Rakes and Radishes
Page 30
“No, Thomas,” she said, letting her fingers run down his biceps. The fire had burned down to ash, and only the glow of the moon and stars lit the tent. He felt her smile and knew without even seeing them that her eyes were large and serene.
“Do you know what I loved most?” She kissed his shoulder. “Watching you. I could see the light in your eyes even in the dark, and I knew I was safe. In London, you lost that light. I was so afraid for you. Now sometimes when you’re holding me, I feel this sorrow, a grief for something that almost happened. I nearly lost you. It makes me scared and vulnerable knowing how tenuous the most important things and people in your life are, yet at the same time, the knowledge makes this moment so beautiful. That it almost didn’t happen…and yet it did. And here I am stronger and weaker for everything that happened and desperately grateful that this moment wasn’t taken away.”
“Come here, my lover who can see the light in the darkness,” Kesseley whispered, laying his wife’s head on his heart. “Let me feel you.”
***
Henrietta snuggled close to her husband, feeling so full of love she couldn’t imagine her heart could hold any more. Outside the tent she could hear a nightingale singing in a nearby tree, the low hushing sound of the flowing river and the rustling of leaves in the night wind. Things she had known her whole life, but tonight, she felt as if she were hearing them for the first time.
About the Author
Susanna Ives chases after two wild children, eats a lot of chocolate, dreams up stories, writes, codes web pages, folds laundry and meets up with friends at assorted restaurants and tea houses around Atlanta. As a child, she fell in love with the movie The Sound of Music and started performing in musicals at her local theater in rural Georgia. She can sing (badly) almost every Rodgers and Hammerstein tune. After receiving a master’s degree in digital media, she worked in corporate land for a number of years before deciding to stay at home with her children. Aside from being a mother, writer and web developer, she and the kids sometimes follow her Viking husband on long trips to Europe. You can read about her travel misadventures on her blog: http://susannaives.com/wordpress/.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-9056-7
Copyright © 2010 by Susan Newman
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