Vision In Love (Legends of The North Book 1) (9 page)

She opened her eyes and everything was different. The railing had gone, and the river was farther away and not as wide. Shouts from behind her had her turning in that direction. She staggered back, confusion taking over. Flames clawed at the sky, flooding her vision in shades of orange and yellow. Surrounded by the flames, quickly engulfed by them, was a wooden structure. An elaborate jetty was all she could come up with, because she'd never seen anything like it before in her life. But the flames were consuming it as the shouts became louder. Louder, but not clearer. They weren't shouting in English, but she understood the distress carried in the words. Then the flames receded and blackness started to descend. Like a beacon through the black, she heard Matt's voice calling her name and then nothing.

***

She looked so peaceful, standing there watching the river. He almost didn't want to disturb her, but he needed to know she was okay. That they were okay, since she knew who he really was.
 

He jumped as Barney headed for the river, but Emma wouldn't let him come to any harm. But she didn't call him, didn't move. He started towards her when she turned to face him. But it was like she was looking straight through him, her eyes glazed, unfocused. He called Barney back, and the dog lunged towards him in his excitement. Dragging him back towards where Emma stood, he saw her sway. She grabbed for the railing behind her as he pulled her against his chest. Resting a hand underneath her chin, he pulled her face up to his. Her skin felt like ice beneath his fingers, and she began to shake. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to encourage her to walk as he guided her in the direction of his house.

***

Emma didn't know what had just happened, but she was pretty sure Matt wasn't happy about it. Either that or he wasn't happy about her being there. But he was the one who had dragged her to his house in the first place.

"Morning," Jess practically chirped as she bounced down the stairs into the kitchen.
 

Jess should not be that happy after the amount of alcohol she consumed last night.

"Oh, Emma. I didn't know you stayed."

Emma flushed at her words but she wasn't given the chance to explain.
 

"She didn't."

Jess winced as Matt slammed the door. "Oh, I see. You know, I'm sure I have to ... be somewhere. I'll catch you later," she said as she retreated backwards from the kitchen with each word.
 

Okay, clearly he was upset about something. Maybe she should just leave? He slammed a cup down in front of her and the smell of tea assaulted her.

"I don't drink tea, Matt."

He didn't acknowledge her, just turned his back. When he turned back to her, the clinking of a bottle against her cup dragged her attention from him, he poured a slug of whiskey into her tea. Whiskey? At this time of the morning? Raising her head in question at him, he dropped into the seat next to her.

"It's good for shock. Drink some."

His anger seemed to have deserted him, leaving that sad look in his eyes again. She wasn't sure if she would prefer him to be angry instead.

"What happened?"

That was a very good question, one she had already asked herself while she sat in his kitchen. She couldn't ignore what was happening anymore. Waking up with mud-covered or wet feet was one thing when she was in the privacy of her own bedroom, but Matt had seen something. She could lie, tell him she had skipped breakfast, and felt faint. But he'd seen her shaking, felt her icy skin. And more than that, they could never be anything more with lies between them. May not even be friends anymore with the truths they'd kept from each other.
 

Glancing at him, she gazed into his eyes that shone with warmth. She didn't want to lie to him; she wanted to share this with him. She didn't want to cause him pain, as she remembered how she had felt when he had kept the truth from her. He might laugh at her or think her crazy, but she'd rather that than lie to him. At least that way, she knew where she stood.
 

She used to think she was quite good at puzzles. Cryptic, numeric, all types. But she'd been pretty slow at putting the clues together this time. Maybe it was harder when you're a part of it. Her first dream didn't really make sense, but then she had found the helmet. A Roman helmet. The river that flowed right beside the museum. The Roman Museum, where Matt worked. Matt drowning in the river and her desperate to save him. All of them pointed to him, his place of work. Him being there, right then. Her dreams, visions, episodes, whatever the hell they were, they all pointed to him being involved somehow.

He took her hands in his, enveloped them in his warmth.
 

"What happened, Emma?" His voice was quiet even in the silent kitchen. And so she explained, starting with the first dream about the helmet that led her to the museum, and ending with her in his arms earlier that morning.

He still held her hands in his as she finished, which she took as a good sign. She tried to gauge his thoughts, but his face gave nothing away. At least he wasn't running for the door, but he still hadn't said anything. She started to shift on her chair and was about to ask him to just say something, anything.
 

"Well. That makes me feel embarrassed about my dreams having me worried."

"What?"

"I had dreams, too, but mine were just regular dreams, nowhere near as interesting as yours. Feels a bit anticlimactic to share mine now."

As she shook her head, she realised she should have known somehow, should have given him more credit. Had they been destined to meet? It felt like events were making it seem that way. "Tell me anyway."

"Well, my first one took place at Altenbury farm, too. It was late afternoon, and a woman was walking her dog. We hadn't met at this point, remember. She was walking beside the oak tree and I tried to catch up to her, but every time I got to the tree, she had disappeared. When I turned around, she was back at the farm."
 

Taking a sip of his tea, he pushed Emma's cup nearer to her. With a sheepish look, he continued. "That was my whole dream, every night, over and over. It was so frustrating, never being able to reach her, never being able to see who she was. One night, I even shouted after her, woke myself up, but the next night was just the same. But then, after we met, my dreams changed."

He rose from the table to open the fridge and took a green paper bag out. Getting some plates down from the cupboard, he brought everything back to the table. He laid out an assortment of pastries that had her stomach rumbling in appreciation.

Matt smiled and said, "Help yourself." He stared at the table for a short while before he took a croissant.

"They're not exactly your average dreams, though, are they?" she said.

"To be honest, I don't normally dream. Or at least I don't tend to remember them, but these? They were so vivid and so frequent." He tore a croissant in half and her stomach growled.
 

She picked up a pain au chocolate and moaned around a mouthful. "This is so good."

"I got them from the cafe."

"Mmm, God, don't tell me that, I'll be in there every day." Swallowing slowly, she asked, "Did your dreams change this month?"

"They did. That's why I bought you the roses, really, but I guess now I understand why you reacted the way you did when I gave them to you. I dreamt I was in the office above the museum and Miriam–she works there, too–kept trying to give me a single white rose. I kept refusing and said it should be a bouquet of roses, but she just kept offering me one. I got so angry I ended up shouting at her. But she just kept offering me this single flower. So, in the end, I just took it and when I did, it turned into a poppy. When I looked up, it wasn't Miriam who had offered it to me but my gran. I don't mind admitting I woke up feeling a little scared."
 

They both sat quietly for a moment. Emma twisted her ring back and forth until Matt closed his hand around hers. Looking up at him from beneath her lashes, she found him staring at her intently.

"Is that why you were asking me about poppies?" Emma nodded and bit her bottom lip. "It doesn't mean anyone is going to die, if that's what you're thinking. Dreams, or whatever you want to call them, are symbolic."

"I know," Emma said. "It's just, the man in the river? He looked familiar, but, I'm not sure." She shrugged, not wanting to tell him that she was sure it had been him she had seen.
 
"The whole thing, I don't know, it just has me on edge. I don't know what to make of it." Matt put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her against his chest. Finding comfort in his arms, she rested her cheek on his shoulder and relaxed against him. She felt his other arm wrap around her and the warmth of his lips as he pressed them against her forehead.

"It'll be okay, I promise." The sound of the door slamming made him look up towards the stairs.

"Matt?"

"We're still down here," he shouted back.

"Should I come back later?"

Matt looked at Emma, but she shook her head.

"No, it's fine. We've got pastries."

"Oh, my God, I never would have offered to leave if I'd known that," Jess said as she walked into the kitchen. "Everything okay?" she asked, looking at Emma.

"Yeah, everything's good," Emma replied as she smiled at Matt.
 

Conversation turned to the everyday and, for the time being, Emma forgot about fires and rivers and visions.

An hour later, Emma finished her second cup of coffee as Jess stood and gave her brother a kiss.

"I'll give Mum and Dad your love."

"I doubt they'd want it, Jess."
 

Matt saw Jess's face drop, and Emma knew he regretted saying it even though he believed it to be true.
 

"But, yeah, pass it on, anyway."

She waved to Emma, the smile back in place. "Don't get up to anything I wouldn't while I'm out. See you later," she said over her shoulder. Before either of them could respond, she was halfway up the stairs.

"Er, sorry about Jess. She's normally quite reserved, except when she's around you and me, it would seem."

Matt shook his head as the blush spread to his ears.
 

She couldn't help but smile and found herself wondering if he blushed in other situations. "That's okay, I like her. I guess I should get going, too."

"You're more than welcome to stay for lunch. Jess will be at the big house for a few hours, at least."
 

"Thanks, but I'm sure I've taken up enough of your day."

He didn't contradict her, just chewed on a fingernail. She put her cup in the sink then turned straight in to his chest. His hands closed around her arms, steadying her, but he didn't release her.

"Do you think it's a good idea to be on your own right now?"

She opened her mouth to reply then shut it again. Maybe he was right. What if she had another vision when she was on her own? It was different at night, or when she was in her house. "I can't be with someone all the time, Matt."

"I know. Just humour me for now and stay for lunch. We can talk through your visions and my dreams and see if we can make any sense of them. Okay?"

She nodded, giving in to him for the moment, but she knew she'd have to go home eventually. Following him upstairs to the living room, she watched as Matt switched on his laptop and opened a new spreadsheet. He pulled a pair of black-rimmed glasses out of his pocket and put them on. Emma tried to hide her smile behind her hand. The glasses with the tweed jacket made him look like what she imagined a history professor would. But as he turned his gaze to her, she realised how sexy he was. Geeky, but sexy.
 

How had she not noticed before? Because he
so
wasn't the type she went for. No, her type was more interested in her friends than her. Plus, he was her friend and right then, she needed all the friends she could get. No point in complicating that friendship.
 

"What?"

She'd been staring at him and he'd caught her. That time, it was her turn to blush. Dropping her gaze to the spreadsheet, she shook her head but said nothing.

"Okay. So, I thought we should record as much as we could about our dreams, and then we can mark where they have similarities. Like, in our first dreams, we both dreamt about the same place, but not at the same time. I don't know if that means something or not."

She smiled again.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're just so ... organised."

"Is that a polite way of saying boring? OCD?"

"No," she said, laughing that time. "I just meant organised. Unlike me."

She curled her feet up beneath her and leaned against his shoulder so she could see what he had typed. It felt nice. He felt nice, sturdy and solid beneath her. He made her feel safe.

 
After almost two hours going through the details of all their dreams, Emma stretched out her legs and rubbed her eyes. "Okay, enough for one day. It's time I went home." She could tell by Matt's face he wanted to finish the spreadsheet. "It's okay. You stay here and finish working on that. I need to be able to spend time on my own."

Matt nodded. "Okay, but if you need anything, just ring me."

"I will. Come on, Barney, let's go."

***

Emma had just finished dinner when there was a knock on the front door. When she opened it, Matt stood before her, laptop case in hand.

"I thought we could go over what I finished."

She pulled the door open wide to let him in. "Why don't we leave it for tonight? Can we forget about dreams and visions for now and just watch a movie instead?"

Matt hesitated, torn between wanting to spend more time with Emma and a need to finish the spreadsheet. Emma didn't give him a chance to answer.

"Choose one," she said, with a nod of her chin toward her collection. "I'm going to get changed, I won't be long." As she climbed the stairs, she thought how nice it was to have someone to share an evening with. It had been a long time since she had stayed in and had a movie night. Ben had gradually spent more and more nights out with Sarah as she had become busier and busier at work. Shaking her head, she reminded herself that Matt wasn't Ben. Matt was just a friend. Quickly, she changed into her pyjamas and grabbed a blanket on the way back downstairs. Throwing the blanket onto the sofa, she kept walking into the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she shouted, "Did you pick one?"