when it became clear that neither Crystal nor I would be willing to give up our goals to live in Spearfish Lake with him that both she and I encouraged him to take up with his old high school girlfriend, Nicole."

"That must have been hard, to walk away from him for the sake of your goal," Trey noted.

She sighed. "It may have been a mistake, now that I look back at it. But then, had I not made that decision and worked very hard to implement it, I should have never met you, my hero."

* * *

They talked some more as Trey drove the Cougar up the road to Pettisville, all the way to Pettisville, in fact. But, the talk was a lot lighter now that the emotions and the things that Myleigh had hidden had come out in the open before him. There were no more tears, but at times there was laughter.

Trey did learn more about things that he'd often wondered about. For instance, there was her continually wearing skirts or dresses, even in situations where pants or shorts would have been more appropriate. There had been a secretary back at Franklin High School who was one of the few people who had been universally kind to her. She was always well-dressed, elegant looking -- and always wore skirts or dresses. Only half consciously, Myleigh had decided to model herself after her -- and, like the use of the language, it had become a habit. Now, it was part of who she was, and Trey couldn't imagine Myleigh in a pair of jeans.

The vegetarianism, which Trey had always found a little uncharacteristically loose and sloppy, wasn't based on any principles at all. It was just that in her poor household, there had rarely been money for meat, and when there had, she'd learned that there would be less trouble if she let her parents have what little there was. She'd just never had much opportunity to acquire a taste for it, that was all -- habit again. She'd eat meat if it were set before her, like it had been in the Grand Canyon, but given a choice she'd avoid it. It was sort of how Trey felt about broccoli -- he'd eat it if it was there, but wouldn't go out of his way to find it.

Trey tried to keep it light -- there was a concert coming up in a very short time, and after the emotions of the day, he wondered how well she'd handle it. But, as the concert neared, she slipped into a dressing room and appeared, as usual, in a stunning evening gown, ready to take Blue Beauty and set the place on fire.

And, she did. She opened the show in the usual manner, with the impressive Inland Sea. The show was well worked out, by now; in spite of a few changes added over the summer, he pretty well knew what was coming next. But, she surprised him. Following Inland Sea, she changed the order, cracked the Jew's-harp joke, and got the expected laugh. But then, she added something Trey hadn't been expecting. "Today, I visited the grave of the man who gave me this harp," she said, "And I should like to dedicate this next song to him."

It was Experience of Survival, the lush and emotional Dayna Berkshire and Sandy Beach song that had been a minor hit a few years before. Trey had never heard her play the intense celebration of life that had in its original version included part of the Memphis Symphony. Knowing what he knew now, Trey stood back stage with the tears rolling down his cheeks as she sang, with deep emotion, but no tears of her own as she sang of heroes who had given their lives for their friends.

She broke into a long and intricate bridge, much more emotional and evocative than he'd ever heard her play before. There were elements of Canyon Tours in there, but something else that he couldn't identify. Trey looked carefully from the side of the stage, but he could see that her attention was on the playing of Blue Beauty, not on the painful memories of the day. It was as if she had been in the Canyon, lost in the music, just answering to inspiration, not playing something she'd played many times before.

The music died out into a huge applause. It was fully as powerful as anything on Canyon Tours, maybe even more so.

Once the applause died down, Myleigh added softly but clearly into the microphone, "I'm sad to say that he was not honored in the same way at his death, but I earnestly hope and pray that a small part of him lives on through Blue Beauty and myself. It deserves to." She stood there silently for a moment, holding onto Blue Beauty, looking off into the silence, then started in on the normal opening for Dark Haired Rebel Girl.

The show ran on a little longer than normal, partly due to the heavy applause, but partly due to the fact that she threw in a version of Already There from the upcoming Whispering Pines album. The encore was the almost traditional American Pie, and Trey was a little surprised that she did it, this time. But it rocked the place, and they stood in the lobby for a long time, Trey selling CDs and Myleigh autographing them, getting universally rave comments from the crowd.

It was late before they got loaded up in the Cougar again. "I sure hope Jennifer and Blake have an extra box or two of Harp Strings sitting around," he said. "We blew through them pretty good tonight."

"I thought it went rather well," she said. "Although I must admit that I'm exhausted."

"I don't know that I'm up for the drive to Spearfish Lake tonight, either," Trey said. "We could call up there and have them bring more down to Weatherford tomorrow. Let's find a place around here to stay."

"My hero, I could not agree more," she agreed.

They soon found a motel out on the edge of town, and without discussion decided to share a room, like they had the night before. They were tired, both of them -- after two nights of poor sleep, and the day they'd had, he needed a night of good sleep desperately. As always, though, he allowed Myleigh to use the bathroom to change into her long nightshirt, while he pulled on pajama bottoms out in the main room. In only a couple minutes she appeared, looking pretty tired herself, he thought. She had every right to. As tough a day as he'd had, she'd had it worse.

He was sitting on the bed, only half listening when he heard her say, "My hero, might I ask a small favor of you?"

"Sure, what is it?" he yawned.

"My hero, I should like to sleep in your arms tonight."

He frowned. "I thought we had an agreement about that. December, and all that."

"My hero, I am ever ready to make love the instant you desire," she said. "And that is the case tonight. But I fear that I am so emotionally overwhelmed today that I might not give you the attention you deserve. Just sleeping in your arms, with you holding me tight, knowing that you are there, will be sufficient."

After the day that they'd had, there was no way he could say no. "Whatever you desire, my lov . . . Myleigh."

"My love," she said as she turned out the light and slid into bed beside him. "I like that."

"I kind of like it too," he said as he took her into his arms, and she lay her head down on the pillow beside him. "Myleigh, my love, I said whatever you desire. If that includes making love, so be it. If I have a choice, I'd just as soon take a rain check for tonight, but you only need to say the word."

"Do I still scare you?" she said in a small voice. "I worry that today might have made your fears worse."

"No, My . . . my love. You don't scare me anymore. I think I understand why, now. Awe me, yes. You awe me more than anyone I've ever met, and it only got stronger today. I still don't understand what you think you see in me, but I'm just glad that you see it. But that awe I have for you makes it very hard for me to say something that I've wanted to say for a long time."

"Just say it," she said.

There was no way to be subtle about it, and this was not a time to try to be subtle. "Myleigh, I'm deeply in love with you."

"Trey, would it offend you for me to say that I've been in love with you from the minute you rejected my offer last January? My love has only grown stronger since."

"That only awes me more," he said. "I thought you were pretty disgusted with me."

"Oh, I could not be, my hero. It was then you showed just how decent and honorable you are, and that is what caused me to fall in love with you. My hero, I feel I must tell one more story, and now is the time, of all times."

"If you feel you need to, I won't stop you."

"My hero, I told you today of how Olivia helped me with my great-uncle's arrangements, and my family afterward. I felt deep gratitude to her." She sighed. "Do you remember when I said that I could enjoy being a lesbian if I cared for the sex, which I do not?"

"Sure," he said. "After the first concert."

"My love, I spoke from experience, and that is the occasion upon which I got the experience. I offered myself to her in my gratitude, and because I needed someone, anyone, at the moment. It was, well, satisfying, but not exciting. When you said that my gratitude was not an acceptable reason for me to make love to you, you struck a far deeper chord than you imagined. Trey, you were right. It should not have been an acceptable reason, but I was overwhelmed in joy at the time. As I said, it was then I learned how decent and honorable you are. I see now that it would have been a mistake, but we have grown ever closer since, and I see now the kind and gentle and caring man you are. My love, I am the one who is in awe of you. The honorable way that you have treated me these past few months, in spite of the temptations I have placed before you both wittingly and unwittingly have only increased that awe."

"All right," he said. "I still think you're wrong, but you obviously think I'm wrong, and I think we can both live with that. But as long as we're talking honorable, I think we ought to stay honorable, at least until December, considering the problem on campus."

"Must we wait?" she said.

"I think so," he said. "Considering your job, it would only be the honorable thing to do. But then, if you're willing to humble yourself to a lowlife like me, I would be honored if we were to do it for the first time as a married couple."

"Oh, Trey," she said, pulling herself tight to him, and planting a kiss on him that went on and on. They'd kissed before, sometimes casually, sometimes emotionally -- but there had never been one like this before. "I have spent the whole day worrying that you might not be willing to humble yourself to someone like me, and I'm deeply honored by your offer. I see no choice but to accept, even if it means waiting until December."

"Thank you, my love," he said. "With that thought in mind, I think we should try to sleep, because if you plant another kiss like that on me, you're going to find out that there are limits to how honorable I can be."

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