Irish Fiction: We Come Back: Vol. 1: Chapter 5.3- Deadly Sweet
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Deadly Sweet
I stopped and fell against a nearby Oak tree,
trying to catch my breath; I could feel myself hyperventilating. I was behaving like a lost and roughed up child, who had been robbed of some unforeseen opportunity. I felt as if I was entirely overreacting, yet it seemed impossible to stop. Suddenly, as if some magical star had dropped in my path, a doe appeared as if to reassure me, and then left as quickly as it had arrived.
As the other guests filed into the dining room, Jack noticed she was missing.
“Has anyone seen Miss Astraea?”
Everyone at the table indicated that they hadn’t seen her since the drawing room, and thought she had left the room when they did. When he walked out of the dining room he saw Fareus coming from the hall and hailed him.
“Fareus, have you seen Miss Astraea? I cannot seem to find her,” he drilled his eyes into Fareus’, searching for an answer.
“Yes sir, she asked me to make her excuses saying that she did not feel well and wished to return home. I told her I would arrange a carriage, which is being brought around now.”
Without any response, Jack hustled around the corner to the front door, and became frazzled upon seeing she wasn’t standing there.
“She was just here sir, perhaps she is waiting outside?” Jack threw the door open and ran outside.
She wasn’t there. A feeling of panic had begun to set in,
though he couldn’t find a reason to feel it, yet somehow he knew some grave misunderstanding he was unaware of had occurred, and he could not have that. He immediately looked towards the trail leading to the first place they had met, and saw a cloak disappear behind a tree at the entrance of the trail. Without a word to Fareus he took off running past the fountain towards the trail.
‘Had she left for any reason, what business was it of his?’ thought Fareus, as he stood outside the front door waiting for Mr. Staun’s return.
‘Why had she not waited for the carriage?’
he thought, puzzled.
Meanwhile in the dining room, the guests were discussing the sudden disappearance of both Miss Astraea and their host. The only person not talking was Miss Delaine, who sat with her hands in her lap, and a subtle smile on her face, silently praising herself. When Fareus had the first course served, they still had not yet regained their host or his mysterious guest.
I stopped every so often along the trail to lean on a tree and breath. I didn’t know that I had grown fond enough of Jack to be this upset at the idea that he was unavailable to me or really, that he would lead me on so, but it appeared I had. I thought that there was something between us that was rare in his world and in mine, though why I thought that could occur in such little time with such little knowledge of each other’s lives, I did not know. ‘Then again,’ I thought to myself, ‘what is it in a life that shows us if our love is real or not?’ I leaned on a tree and thought about him and the way he looked at me… I had almost reached the clearing by then when I heard a disturbance coming back from the way I came.
“Astraea!” he shouted.
He prayed he had some hope of finding her. He had to know why she would leave in such hurry without a word to him. We seemed, to him, to have been hitting it off so well that he really couldn’t understand what had happened. In fact, though he would refuse to say it aloud, for fear of feeling a fool, he felt that perhaps, he loved her.
It was my name I heard being called.
He was coming after me! I turned to run into the clearing and reach the bridge to go home, but the moon still hadn’t risen! ‘Oh hurry,’ I thought to myself. I couldn’t bear to see him again, to see those eyes look at me, the eyes of love promised to another. Tears began to well in my eyes all over again.
Jack came bursting into the clearing.
He bent over, panting, trying to catch his breath, holding out his finger in a one moment fashion. I whipped my head around and looked at him. Some nerve he had!
Suddenly my sorrow turned to anger, and I ran at him
and knocked him over.
“How dare you!” I yelled at him, as a new batch of tears broke out.
“How dare I what? What are you talking about?” he spoke in a desperate, frustrated voice.
“You should have told me, even if I didn’t just come out with it and ask. Do you think I would choose to spend my time with any man I can get? That I am some desperate husband hunter seeking out the kill? Well I am not! I spent my time with you because I liked you, I thought you liked me, but clearly I was mistaken!” I cried and yelled angrily.
“I…”
He tried to stand up, but as he did I came at him again.
He was more prepared this time however, and took me down with him.
As I tried to hit him he pinned my arms back as gently but firmly as possible.
“Get off me!” I struggled, throwing myself back and forth,
trying and failing to throw him off me... to be continued in the subsequent exert: Chapt. 5.4
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