“Do you like it?” He stepped towards her, but stopped a few feet away. Maybe he was unsure of her reaction. “The dance is on Saturday, so I thought I should get around to asking you.”
She held up the necklace. “It’s perfect. Where did you get an eighteenth-century antique pendant?”
William knew her. Jason’s sapphire earrings were generic compared to the antique necklace — a reflection of her soul and a gesture that pierced her heart.
“My mother gave it to me before she died.” He moved closer, never taking his eyes from hers. “My father gave it to her as a gift, but she told me that someday I would find someone special to give it to.”
“Your mother died?” The shock of the fact ran through her like lightning.
“She didn’t survive the trip up from Virginia. We had to bury her along the way in New York.”
“What do you mean? Was she in a car accident? Did she get sick?” She searched for a scenario where someone could die on a car trip from Virginia to New York.
“Our family stopped for the night in Albany on the way to Lexington. My sister, Sarah, and my mother strolled along the road while my father and I were at the local merchant. It was all a terrible accident . . . my father and I could only watch. We were too far away to save her.”
“What happened?” Laney pictured a horror-stricken man jumping out of his car towards the crumpled body in the street, with William and his father frozen a block away.
“The horse startled and reared, leaving no time to react.” His eyes welled up with tears as Laney reached over to hold his hand.
Her mind was full of questions. Why were there horses on the road in Albany? Maybe it was a parade. Why did they bury his mother along the way? Her tact replaced her curiosity.
William squeezed her hand and led her back over to the makeshift bench. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
She smiled, trying to brighten the mood. “Yes,”
“May I?” William held up the pendant.
“Do you think it will look bad if I keep my other chain on?” She removed the pendant from her shirt and let it rest on the outside of her coat.
William reached out and studied the sapphire, turning it over to examine the back. After a few moments he said, “Weaver.”
“Do you know Latin?”
“A little.” He placed the pendant back against her coat.
“Does your pendant say anything?” Laney only saw the front of his stone with its golden eye. If the same artisan had crafted the two necklaces, his was sure to contain a similar wording.
“You miss nothing.” He grinned. “I thought maybe you forgot.”
“Yeah, and you happen to have a necklace that matches the one that I have that I thought was one of a kind. A little hard to forget.”
William pulled out his pendant from beneath his shirt and Laney moved closer to hold it in her palm. The golden eye stared up at her from the deep green sea. Turning it over, she found the Latin word on the back of the emerald: Custodio.
“It means to watch over. Maybe that’s why I consider it my good luck charm.” William dropped it back inside his shirt.
Laney connected the remaining pieces of the puzzle. Of course, it was him. Her palms began to sweat. The meeting with the Golden Recluse, his matching necklace, his name . . . before she could say anything, William lifted the clock case necklace.
“May I put my mother’s necklace on you?”
Laney turned around and lifted her hair, trying not to let her hands shake. Reaching around, he let the pendant and chain fall just below her neck. He attached the clasp and then gently touched the back of her neck with his fingertips. Her heart started beating rapidly. His fingers wandered to her ear as he gently caressed the curve before settling back into her hand. She had to keep telling herself to breathe.
“Can I ask you something?” His body was just centimeters behind her.
Laney shifted her body to face him again. His face was perfect . . . more than perfect. The way his hair fell around his face, the light stubble on his chin and cheeks, and his beautiful green eyes that made her feel like the only girl in the world.
“Sure.” The word barely escaped her lips. She’d never found speaking so difficult before. Her mind filled with images of her Watcher.
“You seem convinced that your stalker is this character from your book named Jonas. That he’s the Ender of your story.” His gaze was just beyond her — into the forest before flickering back to her. “I just don’t understand how you can be so sure about Jonas and not even begin to know me.”
In that moment, Laney pushed the insurmountable evidence aside, focusing every ounce of her concentration on the person in front of her. She knew his face was more than familiar. It was made for her.
Although she was certain, she reached for the top button of his coat. Her hands tried desperately to hold back the earthquake welling within her. Her fingers stopped, inches away from the button. She swallowed hard, letting her eyes drift up to meet his. “May I?”
He nodded.
Everything moved like someone had hit the slow motion button on a movie. The atmosphere felt surreal. When Laney reached the last button, she pushed his coat off his left shoulder and lifted the sleeve of his shirt. The jagged scar left by Jonas’ blade was etched across his bicep.
“William? My William?”
He put his hand on hers once again.
She leaned over and kissed his scar. His skin was warm and soft beneath her lips. He let out a sigh, his arm relaxing in her grasp. He closed his eyes, his mouth opening slightly. She turned her face and rested her cheek on his arm, enjoying the heat radiating from it and the electricity welling in her chest.
“Yes.” He opened his eyes. The eyes she dreamed about at night, but didn’t recognize when they were right in front of her.
“You knew all the time.” Her voice cracked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
William reached out and touched her face with his hand. “I wanted to wait until you were ready.” He glanced beyond her again as if searching for the words to say. “I had to be sure that you liked me and weren’t just swept up in the glorified image that you portray in the book.” He traced his forefinger along her palm. “At first, I wasn’t sure how you felt about Jason. It was important to be close, to protect you, but I didn’t want to send you over the edge. I believe that you now know what is in the realm of possibility.”
“It all seems so crazy.” Laney reached up to touch his arm. His muscle was hard under his shirt. Making her way down to his wrist, hairs tickled her fingertips. “Still, you are the first dream I’ve ever touched.” She smiled at him. In this quiet haven in the woods, William existed.
He placed his hand on her knee. “I’ve waited so long for this moment. It was difficult to watch you from a distance when I wanted to hear your voice, hold your hand, and just be . . . near you. So many things stood in our way . . . Jason, school, and wondering if I was just a bunch of words to you.”
Laney’s heart sank, hearing he felt that way. “You were never a bunch of words to me. I’ve spent countless hours dreaming that you were real.” She laid her head on his shoulder and he slipped his arm around her.
“The time we spent in Lexington was real to me. Being there with you made me happy, but not fully satisfied. When Jonas came after you, I knew I had no choice.”
She shook off his arm to look him in the eyes. “When did we spend time together in Lexington?”
Her look made him laugh. “Laney, when you write, what is your image of Anne?”
She thought for a moment before answering. When she wrote she always tried to picture a beautiful girl with flowing hair, but Anne always ended up looking like Laney in a colonial dress. Rubbing her head, she realized that Anne didn’t exist. “She looks like me.”
“That’s because she is you, or at least part of you. Just getting to know part of you through Anne made me want to know all of you.” Lifting her hand, he kissed the tip
s of her fingers. “You are irresistible, Delaney Holden.”
The touch of his lips rushed like lightning through her body. Laney wanted to take this moment and keep it forever. She couldn’t imagine anyone more perfect. William was literally made for her and she hoped she made him just as happy.
“Then how did you leave the book?” Laney traced his fingers with hers this time, noticing light freckles on the back of his hands.
William sighed and put his arm back around her. “I didn’t know there was more to you than Anne. The pages between us seemed like impossible barriers. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. One evening, I left the house to gather some firewood from our stack behind the barn. A man came to see me, a stranger. He had hair as dark as the moonless night, eyes the color of gold and a long green cloak. He spoke no words, but as he held out his hand to me, he wore a deep purple ring with a golden inlay. There was a flash of light and when I woke, the forest surrounded me in a strange new world.”
He touched the pendant under his shirt. “This was around my neck. It helped me through the beginning.”
“Helped you?” Laney’s pendant felt warm to the touch, but she didn’t know it had powers.
“From my experience with the pendants, I believe they hold certain abilities. When I arrived here, I should have experienced severe culture shock. Walking out of the woods that first day, I saw a car. Instead of running the other way in fear like any sensible, eighteenth-century man, I passed it like any other object I’d seen since birth. I also know how to talk like a twenty-first century college student. You can give me any slang term and I’d know its meaning. Try one.” He looked at Laney, eager to show her his abilities.
“Um . . . that really sucks.”
“Easy one. It means that something is really bad. Like when my sister Sarah burned a hole in my new trousers.”
“You surprised me earlier when you mentioned your sister. I never gave you a sister in the book.” Laney knew she’d steered them completely off topic, but she couldn’t let it slide without finding out more.
“Yes, Sarah is two years older than me.” William lifted Laney’s journal from the log and flipped through the pages for a minute. “See . . . right here on page twenty-eight, Anne goes to visit my family. But you don’t show the details of that scene. You need to be more specific if you don’t want your reader filling in the missing information.”
Laney pondered that for a moment.
William continued, “I think the stranger gave me the necklace as a type of compass, leading me in the right direction. He must have been a Gate Keeper, guarding the passage from my world to yours. If there’s a Gate Keeper in my world, there must be one here.”
“Do you think he helped Jonas?” The thought of someone helping a would-be murderer made Laney cringe.
“I believe the Gate Keeper’s job is only to assist in the passage. I don’t think he judges his clientele. He acts as a liaison, nothing else. But I’m totally guessing.”
“Is he human?” She pictured a huge ogre guarding a castle, only letting in the those with invitations.
“He seemed to be.” William laughed. “Well, at least as human as I am.”
She moved her head over his chest and listened to the beating of his heart. It increased dramatically as he lowered his head to kiss her hair.
“There’s no question that you’re human.”
Chapter 17
Studying in the library wasn’t working; Jason still couldn’t wrap his mind around cell mutation when all he could think about was Laney. Sure, he’d let it go the night she came by, but the obsession had grown like a wildfire out of control. Rejection was a new feeling for Jason, and being rejected by the person he envisioned as the girl of his dreams made him want to punch something.
After fifteen minutes of mind drifting, Jason stacked his books and packed up his laptop. He took the lower road to his dorm instead of circling the quad to limit his human interaction. He didn’t want to talk to Will about Laney right now. Not that Will ever brought her up. Jason wasn’t used to being jealous, but his roommate’s absence screamed Laney. He knew they were spending more and more time together. After she rejected him, Jason had called up some freshman girl from one of his classes. She was the same kind of girl he usually dated, but her attention helped mask the pain.
When he entered the door, a dim light illuminated the emptiness of the room. A piece of paper lay on his desk. He grabbed the paper and turned on the light above his bed. It was a folded piece of parchment with his name scrawled across the front. Why was Will leaving him notes?
Jason,
I miss you. Please forgive me.
Meet me by Sawyer’s Pond on Saturday before the dance.
Love,
Laney
Jason jumped onto his bed, sinking into his pillow. He lifted the note to see if it smelled like her. With the paper clutched to his chest, he leaned back to dream about his Saturday evening plans.
Spending time with William drew Laney further into his world. The afternoon shadows grew longer across the forest floor and she feared leaving him, knowing that this time could come to an end at any moment. She didn’t know how the Weaver world worked. Did he have a limited amount of time?
They walked back to the pond as dusk crept in around them.
“Do you think Jonas is nearby?” This was the subject she usually tried so hard to avoid.
“I chased him off the night he followed you on your run. If I hadn’t chased him away, he probably would have tried to kidnap you.” William stepped over a large root crossing the path. “Right now, he’s biding his time, laying out his plan. He hopes that threatening you will scare you into submission.”
Laney slowed, knowing that coming to the woods to confront Jonas was stupid. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I wanted to keep Jason safe.” The feeling of his hand on hers made her feel more at ease than she had in weeks. “Do you think Jonas is bluffing?”
“He won’t stop until he gets what he wants. It’s the only reason he exists in this world. He wants you to end the story his way. Jonas can be very persuasive. You created him, so you should know.” William moved his hand to Laney’s arm as they neared the end of the path. “He knows you, too. That’s why he’s utilizing your devotion to your friends.”
“How can he know me?” The thought made Laney extremely uncomfortable.
“He’s part of you.”
Beads of sweat formed on Laney’s forehead even though it was cold outside. Was she the monster? The idea disgusted her, yet it made her think of the flipside.
“Then you know me, too.” She looked into his eyes, searching. Her crush on Jason was nothing like her feelings for William. Maybe that’s why she knew she could never allow herself to be more than friends with Jason, why she always withheld that part of her heart from him, never fully risking it and opening up. Back then, being in the presence of someone like William was an absolute impossibility. It was like a teenage girl having the movie star she idolized standing in her bedroom.
“Do I know you?” William brushed her cheek with the back of his hand, warm and soft. “I think we know each other. In fact, I’d say you’re part of me. A deep and integral part I never knew I had, that makes me feel alive. One that pains me to think about not having with me always.”
William took Laney’s hand again as they continued to walk towards campus. When she wrote, she imagined the feel of his hand on hers, rough from work, yet gentle and comforting. But she had never imagined the electricity and the pure sense of joy of feeling his skin touching hers.
When they reached the lobby of Laney’s dorm, William opened the door to the stairwell, but she positioned herself to block him. She reached up to playfully release his hair from the band that held it in the back. It fell to his shoulders as Laney ran her fingers through it. “I never said you had long hair in the book.”
William pushed his hair behind his shoulders. “Remember what I said about specifics? You said I had brow
n hair, but never specified the length.”
“I’d better go back and look at my descriptions. I don’t want any more surprises, especially with Jonas.” It was strange to have things in her book that were out of her control.
William reached out his arms and drew Laney close before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek.
Heat imprinted the spot where his lips touched her skin.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She watched him from the dorm lobby as he disappeared into the darkness.
Laney knew two things. The afternoon in the forest with William confirmed that he was not another product of her vivid imagination. He was real. For the remainder of the week, he spent every free moment with her, walking to class and eating meals. The only time he left her was at night so she could continue to write. These times were frustrating because Laney developed a major case of writer’s block. She wasn’t sure how to continue because the urgency clouded her head.
The second thing Laney knew was that she needed to talk to Richard. Neither Laney nor Richard had brought up their discussion outside the House of Seven Gables again, but it kept running through her mind. Richard knew about the Weavers — maybe he knew more.
On Friday, Richard planned a trip to the U.S.S. Constitution, an old warship harbored in Boston. Although it was November, the sun was out in full force and warmed the air to a comfortable temperature. The trip down the interstate flashed by in no time. William draped his arm around Laney in the backseat, both of them taking in the scenery and their professor’s words. Richard really had a way of engaging the class with his tidbits of local history and his flamboyant personality. It was like watching an educational stand-up comedy routine. Richard left little room for Laney’s mind to focus on the questions she really wanted to ask him.
Over the past few months, Laney had grown more accustomed to branching out of her comfort zone in history class. Juniors and seniors were not the terrible three-headed monsters she made them out to be in her head. After the third field trip, conversation came easily, and she considered most of them to be her friends — at least in class. William helped by introducing her to some of the other students.
The Weaver Page 14
