Chapter Forty-Five
Runa managed the ride to town on Sunday, but it took more out of her than the journey had on Friday. Probably because she had made the journey on Friday, she thought wearily. She had wound up sleeping until noon on Saturday, managing to wake up in time for dinner and then the shooting lesson afterwards, only to sink into her rocker, exhausted, when Bucky had finished with her. He had been hard on her during the lesson, pushing her harder until she could hit the target one out of every six tries. He had taught her how to deal with the recoil, soothing her after she had nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound the first time she had fired the gun.
After the lesson he had been quite solicitous, making certain she got into her chair. She had barely been able to walk on her own by then, and Bucky muttered about too much too soon, getting her another partial dose of laudanum and forcing her to remain seated the rest of the day when she had tried to argue.
Now, she was wishing she hadn’t tried to argue.
“Are you all right?” Steve asked quietly, helping her get settled in their pew.
“I think you and Bucky were right and I’ve been doing too much.” She murmured, having managed to smile and nod at people who called greetings as they made their way to their seats. “Now I have to remain upright without falling asleep for the next hour.”
“You’ll be fine.” Steve assured her.
Fifteen minutes later, he was proven a liar as Runa fell asleep against his shoulder. At least she doesn’t snore. Steve thought with some amusement as she dozed. He doubted anyone noticed her sleeping, though he did notice that Reverend Fury looked their way a few times. Steve knew that he would understand.
The service ended with a bit of a memorial to Falsworth, Fury saying a few words, asking the congregation to take a moment of silence for their friend, cut down in the prime of his life. Steve considered waking Runa for that, but he didn’t. As others rose around them and left the building, Steve remained seated, managing a smile as Reverend Fury approached.
“I’m sorry, Reverend,” Steve said softly, “I didn’t have the heart to wake her.”
“She’s been sleeping a lot?” Fury asked quietly.
“Yes. Some of it is the laudanum, but that’s only at night and when we can force it on her at other times.”
Fury arched a brow. “Force it on her?”
“She does too much, gets to the point where she’s almost weeping from the pain.” Steve tried to explain, “She doesn’t want to be dependent on laudanum, but we don’t want to see her hurting.”
“I can understand that. Especially after hearing about her visit to town on Friday.”
Steve grimaced. “I should have fought her harder on that, but it turns out she can be as stubborn as they come.”
Fury laughed softly, the sound causing Runa to start to stir. “Best wake her and get some food into her. She needs plenty of that along with plenty of rest to heal up.”
Runa lifted her head, blinking owlishly. Both Fury and Steve smiled at her.
“Missus Rogers. Glad you could join us.” The Reverend said, which caused Runa to gasp and go pale.
“Reverend! Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s all right.” He cut her off. “Sometimes it’s necessary to sleep in church. Knowing what you’ve been through, I don’t think the good Lord minds. I certainly don’t. As I was just telling your husband, you’ll need plenty of rest so you can heal up.”
“Yes, sir.” She smiled slightly. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me, at any rate.”
“Because it’s the truth. You two go on and get your dinners now.” He said, before moving on to speak to someone else.
“Why did you let me sleep?” Runa fretted.
“I don’t think I ‘let’ you, you just did.” Steve pointed out as he stood, then helped her rise to her feet.
“You could have woken me up.”
“I didn’t want to cause a scene, and I didn’t know how you’d react when you woke up. Sometimes you wake easily, and sometimes… Sometimes I wake you up and you jump higher than a jackrabbit.”
A giggle escaped her. “I do not.”
“You do too. Remember when I put you to bed on the fourth and you woke up?” He smiled down at her. “Come on. Let’s get something to eat.”
She smiled up at him as he helped her from the church and led her to where Wanda and Bucky were spreading out blankets.
~*~
The days that followed were halcyon days, a tranquil calm before the storm, although at least this time they had the benefit of knowing that the storm was coming. The trial was not going to be easy, but it was far enough in the future that they didn’t have to worry about it, not yet.
Instead of going to the sitting room after supper, Steve would walk with Runa to the corral Allegro and Gingersnap were kept in, and they would talk while they watched the little colt frisk about or Runa lavished him with attention. Steve told her that they would need a barn cat or two when they rebuilt so they could keep the mice down, but he would find a kitten to keep her company inside the house, where Allegro couldn’t follow. She could sit and cuddle it at her leisure, which caused her to laugh.
“By the time we rebuild, I’ll be too busy to sit and cuddle a kitten, though it is a nice thought.”
“No. You work too hard. I’m going to do what I should have done when you arrived and see about hiring someone to do some of the work for you. Not all of it, because I know you won’t allow that, but some of it at least. Even if it’s just the laundry. I know you hate doing the laundry.”
“Steve, we don’t need to hire someone to do the laundry. Once I’m healed up I can do everything just fine.”
“No. It’s too much. I’m not going to have you work yourself into an early grave.” Steve said firmly. “I thought that before you were injured, and didn’t know how to say it, but now... Well, now is the best time to make the change.” He looked down at her and smiled slightly. “I’m not giving in on this.”
“We’ll revisit the discussion later.”
“We can revisit it all you’d like, but I’m still going to see about finding someone to help you with some of the housework.”
Runa sighed, then smiled. He was just trying to show he cared about her wellbeing, she realized, no matter how much showing it in this particular way vexed her. She pulled him down and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, only for him to turn his head and steal a kiss from her lips.
“Thank you.” She murmured. “I’ll stop arguing, since it means so much to you.”
“It does.” He reached up to cup her cheek. “I want to take care of you, sweetheart. I can’t do that if you’re working yourself to death. Well, I can. It just makes it harder.”
“All right.” She moved to embrace him then, feeling a bit of a thrill at the endearment, which he was beginning to use more often. Then they simply held each other for a while beside the horse corral, enjoying the still evening and the closeness of each other.
~*~
While Runa spent her evenings with Steve, Steve still shared a bed with Bucky, who took the occasional afternoon to teach Runa to fire her handgun.
It was on her fifth lesson that she was able to hit near to the target every time, Bucky standing behind her to steady her.
“That was perfect.” He praised. “Now let’s see how you manage without me guiding you and propping you up.”
“I think I’m used to the recoil now. I’m not worried I’ll fall over.”
“You would if this was a shotgun, which is what I would have tried you on first. All right, darlin’, reload and prove you can do it.”
Runa grinned over at him. He was calling her darlin’ more often, an endearment she treasured nearly as much as Steve’s sweethearts and Generals. It was their way of showing that she was important to them, that they wanted her there. Those little endearments meant more to her than she could ever say, not that she had any intention of telling them. She just basked in them when they happened.
Runa reloaded the gun with ammo kept in her apron pocket, biting her healing lip as she did, managing without help this time. She then took a deep breath and adjusted her stance the way Bucky had shown her, and raised the gun, taking aim at the tree that Bucky had painted a bullseye on with whitewash. She took in another deep breath, and then fired on the exhale, six shots, one after another.
Bucky grinned at her. They could see the new holes in the tree, and it was a good grouping. They weren’t all on the target, but close enough that, had the target been a man, she would have done quite a bit of damage.
“Well what do you think of that, Mister Barnes?” She asked him with a grin.
“I think that with a bit more practice you could give Clint Barton a run for his money.” He teased her. “One more time, and then we’ll head inside. I don’t think you’ll need any lessons after this, other than a bit of practice once in a while, same as the rest of us.”
Runa’s grin widened a bit, and she reloaded the gun with the last of the ammunition in her apron pocket.