Always (26 page)

“
You have?” I paused in my steps to look back at her.

“
I have.” Her kind, weathered face was as serious as I’d ever seen it.

“
What have you heard, Aunt Dora?”

“
Terrible things,” her lips curled up in a snarl.

Suddenly the scene around me changed. Huge dark clouds blew in to blot out the sun and thunder rumbled threateningly. The wind that whipped at our clothes now was cold and bit like tiny rocks were mixed in. A flash of lightening zipped through the thick clouds.

The wind picked Aunt Dora up and flung her several feet away. I screamed, startling even myself with the sound.

For the length of a heartbeat, everything in my dream stood very, very still and I saw what was in the wind. It was Marcus.

I sat straight up in my bed, panting heavily. My body was shaking violently and I couldn’t catch my breath. The details of my dream played and replayed in my head. I pulled the thick blanket up to my chin, contemplating whether I would be safer under the blanket or out here where I could see.

A noise from across the room made my already rapid heart stutter and stop.

“
W…who’s there?” I called.

I tried to make my eyes as wide as they would go to try and see if someone was there. I couldn’t see anything but the pitch-black shadows. My breathing was the only sound now and it sounded louder than a freight train.

I blew my cheeks out tight. I had to stop being so loud or I wouldn’t be able to hear if someone really was there. I heard what could have possibly been a footstep. Someone was in there with me!

“
I hear you,” my voice shook, but as least there was some volume.

I crawled to the end of the bed, trying to decide if I would be able to bolt to the door or not. Maybe I should just scream. Would anyone hear me? And even if they could, would they be able to get here in time?

Another footstep had me scurrying backwards in the bed. Someone was definitely in the room with me. Who was it?

Ryan!

I covered my mouth with my hand to stop the screaming. Where was Marcus when I needed him? Ryan was back and he was in my bedroom–not just outside of my window.

And Marcus wasn’t here to save me this time. Nothing would stop Ryan from ripping me to shreds or worse. I couldn’t help but remember the last time I had been this close to Ryan. He had killed my dog and chased Marcus and I through the woods.

Three angry red lines still ran up my arm and onto my shoulder from where he had attacked me out of the darkness. I tried not to let the tears I felt coming fall; he would probably hear me crying and know I was completely at his mercy.

I scooted to the edge of the bed that was closest to the door and put my feet on the floor.

“
Please don’t let Sylvia be in bed yet,” I silently pleaded.

There was the sound of a vase falling to the floor and shuffling footsteps. I froze in place–completely terrified–for way too long.

In one motion, I stood up and darted to the door. I didn’t make it, though. Something dark and solid cut off my path and enfolded me in a deep darkness.

I screamed loud then and swung my arms out as hard as I was able. I made contact with the intruder several times, but he never loosened his grip on me. I kicked out at his shins, but only managed to hurt my own feet. His grip only tightened.

It was in that moment that I knew I was going to die. Ryan was going to kill me right there in my bedroom and no one would ever know. There was so much that went through my mind in those brief seconds, but mostly I worried about Marcus.

I wished I could have seen him just one last time so I could tell him how much I loved him still. We had been at such odds with each other since coming to London, I hadn’t even told him goodbye before he left. I could only hope that he wouldn’t blame himself for my death.

Knowing him had made my life better than anything I could have hoped for in Hamel or being married to Edmund Harris. How I regretted not telling him more often! I had let him push me away.

I wondered if he would go tell my aunt and uncle that I was dead. What would he tell them what happened to me? How would Aunt Dora handle it? I wanted to cry for her and Uncle Philip, but there wasn’t time to do much more than be afraid.

I let my head fall back slightly, defeated. There was no point in trying to fight the inevitable. Ryan was going to kill me. I might as well make it easy for him–then maybe he wouldn’t make it hurt so much for me. I closed my eyes tight and waited for it.

“
Were you just going to give up, then?” a raspy whisper sounded close to my ear.

“
Just hurry and get it over with,” I pleaded.

“
You give in too easily, Claudia.”

When he said my name, I knew who it was. “Marcus?”

“
You would have let me kill you.” He let go of me too suddenly and I slipped down to my knees. Light flooded softly into the room. My breath caught in a ragged gasp at the familiar sight of him standing so tall and so calm.

“
I thought you were Ryan.”

His face darkened instantly and then turned to confusion. “Why would you think Ryan would be in your bedroom?”

“
To kill me!”

“
Claudia,” he walked quickly back to me, “You’re safe here. Ryan will not come here,” he helped me as I stumbled back to my feet, “ever.”

“
Oh,” I tucked my hair behind my ears, adrenaline still pumping through my veins; leaving me dizzy.

“
Were you having a bad dream?”

“
No,” I said immediately. Flashes of my dream came to mind, but I was hesitant to tell him about it.

“
I missed you.”

His words were so different than anything I expected him to say. “What?”

He smiled sadly. “Shouldn’t a husband miss his wife when he’s been away for a while?”

A while? Was he only talking about the few days he had been away this time or the entire time we had spent in London? “Yes, of course.”

Ever so slowly, as if I were still in my dream, his hand came up to brush lightly along my face. His thumb lingered on my jaw line. “I know that,” he cleared his throat softly, “I have been acting strangely. There is a reason for that.”

“
What reason?”

He chuckled and looked briefly to the floor. “I can’t say, but it’s almost over.”

It? My heart sped up. Even if I didn’t know what “it” was, it still scared me. I swallowed nervously. “Good,” my head bobbed several times.

He smiled then, a devastating smile that took my breath away, so much like the man I remembered that it caused a physical aching in my chest. “Dance with me, Claudia.”

“
There’s no music,” I protested.

“
We don’t need music,” his eyes widened slightly.

“
Then how will we know which steps to take?”

“
Claudia,” he sighed my name. “Just come to me and let me hold you close. We can dance to the rhythm of our hearts beating together.”

I blushed and tucked my hair behind my ears, incredibly self-conscious from the intensity in his eyes. “I don’t think we can…”

“
Yes,” he stepped forward, “we can.”

I sighed, willing to forgive him any past transgressions, just for a bit of the happiness we once had. “Okay,” I met him halfway.

I felt the warmth slip into the darkest places of my heart as soon as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I raised my own arms up to touch his shoulders lightly. I was too short to wrap them around his neck, but it was nice the way we were.

“
See? This isn’t so bad, is it?” He smiled gently down at me.

“
I guess not.” I smiled a tight small smile.

“
You guess?”

I squealed when his arms tightened around me and he lifted me off my feet. He swirled me around and around the small space beside the bed. I wrapped my arms tighter around him in an effort not to end up on the floor.

“
Put me back down,” I demanded. It may have had more of an effect if I wasn’t laughing so hard.

“
You mean I can’t dance with my wife?” he laughed back.

“
Of course you can.” He set me back on my feet, but didn’t loosen his hold around my waist.

I didn’t know how any two people could stand closer together. I was pleasantly surprised that I could hear our hearts beating together; a precious rhythm that I thought was gone forever.

“
I missed you,” he whispered softly.

“
I’ve been right here.”

“
But I haven’t.” His fingers played with the curls closest to my ears.

“
Why not?” I murmured absently.

The only reason Marcus and I weren’t like this every day was because he wasn’t around. He always had something else he needed to be doing.
He should be here with me
, I thought selfishly.

“
There is just so much about me that you don’t understand.”

My face pulled down into a frown, but luckily he was too tall above me to see it.
There was something about Marcus that was different, about all three of my new family, I
realized. They weren’t like other people.

Even though I had lived in a small village almost my entire life, I could still easily spot the differences between the other people who lived in London and the three that lived in my house. It wasn’t only because they were all achingly beautiful compared to others either; there was something else going on.

Like the other day, I had been trying to work on my needlepoint in the drawing room with Sylvia and I accidentally pricked my finger with the needle. It was only a small drop of blood, but she had reacted as if I had cut my entire finger off. She had immediately torn a strip off the hem of her dress so she could wrap it around the wounded finger.

I couldn’t understand why she over reacted so strongly, to ruin such a lovely dress. And how had she been able to tear the material so quickly without a pair of scissors? She told me then that she had a rip in the dress already so it came off easily, but I didn’t believe her.

I tilted my chin up so I could see his face. It had been far too long since I’d seen him look at me with so much love. I had despaired that it was gone, but now I knew for sure that our love was a real thing.

He ran his two fingers along my cheek down to my jaw line, sending shivers along my spine. Ever so slowly, he brought his face closer to mine until our lips touched. I let myself fall more completely into him.

Why couldn’t every day be this wonderful? Is this what our life would be like in Hamel? If so, I was ready to go back now, tonight.

It probably wouldn’t have mattered where we went so long as it was away from the reach of Silango. Somewhere inside I knew that we would never be completely out of his reach; after all, he had found us in Hamel. We just needed to be further away from him then we were.

What had Silango asked Marcus to do? Was he done with whatever it was?

I laid my head against his shoulder while he gently caressed my back. The moonlight through the window cast eerie shadows along the floor and for an unexpected moment, I was reminded of when we first met.

“
Was Ryan really Silango?” The words were out before I could stop them. I felt him tense up under my touch.

“
Why would you ask that?”

“
Sylvia said he wasn’t, but I wanted to hear it from you.”

“
You and Sylvia talked about this?”

“
A little,” I tried to shrug. He let me go so suddenly that I staggered backwards a few steps. “What’s the big deal?”

“
The big deal?” When he turned to look at me, my heart sank. His glare was back.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

“
Why can’t you just leave this matter alone?” He asked through clenched teeth.

“
Because,” I tried to reach up for him–tried to steal back the moment that had been ruined, “I love you, Marcus. I want you to be able to trust me. You can tell me anything.”