“John once rigged some sewing thread to the hangars in the closet of cousin Regina’s room. I slept in the room next to her, which meant I was in charge of pulling on the thread during the night. When I did, the hangars would move around in the closet and scratch at the door. I could barely refrain from laughing as I did it, imagining Regina’s reaction! But the thread broke not even half an hour later, so she couldn’t have been scared for long. Even so, her eyes were as big as saucers the next morning, and she kept insisting a ghost was haunting her room.”
Sarah chortled with the memory, and Falk laughed along with her.
“Oh, such good times! Anyway, John and I fell out of touch when my father transferred to another office in Atlanta. We got back in touch much later, as you know, and I came to work for him.” The lines of her face relaxed as she remembered. “It was so kind of him to take me on.”
Falk always knew Dad trusted Sarah implicitly, and he himself had come to feel the same way. But Linda wore a vague, troubled expression. Her eyes were glazed, and he doubted she would even react if he waved a hand in front of her face. Then she blinked, and her expression became the pleasant one she normally wore. The corners of her pink lips returned to their upward position, and her brows relaxed as she returned from whatever memory she’d been lost in.
“Dad mentioned you two were the troublemakers of the family.” Linda’s gaze dropped to her plate, and she picked at her food with her fork.
Sarah laughed. “We were. Although, your father was the mastermind and I the lackey. Make no mistake.”
Falk chuckled, knowing how assertive Mr. Hartmann could be. However, he and Linda used the word persuasive whenever they spoke of it. It sounded more complimentary.
Following her laughter, Sarah’s face became drawn and teary. “These doctors today,” she said in a contemptuous tone. “They don’t know anything. I swear they’re a bunch of bumbling fools. Tomorrow, I’m going to do more research and find someone else we can take him to.” Her chin lifted the way it always did when she set her mind to something. The thought occurred to Falk that Dad wasn’t the only persuasive one in the family. However quiet Sarah might be perceived, she had an inner strength that helped her get her way with the household staff. It made her good at management.
Linda reached for Sarah’s hand, and they clasped fingers as they exchanged a smile of understanding.
“Yes,” Linda said, “let’s do that.”
After dinner, they all went back upstairs to see Dad again, but he grew tired after a little while, and they left him to his sleep. Sarah retired to her rooms, and Falk at last had Linda to himself.
He walked her to the sitting area of her room, and they sat together on the gray sofa in front of the flat-screen TV as they had many times. Through the doorway to her bedroom he could see her suitcase at the foot of her bed, its contents strewn in various spots around the room and outside the window, the rain came down in a steady beat and lightening flashed in the distance, followed by the low rumble of thunder.
He toyed with her delicate fingers, unsure how to begin. “I know it’s getting late. But I wanted to make sure you’re all right. We didn’t get to finish our conversation before.”
His protective instincts had kicked in when the scared expression had come across her face earlier in the library. These dreams really freaked her out. It had to be some psychological response to stress. Trying to finishing up her senior year of high school while her dad’s health wound downward in a steady spiral could be nothing but stressful. Maybe talking about it would help her. He would listen as long as she needed him. Happy to do whatever it took to restore her core sunny nature.
She tried to shrug it off. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Like you said, I’m just tired.” She pushed her hair back from her face and sighed.
Faint shadows shone under her eyes in the dim lamplight of the sitting room, and her creamy skin seemed lackluster. No matter what she said, he could see the burden wearing on her. The tension was still apparent on her cheeks and forehead.
He touched his hand to her shoulder. “Hey, it’s me,” he said, trying to get her to open up. “You can tell me anything.”
Her expression turned hard at his words. “Can I?”
“You know it.”
She skimmed her gray eyes over his face. “I don’t think it went over so well the last time I did.” Her tone was low and stale. There was no mistaking what she referred to.
He broke their gaze. “That was different.”
“Different? I didn’t know exceptions existed for the word ‘anything.’”
Her wry tone scraped over his skin like the rough bristles of a brush, unsettling him. He didn’t know what to say.
“See? You still can’t talk about it.”
Her eyes glowed with burgeoning tears, and he felt like the world’s biggest asshole.
“Linda….” At a loss for words, he ran a hand through his hair. She was right. He’d been putting this off for too long. He’d left loose ends untended, tried to work around them, but they had to be faced. Steeling himself, he manned up and said, “Okay, you’re right. Let’s talk about it. I’ve let this go on for too long.”
They stared at each other for a minute until he realized she waited for him.
“Um, oh. You want me to start?”
“I believe I already said everything I had to say before.” The dryness of her tone rivaled desert air.
True. She had. She’d poured out her feelings to him, her entire soul. She’d unlocked the recesses of her heart, sharing how deep her love for him ran. He’d known it already, but hearing it out loud made things entirely different. Then, she’d been frustrated with their lack of time together and hurting and he hadn’t done anything about it.
He’d been hurting, too, and burning with the need to see her, many of his feelings identical to hers. That day, they’d been talking on Skype, as they did every week, trying to make the best of seeing each other on a laptop screen. Even though it ran a dismal second to live contact, the force of her bare emotions had struck him like a tidal wave.
He couldn’t even remember how he had responded. An overwhelmed feeling had come over him, and for the first time, he’d felt the need to cut the call short. So, he had made up an excuse to hang up, telling her he’d call her back soon. But soon had turned into later. And then later had turned into months. He’d buried himself in school and work and kept contact with Linda brief.
He felt the urge to run again . But being with her…looking at her and having the truth of his feelings exposed made him feel what a colossal idiot he had been. How could he have known she was his soul mate and yet have been so afraid of expressing his feelings to her, too? He had turned tail and run from the best and most important person in his life and then held her at arm’s length because he had been scared.
Bringing their bond out into the open, making it concrete…. Well, then it was something that could be lost or broken. That’s what terrified him. He didn’t want their love to be destroyed the same way his relationship with his parents had been demolished. An event so painful he didn’t want it to ever be repeated again.
He mentally shook his head and took in the beauty of Linda’s face once again. He could have mapped every one of her delightful freckles from memory. She embodied everything he wanted in life. Not the mills or the money or the pride of being a big fish in a small town.
He realized it was time to not let his history as an orphan take the blame for his cowardice. He was a different person because of Linda and her father’s love. Dad had raised him to be a person who solved problems and conquered fear. Not one who ran from it. The time had come to trample his past mistake and current fearful wavering under his feet.
This time, he ran both hands through his hair then scooted closer to her on the couch and rested his fingertips on her thigh. Looking her in the eyes, he knew he was ready to take the plunge. The gorgeous smoky color reminded him of the glint of ste
el in the sun. She’d always been the patient one, and that sterling quality always enforced with him that patience was strength, even if of the quieter variety.
She’d poured everything out, and it was his turn. This time, he was ready. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m an idiot, and I hope you can forgive me. I love you. I can’t live without you. And….”
He was going to continue on and tell her everything, but she let out a little, “Oh!” and threw her arms around his neck, crying in earnest.
He held her, stroked her hair, and kissed her on the cheek, whispering how sorry he was. She felt so good against his chest, all soft and delicate. He could imagine himself holding her this way all night, for the rest of his life. The thought made him warm. He caught hold of her shoulders and eased her back. “You didn’t let me finish.” Even those few words felt so right he wanted to continue.
She wiped a couple tears from her cheeks but grinned at him. The light lacking from her skin returned. The paleness had receded, giving way to a faint amber glow, making her look radiant.
He opened his mouth to continue his thoughts, but she cut him off again.
“You mean you were going to tell me you ran from me because you were scared?”
“Yeah—”
“And explain how it was terrifying because you’ve never felt anything so overwhelming in your life. It was as if you were standing at the top of a cliff about to jump off?”
“Uh-huh.” Surprise filled him.
“And how, if you jumped, nothing would ever be the same again?” she continued.
“Exactly!” He was stunned. Could she read his mind? “How did you know?”
“Because that’s how I felt, too.”
Realization slammed into his gut. She had felt exactly the same way when pouring out her feelings to him. Of the two of them, he knew she was braver than he could ever be no matter how things looked on the surface. She had exposed herself to him in the most vulnerable of ways, and he had run from her. Why had she ever spoken to him again? But he knew the answer. Because she loved him.
His insides glowed with the knowledge this time, at the depth of it. Awed at the inner strength she had to wait for him to come around and the generous patience she’d extended to him. He cupped the sides of her face in his hands and ran his thumbs over her soft cheeks, and drank in the sensation of her skin and the beauty of her face with its pert nose and graceful eyebrows.
“How perfect you are,” he said.
Then he kissed her, taking possession of those rose petal lips in a way he’d dreamed of so many times. Sure they’d kissed before, on more than one occasion as a matter of fact. But those had been sweet and innocent, the initial quests for intimacy—but this was different. This time they kissed the way lovers long separated did, trying to express everything on first contact. No, it was more. Something much deeper had been unlocked, and it transformed the energy exploding between them.
Within moments, they shifted on the couch and he lay on top of her, their legs entwined, her sweet breasts pressing against his chest. He trailed kisses down her jaw to her neck while his fingers clutched the soft, brown hair at the nape of her neck. She had the smoothest, most delicate skin. His tongue slid against it, tasting her, his breath coming hot, and she quivered beneath him.
“Linda,” he whispered against her. “What an idiot I am. I’m so sorry. All I want is to be with you.”
“Me, too,” she gasped. “Don’t leave me again, Falk.”
“Never. I swear.”
Her hands stole beneath his shirt and roved over the muscles on his back, lighting a fire of arousal within him.
He lifted his head to look at her, enjoying the glazed look in her storm-cloud eyes. The soft yielding of her body as he touched her was hypnotic. Her eyelids shot open, and she stiffened beneath him.
“Linda?”
He glanced behind him and then around the room. “Linda? What’s wrong?” Her cheeks drained of their color, and a tendril of fear lanced through him.
“No!” she said in a hoarse voice. Her eyes rolled back in her head, exposing the whites of the orbs.
“Linda!” Still no response. He shook her shoulders frantically, trying to bring her back. “Come on, baby, come back to me!”
Her head lolled in a scary way, and her whole body went limp. After a few tense moments, she returned to normal and focused on his face again.
“Falk?”
“Oh, my God! Are you okay?” With loving care, he eased off her and the couch and sat beside her on the floor, one hand on either of her shoulders.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry.” She patted her hand on his chest. “It was another one of those dreams.”
“Linda. That’s not a dream. It was more like a seizure!” His blood still ran cold from the sight of her eyes rolling back in her head.
“I’ll be all right.”
But he knew from her weak voice she wouldn’t be. “You said you were having them more often. How often?” She had driven herself here, he remembered. How had she managed it with these things plaguing her?
She skimmed her fingers across his cheek and toyed with the hair that had fallen to frame his face. Her eyes flickered over his features, and she gave a small sigh. “Pretty much daily. At first they seemed to be dreams of you and me. Nothing unusual there. But as I kept having them, I noticed you and I looked different in several of them. We wore strange clothes and talked with foreign accents. They seemed to be happy memories for the most part, but then they changed.”
“How?”
“Now, it’s like I’m seeing the same thing but in different time periods. Even though we may speak strangely and wear odd clothes, we’re always doing the same thing. Running. Terrified. Something chasing us that I can’t see.” Her voice trailed off in a whisper, and her eyebrows scrunched together with anguish, one tear sneaking out of the corner of her eye.
He hugged her to his chest. “It’s going to be okay,” he crooned.
“They’re getting stronger,” she said, “and I’m having them during the day. Sometimes I check out from whatever I’m doing like I did now. It’s awful. It feels like I’m losing control of reality.” A light sob escaped on her breath.
“I’ll protect you no matter what,” he promised. He gave her one last squeeze and then let go so she could lay flat on the couch again. With his fingertips, he smoothed the tear track from her face and some errant strands of hair back from her forehead.
“We need to get you checked out by a doctor.”
She nodded. “Sure. Okay.”
But he could tell by the tension around her mouth she had little faith in any doctor’s ability to help her with something like this. Skeptical as well, he felt moved to act, however.
“Okay, I’ll see if Sarah can set up an appointment for you. Since we’re taking your father to someone new, we may as well take you on the same day, too.”
She turned her head away from him. “Okay.”
He didn’t like the haunted look he seen in her eyes. “What did we look like in your dream this time? Pilgrim children? Indians?” He laced his fingers through hers. Maybe talking it out would ease her worries.
A small smile emerged on her face. “I don’t know,” she said. “I couldn’t really see anything this time. It was different than usual.”
“Tell me.”
“We were hiding in a dark closet of some kind. We couldn’t get the door to shut all the way, and I was looking through the crack. I think we were in a church.” Her eyebrows dipped a little.
“But if you could barely see, how do you know it was a church?”
“The window,” she said. “It was stained glass and had the figure of an angel wired into it. I’m not sure what other type of building that would be appropriate in. Plus, I think I saw the edge of a wooden pew.”
“Makes sense.” He stroked her arm. She looked calmer, and he found the knot in his chest relaxing in response. “Anything
else?”
“Yes.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “A man was chasing us.” Then she shook her head. “That’s not right; a man’s going to chase us.” She rubbed her face and sighed. “That’s the weird part. Even though these images look like past memories or whatever, I can’t shake the feeling it’s going to happen.”
As much as he wanted to believe her, part of him freaked out she might have some kind of psychological problem making her paranoid. He had heard some disorders didn’t manifest until people got into their twenties. Could it be something appearing early? He sent up a silent prayer it wasn’t that. In the meantime, he would have to believe she remained his Linda with the steady core. They would get past this. In the meantime, it would be best to get as many facts together as possible.
“Did you recognize the man?”
“No. Couldn’t see him. But I heard his voice.” Her eyes drifted from his face as she recalled it. “I feel like I know him, but I can’t place it. Can’t remember….”
“What did he say?” Falk’s body tensed. He couldn’t help wishing Dad wasn’t ill so he could speak with him about Linda. Dad would know what to do. But he’d gone to sleep a while ago, and there was no way he could bring this up to him. Their father didn’t need the added stress while fighting for his life.
Falk was the head of the household now. His protective instincts kicked in. He would take care of Linda, and her father.
Linda’s eyes locked back on his, as steady and true as any other day with no aberrant wavering or flickering. When she spoke, her tone was matter-of-fact.
“He said he was going to kill us.”
Chapter Five
Two days later, Linda stood in the foyer and watched as Falk and Jensen carried her father down the stairs, one holding his torso, the other his legs, both careful not to jostle him. At the bottom, they set him in the shiny, motorized new wheelchair waiting for him.
Eternal Oath Page 3
