The Evensong (17 page)

That statement meant so much more for me.

I sighed anyway, allowing myself to revel in the vivid memory of the past minutes. The heat of his body, his hands . . . I was secretly enamored by how red my lips were now.

ALBUMS

I woke up the next morning to the sound of wind chimes outside. The wind was blowing strong, whipping the tree branches against the side of the house. Rolling over, I looked out the window at the sky, which was covered with clouds. I wondered if this was some kind of clue as to Linden’s mood, wherever he was.

Checking the clock, I sat up and tried to remember what day it was; Tuesday, which meant work. I got dressed slowly, taking my jeans off the floor and rifling through the dresser for a shirt. I was still in a sort of daze, lost in rethinking the day before.

The rest of the house was quiet as I went downstairs. Surprisingly, I didn’t hear Rene bustling around as usual, though I could see a light on in the dim room. Turning the corner, I saw it was Alysana sitting at the kitchen table, a pile of dried herbs beside her.

“You’re up early,” I said as I sat across from her.

She shrugged, pulling the crispy leaves from the stems. “I just couldn’t get back to sleep, plus I had this to do.”

The air was heavy with the clean smell of mint, and I took some of the bushel to help. “What’s it for?”

“Someone in town.”

Her vague attitude made me glance at her and smile. “Someone? Someone as in the guy you’ve been meeting?”

Her face reddened a little. “Maybe.”

“So yes,” I answered for her. “What’s his name?”

After a long pause she answered, “Aidan.”

“Aidan,” I repeated slowly.

“This is nothing special, he just asked for some stuff from the greenhouse.”

“How sweet.” I grinned, but she glared mockingly as she piled the leaves together. I slid mine towards her and stood to look for some kind of breakfast. I looked through the cabinets, settling on cereal since it was quick.

“Was Meryl’s exceptionally fun last night?”

“Huh?” I almost dropped my bowl. I looked at her as innocently as possible, wondering if this was a way to corner me in my lie.

“Rene called and Meryl said you were in the orchard or something,” she shrugged.

“When did she call?” I tried to keep casual, wondering what excuse I could possibly have if she didn’t believe this.

“It was before dinner, I think.”

I nodded as I sat down again. “It was just busy, and Meryl makes pretty much anything entertaining.”

“I should have been there, it was boring here,” she said, absorbed in wrapping the mint in cheesecloth. My heart was still going fast in my ribs, and I took a minute to calm myself as I ate slowly.

Thunder was rumbling lowly under the sound of the wind, and it reminded me of the headache that was sure to come. For the moment I didn’t mind it so much; I was almost looking forward to the rain, as odd as that was.
It all goes back to Linden,
I thought as I looked out the window toward the sky. It was partially obscured by the bush outside, which was rocking back and forth, the tiny branches scraping against the glass.

“So—I talked to Omar last night,” Alysana piped up.

“What?” I looked up abruptly. “Aly, no.”

“What do you mean ‘no’? Yes, I did.”

I sighed and abandoned my cereal. I pushed it away from me and waited for her to go on.

“You wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, so I had to ask,” she said. “Why didn’t you mention it?”

“It’s bad enough avoiding him, I didn’t want to bring anyone else into it.”

“So you were just going to . . .what, pretend it didn’t happen?”

“Exactly,” I replied, standing.

“Riley,” she said harshly, and I paused. “You didn’t stop because of—of the Elemental, did you?”

“Not you, too,” I mumbled, shaking my head as I walked away.

“Wait, are you—”

“No!” I yelled. I didn’t care if I woke anyone up, I was leaving anyway.

I was tired of everyone trying to accuse me of basing my actions on Linden. Sometimes it was true, ad I had to lie, but sometimes it was just ridiculous. I glowered over these thoughts as I drove to work, all the while further panicking about facing Meryl. She had obviously covered for me.

There were the usual few cars in the lot when I pulled up. I sat in the car for a few minutes, wondering how to approach the topic. Nothing great was coming to mind and I gave up when the car started shaking in the gale. I would just have to improvise.

Rushing to the door, I almost collided with a customer. I mumbled an apology and stepped inside, trying to straighten out my hair. Lisa was standing close by, shelving some things as she stared at me with a look of disgust. I ignored her and looked towards the counter where Meryl was standing behind the register. She smiled at me—I didn’t get the impression it was fake or sarcastic—and I hesitantly smiled back, going towards her. My apron was under the counter, so there was no avoiding her now.

“Morning,” she said as I approached.

“Hi,” I replied, avoiding her eyes. I didn’t look at her as I tied the apron on and adjusted my shirt underneath it. “So did you want me to stay here or—”

“I take it Rene mentioned she called?”

I finally looked up at her, surprised to see she was holding back a smile. She laughed, “Don’t look so horrified!”

I snapped out of it. “I’m sorry—sorry, I just wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

“I was surprised when she called, but I’m a quick thinker,” she smiled, squeezing my shoulder.

“Well thank you. I mean
really
thank you. I’m sorry I got you involved—”

“Don’t mention it,” she assured. “I may not understand the whole Elemental thing, but I do understand what it’s like to be asked to stay away from someone.”

I glanced at Lisa, but she didn’t seem to have noticed our conversation over the noise of the wind.

“You were with Linden, weren’t you?”

I nodded silently, my face flushing hot. Meryl grinned as she walked towards the other side of the counter. “I think he’s just fine. His little problem—is it really such a big deal?”

I was still a little stunned by this whole conversation, but I managed to laugh weakly and reply, “No, not to me.”

The truth of my own words shocked me as they felt like instant, harsh taboo. But Meryl didn’t notice, and asked me to check on the pastries in the back.

The whole back room was hot and stuffy from the morning baking, and a fresh batch of things to be wrapped was waiting for me, or even Lisa. I was about to start tearing cellophane when my head abruptly began throbbing and a familiar sharp pain bloomed behind my eyes. A second later, rain was pouring down on the roof. I took a minute to lean against the wall, palms against my temples until the worst of it was over. When I caught my breath, I couldn’t help thinking how long the day was going to be.

Everything passed by uneventfully all morning. When Omar came in for his usual lunch break, I made sure I was in the back, and Meryl knew I didn’t want to talk to him. Besides that, Lisa and I kept to ourselves, and I let her take over the register most of the day. I stayed in the far corners of the aisles putting things away and occasionally cheating to let the cans and boxes drift up to the shelves on their own.

When it was finally time for me to leave, I folded my apron and tossed it back under the counter. I tried to thank Meryl again, but she only waved me towards my car, saying she understood and would only like a warning next time. I gave up on thanking her and stepped outside where it was only drizzling, but the harsh wind made it all the worse. I could barely see past my hair, but when I walked around my car to the driver’s side, I stopped, staring at the person crouched next to the wheel. His hair was blowing across his face, but Linden stood fast when he saw me.

“Hey,” he said, pushing the hair away from his face.

“Hi,” I replied, a little apprehensive. One for seeing him again so soon, and two for being seen talking to him in public. The wrong eyes could see us.

“I would have gone in to say hi, but I wasn’t sure who’d be in there,” he went on, his voice partially lost in the weather.

“What? Oh, yeah,” I replied, glancing towards the store.

“But anyway, I wanted to ask—”

“Wait, I can’t hear you. Here, get in.” I pointed to the car as I pulled out the keys. Linden went straight to the passenger side and waited until all the locks clicked and he opened the door.

I sat inside quickly and pulled the door shut, trying to fix the mess of my hair. Linden didn’t bother and immediately turned his fierce gaze on me.

“Rough day?” he asked.

“I’ve just had a headache, no big deal,” I said, wishing he would be blunt.

“Sorry to hear that . . . are you going home right now?”

Thankfully, getting to the point was easy for him. “No, I don’t need to. Why?”

“Can you come by my place? I wanted to show you a few things.”

This was an innocent request, but I still wondered what it could be. Fear should have driven me away, but my curiosity won over.

“Okay. Did you bring your car?”

He pointed it out down the street and suggested I take the long way around to his house.

“Just so, you know, you don’t have to go by yours,” he explained.

I smiled slightly and agreed; no use in getting anymore suspicion coming my way.

Linden got out of the car and hurried towards his. I waited until he head gone down the street before backing out and going to the highway where there was a frontage road that would lead me to the swamps.

Navigating through the back roads was harder than I’d anticipated. I’d only used them once before, and I drove down a few unlabeled dead ends, which suddenly stopped at the edge of the murky water. Linden ended up beating me to his house, and I parked quickly, rushing up his steps where he waited in the portal.

My hair was damp, and I ran my fingers through it in annoyance. Linden closed the door behind me and vigorously ruffled his hair.

“All right, safe,” he said, looking a little triumphant. “Come on, it’s all upstairs.”

He didn’t pause a minute, but went straight up, taking the steps two at a time. I followed, a little more slowly. He waited for me in the hall, paused in front of a closed door.

“Just as a fair warning, it’s probably pretty cold up here,” he said.

“Okay,” I replied, confused.

When he opened the door, it didn’t reveal one of the vacant bedrooms as I expected. Instead there were only stairs, bare and worn unlike the rest of the house. Linden started up first, then me. I noticed it was getting colder as we went up, and at the final stair I was beginning to shiver and I realized we’d walked into the attic. It was darker here, the only gray light coming from a single window at the far end of the room. There were piles of boxes and items covered with dusty sheets. Linden carefully moved between everything towards the single window. I walked through the tiny walkway, the floorboards shifting and sinking slightly underfoot. Ahead, Linden sat on an ancient bench, looking through the box in front of him. I stood next to him, waiting and wondering what this was all about.

“Here, sit down,” he said, briefly patting the worn cushion. Gripping my arms for warmth, I sat next to him and watched as he pulled out a thick book covered with worn green suede.

“I finally found this last night,” he said, brushing some of the dust off. “It’s my uncle’s photo album. Well, one of them.”

He gestured to the box, which was full of smaller albums. I nodded, clenching my teeth to keep them from chattering. He opened the cover and tilted the album towards me.

“This is him, Rhys, my uncle,” Linden started, pointing to the first black and white photo. I admit, I was surprised to see the very normal-looking man standing on a small wooden bridge. He looked vaguely like Linden; I think it was the almond-shaped eyes they shared.

“How old was he?” I asked, noticing the clothes he wore. I wasn’t sure how many people still wore this style of tweed suit anymore.

“He’s twenty-five here,” he replied, turning the page. He passed by other pictures in sepia tones. Some were of Rhys in front of different homes, posing on a high mountain, and other ones of foreign scenery. One in particular caught my eye, and I stopped Linden before he could turn the page.

“Who’s that?” I asked. I pointed to a woman sitting beside Rhys in a living room that could have been the one in this house.

“Oh, that’s my mother,” he said, seeming slightly uncomfortable. “She used to visit every Christmas.”

Before he could turn the page, I got a short look at her dress in the picture. It looked really old-fashioned, almost 1920’s-esque.

Linden explained some of the photos featured his uncle’s other homes located around the country and some in Europe. He was an avid traveler, and his mother sometimes joined him.

He was trying to pass through a few pages quickly, but I stopped him when I saw something interesting.