Love held too much risk.Hislove, in particular.
Forgiveness, as well, felt out of reach.
But...she hurt. In her soul, in her body. In her ankle, throbbing in time to her heartbeat.
And she hadn’t the strength to fight.
How she had missed the smell of him—his cologne, yes, but also the scent of his skin, sun-warmed and delicious. It called to mind lemon trees in bloom and lazy summer afternoons cuddled in his arms after a heartypranzoof linguine andbistecca alla fiorentina.
She must have drifted off at that point, her mind awash in memories that buzzed as pleasantly as honeybees along the surface of her mind...
The shock of cool sheets at her back awoke her with a start—Alis laying her atop the bed in her room.
Time passed in a blur.
Mrs. Craib appeared and, with the help of a housemaid, stripped Chrissi of her muddy clothing and gently washed the worst of the grime from her skin.
Then a doctor arrived, sure hands feeling bones and testing bruises to see where she hurt most.
“A severely sprained ankle, I should think. Nothing feels broken. Some lightly bruised ribs and several cuts. And perhaps the slightest concussion,” he pronounced. “All in all, you are most fortunate not to have suffered worse, Mrs. Newton. When the wall came down, the mud at your back and the volume of your skirts appear to have cushioned your bones from more serious harm.”
The doctor prescribed a drop of laudanum for her pain and copious amounts of rest.
Chrissi sensed rather than saw Alis hovering nearby.
Now what?she thought, drifting in a haze of aches and twinges, laudanum slowly overtaking her senses.
The thrumming pain in her body made it clear she would not be crouched with a trowel in hand anytime soon. And the archaeological excavations could scarcely continue withouther presence. Moreover, it was hardly fair to expect Alis to house and feed her throughout the duration of her recovery.
How bitter to have reached this point in her excavations only to be forced to abandon them. To never know what lay at the end of the tunnel.
And Alis...to leave him so soon. Already her heart trembled at the prospect.
I’m not prepared to depart. Let me have a little while yet.
Sleep tugged at her senses.
Tomorrow.
She would deal with it all tomorrow.
Voices murmured just outside the edge of her understanding...Alis, speaking with someone. The doctor, perhaps?
The rumbling timbre of his bass lulled and soothed.
My favorite sound, whispered through her mind.
A strong hand wrapped around hers, lacing their fingers together.
And as she slipped into sleep, soft lips pressed a lingering kiss to her knuckles.
CHRISSI AWOKE TO sunlight shimmering against her eyelids and dull pain pulsing through her ankle.
Squinting, she blinked into the bright daylight for a full ten seconds before memories of the previous day rocketed through her brain—
The euphoria of breaking through to the entrance tunnel of the cairn.
A shout of warning.
