“Gotcha. He’s going to want to come here though – you know that?”
“Just tell him that they’re not letting anyone in to see her. You can also let Tim know that he needn’t be phoning around to find her anymore. I guess it’s still a good idea to find Claude if we can. I’m sure he had something to do with Rebecca’s unplanned swim in the middle of winter.”
“No doubt. By the way have you seen this?” Shane reached over to the waiting room table and picked up a copy of the newspaper with Rebecca’s smiling face gracing the cover.
Jason’s heart doubled briefly as he took the paper. “This was taken at the restaurant. Must be how Claude found her.” He studied her face in silence for a moment, before turning back to Shane. “You’d better get going. I’ll be fine here.”
“I have my phone on me. If you need anything, give me a ring.” He slapped Jason on the shoulder and left.
__________________________________________
There was no furniture in the room, other than six leather beanbag seats. The carpet was snowy white and as soft as goose down. And there was a chest. Like something borrowed from medieval times, it was a wood and iron monstrosity that had been dumped unceremoniously against the wall opposite the stairs.
Key in hand, Stanton made for the chest. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he unlocked the chest and swung back the lid. Reaching inside, he pulled out carefully ordered bundles of letters. So far, so good.
True to his meticulous nature, Stanton carefully arranged the bundles in date order, starting from the oldest and ending at the most recent. Not stopping to think, he opened the oldest yellowed letter and started to read…
__________________________________________
“Are the two of you related?” If the sister-in-charges’ eyebrows crept any higher, they’d be nesting in her hair. Desperate not to be denied access to Rebecca, Jason answered as truthfully as he could manage, “Not yet.” He added a wink and a winning smile that, when filtered through his high anxiety levels, came out rather like a grimace.
The sister nodded knowingly, “I see. She’s not wearing any ring?”
“She’s quite fussy.” Jason looked completely sheepish. Lying had been so easy before.
“I understand.” She smiled and gestured toward the cubicle. “She’s awake. Come with me.”
He’d been on this brink—about to meet the blue-eyed girl—so many times. At Maxine’s house, the Rochester’s and the closest yet, the restaurant. Every single time, she’d either been a step ahead, or else snatched right out from under his nose. He hardly dared to believe that when the curtain was drawn back she would still be there.
And yet she was. Face pale, black hair a tangled mess across the pillow. The nurses had cleaned the blood off her face and neck as best as they could, but her hair would have to wait for a shower. Her temple was swollen and puffy, already showing signs of the colorful bruising to follow. Many—too many—dark stitches crossed the jagged slash that was the cause of all the panic. Her pale eyes watched his every move as he approached the bed, all at once wary and weary.
The nurse pulled the curtain closed behind herself as she left, affording them some measure of privacy. She looked so fragile. Everything in him wanted to pick her up and enfold her in his arms, hold her as close as he did on the way to the hospital. Protect her from a life that seemed so set on destroying her.
“Do I… do I know you? The sister said you are my… well, that we are—”
“Engaged?” Jason did a quick check outside the curtain before finishing his sentence, “No, we’re not.” He saw the relief in her sigh and it stung him in a way he didn’t care to examine. “You won’t know me. I rescued you from the sea, kinda took over where the log left off. I didn’t think they’d let me see you if we weren’t family, or at least connected somehow.”
She smiled at that, before grimacing at the pain from her cut. “Thank you, for rescuing me that is. I don’t know where I’d be without you. To be honest, I have no family. At least none that I know about.”
Her pale eyes were red from the salty water, but she was still the most beautiful creature Jason had ever laid eyes on. The moment grew awkward.
Grabbing her hand in his, his heart sank at the sight of the thick blackness encircling her wrists. Looking into her eyes instead, he shook vigorously only to freeze as she winced. “Oh I’m sorry. You must be sore all over. I’m Jason.”
She choked back a laugh, caught his eye and dissolved into delicate chuckles.
Jason was missing something, “Why are you laughing?”
“I’m sorry. My bizarre sense of humor.” Putting on a stiffly formal tone, she managed to stop laughing long enough to choke out a single sentence, “Pleased to meet you Jason, my name is Sore All Over.” She promptly dissolved all over again.
The happy sound was infectious and Jason found himself grinning.
Pain prematurely evaporated her humor. Trying to breathe gently, she smiled at Jason. Completely unaware, Jason hung on to her hand, “It’s okay Sore All Over, I know who you really are.” He paused, savoring the moment of uniting the name with the person, “Rebecca.”
All traces of amusement disappeared. Suspiciously retrieving her hand from his, she asked, “How did you know? Who are you?”
Jason, old boy, how do you say this without sounding like a sicko? “I’ve been following your trail across the country. Quite a runaround you’ve given me.”
Rebecca pushed herself halfway upright, and got that I’m-about-to-bolt look in her eyes.
“Wait! Please don’t panic. I’ll explain. Besides, you owe me. You slept in my bed!” He forced himself to take a seat next to her, hoping to look less intimidating and calm the situation down somewhat.
Her jaw dropped in amazement. “That was your room?”
“Believe it or not, yes. I was searching the country for you, and you were sleeping in my bed. How weird is that? Anyway, I’m so glad I found you.” His brow creased as he wondered where to start. “What do you know about your parents?”
Rebecca shrugged, “I grew up in an orphanage. I don’t have parents.”
“And from there?” Jason suspected he had most of the pieces of the puzzle, but hearing it from her mouth would confirm his trail.
Curiosity got the better of her reticence. “Then I started working for the Rochester’s and Hazel – the housekeeper – became the closest thing I’ve ever had to a mother.”
“She is quite an amazing woman.” Jason interrupted without thinking.
“How do you know Hazel?” Shock was written all over Rebecca’s face.
At a loss for words, all Jason could manage was, “We’ll get to that. Carry on.”
Frowning as much as her damaged brow would allow, Rebecca said, “From there I spent some time with a couple in Stutterheim, Pete and Doreen. They were wonderful, but I suppose you know them too.” The last was added sarcastically.
Jason smiled, shrugged and nodded all in one, while trying not to look guilty.
Rebecca rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I don’t really know what to make of all this.”
Jason opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the nurse, who poked her head through the gap in the curtain, “Sorry to break it up lovebirds. But we need to keep you overnight, Miss. We’ve got your bed ready upstairs. Are you on any Medical Aid Scheme? We need all your details, and if you’re a private patient there’s a deposit that needs to be paid.”
Rebecca floundered. Jason took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, while answering the sister, “I’ll take care of all that. You just make sure she’s well looked after.” The nurse gave him a plastic smile and answered in a mildly patronizing manner, “Of course, Sir.”
Jason’s heart caught as he turned back to Rebecca. She was so much more beautiful than he’d ever expected; on the outside and the inside. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Jason.”
There was nothing else to say. He gave he
r hand a brief squeeze before turning to leave. He tried to let go, but she clung to him as if her hand were glued to his. Turning back, he was shocked to see her pale eyes clouded in panic. “What’s the matter?”
Her voice was so soft that he had to lean closer to hear, “Claude. What about Claude?”
Her hand trembled in his. Injecting confidence into his voice, he said, “He doesn’t know you’re here. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be allowed in. You’ll be safe. I will come back in the morning, okay?” He looked directly into her eyes as he said it, and he saw the fear subside slightly. Unable to stop himself, he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “Goodnight blue-eyes.” It took super-human effort, but he somehow managed to turn and walk away.
Chapter 24 – Of Daughters and Divine Meddling
The official working day was over and Lisa had come to a decision. Having proved true to his self-imposed hermitage over six years, she doubted Stanton would have broken his habit now. She shook her head at her unintended pun. He was somewhere within these walls and she was going to find him. And he was going to spill his guts and tell her what was going on.
Putting the answering machine on, she turned off the lights and closed the door to her office without looking back. “Right, Mr. Trent. It’s you and me.”
__________________________________________
It was well past midnight when Jason finally unlocked the door to his apartment. Despite his best efforts, the keys jangled noisily against the cold metal of the handle. Jason cringed at the thought of waking the household. It had taken him two hours to walk the distance between the hospital and home, yet the long meander by the light of the odd streetlight had given him some much-needed unraveling time. The last thing he needed now was to face the third degree by eager beaver Kenneth.
The lights were off in the building. Jason’s eyes were used to the lighter darkness of outside, and took a moment to adjust to the darker darkness of inside. Blinking hard, he could just make out Kenneth’s snoring form on the couch. The deep blackness in the corner indicated that Shane’s door was shut. Jason tiptoed to the kitchen, where he found Tim sleeping on the table. His bottom half was perched precariously on a bar stool, while his top half stretched across the countertop. His head was buried snoring in his arms, fingers still curled around a half-drunk cup of coffee.
Not wanting to wake the others, Jason carefully pulled the kitchen door shut, before flicking Tim’s ear. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”
Cross-eyed, Tim shot up and nearly fell off the stool, slopping cold coffee across his wrist. “Yuck. You’re back. How’s Rebecca?”
Throwing Tim a damp cloth, Jason said, “She’s great. She’s awake, we spoke.”
Yawning sleepily, Tim stretched, and then hunched his shoulders back and forth in an effort to wake up. “So is she worth the whole cross-country effort we’ve been through?” Seeing the goofy smile on Jason’s face, he held up a hand and shook his head. “Stupid question. Never mind. What now?”
“Heck, I dunno. I’ll need to let Stanton Trent know that I’ve found his daughter. And the Grey’s their Granddaughter. I’ll probably just text their phones so that they can contact me when it’s convenient for them.” He parked his rear down on a stool. “We still have to find Claude and bundle him off back to his father before he hurts himself.”
Changing the subject he glanced sideways at Tim. “Is it just me, or is this whole situation a bit—” he paused, searching for the right word, “—unnatural?”
Tim rubbed sleep from the corner of his eye and shrugged, “What do you mean?”
“How long have we been trailing Rebecca now? Since I found the box… 10 days?”
Another shrug, “Roughly, why?”
“Okay, try and keep up. We’ve been knocking ourselves out trying to find this woman. Every time I listen to this—” Jason floundered again, “—prompting in my heart, we get a little closer to the goal.”
“Aah yes, the voice in your head.”
Head, heart. Same difference. Jason nodded, “It’s like He’s been trying to get my attention.”
“Now you’ve lost me. Who exactly, are you talking about?”
Jason cringed and squirmed before finally spitting it out, “God.”
“Aah, The Big Man Upstairs. What would He want with you?”
“Only He knows. I used to be really into all that church stuff till Nics died. That shot a hole in it all for me. Anyway, there we were trying to find this mystery blue-eyed girl, going from blank to blank. On my boat, in the middle of open water, I—” Jason paused, wondering how to put his meeting with his sister into words. Concluding that Tim would probably have him committed to an institution with lovely padded rooms, he glossed over that bit and carried on, “—I decided to stop running away from God and surrendered to Him, and you know what happened?”
Tim’s forehead creased, “You found Rebecca?”
“Yes, well—no. She found me! I was just sitting there, and she bumped into my boat, clinging to a log in the middle of the open sea. How impossible is that?”
“So what you’re saying is, when you listen to God, things go right.”
“Apparently, yes.”
“So are you going to become some sort of religious nutzo?”
“No. It’s not like that.” Jason struggled for words, “It’s just that I get the feeling that He really cares about us, you know?”
“No I don’t know, and I’m too tired for this conversation.” He yawned as if to prove the point. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Tim drew the door shut behind himself leaving Jason to face his grapple with things Divine by himself.
__________________________________________
It was well past midnight and Rebecca was still struggling to sleep. The Pethadine had worn off at least an hour earlier, leaving her nauseous from the continual throbbing in her temple. Unable to take the pain, Rebecca decided to call a nurse.
She sat up too quickly and her vision swam. Bile rose in the back of her throat and nausea threatened to overcome her. Swallowing hard, she leaned back onto the stiff hospital pillows. She was alone in a large ward that could accommodate seven other patients. The room was dimly lit for the sake of the night staff, but seemed dazzlingly bright to Rebecca’s tired eyes. Too bright to sleep in.
After a moment, her insides settled. Reaching for the buzzer, her eye fell on a black book on her bedside cabinet. It was a Gideon Bible. A strange thrill shot through her. Pain, forgotten for the moment, she reached for the Bible and tucked it in her lap with the satisfying feeling of discovering an old friend in a foreign country. She began flipping through the yellowed pages to find Psalm 139, her only familiar point of reference. Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah… Muttering to herself, she continued turning pages, frustration growing. Then the book fell open to Isaiah, an exquisitely embroidered bookmark nestling between the pages. There was a passage marked with yellow highlighter, so she began reading.
“But now, this is what the Lord says – He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel.” O Rebecca, she paraphrased for herself with a satisfied nod, then carried on reading, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine.” Thank you Lord for redeeming me, buying me back from the enemy! I am Yours, finally I belong to someone.
She continued reading. “When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Rebecca sat stunned. She had literally passed through a river. In fact, she’d been swept away by a river and had still somehow survived. Jason had been out to sea, at just the right time to rescue her. Gooseflesh broke out on the back of her neck. This was eerily real.
__________________________________________
It was well past midnight when Stanton finished reading the last faded letter. To his amazement he felt warm inside, comforted and complete. If anything, he’d expected to feel ripped apart by reopening this very sore chapter of h
is life and yet, somehow, he’d grown enough to find healing. Maybe knowing the truth behind Catherine’s silence cast their whole relationship in a healthier light. Now all that remained was to find Rebecca.
Setting the letter aside, he looked up to see Lisa curled up on the carpet inside the doorway, fast asleep. Anger at her intrusion flared briefly, but died just as quickly at the sight of the dark shadows circling her eyes. A strand of hair trailed across her face, relaxed in sleep, all at once beautiful and vulnerable. Faithful Lisa, who had been by his side through years of his self-imposed isolation. Then it struck him. The reason he’d been able to live so contentedly under these lonely circumstances had everything to do with this woman curled up here before him. He hadn’t been lonely, because he had Lisa. The implications of this realization shook him to the core.
Rudely interrupting his thoughts, his phone beeped loudly making him jump and waking Lisa. It was a message. He pushed the ‘okay’ button, and his heart skipped when he saw the message was from Jason. Pressing once more opened the message. It was a few lines of simple text that caused his mouth to dry so that swallowing became impossible. “Found Rebecca. In Hospital with minor head injury. Contact me. Jason.”
Lisa pushed herself upright, trying to look efficient through the sleep fog that still clung to her eyelids. “Who was that?”
Stanton’s face was unreadable. “More importantly, what are you doing here Lisa?”
Instantly awake, Lisa folded her legs underneath her and clasped her hands in her lap like a naughty child. “I was concerned, and came looking for you. When I found you, you were so engrossed that I didn’t want to disturb you. I thought you’d notice me, but you didn’t. I must have fallen asleep waiting.” She glanced at her watch. “Oh my gosh. It’s after midnight.”
Stanton nodded his head and the faintest of smiles tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Just past midnight and Jason has found my daughter.” He couldn’t hold it in any longer. A radiant smile broke free on his lips.
Shackles: The truth will set you free Page 19