Night had well and truly fallen by now. Darkness was his only friend. It suffocated him so that he could hardly breathe. It seemed to mock him as he pushed his horse, peering through the dark the best that he could. The road ran for miles, nothing but open fields on both sides. He scanned the best he could, praying all the while that nothing was wrong.
Soon, he spied at the end of the road a small copse of trees. They rose like a dark mountain, somehow even more menacing than the night of which they were a part. And as he came closer to the trees, as he narrowed his eyes and searched, he saw something that made his stomach drop right out from under him.
Against the blackness of the night and the trees both was a patch of white. Even in the darkness, it somehow glowed as if calling to him.
“Beauty…” He swallowed and kicked his horse toward it. “No…”
Indeed, Beauty stood idly by the side of the road, just in front of the tree line. The horse saw him coming but did not move, or trot toward him. But it was alone, its saddle bear, and that was enough.
“Lucy!” Marcus cried into the night. “Lucy!”
He was down from his horse and rushing toward Beauty. His eyes scanned the thick brush, searching for his wife. Caught in two minds, a part of him hoped that he would not find her, the belief that she might still be fine. The other…she has fallen from her horse, she is hurt, and if I don’t find her soon…
“Lucy!” he shouted as loudly as he could. “Lucy! If you can hear me, make a noise! Anything! Please!”
Marcus had not wanted this marriage. He’d harbored no desire to bond with his wife. But as he searched for her, as his fear grew inside his chest like a hand closing over his heart, he made a silent promise. If by some miracle she was not hurt, if they made it through this night together, he would never take her for granted again.
“Lucy –”
“Marcus?” Her voice cut through the night so that Marcus staggered back when he heard it. It was like a bucket of cold water dousing him and he gasped in fresh air as if he had not taken a breath in hours. “What are you doing out here?”
She appeared from the darkness as if by magic.
He saw the white of her dress first, floating it looked like, from the copse of trees. Then her red hair, then the milky white of her skin, and finally her green eyes. They stood out in the darksomehow, he felt their stare pierce his chest and his heart, and Marcus almost laughed, such was the relief he felt.
Typically, once that feeling simmered, anger was what took him.
“What do you think you are doing?” He stormed towards her.
“Exploring…” She had just come out of the trees and now that he was closer, he saw twigs in her hair and scratches on her face. “I lost track of time however, and when it grew dark, I got all turned around –”
“Are you out of your mind?” When he reached her, he very nearly snatched at her arm. “Are you… I thought… you might have been hurt!”
“But I was not.”
“But you could have been!” He threw his hands in the air. Although Marcus felt utter relief so that he might float from it, he tried to hang onto his anger to anchor him. “You cannot do that, Lucy! You cannot… what if you had fallen? What if you had lost your way? What if… what if…”
Even though it was dark, he saw the smile on her lips.
“What?” he snapped. “Why are you smiling?”
“Were you worried about me, Marcus?” She appeared delighted by the fact.
“What? No.”
A raised eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? It certainly looks as if you are.”
“I was…” He clenched his jaw and looked away. “I was concerned for you. You are my wife, Lucy, and if anything was to happen… James needs you.”
“Just James?”
“Of course…”
Now that the danger was past, Marcus became suddenly aware of how this must look. And not just that he had come searching for her, but that he was so worried, out of his damn mind with fear! Any chance that he might have had of pretending that he did not care about her was now dashed and destroyed, and that plunged Marcus into an extreme sense of awkwardness because he felt exposed.
“It is dangerous,” he said with some calm. “If not for the dark, out here on your own…” He gestured to the surrounding fields. “How did you expect me to react?”
She watched him closely. The smirk on her lips faded. And while it was dark, her stare softened so that he could see the regret clear behind her eyes.
