Something inside me would never let me stop.
Ithadto be love, though at times it felt closer to insanity.
Chapter 25
The Lack of You
Raewyn
It took me several weeks to settle into our new life in Sandy Point.
I kept expecting to see Stellon’s troops riding into the beachfront town or perhaps Pharis showing up to charm and persuade me as he’d done so successfully in the past.
There had been no word from him since he’d transported each of my family members here and immediately bid us farewell, keeping his promise to let me go.
My family was thriving.
The warm climate and humid ocean air seemed to agree with Papa. He spent hours a day on his new favorite pastime, shore fishing, and he was talking about building a boat.
The girls were taking to coastal life as if born to it. They swam in the ocean daily and collected so many seashells I’d had to request they start decorating the garden with them before our house became overrun and we had nowhere left to sit or sleep.
I’d taken over most of the household chores again. During my absence, Tindra and Turi had both grown so adept at executing them that I felt almost obsolete.
But I liked to keep busy, and letting them have a few more years of carefree childhood didn’t seem like a bad thing.
I was hanging the wash out on a line in our yard when Papa walked up holding up a large string of fish, far too many for tonight’s supper.
“A good catch today. We might need to invite the neighbors over for dinner,” he said, beaming with pride.
Or was that mischievousness?
I smiled back at him.
“I suspect you kept throwing in the line until there were too many so we’dhaveto invite the neighbors,” I said with a wink.
The woman in the house next door was a pretty widow with two young sons. Tindra and Turi played with the boys every day, and many evenings Papa invited their kind mother out for an evening stroll.
Once he’d met Vera, his homesickness for Waterdale and Havendor seemed to have disappeared instantly.
If only I could be so lucky.
My free time these days was spent sitting on the beach, staring out at the Cyan Sea. Its color was so much like Pharis’ eyes, it made my stomach ache.
But it was also nice to listen to the waves roll in and sink my feet and hands into the warm sand.
Often in these moments of respite, I’d close my eyes and pretend I was on the terrace behind Stormcrest, watching the breaking waves and feeling the much cooler breezes coming off the Great Gray Sea, pretending that Pharis would come strolling down the path at any moment to toss me a provocative comment and flirtatious look.
My life here in Sandy Point was peaceful and pleasant. I had the love of my family around me again, and that was truly wonderful.
But I missed the life I had there. Withhim.
I missed Pharis.
Which was stupid.
No, I couldn’t stand to let him be flogged to death, but I also didn’t think I could stand to be with him after he’d withheld important information from me yet again.
More importantly, he withheldhimselffrom me.
