As much as Carver wanted to continue listening to the fight, he also didn’t want them to reach a point where there could be no resolution. So he stepped into the kitchen with, “Ladies, I come bearing food.”
“I told you I didn’t want any.” Came Clara’s despondent response. He resisted the urge to repeat her mockingly.
“Thank you,” Marsh sighed, taking the sandwiches out of the bag.
“You’re welcome,” he responded to Marsh first and then turned to Clara, “I got an extra sandwich for you, but if you don’t want it, I will happily eat it. I’m starving.”There, nice and civil. Nothing she can yell at me for.
She didn’t respond for a long moment, pondering his words. Then her stomach rumbled, and though he would have liked to tease her about the pink climbing her cheeks, he just handed her a sandwich. She accepted his offering, and even gave him a slight smile and a quiet, “Thanks.” Finally, a moment where they could be at peace with each other.
Or at least it could have been. Until Marsh jumped in with, “See Clara? It’s not that hard to have decent manners.”
That was all it took for Clara to push her chair back and storm out. At least she took the sandwich with her.
“See what I mean? Such a bitch.” Marsh was quick to comment.
“You weren’t exactly helping.”
“Oh, so now this is my fault?”
“I didn’t say that.” Inwardly, he groaned. Why couldn’t women just get along? “I just meant, if you know she’s a bear then why poke her with a stick?”
Marsh grinned, “Because it’s fun.”
Carver groaned, out loud this time.
41CLARA
Clara intended to eat the sandwich and wait until Marsh was back in the bookstore before rejoining Carver. She couldn’t explain the fury that bubbled up within her everytime she was around Marsh. Too distracted to notice anything about the sandwich, she finished it and decided to lay on the bed for just a few minutes. She was extremely disoriented by the time Carver was shaking her awake.
He held his hands up in surrender when she opened her eyes, “I didn’t want to wake you, but we need to finish these plans before we run out of time.”
She rubbed her eyes, “How long have I been asleep?”
“About two hours.”
“Crap, my bad.” She rolled off the bed, and stretched, trying to wake herself up enough to focus.
“All good. I figured you were exhausted.”
She yawned, “Yeah. Haven’t been sleeping the greatest this trip.”
“Same.”
“You don’t have to sleep on the floor, you know. We can switch so you can sleep a little better.”
“I’m good.” His tone left no room for argument, and truthfully, she didn’t want to give up the bed.
She followed him downstairs where they resumed their planning. Marsh had left a pot of coffee out before going back to manage the bookstore, and though Clara wouldn’t admit it, she was grateful. “While you were asleep I walked towards the edge of town to scout out the entrance and the guards.”
“And?”
He shook his head, and she could sense his frustration. “It’s far enough back that we will be out in the open when we approach. There’s no way to get there without being seen. Which presents an additional problem. Because we won’t actually have a full four minutes. We’ll have to use half that time just getting there, or it will be far too obvious that we’re heading somewhere we aren’t supposed to be.”
She groaned. “This assignment is a headache.”
He nodded. “I haven’t had one like this before.”
“I don’t think our kingdom has ever been at stake like this before. We’re their last ditch effort.” This thought wasn’t a comfort. How was their kingdom so desperate that two twenty-three year-olds were the only ones who could save everything? She thought back, and realized after training all of her mentors just ceased to exist. She reported to Command, and one or two home-base leaders. Had they actually all died? The war was brutal enough.
