by Maya Wood
Alexis’ head sunk, and Tabitha rose to comfort her. But the fiery red mane snapped and Alexis’ face was bright for the first time in a month. Tabitha cocked her head, unsure of what to make of this sudden spark. Mania, she considered, her eyes widening with apprehension.
“I have to go,” Alexis cried wildly.
“What?” Tabitha choked.
“I said I have to go. I don’t have a choice.” Alexis started to pace the room at a near dash.
Marion poked her head through the doorway. “Everything okay in here?”
Alexis was already making her way to the staircase, her body light and quick with purpose. Tabitha shot a look at Marion and the pair followed in pursuit.
“Oh dear, what’s going on?” Marion whispered sideways as they climbed the stairs.
Tabitha shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure. One minute she was telling me what happened in New Guinea, and the next she’s up on her feet saying she has to go back.”
When they turned the corner they saw a mess of a woman, hair tumbling around her shoulders, her face shining. She had opened a suitcase on the bed, tossing in the articles of clothing she pulled indiscriminately from a drawer. “Marion, call father at the Museum. I need to go to the bank, I need to pull out my savings, and I need to get on a boat.”
Marion winced and tugged nervously at her apron strings. Lawrence had warned her to expect some uncharacteristic behavior. The psychological trauma of her experience would exact its toll as Alexis tried to reconfigure her life. But this was beyond the scope of her expectations, and she stood helpless.
“Please, Alexis,” she pleaded. “Let’s just talk about this a moment.”
“It’s simple, Marion. I need to get back to New Guinea. I need to find him.” Alexis suddenly felt the weighted silence at her back and spun around. The slightly terrified faces registered. They thought she was crazy. She turned and glimpsed herself in the mirror. She did look like she’d lost her mind. Alexis took an enormous breath and faced them.
“I realize this must seem a little strange.” Alexis sat down at the edge of her bed and noticed the women immediately relaxed. “It’s just that I’ve spent the last month in a complete daze, I mean, practically comatose. And just now…well, I snapped out of it. I can’t explain it, or even justify it. But I have to get back to the island. I have to see Trevor. Even if he sends me away, even if I leave him behind, I need that closure. I love him, and he loves me, and we both need to see how the story ends. And this isn’t it!” Alexis clasped her hands together. “Please believe me that I’m okay, and that this is what I want.”
She saw Marion swallow hard, shifting nervously by the doorway, almost as if to block her exit. “Alexis,” she said haltingly. “We need to talk this through. This isn’t a trip to New York or Paris. You’re talking about a two-week journey to a place where…” Her voice broke, and she almost dissolved in tears. Alexis knew those she loved feared the worst, and that the worst was possible.
“Why not try to get in touch with him by telegram?” Tabitha suggested cautiously. She moved to the bed, and squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “At the least, take some time to plan the details. We can help you.” Alexis appreciated their concern, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was being talked off a ledge.
“I love you both,” Alexis said. She stood slowly and pulled Tabitha into an embrace. “But I’m leaving, and I’m leaving as soon as I can.” She closed the suitcase shut and grabbed her leather satchel with her travel documents. “I promise I’ll be okay.”
Brushing past Marion, Alexis flew down the stairs. It was déjà vu. In a flash she remembered the moment Trevor had left her in the village. How she had climbed her horse and the world had closed itself into a tunnel that pulled her toward him. It was involuntary, and so was this. She was attached to some invisible cord, and it was snapping her back to the other end. To Trevor. Alexis flung open the door, almost falling down the stone steps. The clouds had thinned and the sunlight dazed her. She cupped a hand over her brow and shot for the willow tree where she had left her bike, half frozen into the ground.
She heard nothing now. Not the cries of Tabitha and Marion behind her. She felt nothing, not even as the winter freeze began to drain the warmth from her cheeks. Nor did she see anything but a few steps before her as she charged the cobblestone path. All her mind could see was Trevor. An in an instant she was on the ground. She had tripped, her suitcase splitting open and the contents flying in the air. A shadow moved before the glare of the sun.
“Red?”
I’ve really lost it now, she thought. She narrowed her eyes to slits and the shadow came into focus. The deepest of black eyes shone bright over a tense, square jaw. She gasped and her brain pounded white into her vision.
He was reaching for her, picking her up from the ground. They stood completely still. Trevor brushed the earth from her dress and took her arm, tracing his fingers over the rawness on her elbow. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Alexis was speechless, unsure if she was in the midst of some severe mental collapse. The expressions of utter astonishment on both Marion’s and Tabitha’s face did little to clarify the situation. She faced him, nodding her head uncertainly.
“Where were you going?” he inquired, his hands now cupping her face.
“I…” Alexis shook her head, fighting for words. “I was coming to find you.”
Trevor pulled back. The softest smile she had ever seen swept across the black stubble of his cheeks. “That’s funny, because I came here to find you.” He lowered his face to her, his nose brushing against hers.
“Are you really here?” she squeaked.
A velvet rumble of laughter spilled from his mouth. “Yes, Red. I’m really here.”
Alexis took a step back. He was here. She felt as senseless as if pummeled by a train. And then she was clasped to him, tight and breathless. And she felt his heart pounding against hers. It was home. He pressed her viciously against him, afraid to let go. Her heart opened so wide that she remembered her anger.
She wrenched from his grip. “But you left me.” He was standing here in front of her, blood and bones, and his beautiful face. She could whip him now.
Trevor’s jaw flexed and he raked his hair. His eyes fell to the ground in submission. “I know,” he said breathlessly. “I want you to forgive me. I came here for that. And to remind you that I made you a promise. To never leave you again.”
Alexis was crying. He took her tiny hand in his and pressed her fingers to his lips. “I will never leave you again, Alexis. Not unless you tell me to. I belong to you now.”
Epilogue
“God damn it, woman,” Trevor hollered, careful to mask the grin tugging at his mouth.
“I told you I know how to do it,” Alexis bellowed defiantly through the rain. They had been caught in a sudden torrent, and now they were digging a trench beneath the wide canopy of a tree where they would set up their tent. Alexis whipped her face toward Trevor and speared the earth with the spade, her burgundy rivulets catching across her wet face. “What’s that smirk?” Her voice was a deep trumpet.
She had had about enough of Trevor today as he bossed her. Hadn’t they done this enough for him to see that she was more than sufficiently equipped to help him? Despite their numerous returns to New Guinea, Trevor only grew more adept at finding new ways to put her in her place. She growled at him, and the grin only spread wider across his face.
“What, did you get a Ph.D. in survival skills that I don’t know about?” Now his dimples cut sharply in his cheeks, his teeth big and bright as he dissolved into laughter. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than goading her, especially when those sapphire eyes flashed with unruly stubbornness.
Alexis balked, and her jaw fell open. The earth was already beginning to flood under the sheets of rain. They didn’t have time to bicker, but she couldn’t resist. “Fine, let’s set up two separate tents and see how well we fare on our own.”
Trevor snorted
. “You mean like that first time you tried to show me up? Do you remember that night just a few short years ago, Red? If my memory serves correctly, you spent a long uncomfortable night nursing on humble pie.” She was just one provocation away from lunging at him and knocking off that infernal hat pulled low down over his brow. Trevor caught the seething creature in his sight and his body melted into submission.
“Okay, okay, Red,” he conceded, stretching a hand to stroke her as he would a wild beast. “You’re the boss.”
The rain hadn’t softened in the slightest, but they sat embedded in a shroud of warmth and silence. Trevor couldn’t keep his eyes off the tiny obstinate figure seated just beyond his reach. She was reorganizing her bundle with deliberate slowness, her back ramrod straight. His smile returned in full force. “Come keep me warm,” he croaked, his throat swelling with the threat of laughter.
“If you think you can sweet talk me right now, you’re one sorry-”
She was flat with her back on the ground. He had swept her beneath him, and now he crushed her with the wide heaviness of his frame. “Quiet, Red,” his voice was gravel. He pulled back and their eyes locked.
He had spent most of his life with a restless heart. A lost heart. He could hardly remember it now when he looked at her. He marveled at the mystery of it. He remembered the moment he had found her in Boston, wild eyed and windless as he picked her up from the ground. In that moment he felt all the shattered fragments of his being collect into a whole. He hadn’t left her side since. His black eyes softened, capturing her, and he smiled, stroking the pink curve of her mouth. In her he could see the beginning and the end. He was home, wherever she was.
~~~~~~~~~~
Good books are hard to find, and if you have enjoyed this work, it would be kind of you to find it on Amazon and leave a review. Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue