Crown of York

by Charlotte Byrd

  She thanks me for them politely and I escort her out of the door.

  As we walk toward the place where they will be serving us dinner, we make a little bit of small talk.

  Nothing significant.

  Just an exchange of pleasantries.

  Something I can’t stand.

  But I go through the motions because she does and because everyone is watching.

  Much to my dismay, dinner proceeds just like it did with the other contestants. We discuss the items on the menu. She offers a few tidbits of why she prefers some foods to others. Whether these are in fact true, I have no idea.

  “Would you like to see our dessert menu?” the waiter asks after we finish.

  “No,” I say categorically. The waiter turns to Everly.

  “No, she doesn’t either,” I speak for her. She looks at me inquisitively.

  “Not a fan of dessert?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “Not really,” I add.

  I try to speak to her without saying a word. But we don’t know each other well enough for that. Not yet.

  I don’t have to pay because this isn’t a real restaurant. It’s part of the show.

  The event. The competition.

  When I stand up, I give her my hand and help her out of the chair. She tries to pull her hand away from mine, but I don’t let go. Instead, I reassert my grip and pull her closer to me.

  “Where are we going?” she asks.

  “Somewhere private.”

  Chapter 16 - Everly

  When we go somewhere more private…

  When he takes my hand, sparks rush through my body. He leads me down a narrow path through the trees toward the sand. The conversation at dinner was cold and sterile. I was polite, but not forthcoming. I answered his questions, but rarely asked any in return. I don’t trust him and I’m not going to pretend I do. It is all just an act anyway, on his part. Right?

  My heels sink into the sand and I find it difficult to walk.

  “Take off your shoes,” he says.

  “Why?”

  “Please?”

  I narrow my eyes but do as he says. The sand isn’t very good for them anyway.

  Easton grabs my hand again and asks, “Do you trust me?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t think you can do it with them on,” he says.

  “Do what?”

  “Run!” Easton whispers loudly, pulling me forward.

  There isn’t menace in his voice and I’m not afraid of him. But I slow down after a few moments and pull my hand away from him.

  “What are you doing?” I demand to know. “Where are we going?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Well, I’m not going then,” I say, crossing my arms across my chest. “I’ve had enough of your lies, Easton.”

  Inhaling deeply, his nostrils flare a bit.

  “We’re going somewhere private. I can’t tell you because then…it will be easier for them to find out.” He says the last bit in a very hushed tone. Barely audible. Especially over the crashing of the waves and whistle of the breeze coming off the ocean.

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  “They’re watching us…But…I need to talk to you… I need to explain everything,” he whispers again.

  His lips are barely moving and it takes me a minute to piece together exactly what he is saying.

  My body responds with a nod even before I have a moment to really process it. And with that nod, he takes my hand in his and we begin to run again.

  The wind seems to come from all directions. It whips my hair around so much that I can barely see anything in front of my face. I keep putting one foot in front of the other, holding on tightly to Easton’s hand.

  The white sand looks black in the moonlight, and it feels cool between my feet. We run on the part right by the water to avoid sinking too much into the sand, and the warm Caribbean water occasionally comes up and sweeps over my feet.

  The waves foam a little when they crash, but they are small and hardly visible. The ocean here is calm and peaceful, which is more than what can be said for the land.

  Somewhere around where the land makes a little bend, Easton turns away from the water. The sand gets deeper and deeper, caking onto my wet feet.

  “Where are we going?” I ask, trying to catch my breath.

  The sand is uneven and unstable, swaying my body from side to side as I half walk, half run behind him.

  “We’re almost there,” he says, tugging me forward.

  His breathing isn’t forced at all or difficult, and he seems to have barely broken a sweat. On the other hand, I am drenched. I’m perspiring so much that the droplets from my forehead are even sliding into my eyes, burning my corneas.

  I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand and one foot gets tangled up with the other. A moment later, I slip and fall right into the sand.

  “Are you okay?” Easton immediately kneels down toward me.

  “Um, yeah,” I mumble.

  I try to get up without getting even more sandy, but that’s nearly impossible. The sand is as fine as powdered sugar and it adheres to every inch of my skin that it comes in contact with. Trying to brush it off with my other hand just makes things worse.

  “C’mon, we’re almost there. I’ll help you get this off when we get inside,” he whispers.

  “Inside where?” I ask, but he ignores me.

  Instead, he takes me by my arm to help me along.

  A few minutes later, we walk into the mouth of a large cave.

  It’s pitch black inside.

  Easton pulls out three candles from his pocket and lights them.

  The candles illuminate the large concave sides of the cave and a bit of the tunnel leading into the darkness.

  The cave is wet with humidity and smells of the sea. The air here is thick and when I open my mouth, all I taste is salt.

  “Here, let me help you,” Easton says.

  He starts with my left arm and uses quick motions to brush off the sand. When he gets to my chest, he carefully avoids my breasts and then moves up to my face.

  Pulling my hair out of the way, Easton runs his fingers through it. Then he sweeps his fingers across my left cheek.

  He’s careful and meticulous.

  Professional, even.

  Watching him work, I suddenly have an urge in the pit of my stomach.

  I glance up at his luscious lips and the way the candlelight cradles his strong jaw.

  I want him.

  Easton continues to work. When he gets to my eyes, he presses his fingertips into my skin to get the grains to stick to him instead. He slowly makes his way around my face and down my neck, carefully removing all the sand.

  “I think this is as good as I can get it for now,” Easton says after a few moments.

  “Thank you, I appreciate it,” I whisper.

  We stand here locked in each other’s gaze, unable to move. But then he takes a step back.

  “I needed to talk to you in private,” Easton says. I nod.

  “My father ordered me to sleep with you to teach me some sort of lesson. And I couldn’t say no,” he says.

  His voice starts out calm, but quickly gets frantic.

  “They were going to eliminate you if I didn’t do it. And I couldn’t let that happen, Everly. I couldn’t let them send you away from here to some horrible place where they’d do who knows what to you.”

  “That’s so unlike this place,” I say sarcastically.

  “I know, I know. York is…terrible. But it’s the devil I know. So that’s what I chose.”

  I shrug.

  “Do you want to be eliminated?” he asks.

  “I don’t want to marry your father.”

  Easton takes a deep breath. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Yeah, right,” I say. “That’s going to happen but only if I’m extremely lucky. The chances are I’m still going to be eliminated, Easton.”

  “I wanted t
o buy you some time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I care about you,” he says.

  “I don’t believe you,” I lie.

  “I care about you a lot more than I should.” He ignores me.

  “I don’t believe you,” I say again, but this time the words come out a little fractured and a lot less convincing.

  “Caring is a weakness here. It’s something that they can use against me. But I can’t help how I feel.”

  Chapter 17 - Everly

  When we are alone…

  I don’t want to believe him.

  He’s a liar.

  A traitor.

  He tricked me into sleeping with him.

  I want to believe all of these things, but I don’t.

  I can’t.

  They don’t feel right.

  The thing that does feel right is that Easton’s telling me the truth.

  “So… in this cave, they can’t hear us?” I ask.

  He shakes his head no.

  “Will they be able to find us?”

  “Yes. There are footprints leading them here. They will be here soon.”

  “What are you going to say when they come?” I ask.

  “That I wanted some alone time with you. That we went on a walk and got lost.”

  “They won’t believe you,” I say.

  “I know, but what else can I do? I needed to talk to you. Frankly.”

  I nod and look down at the ground.

  “Do you believe me, Everly?”

  I shrug.

  I don’t want to admit it out loud.

  Not yet.

  He lifts my chin toward his.

  “You have to believe me,” he whispers.

  “And if I don’t?”

  He darts his eyes away from me.

  “Actually, it’s probably for the best. If you don’t believe me, then it’s fine. I just wanted to tell you anyway.”

  Easton turns to face away from me. His shoulders slope down and he sits down on the large boulder by the other side of the cave.

  “Why are you here?” I ask. “You are so much better than this place.”

  He inhales deeply.

  “Why don’t you just run away and disappear? Never come back?”

  He looks up at me.

  His dark eyes narrow and the expression on his face changes from forlorn to severe. He purses his lips and clenches his jaw.

  “I tried to do that before with Alicia,” he says, looking straight at me.

  Loose strands of hair fall into his face and he brushes them away with the back of his hand.

  “Can I tell you something in confidence?” he asks.

  I narrow my eyes and nod. He takes a deep breath.

  “They killed her,” he says after a moment.

  “What?” I ask, shaking my head.

  “I had my suspicions about it, but then I heard them talking. Somehow, they found out about our plan to run away together and they staged the fire and sank the boat. They locked her downstairs and I couldn’t get her out.”

  As he talks, his voice cracks in parts.

  Tears well up in the bottom of his eyes, but his fists clench up. It’s as if he’s teetering between anger and sorrow.

  I walk over to him and take a seat next to him.

  “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” he says, hanging his head. I put my arm around his shoulders.

  “You don’t have to,” I mumble.

  “My father ordered the kill,” he continues. “I heard him joking about it. He said that she was getting in the way. But they had to make it look like an accident because she was the daughter of a family friend.”

  I don’t know what else to say except that I’m sorry. We sit in silence for a few moments.

  “My father is a very dangerous man,” Easton says. “But I have been afraid of him long enough.”

  The determination in his voice startles me.

  “What are you going to do?” I ask.

  “I don’t know yet, but I’m going to avenge her death. She didn’t deserve it. He killed her just to get me to stay.”

  “Your father has done a lot of terrible things,” I mumble.

  We hear voices out in the distance.

  They are coming.

  My heart drops.

  Easton turns toward me and takes my face into his hands. He looks straight into my eyes.

  “I will do everything in my power to protect you,” he says. “Everything I do will be to make sure that no harm will come to you.”

  He presses his lips onto mine.

  They are soft and effervescent.

  As my mouth opens up to welcome his, I taste his intensity and determination. But there’s something else in the kiss as well.

  A bit of kindness.

  A bit of human decency.

  All the things that I had forgotten about since I’ve been here in York.

  I close my eyes and kiss him back.

  Easton buries his hands in my hair. He tugs slightly, pulling my head back. Then his mouth leaves my lips and goes down my neck.

  Shivers run up my arms as he buries his face in my breasts. His movements gather momentum.

  They seem to take on a life of their own. It’s not just his movements, but ours together.

  Our hands intertwine and our fingers become one.

  My hair becomes his hair.

  My lips become his lips.

  Somewhere in the distance, I hear people’s voices. They are getting louder. Closer.

  “They’re coming,” I whisper while our lips are still interlocked.

  “I know,” he says and wraps his arms around me tighter.

  “What should we do?”

  “Keep kissing.”

  I don’t know if that’s the right thing or not, but I don’t argue.

  Instead, I let go.

  I lose myself in his mouth, his body, and his passion.

  This moment will not last, but I can make it last as long as possible.

  Maybe then it can sustain me on the dark nights to come.

  “I am falling in love with you, Everly,” Easton says.

  His words come out deep and almost threatening in tone.

  He gives me one last tug on my hair, kissing near the bottom of my neck near my collarbone.

  A warm sensation starts to build in between my legs. I haven’t felt this aroused since the last time we were together.

  I run my fingers down his hard body, enjoying the feel of each isolated muscle.

  My hand lands in between his legs and I grab onto him, remembering how good it made me feel not so long ago.

  His mouth returns to mine and I lose myself completely.

  Suddenly, a flash of light blinds me.

  They are here.

  Chapter 18 - Everly

  When they find us…

  As I pull away from Easton, I wonder what’s going to happen now.

  Will the guards pull me away and throw me in the dungeon again?

  Will I be eliminated?

  Will I be sent away to some foreign land that will make this place seem like paradise?

  As these questions pop into my head, another feeling gnaws at me. None of that would be as bad as never seeing Easton again.

  As I stand next to him, holding his hand, I intertwine my fingers with his.

  My heart is pounding a mile a minute. It feels like it’s about to jump out of my chest.

  When I look up at him, I see spots from the flood of light, but I can still somewhat make out his face.

  He clenches his jaw and looks straight ahead.

  It’s as if he’s challenging anyone out there to come for me. To force me away from him.

  We wait.

  Time seems to pass into infinity. It’s so quiet that all I hear is the sound of little water droplets landing on the floor of the cave after making their long trip from the ceiling.

  I can’t see anything looking straight on, so I look up instead.

  The
ceiling is textured with different size formations hanging down from it. What are they called again? My thoughts go back to eighth grade Earth Science with Mr. Box, the man with a 70’s porn star mustache and an unwavering enthusiasm for science.

  Yes, of course!

  Stalactites hang from the ceiling of a cave while stalagmites grow from the cave floor.

  As my eyes adjust to the light, I see that this one doesn’t have too many stalagmites on the floor in the center where we are, but it does have a bunch further down into the tunnel.

  All of these thoughts occur to me in a matter of moments.

  That’s what it’s like when you are waiting for the unknown.

  But then, someone points the light down and darkness descends around us.

  “This is highly irregular.”

  The words are delivered in a very disapproving tone and they come from the silhouette of a short, pudgy man with a comb-over. As my eyes try to adjust, my vision is flooded with spots.

  “Mr. Bay? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

  “I don’t see why I need to,” Easton says confidently. “I am on a date, right?”

  The man doesn’t respond.

  “Am I on a date?” Easton asks.

  What is he getting at? I wonder.

  “Yes.”

  Easton shrugs as if the answer is clear. I look around and it’s not clear to anyone else but me.

  “What does that mean, Mr. Bay?”

  “Listen, Belding. I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

  “But I’m the event planner.”

  “Exactly!” Easton takes my hand and leads me out of the cave, past all the people with huge flashlights.

  “Mr. Bay!” Belding runs after us, tripping in the sand.

  “What?” Easton asks.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on. You should’ve stayed at the restaurant.”

  “I was bored at the restaurant. I’ve been on what feels like a million dates this week and I wanted a change. I want to make a real connection. I mean, I am on a date, right?”

  Belding shrugs. I notice that he has a significant bald spot on the back of his head, which he tries to cover up with hair from around it.