She loved to hear the sound of his voice when he uttered her name, well, what he thought was her name. “Eighteen. What about you?”
“Nineteen, almost twenty.”
“How long has your family been helping crossers?”
“All my life,” he said on an exhale.
“You don’t sound thrilled about it.”
“I haven’t been given much responsibility with it. All I do is pick up crossers after a drop and run daily errands for the family.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty heavy responsibility. If you hadn’t found me, I’d be …”
Paul leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his palms. He looked at her sitting in her relaxed position on his bed. His bed. Evening was approaching, and a sleepless night loomed ahead. How would he be able to sleep with this stunningly beautiful girl, a princess, lying next to him?
“Are you wondering whether you should have pulled me out of the ice?” she asked in a serious tone.
“No, not at all. I pulled a stranded crosser out of the ice because that’s what I do. I didn’t know who you were or what you were fleeing. I only knew you would die if I didn’t do something.”
She flinched at the word “die,” even though she had resigned herself to the idea that death would be far better than staying in Rendier. “That’s good,” she said, “because many more people will be fleeing my country, and they will need your help. Reginald’s reign is a terrible ordeal, but it will eventually come to an end. Then it will get even worse. Your family and the good they offer will always be needed. In fact, I would love to be in the position to help crossers from my country. I just don’t see how it will ever be possible.”
“Oh, you never know.”
“How many crosser homes are there in this town, Paul?”
“I honestly have no idea. They’re supposed to be secret. But the numbers are dwindling from when I was a young boy. It might have a lot to do with the fact that the border has tighter security, and drop-off planes only bring crossers in the winter months. There aren’t enough crossers to sustain the number of homes willing to care for them — you know, supply and demand. At the same time, we pick up as many as we can when they come, up to six usually.”
“More will come,” Sierra said matter-of-factly.” The crossing methods will need to be refined to accommodate more defectors. A system needs to be established that will allow year-round crossing.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the door bell out in the living room. For one terrifying second they looked at each other. Then they both sprang from their seats and bolted for the trap door. Like a well-oiled machine, they executed the drill and were quickly hidden under the house with the trap door closed above them.
Neither one of them breathed. Paul still had his arm around her, giving her support as they crouched close together under the floorboards of the living room. They heard footsteps and muted voices, and as the people walked above them, light dust drifted down from the underside of the boards under the living room.
Sierra looked Paul in the eye with a silent prayer. His expression of absolute terror burned itself into her mind. Now she knew what fear looked like, and it scared her more than she could have imagined.
The footsteps were walking toward Paul’s door, and they heard a heavy knock on his bedroom door. It opened, and the footsteps entered his room. Sierra gasped, and Paul wrapped both arms around her, pulling her tight against his body as their eyes watched the trap door in horror.
The lever was pushed, and the door dropped with a thud. Sierra pressed her face into Paul’s chest, and his arms wrapped around her even tighter. He swiveled around to shield her from the opening. Their bodies trembled together.
Chapter 5
“Paul?” His father’s voice filled the crawlspace, and then Zachary’s face appeared through the hole.
“Dad? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Greg is here to see you. He’s in the living room.”
Paul let out a huge sigh of relief and lowered his head so that his mouth rested on the top of Sierra’s head. He inhaled the sweet smell of her hair and let his eyes close for a moment. She still had a death-grip around his middle, and his arms were wrapped tightly around her. He brought up one hand and placed it gently on the back of her head.
“It’s alright,” he said tenderly. “Let’s go back up.” He felt her loosen her grip, but she didn’t look up at him. He helped her hop toward the trap door, and Zachary lifted her out of the hole. Once Paul was out of the closet and had closed the trap door, he brushed himself off. He glanced over at Sierra, who sat quietly on the bed, then he opened his bedroom door just far enough to slip out without exposing his female guest to Greg.
Sierra lay back on the bed after Paul left the room. She didn’t want to see him leave. There was a certain security when she was with him. She felt it powerfully just a few moments ago.
Zachary remained with her and was looking out the window. “Any problems getting under the house?” he asked without looking at her.
“No. We practiced.”
He turned his gaze in her direction, “Really?” His eyebrow went up and Sierra saw the resemblance between father and son. Same brown hair, eyes, mouth, everything. The only difference was age.
“It was a good thing we did. The first try was a blunder.”
“You should know I’ve heard the search is on for you.” He turned his attention back to the window and stared outside as if he were looking for something.
The blood left her face, and her breath stalled somewhere in her lower gut. She hadn’t even been in Baylend a full twenty-four hours, and she was already being hunted.
He continued, “No raids yet. They’re looking for sightings or tips first.”
“It scared me to be under the house,” she said quietly. “There’s no way out.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking about that too. I’ll work on something else for you. Until then, you’ll probably have to spend a little time under there.” He nodded in the direction of the closet.
“Paul is a good protector.” Her simple statement reddened her cheeks. She could still feel his strong arms wrapped firmly around her, smell his masculine scent, and feel his body tremble with fear.
Zachary looked at her and wondered about the importance of this young lady. She was definitely beautiful, but what was it about her that Reginald Rawlings wanted so badly that he had to keep her locked up in the palace? “Paul said the whole palace was poisoned.” He looked at her with his head tilted to the side. A questioning look was in his eye.
She nodded.
“How?”
“It was in the food, but I don’t know what it was. Dr. Roth is an extremely smart man. But he did tell me it wouldn’t be detectable in blood samples.”
“He sounds like he’s on our side.” Zachary smiled but wondered how one person could pull off something like that. Something didn’t add up in Zachary’s mind. His attention fell on the half-eaten cookie on the bed. “Is that yours?”
Sierra picked up the cookie and looked at Zachary.
His eyes went to the dresser top, where Paul’s half-eaten cookie sat. “Two half-eaten cookies in different parts of the room might lead someone to think there are two occupants in this room. I’ll need to talk to Paul about this. If this had been a raid, those would have raised a question about your presence.”
Sierra nodded her head in understanding.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” Paul said as he closed his bedroom door behind him.
“Hey Paul,” said Greg.
“Follow me into the kitchen, Greg.” Paul motioned to the swinging door beyond the dining table. He needed a few moments to try to get his nerves under control. They both grabbed a cookie, and Greg opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk as nonchalantly as if he lived there. Paul took two cups out of the cupboard and sat at the table.
“Our home was raided early this morning,”
Greg said in a hushed whisper. “They were looking for a young girl. We picked up a male crosser last night, but we only took one because of our remodeling. Did you guys get any new ones last night?”
“Seven.”
“Whoa, you’re not equipped to handle seven are you?”
“No. One’s in my room.” Paul had been told repeatedly not to tell anyone about the crossers, not even his friends. Secrecy was a top priority in the house. It was of crucial importance for everyone’s safety. A little nagging voice in the back of his head told him it was a mistake to reveal any details to his best friend.
“Any young girls?”
“Just men this time,” Paul lied, stuffing a cookie in his mouth.
“Oh. Well, don’t be surprised if you get raided too. They broke my Walkman while tearing through the place. It ticked me off. But what was really weird was they didn’t even seem to care we had a crosser in the house. They were only looking for the girl.”
“My father is already on guard for that.”
“So,” Greg took a big bite of his cookie, “do you want to hang out tonight? I hear there’s a new waitress at Sophie’s, and she’s real cute. We could go check her out.”
“Sorry man, I have duties here.”
“They’ve got PacMan,” he tried to persuade his friend.
“I am actually in charge of my crosser, first one to be exact.”
“Moving up in the world are we?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, I better get going. Wouldn’t want you slackin’ on your new job. See you around.” Greg lightly punched Paul in the shoulder and left the kitchen through the back door.
Zachary stayed with Sierra until Paul came back to the bedroom. Paul walked in carrying two mugs of hot chocolate and handed one to Sierra. Zach took the cup from Sierra and faced Paul. “Paul, your inexperience will wind up resulting in Sara’s capture unless you start thinking more clearly. Two cookies and two mugs of cocoa indicate two individuals. Please, for both your sakes, use more caution.”
“Alright.” Paul’s head hung low as he berated himself. He hadn’t even thought about what it might look like to raiders.
Zachary left with the second cup, leaving Paul and Sierra to share one mug.
Sierra took the offered drink, being careful not to touch Paul’s fingers. “What did your friend want?”
“He told me they were raided this morning looking for a young girl. I assume he meant you.”
“But your father said there weren’t any raids happening yet.”
“He did? Hmm. Maybe he doesn’t know about the raid at Greg’s house.”
“Should you tell him?”
“I will.” He sat in the armchair. Sierra noticed his worry creases forming. “You know, being down there was pretty intense, wasn’t it?”
Her eyes dropped to her mug. She answered back in a barely audible whisper, “Yes. Thank you for protecting me.”
Paul rose quickly from his seat and turned his back to her while he looked out the window. “Well, I didn’t really protect you. Not exactly. It was just my dad, well, Greg I mean. So you don’t need to thank me.”
Sierra looked at his back, wondering if she’d said something wrong. Maybe he thought her reaction in the crawlspace was too childish. “Is something wrong, Paul?” He turned to look at her. His expression looked pained. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know what to say. She still trembled from the whole ordeal.
Paul walked over to the dresser and rubbed the back of his neck with both hands. He turned around and faced her. “When we were down there, I realized I’ve never been responsible for anyone other than myself before. I wanted to run. I wanted to throw my hands up and say ‘uncle’, say ‘alright I changed my mind, I don’t want to care for a crosser.’ But you hugged me so tightly out of fear and …” He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her feet. “I worry that I won’t be able to protect you well enough. I’m not experienced with this kind of thing. Then my dad points out my lack of forethought and the fact that I carelessly put you at risk.”
Sierra couldn’t believe he was opening up to her so candidly. His eyes showed fear of the unknown and something else she couldn’t figure out. “I thought maybe you were thinking I’m … that I’m not worth the risk your family is taking.”
His eyebrows shot up in shock. “Sara, that’s not at all what I think. I feel like I’m not the right person to be protecting you. If I don’t do my job right, you could be captured and beaten by that S-O-B again. I can’t let that happen to you because of my inexperience.”
“You did an amazing job of protecting me, Paul. It’s normal to be afraid. I think you’re being too hard on yourself. When the trap door opened, you put yourself between me and the potential danger. If this is your first time protecting anyone, I’d say you have a natural ability. ”
He stood and walked over to the closet. “I didn’t fully understand the enormity of your situation until we were in that position.” Paul noticed the dirt on the floor left from their clothes and shoes. It definitely needed to be cleaned up. He turned to Sierra to see her eyes still glued to him. “I need to get the broom and clean up this dirt,” he said. “I’ll be back.”
Paul found his mother in the kitchen taking a casserole out of the oven. “Mom, do we have any extra rugs or carpet samples to put down in the … you know.”
“You could take the bathmats down for now. I’ll get some carpet samples later. How’s everything going? Your father told me he gave you quite a scare.”
“Yeah. Maybe we should tell all our friends to use the back door and not ring the bell. One heart attack a day is my limit.”
“How did Sara handle it?”
“She was pretty scared. I felt bad for her.”
“Well, that’s understandable. You’ve seen her scars and bruises. You know what kind of pain she’d be in if she went back, both mental and physical.”
“I know. Is dinner about ready?”
“Yes, I’ll bring it to you. Hurry back to Sara. She shouldn’t be left all alone in case of a raid.”
Paul returned to the bedroom with the broom and cleaned up the dirt. Then he opened the trap door and climbed down to arrange the bath mats on the dirt floor. He also took a thick blanket down and spread it out like he would for a picnic. This way, if they had to come down again, they would at least be able to sit down comfortably.
As he climbed back up into the room, his mother was bringing in the food. He watched Sierra as she looked at the big pile of food on the one plate, along with one fork, one knife, one spoon, and one large glass of milk. Her eyes met his and he smiled.
Elsie left the room, and Paul asked, “Do you want the fork or the spoon?”
“Spoon.”
“Do you want the top half or the bottom half of the milk?”
“Neither. I’ll take the milk on the right side.” She drew a vertical line down the center of the glass with her delicate finger and smiled.
Paul laughed. Sierra loved the way his face transformed when he did. All pretenses vanish with wholesome laughter. No facades, no masks, no proud facial expressions. His eyes had smile lines, and his teeth were straight and white. Smiling brought out his cheekbones and chin too.
They sat together on the bed and ate their meal. Sierra’s mind wandered to the approaching night and the uncomfortable feeling in her gut. It wasn’t a negative feeling, more like an excited jitter. She looked at him sitting at her feet and remembered how wonderful it felt to be held protectively by his strong arms. She had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he would do anything to keep her safe.
*****
The phone call for Reginald left him irritated. His “eyes” in Baylend hadn’t come up with anything yet. It aggravated him to hear that a plane-load of defectors had left the night before, and no one at the airport seemed to know anything about it. And it irritated him to hear that most of the defectors had died in the freezing water of Slater Lake. Sierra must have bee
n on that plane. She had to have been. But did she survive? Would they have to drag the lake to confirm her death? She must have had connections with someone in Baylend to know when the plane was going to leave. And it seemed just a little too coincidental that a wave of stomach flu swept through the palace the same night she left.
“Get me Dr. Roth on the phone,” he ordered his assistant. He’d get to the bottom of this with Dr. Roth’s help.
“Dr. Roth here.”
“I want to know what kind of virus or contamination we’re dealing with here,” Reginald barked out.
Dr. Roth breathed slowly and with perfect control. “I’ve been running blood tests on many of the staff along with my own blood. The same results keep coming up.”
“And what is that?”
“Nothing. I’m not detecting any virus consistent across all blood samples, although Rhonda in the kitchen is pregnant and doesn’t know it yet, but other than that, there are no foreign toxins or chemicals to indicate poison. However, there are a few additives that can be added to food to cause the kind of intense stomach upset we experienced, yet it would not show up in a blood sample. I’m still looking into it.”
“Fine. John, you were sure Sierra was too weak to flee. How come you couldn’t see how strong she was?”
“Sir, I’ve asked myself that at least a hundred times. How indeed? You saw her yourself, sir. Did she look like she could do summersaults and cartwheels to you?”
“No. She definitely pulled the wool over our eyes. Who has she been talking with while in your care?”
“She talked to everyone who came into the clinic, sir. I think I know where you’re going with this. You think she had an informant. I’d like to point out that she didn’t eat any of the food last night. It’s possible she knew something we didn’t. But my question is how do you even begin to root out the informant?”
“I want to know the name of every palace employee, guard, maid, butler, cook, and egg collector who did not get sick. That’s where we’ll start the investigation.”
“I’ll start making a list, sir.”
Reginald hung up the phone and decided to put a halt to all night-time flights out of the country. Any airplane trying to fly after dark would be shot down. End of story. Also, no one could know that Sierra Montgomery had escaped the palace. If he had any hope of succeeding with this plan, it had to appear as if Sierra still resided here on her own will.
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