by Tia Wilson
When she finished crying Grace felt more exhausted then ever before and the pains in her body from the bile had returned in force.
They walked in silence towards the hardware store and on the front step Grace turned to Tom and said, “What happens if the Elders forbid a rescue attempt?”
Tom looked at her with a determined look and said, “If that happens, I go anyway, with or without the Elders permission.”
They both entered the hardware store and headed to the back area for a meeting with the two Elders.
26
The Meeting
Elder Franklin slammed his fist onto the table and said, “It’s out of the question Tom. We need you here.”
Tom looked to Elder Silas in the hopes of another opinion. Elder Silas would not meet his eyes when he said, “Franklin is right. It would be too much of a risk to send you and a team into Tulimak's compound. Chances are he would be waiting with open arms for who ever we send his way. We are entering dangerous times now and Tulimak will look for any pretence to start an all out war with our clan.”
“He already fired the starting shot when he tortured Grace and Anne. What more do you want him to do,” Tom said addressing Elder Franklin.
“Tom you are a damn fine tracker, probably the best this clan has ever known,” Elder Franklin said as he took his pipe out of his breast pocket. “You know as well as anyone in the clan that the peace we have enjoyed between the clans for the last hundred years is a precarious and fragile thing.”
Tom raised his voice and said, “Look Elder Franklin I’m not ready to sit here and listen to you tell me another one of your history lessons. One of our own is trapped behind enemy lines. The time for discussion is over, we need to get Anne back as soon as possible. You know it’s the right thing to do.”
“Please Elder Franklin.” Grace said, “I couldn’t have escaped without Annes help. It’s the least we can do, we must go back and get her.”
Elder Franklins face betrayed no emotion as he looked at Tom and then Grace and then said, “You have your orders Tom. At this time the rescue of Anne is not a priority. There is nothing more I can do.”
Tom stood up and slammed his fists on the table. Veins stuck out in his neck as his face reddened. “This is bullshit Franklin and you know it. You’ve risked more for less important targets in the past.”
“Calm down Tom,” Elder Silas said in a low voice.
“Do you go along with this?” Tom said turning on Elder Silas.
Elder Silas nodded his head slowly and said, “I do. It’s our best course of action until we can figure out what Tulimak is up to.”
“I’m going after her,” Tom said jabbing his finger towards Elder Franklin.
Graces heart was thumping in her chest and she felt an uneasy air of aggression in the room. Tom looks like he is about to jump over the table and pummel Elder Franklin she thought as she reached up and stroked Toms arm.
“You will do no such thing,” Elder Franklin said lighting his pipe in a slow practised movement. He took two loud puffs on the stem and said, “Your orders are to stand down. We can’t have you storming Tulimak's compound all to save one shifter.”
“When did you change Franklin,” Tom said nearly spitting the words out. “You used to have heart and compassion, now you are nothing more than a bitter old man.”
Elder Franklin observed Tom with calm eyes and said, “Steady now Tom, you have no right to lecture anyone on compassion. Was it compassion that made you abandon your wife and child back in Ireland?”
Grace looked at Tom, her eyes widening. She felt a hollow ache in her stomach as she thought, Toms married. How could I have been so stupid.
Tom pulled away from Grace and dove across the table at Elder Franklin. His pipe went skittering across the table flinging loose tobacco and burning embers. Tom grabbed Franklin by the collar and hoisted him out of his chair.
“Stop Tom, please,” Grace pleaded to him trying to pull him off Elder Franklin.
“You know why I left her behind and she knows as well,” Tom shouted into Franklins face. His arm was pulled back and his fist balled ready to punch him.“
Franklin looked at Toms fist like a man facing down the barrel of a gun, any second now it was going to go off. “That’s not what she told me today,” Franklin said as a sly smile curled the corner of his lips.
Tom snapped. Grace didn't see the punch. Franklin fell backwards out of his chair with a crash and a stack of invoices on the shelf behind him spilled onto the floor. Tom scrambled over the table after Franklin.
He looks like he wants to kill him Grace thought as she sunk back in her chair in horror. Her new life was unravelling around her. Tom had lied to her. He was married. I can’t take much more of this Grace thought as Tom crossed the table and grabbed Elder Franklin by the lapels and dragged him up from the floor. A thin line of blood ran from the corner of Franklins mouth.
“What are you going to do? Hit me again?” Elder Franklin said.
“I should kill you. I’m nothing but a blunt instrument you use for what ever plans you and Elder Silas have cooked up,” Tom said jabbing his finger in the mans chest.
“Enough,” Elder Silas said standing up.
“You could have used anybody for that train mission and you chose me,” Tom shouted as his face reddened.
“Past history doesn’t matter. You’re the best we have Tom. We needed you, and only you to complete it,” Elder Franklin said.
He’s not afraid Grace thought as she looked at Franklin and expected to see the face of a scared old man. If anything he seems to be putting up with Toms outburst. Is he more powerful than Tom, Grace wondered as she stared at the men.
“I’m sick of all the secrecy,” Tom said as his hands fell down by his sides. Grace could see the fight was leaving him and being replaced by exhausted resignation. “I have to be let in on more about what’s going on. Why did you have me rescue Oishin?” Tom said looking back and forth between the two Elders.
Is that his wife's name, Grace thought as it felt like someone was squeezing her heart.
Elder Silas got up from his chair and walked around to the two men. He put his hand on Toms shoulder and said, “Tom you know as well as anyone that we can’t reveal the inner workings of the clan. You remember the great schism and what happened after that. We cant have a repeat of that event. The clan wouldn’t survive it.”
Tom looked at Elder Silas as if he was only realising there were other people in the room for the first time. “I can’t do this anymore. Seeing Oishin again its brought everything back.”
Elder Franklin walked past Tom and picked up his pipe from the table. He glanced at Grace and then turned back to Tom as he started to refill his pipe. He thinks this is all my fault Grace thought. That man has had a problem with me since I first stepped foot in this town.
The three men began to talk to each other in whispered voices and Grace could only hear snatches of the conversation. As the two Elders spoke Tom seemed to begin to calm down. The calmer he got the more annoyed Grace could feel herself getting. Her chair scratched noisily on the floor as she stood up.
“When where you going to tell me you were married,” Grace said as she could feel her anger swell.
“It’s not what you think,” Elder Franklin said glancing back over his shoulder to look at her.
And yet you chose to let it slip, Grace thought as she stared back at elder Franklin feeling total hate for him.
Tom turned around and looked at Grace and then diverted his eyes from hers. Elder Silas patted him on the back and said, “It’s all for the best.”
“Answer me Tom,” Grace said, “don’t I deserve that much at least. You pulled me into your world and now I find out you’re married with a child.”
“We can talk about it back in your place,” Tom said as his shoulders slumped and every trace of the angry animated shifter he was mere minutes ago was now gone.
“What did you say to him?” Grace said to Elde
r Franklin.
I can be plenty mad for both of us, Grace thought as she glared at the two Elders. I am sick and tired of these two scheming behind the scenes.
“We spoke the truth to Tom. Informed him about the bigger picture and what is at stake,” Elder Silas said returning to his seat. He sat down and scratched the loose stubbly skin under his chin.
“It is a heavy burden for any shifter to take on board,” Elder Franklin said as he checked his pockets for his leather tobacco pouch.
Grace looked at Tom, he’s so pale she thought as he ran his hand over his face and still didn’t look in her direction.
“Tom are you ok?” Grace said hearing the shake in her voice.
“I’ll be ok,” he said looking over at Grace with wide eyes as if he had forgotten she was in the room.
I feel like the walls are pressing in on me Grace thought as she reached a hand out to Tom.
“Let’s go,” Grace said and he took her hand, his palm clammy and cold.
Tom nodded his head slowly and glanced back at the two Elders who watched him with expressions that gave nothing away. They left the store without looking back. Once outside and crossing the street to her apartment Grace squeezed Toms hand and said, “What’s going on? What did the Elders tell you that has you so spooked.”
Tom looked at her as colour started to come back into his cheeks and said, “They told me a name. A name of someone I never thought would be spoken out loud again.” He let go of Graces hand when they got to the door to the staircase leading up to her small apartment. “I don’t think I should come in.”
They really did a number on him Grace thought as her hatred of Elder Franklin increased.
“Come up for some coffee. Shifters do drink coffee:” Grace said cracking a weak smile.
Tom ran his hand through his hair and said, “We do. I’d be happy to join you for a cup.” His hand shook as he let it drop to his side.
Grace busied herself preparing the coffee and observed Tom as he looked out the front window at the view across to the hardware store and then took a seat. He looked over at Grace and gave her a nervous smile.
Don't push it, let him open up to you Grace though as she smiled back. She had a thousand questions spinning around in her brain and it was taking all her will power not to bombard him with questions.
Grace brought over two cups of steaming coffee and put one down in front of Tom. “Sorry it’s only instant,” she said with a shrug, “the jar looked ancient, hopefully it doesn’t kill us.”
Inappropriate Grace thought as she cringed inwardly.
Tom took a sip of his coffee and said, “It’s good.” He put it down and looked directly at Grace. “It’s true I’m married or at least I was at some time. Human time frames and laws don’t apply in these kind of situations.”
Grace felt a ball of anguish in her chest when she heard the words married. I knew he was too good to be true she thought while trying to keep any emotion off her face.
“I was married to a woman a long time ago and for decades I thought she had carried my child,” Tom continued.
The ball of anguish felt like a punch to Graces chest. I never wanted to be the kind of woman who stole a man from another woman, she thought, as she felt her throat tighten as she waited for Tom to let her down as gently as he could.
“Where is she now?” Grace heard herself say, feeling disconnected from her body as if she was watching something unfold before her that she had no power over.
“She’s out of town, out in the wilderness somewhere. The Elders are the only ones who know her location,” Tom said.
“When will you be joining her?” Grace said in as level a voice as she could muster.
Tom looked at her with a look of confusion and then said, “I won’t be joining her. I’m with you Grace,” he reached over the table to take her hand and she didn’t reciprocate. Tom pulled his hand back and looked at the pattern of pale white scars across the back of his hand. “I better start from the beginning or as much as I know.”
Grace nodded her head and sat back to listen.
“The last mission the Elders sent me on was to retrieve a shifter from a cargo train. They told me that they didn’t know who it was and all they knew was that it was a member of our clan and someone important. The whole thing was a simple snatch and grab. The train was pulling mostly cargo carraiges and had next to no security. What the elders failed to tell me or more likely chose not to, was that my target was someone that I knew. It was someone from my past,” Tom said and paused to drink some coffee. “It was my wife, although now with the time that has passed she would be my ex-wife.”
“How long since you’ve last seen her,” Grace asked.
If its any time in the last few months I’m walking Grace thought, I’m not getting in the way of them being together even if it breaks my heart.
Tom shook his head in disbelief and said, “It’s been close to a hundred and thirty years since I was with her. She disappeared back then and I searched for her for a long time, it must of been a decade before I gave up.”
Grace stiffened in her seat and thought he still loves her, his will be a love for the ages. How am I ever going to compete with that?
Tom reached across the table and took Graces hand and said, “There is nothing between us anymore. I want to be with you, build a future for both of us, Oishin means nothing to me.
What kind of name is that Grace thought as she let Tom take her hand and stroke the back of it with his thumb.
“Tell me what happened between you,” Grace said in a calm and steady voice.
“The last time I saw her was in Ireland at the end of the eighteen hundreds. We had fled several countries in Europe trying to find somewhere peaceful to settle down. Back then superstition was rampant and when people started to sense that someone lived among them that was different, well you could see how that would go. We had been living in rural Ireland for a few months when I got a lead on a small group of shifters who were living in London. We had been searching for some of our own for a long time and this was the first piece of information that looked like it might go somewhere. I set off to try to find them. I was going to be gone two or three weeks. When I got to London I got into a bit of trouble and ended up not making it back to Ireland for nearly a year. When I returned home she was gone. Our house was burnt to the ground and the land around it salted and poisoned. The next few weeks were a blur as I searched the countryside for any kind of piece of information on her. I couldn't let myself think she had been captured and killed. I was balancing on the edge of despair and contemplated going into longterm hibernation so I wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore,” Tom said.
Grace looked at Tom, the squareness of his jaw, the soulfulness of his eye, the way he would rub his hand over the stubble on his chin as he talked about something emotional. I know so little about you, Grace thought as she held her coffee cup between her two hands. How much life has he lead before he met me she wondered. Can we really make this thing work with the gulf of time between both of us.
“I spent months searching Ireland and then a couple of years back in mainland Europe looking for her. Those years were not some of my best. I did many things that I now regret, I was a different man back then. I eventually returned to Ireland and through a twist of fate I found the last men who had seen Oishin alive. They had gone to our home with the intention of killing her and she had escaped into the woods never to be seen again,” Tom said and he paused to finish off his coffee.
“What happened to the men who had pursued her?” Grace asked already knowing what Tom was going to say.
“I’m not proud of it,” Tom said looking away from Grace, “I hunted down each of the men in the party and ended them where they stood. After that I left Ireland and travelled to America for the first time in a very long time. I gave up searching for Oishin and as time moved on I realised I no longer loved her anymore. You know what the truly horrible part of the whole thing was?”
Grace shook her head afraid of what Tom was about to say.
“I don’t think I ever really loved her. We clung to each other because we were alone, two shifters separated from the clan and perpetually looking for a home, somewhere that could accept us. She held me back in the decades that we were together and I don’t think I would have ever come to that realisation if we had of stayed together. It sounds cruel to say it out loud, but losing her made me the man I am today,” Tom said.
You have to ask him Grace thought, now is the time to get everything out in the open.
“You said you had a child with her?” Grace asked.
This is where everything comes to an end Grace thought, prepare for a bombshell.
“When I left her to go to London I didn’t know she was pregnant. She had it when I was gone. One of her attackers told me she was carrying a baby when they chased after her,” Tom said close to a whisper.
“Are you sure it was yours?” Grace asked.
Why did you ask that, Grace thought feeling terrible for asking the question.
Tom looked at her with tired eyes, everything about him looked tired, as if he had gone round after round in an endless boxing match. “It’s always a possibility that it was someone else's. It would have to have been another shifter to get her pregnant,. It doesn’t matter Oishin already told me the child isn’t mine,” Tom said.
“Can humans and shifters not reproduce?” Grace asked.
“They can but the pairing between a female shifter and a human male can produce some less than desired effects,” Tom replied.
Do I even dare ask him Grace said feeling her skin crawl at the connotations of the words Tom said.
“It seems to be no problem the other way, shifter males getting human women pregnant. So if the child wasn’t mine it was some other shifters,” Tom said.
What do I do in a situation like this Grace thought feeling awkward sitting across from Tom. Should I console him about his long lost wife?
