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The Silken Daggers Excerpt © Jenny Bullington 2018
What I wouldn’t give for that man to be with me right now, Ruby found herself longing. Sighing, she was ready to load her gun, hearing the familiar clicking of the shells as they got into proper position in the chamber. She loved having shooting contests with Jack. She remembered how she would beat him, watching first laugh it off, but after several attempts, get so focused a vein would pop out in his neck. She’d laugh and laugh.
Ruby scooted her butt back so she wouldn’t fall as she braced herself, and took aim at the first tin can on the fence that separated the land around the old barn from the field beyond. If Ruby was one thing, she was a tomboy. She’d always had better aim than all five of her brothers combined, which had made them insanely jealous. She readied her trigger finger, careful not to place it on the trigger until she was ready, and closed her left eye as she aimed with her right, leaning over to look through the sight on the tip of the gun.
Ruby fired the gun, hearing the tin can plink as it fell behind the fence. She smiled to herself as the smell of gunpowder wafted over her: she still had it. She looked back over the countryside, remembering her happy childhood running around with her brothers, knowing all the secrets of the kids in town and where they hid their cigarettes and dirty magazines. She had to learn very quickly to stand on her own two feet when she found out in school that she wasn’t very much like the other girls.
Then she’d met Jack and things just clicked for the first time. She made sense when she was with all of him. She didn’t have to pretend to be a lady, and he wasn’t intimidated by being forced to keep up with her.
Ruby shot the third and fourth cans on the fence, still lost in the memories of how she got to where she was today. Am I too much of Jack and not enough of me? she wondered to herself. His absence had been horrid, and she felt so lost. Nights where the worst, when she was alone. Making meals for one was just as awful. It made her simply not want to eat.
Ruby had found the one her heart loved, and whether he was near or far, she only felt whole when he was in her heart. He made her a better version of herself, and in return, she gave him all of her, even the most hidden parts of her.
No, she was not too much Jack. She was perfectly in union with another human being, and that is the exact place she wanted to be. That was exactly what having a soulmate meant.
Ruby closed her eyes and felt the chill of the wind blow through the hay loft. Right now, in these quiet moments, all she had was the love in her heart and memories of Jack in her mind. How amazing their union would be when she could be with him in person again…
There were moments when she could become so lost in him, the cobalt eyes that made her forget any worries and woes from the day, such as the snide remarks from another woman who didn’t like her tenacity or were bored being stuck at home and having an absent husband. All she needed to do was hug Jack and everything else melted away. If that was being too much of him, then that’s all she wanted, because that was where peace was.
She laughed out loud, proud of herself. She had had a fun time by herself for the first time since Jack had left for war. The winter sun beamed down upon her, and she rested her head against the door. As she closed her eyes, she imagined the face of her beloved above her. A quiet and gentle voice seemed to be on the wind that blew through the hay loft. It sounded strangely like Jack’s… it sounded like he was saying I’m coming, Ruby. I’m coming home.

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