Endless Winter (Guardians of The Light)

by J Armitage

  It was dark in the passageway, the only light coming from a couple of holes drilled in the wall through to the library. She put her eyes to the holes, realising that these were not an accident but were drilled at eyelevel just for the reason she was using them for. She saw Rafe and Alex stood square in the centre of the room, ignoring the books completely. They were obviously not there for a quick read. She could hear them perfectly from her hiding place and it sounded like they were arguing

  “Steer clear of her,” she heard Alex warning Rafe.

  “I can’t, she’s like no one I’ve ever met, she’s beautiful, she’s kind, and I think I’m in love with her.”

  Anais was now thankful that she had hidden. Her toes curled with embarrassment with what she was hearing. She knew that Rafe and Alex had had a little crush on her weeks ago and she knew that Alex hadn’t quite got over his crush but it was shocking to hear how Rafe felt about her. She held her breath and listened

  “You can’t have her, she’s with someone else. You are going to have to get over her. Come on. You have the pick of women. The legendary Raphael. You can have anyone you want.”

  Anais wondered why Alex couldn’t follow his own advice.

  “I know, I’ve had my fair share of women but none of them are like her. She’s special. I don’t want anyone else. We sit up all night talking. She’s amazing.”

  “Look bro. I feel for you, I really do. I’m in the same position remember. In fact I rather think I’ve got it a lot worse than you. Anais is having my baby and I still can’t be with her. How do you think I feel?”

  “I know, I know, I’m sorry. God we are both in a mess huh?”

  “You’ll be fine, you always are, but at the end of the day she’s with Andrew and there is nothing you can do about it.”

  Andrew? Anais was confused, she was not with Andrew, and then she realised. They had not been talking about her at all. Rafe was in love with Judith.

  Anais gasped at the bombshell and then held her breath. The boys made no sign of having heard her.

  Alex continued “I think you should stop meeting up with her in the night too.”

  “We only talk, we’ve not done anything wrong.”

  “Does Andrew know of these cosy little night time chats?”

  Rafe’s silence answered his question for him.

  “Look, if Andrew found out that his girlfriend was secretly meeting you, he’d be devastated. He’s your friend. You don’t do that to friends.”

  “They are not secret meetings per se.”

  “They are if you are not telling Andrew about them.”

  “He’s just so busy in the evenings with all his computer stuff and Judith has no one else to talk to.”

  “Listen to yourself!” Alex raised his voice “Andrew is working every night tracking Jago. He’s doing this to keep us all safe. Stealing his girlfriend is a crappy way to repay him. There are plenty of people in this house that she can talk to. You’ve got to take a step back.”

  Rafe sounded down as he answered “As ever you are right, brother. I will do my best to stop seeing her.”

  Anais had been so wrapped up in herself that she’d not noticed what the other people in the house were going through. She had suspected that Alex wanted to be with her still. He was hardly subtle about it although she had hoped his feelings had diminished by now. She was in total shock about Rafe’s feelings for Judith though. She’d not spent any time with her due to her self-imposed incarceration but the few times she had seen Judith, she’d been with Andrew. Apart from Christmas day when they danced together, Anais had not seen any interaction at all between Rafe and Judith. Then she remembered back to the night she saw Rafe on the stairs. He must have been going up to Judith’s room.

  She hoped he would heed Alex’s advice. Rafe was a beautiful man and despite her own general unease around him, she could see what the girls saw in him. Refined, stylish, well-mannered and with an air of confidence that Andrew could never hope to match, Alex was right. He could have the pick of the girls.

  She would hate to see Andrew hurt and if Rafe put his mind to it and turned on the charm she could see Judith falling for him.

  She decided to speak to Andrew at the first available opportunity. She’d not tell tales on Rafe, that would be unfair, but she would convince Andrew to put the security work on the back burner and spend more time with Judith in the evening.

  Anais waited until she heard the brothers leave and then opened the concealed door back into the library. She picked up the basket of books and ran back to the studio, back through the main hall, which thankfully was empty of both Rafe and Alex.

  She had only been back fifteen minutes when there came a knock on the door. She prayed it wasn’t Rafe or Alex. She couldn’t cope with seeing either of them right now. Opening the door she was relieved to find it was Arcadia. She’d managed to walk through a foot of snow in six inch heels.

  Anais was so impressed that she had to let her in. She didn’t have the heart to send her straight back out into the snow. She fixed them both a coffee. As there was only one chair in the studio, Anais offered it to Arcadia and perched herself on an upturned wooden box.

  “I hope you aren’t going to make me come back to the house because if you are, you are wasting your time.”

  Arcadia graciously ignored Anais rudeness and took a sip of her coffee.

  “I know you must be wondering why Aethelu hasn’t called.”

  Anais had been wondering just that, but as she had left her mobile phone at the shop and Aethelu had left hers behind (Anais had found it a few days ago) then she had given up on trying to contact Aethelu.

  “Well,” Continued Arcadia “It turns out that she’s been on Auntie Ava’s yacht for the last week and they are having problems with their communication system.”

  Anais heart leapt at this snippet of information.

  “How do you know?”

  “She just called now on the house phone. Apparently they just sailed into a good reception area. She said she’d been trying almost non-stop since she got on the boat. She told me that she was having trouble persuading Ava and Alfred to come home. They had heard that the weather was pretty bad over here and wanted to spend the winter docked in Cape Verde where it was sunny. Aethelu told me that she would get on the first plane home as soon as they docked whether or not Ava and Alfred wanted to join them. She hoped to be there in the next few days.”

  Arcadia grinned at Anais, obviously delighted as passing on the good news.

  Anais heart lifted, she grinned back.

  “What else did she say?”

  “She said she wanted to talk to you. I was just about to come and get you but the line started to break up. I heard her say to tell you she missed you before it cut out completely. Sorry.”

  “Oh no, don’t be sorry” Anais would have liked to talk to Aethelu but she was going to see her in two or three days. Her mood of the last week lifted instantly and she hugged Arcadia, crumpling her very expensive dress in the process.

  “I didn’t say anything about the baby. I hope that’s ok.”

  Anais heart dropped a little. She would have to drop that bombshell when Aethelu returned. She would get through it, they would get through it together. She was too excited about Aethelu’s return to dwell on it too much.

  Living in the studio was now not an option, she had to be near the house phone if it rang again. She decided to spend the days at the house and return to sleep in the studio at night. Perhaps Aethelu would move in with her when she got home.

  She allowed herself a little dream of the domestic bliss of her and Aethelu living in the studio. She could barely contain her excitement as she followed Arcadia back to the house.

  Thoughts of Rafe and Judith forgotten.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The day after the phone call, Anais had been more social than she had been in a week. She was seeing Aethelu in a couple of days and nothing could dampen her spirits. She spent the day helping Winn
ie in the kitchen. She’d not seen much of her friend since the day Winnie had arrived back at the manor and she’d forgotten how much she liked spending time with her. They baked enough cake to feed an army before starting on dinner. Every so often someone would come into the kitchen for a chat and a coffee and in Anais’ new mood she was happy to sit and while away the time. Arcadia spent more than an hour lamenting over her loss of social life, stuck in the house, even though she was getting more phone calls than ever. It seemed that Hollywood could not run itself without her after all. Even though she was based in the South of France, she still jetted to California whenever she was needed for a business lunch or networking at a celebrity party. Now though, it seemed that she was missing every party of the season and she was not happy about it.

  When she’d left to make yet another business call, Winnie rolled her eyes. “Honestly, that girl! I know she’s busy but it’s only a couple of parties she’s missing, it’s hardly the end of the world... Oh I suppose it is the end of the world.” Winnie looked mortified at what she had just said and so went back to her cooking.

  On the second day after the phone call, Anais dressed as nicely as she could. She asked Arcadia for a bit of help with her make-up and dress as she wanted to look nice for Aethelu’s return. Arcadia lent her a buttercup yellow dress which was fitted and trim at the waist with a matching belt. Catching the name on the label, Anais estimated it to be worth at least in the triple figures. Arcadia was much quicker on her make-up than she had been on Christmas day and the result was a much fresher look. The subtle pinks went well with the yellow of the dress. She couldn’t sit still the whole day, not settling, moving from one thing to another, waiting for the phone to ring to say that Aethelu was at the airport ready to be picked up. The call never came and Anais went to bed disappointed.

  The next day was more of the same with the same result. Anais handed back the freshly washed dress to Arcadia.

  The rest of the week continued in the same way. Every time the phone rang, Anais ran to answer it but more often than not it was a girl calling for either Rafe or Alex, neither of which showed any interest and told her to tell whoever it was that they were out. If it wasn’t for Alex or Rafe it was one of Arcadias contacts who couldn’t reach her on her mobile. On more than one occasion she’d found herself taking messages from Hollywood A-listers. At first she found it exciting but after the first few times it happened she was just disappointed. She couldn’t understand why Aethelu didn’t call her. Surely there were payphones in Cape Verde. Eventually Anais just left it to ring. It was better than the crushing disappointment of picking it up and not hearing Aethelu’s voice on the other end.

  Eventually Anais excitement at seeing Aethelu dwindled and worry set in. Two days, she had said. Two days, and now it was seven days later

  The week passed a lot more slowly that Anais expected. Every so often she was called to the surgery for various tests and procedures not to mention the daily hormone shots. The rest of the time she spent away from everyone in the library. Alex was also conspicuous by his absence. She knew he was in the house somewhere as he was instrumental to the whole baby making venture but she never saw him. She assumed that the initial excitement he had shown had worn off and now fear was beginning to creep in. Perhaps someone had told him about the possibility of triplets and that had scared him off. She couldn’t blame him. Like she had done the week before, he took all his meals in his room and kept out of everybody’s way. Andrew told her that he had been helping him out in tracking down Jago. She suspected that Andrew had just given him a job to do to occupy him. Mind you, Andrew seemed to be spending all his time with Judith that he wasn’t really doing much to save the world himself. She noticed that Andrew had been spending all of his evenings with Judith now and had been for the last week. She’d totally forgotten to mention anything about Rafe to him but it looked like someone had, either that or he’d come to the conclusion himself. Either way he was now spending all day and all evening with Judith and it looked like Alex was left to do all the work. Anais figured that must be the reason she’d not seen him for a couple of days. He was picking up Andrew’s slack. At least it wasn’t because he was feeling down and hiding in his room. She’d not seen Rafe for a couple of days either. She wondered if he was hiding in his room sulking over Judith.

  All in all, everyone in the house was depressed. A mist had descended on the house which echoed the miserable weather outside. It snowed heavily each day which would have left them house bound even if Aldric hadn’t imposed it on them in the first place. Anais had not had the chance to use the tree to climb over the fence as she had done before. She would have liked to go out but without Aethelu it didn’t appeal to her. Arcadia was going stir crazy being cooped up in the house and complained almost constantly about the weather. She spent even more time on the phone than she had before. Rafe and Alex were both conspicuous by their absence and she only saw Aldric when she went to the surgery. He seemed to spend every waking moment in there. Only August and Baker seemed immune to everything going on around him. August didn’t care to hear about babies or the end of the world which had been the main topics of conversation in the house. He’d once again been promoted to head chef whilst Winnie was helping Aldric in the surgery. The snow seemed not to bother either him or Baker and they’d spend most of the day either walking in the grounds or cooking. The only difference Anais could see is that after dinner every night he’d make his way back down to the Lodge via the tunnel, where previously he’d used the path.

  Suddenly time, which had previously been dragging without Aethelu, sped up and the day arrived where she’d have the embryos inserted into her.

  With some trepidation she laid herself down on the bed in the surgery.

  A couple of days previously Aldric, with help from Winnie had extracted a number of eggs from her which they had fertilised thanks to Alex.

  Aldric told her that four viable embryos had been created and they were going to implant all of them for the best chance.

  “No!” Anais looked at Winnie in shock. “You said three. Three is ridiculous as it is. I’m not carrying four babies.”

  It was Aldric that answered “We have to give it our best shot. This is a one-time opportunity. If this doesn’t work, that’s it. We run out of time and all is lost.”

  “I don’t care. This is my body. I promised you three and I won’t go back on that but I will not carry any more.”

  Aldric began to speak but Winnie cut him off. She put her hand on his arm.

  “Just do three Aldric. It will either work or it won’t. Look at what we are already putting the poor child through. She is suffering enough with what we are doing to her. Let us not make it any worse.”

  “Ok” Aldric acquiesced “You are right. I am sorry Anais. It is your body and you have every right to make this decision. I will pick the three most viable embryos and destroy the last one.”

  “Thank you. I have one more request before we go ahead.”

  “Yes?”

  “I want to go back to the Book Emporium and bring my own clothes and possessions back to the house if I am to live here.”

  Aldric looked like he was going to say no but Winnie spoke before him “Of course. I will take you myself tomorrow. Aldric, You can relax your ban of us leaving the house for a morning can’t you?”

  She gave him a meaningful look.

  “Yes, I suppose I can, just for the morning.” He didn’t look happy about the prospect.

  “And can we keep the last embryo?” Anais added “Freeze it? I know it’s not needed but I don’t like to think of you destroying a little baby.”

  “It’s nothing more than a few cells,” Aldric began but he knew he was beaten before he even finished the sentence. “Ok, we will keep the final embryo.”

  Hearing that, she laid herself down and let them begin.

  Within fifteen minutes the whole procedure was over. It was a lot quicker and thankfully a lot less painful than she’d expected.


  Afterwards she was surprised to feel nothing. She had thought she would feel some kind of emotion, anything at all, but she just felt numb.

  It was something of an anti-climax. It’s not that she expected angels to fly overhead serenading her with harps but she had expected to somehow magically feel different.

  Winnie told her to keep her feet up for a day or so and not do anything too strenuous. That would be easy. She’d not really felt up to doing anything since Aethelu left. She headed straight back to the library and sat in the exact spot she’d barely left in the previous week. Winnie followed her with other ideas. Anais was quickly told to lie on the sofa where she was brought a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate.

  Anais was grateful that Winnie cared about her but she just wanted to be left alone. She accepted the chocolate graciously but was relieved when Winnie left.

  Anais picked up the book she had been reading but she couldn’t focus on the words. Her hand crept down to her belly. It felt the same as always, flat, nothing to show the little miracle that was going on inside her.

  The library door opened and Anais whipped her hand away from her stomach. She expected to see Winnie back to fuss over her some more so she was surprised to see Alex there. He came over to her and sat on the floor beside the sofa. He slowly picked up her hand.

  “So it’s done then?”

  “Yep.”

  “What now?”