In Wilderness Found

Chapter 11: Flustered

Ellis sets flame to two oil lamps when they step through the threshold of the cabin. A soft orange glow is cast along the minimal furniture and wooden floors. Gal greets Madison with a cheerful tail thumping and a few hearty licks to her legs.

“Leave her alone,” Ellis scolds the hound but Madison shakes her head.

“I don’t mind, really.”

Ellis clears his throat awkwardly. He is so far from used to being hospitable that he doesn’t quite know what to do now that they’re back inside his home.

When he sees Madison eyeing his solitary rocking chair with a slight frown, he quickly makes his way to the dining table to pull one of the rigid wooden chairs across the floor. He places it across from the rocking chair.

“You can have the rocker. I’ll take this one,” he tells her as he settles uncomfortably onto the stiff dining chair.

She gives him a shy smile and sits herself into the rocker. Gal immediately comes to sit at her feet. 

“You’ve been kind to me. I promise not to stay in your hair for too long,” Madison says softly, forcing herself to look him in his deep brown eyes.

She figures she will stay here for a night or two and let Abner’s trail run cold - if he’s even following her at all. Maybe she’ll sell the pistol to someone in town and try to save some money for another horse somehow. 

“It’s alright,” Ellis says as casually as possible, but inside his whiring mind, it is most certainly not alright. How is a near-hermit that never shares his home supposed to fare with such a strong, beautiful woman in this close proximity? He realizes with a bit of panic that although he hasn’t ever been very comfortable with people, he’s absolutely never been this flustered around a woman before.

He only gets more flustered when he realizes that he not only has just one rocking chair, but he also only has one bed. While there are two rooms, the one he doesn’t use lies completely vacant. It's not as if he ever has guests.

Madison rocks gently and rubs Gal’s ears. “Have you lived here your whole life?”

Ellis nods. “I’ve been on this particular piece of land since I was five,” he stops for a moment to remember just how old he is. “So, I’ve lived here for about 23 years. This farm belonged to my adoptive parents before me.”

“It is beautiful,” Madison compliments politely.

Ellis nods his thank you. She notices that he does this a lot, and she supposes it’s because he hates talking as much as he likes being alone.

He tries to swallow his nerves, but they simply aren’t leaving. There are so many questions he wants to ask her, and he tries desperately to choose the least intrusive and least embarrassing. While he can’t bring himself to ask, “How could your foolish husband mistreat someone so precious?” he goes with:

“Do you have any family here?”

She shakes her head quickly. “Not from around here.”

He figured as much. While the Appalachian dialect is present in her words, like most of the people in the mountains, he knew she couldn't have been from here. He would have noticed her before.

“How did it get to be just you and Gal all the way up here?” Madison just has to know.

She is clearly more free with her questions, and Ellis can feel his face heating up already.

He shrugs to soften his answer. “Just too busy for anyone else, I reckon.”

“That’s a bit sad,” she hums in response.