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Chapter 20
Long Days and Longer Nights
Alicia’s legs pumped furiously, pushing her across the field of dry brown needles and through the rows of bare, dead branches. Her feet were bare, and the limbs were covered in thorns that clawed at her skin, but she continued to race as fast as she could.
The pine boughs pushed closer and closer, until at last Alicia was thrown back, unable to progress any further. She whirled around, her eyes casting about the familiar forest for any indication of where she was. She knew this forest, she was sure, but she could not find the way forward. She felt the tears running freely down her face, tasted their wet saltiness—they were not from pain, but desperation. She had to keep going, had to get there in time.
“I’m here!” she yelled, spinning about desperately. “I’m here, just hold on!”
Her cry echoed from the trees, mocking her as it was returned to her ears over and over. Then she turned, hearing an answer. She felt a presence just at her left ear and detected a whisper, so quiet she could barely hear it. As she thought to turn and look, the whisper turned to a murmur, then a vast rush of sound, as though something was bearing down on her like a stampede of great beasts.
Then she turned, and the world erupted into a burst of white light and an inhuman scream.
“Aah!”
Alicia cast about, lost in the tangled mass of her hair. As she fought to catch her breath she saw she was sitting up in bed—the bed at Laurence’s house, she saw to her relief—and the noise had only been that damnable rooster yet again.
This relief evaporated immediately when she remembered the circumstances of her presence here.
Laurence?she thought, throwing herself out of bed and running to the open window with anticipation.Has he returned yet?
Looking out the window Alicia could see the day was a sunny one, as she had come to expect, but the air felt heavy with something ominous.A storm is coming, she thought, or at least the rain that Jenny had earlier declared was long overdue. Other than that, the farm was quiet. She could faintly hear Dennis’ grumblings through the open barn door, and the songbirds carried on with their winsome tunes, perhaps a little more muted than usual.
“Just relax,” she murmured to herself as she felt a hand close around her heart with nervousness. “All we can do is wait, as Mary-Anne said. He will be back before long. Just relax.”
And that is what Alicia tried to do. She found herself a comfortable seat by the window and leaned her elbow on the sill, gazing out at the dirt courtyard in front of the Gillingham house. Yet the futility of this exercise was made immediately apparent. Every fly that buzzed past, every leaf that blew in the wind, every mote of dust that glittered in the sunlight caught her eye and her breath.Laurence!she thought each time, and each time she deflated when she realized it had only been her imagination.
Up and down she was blown by her changing passions, and on and on. Eventually, she glanced back at the clock only to realize she had been staring out the window for barely five minutes.
Shivering despite the warm air that flowed into her room—Strange how this place feels so much more “my room” than in my family home in London, she mused—she wrapped a light blanket around her shoulders and hastened out of the room with purpose.
I cannot relax,thought Alicia, setting her chin determinedly.But neither can I stay here and simply wait, or else I shall be dead or mad before Laurence can return. Need to make the time pass, one way or another.
* * *
“I am sure Laurence will be returning before long,” said Mary-Anne over breakfast. “Do not worry yourself.”
“That’s right, Miss Alicia. Not even Mister Gillingham’s horse can fly, but he’ll be along just as soon as he can.” Jenny, as ever, was only too happy to chime in with her assent.
“I suppose you are both right,” said Alicia with more hope than she really felt.
“Of course, whenever he does show his face, it will be not a moment too soon,” Mary-Anne said with her characteristic cheek. “Not only for your sake, you understand, but Edward anticipated my return today, and I was in the middle of packing to leave. In fact, I still think I shall take my leave in the next day or so—no reason to wait around when Laurence will surely be back momentarily.”
Alicia grunted her comprehension, then tried to focus on eating her food. As ever, it was delicious and nourishing, but it may as well have been sawdust this morning, she was so fraught with concern for her man’s welfare.
Unable to take prolonged silences, it was only a few moments before Mary-Anne spoke. “He had better have broken his leg to worry us so badly.”
“Oh, no, surely not,” said Jenny disapprovingly as she buttered another piece of bread.
“Really, though,” Mary-Anne continued with a vicious smirk. “I can only assume he got lost on the way to the city, or he surely would have passed you on the way here, Alicia. We had best find him crawling back with two broken legs, dragging that horse of his by the leg, or else he shall be in such—”
“Please, don’t say such things,” growled Alicia. “He would never worry us intentionally, and I know—”
Alicia dropped her fork on the table with a clatter as a sound echoed from the entryway. The door was being opened!
“Laurence?” Alicia called, rising from her chair eagerly.
She froze in that spot, feeling her heart race at each creak of the floorboards, then nearly collapsed where she stood when she saw the stooped form of Dennis step into the room instead.
