Veiled (30 page)

“
Why are you haunting me?
Leave me alone!” Estelle was at the point of tears
again.

“
We are not trying to
haunt you, Estelle,” Alex stepped forward just an inch and Estelle
began her pot waving as a means of exorcism.

“
Estelle I’m an angel,
Henry’s Guardian Angel, in fact.”

Estelle looked puzzled and
shot a quizzical glance in my direction, and then she let out a
bitter laugh.

“
You are his guardian
angels, boy you two must be really bad.” She laughed some more.
“Interesting too, how he gets two angels to protect him and I…get
none.” Her eyes glistened and I could tell she was fighting back
the tears, not of fear now, but anger.

“
You are wrong, Estelle, I
was sent to you. I am
your
angel.”

She turned her head to me
and squinted, trying to get a better look.

“
And I’ve been trying to
get Henry to make better choices, but he won’t listen,” Alex said,
in an attempt to redeem his reputation as a Guardian
Angel.

“
Yes, I’ve heard you,”
Estelle said. Her voice was strained from fear and disbelief at the
fact that she was having a conversation with two angels.

The moon shone through the
open window and Estelle’s face seemed paler than ever, her frame
was so slender and fragile-looking in the moonlight, that she
looked more like a spirit than we did.

“
She is with child, she
must be saved. Time is of the essence. Tell her to leave
now.”
The instructions from the Eternals
came through the link.

Alex and I exchanged looks,
Estelle shivered, and she leaned back on the wooden table and
gripped the edge of it so tightly that her fingertips turned
white.

“
What was that?” she
shivered again.

“
You heard that?” I asked
amazed.

“
Heard? No…I
felt…something.” Her eyes were welling up with tears, one spilled
over and ran down her pale cheek.

“
You need to leave him
Estelle,” I told her. Alex nodded.

“
I can’t.”

“
You must!” Alex said with
intensity. “If not for you…”

She looked at him and
narrowed her eyes. “If not for me, then for who?” she
demanded.

“
For the three of you,” I
said, and she turned her gaze on me. “We know you love Henry and
don’t want to live without him, but he is bound to do something he
will regret forever. And you have to think of your own good and
safety.”

“
And who else? You said
three,” she said, her voice shaky with fear of hearing what we were
about to tell her.

“
Your son,” Alex told
her.

I looked at him with
surprise, how did he know it was going to be a son? The Eternals
had said
child
.

Alex approached Estelle
slowly and looked intently into her eyes. “You must find strength
and leave at once. Time is of the essence.”

“
Yes,” I seconded. “You
are stronger than you think, Estelle. You will be watched over and
protected.” I promised this, all the while secretly hoping that the
Eternals would make good on that promise.

Estelle’s face was now
covered in tears. She looked from me to Alex trying to let the
information sink in.

“
OK,” her shaky voice
said. “I will leave, but I have nowhere to go.”

“
She will be taken care of,
but she must leave now,”
the Eternals
assured.

We relayed the message and
she nodded, then straightened up and walked out of the cabin taking
nothing with her. We followed her, not knowing exactly what would
happen to her next, yet she walked and walked on her bare feet with
two angels in tow. Once in a while she turned and looked for us,
and once reassured that we were still there, and not a dream that
she had conjured up, she kept walking.

“
I’m tired,” she said, the
fatigue obvious in her voice. “Where exactly am I
going?”

Neither Alex nor I knew
what the Eternal’s plan for Estelle was, but we told her to be
patient. It seemed that this was a recurring theme in mortal
life—trusting, while walking in darkness—much like Estelle was
doing right now.

The night seemed to stretch
out forever. Never before did I experience such a slow passing of
time. Estelle was showing signs of exhaustion, her feet were
dragging and she kept tripping on roots and rocks.

“
I can’t make it!” she
exclaimed with a sob. Alex was at her side in an instant. He tried
to help her up, Estelle stretched her hand to him, but their
substance was incompatible and neither one made contact. This
seemed to be the last straw for her and she started to
weep.

Alex looked at me, clearly
worried for Estelle’s well-being, but there was something more. He
had feelings for her that were not there before our encounter with
her. I tried to get into his mind to understand what these feelings
were, but for some reason I was being shut out. He was keeping me
out!

I felt a stab of irritation
at this. Why wouldn’t he want me to know what he was thinking? All
of a sudden I looked at Estelle and no longer did I see the frail
little creature that I had seen just a moment ago and, much to my
own vexation that old gnawing jealousy flashed back.

“
Alex?” I peered into his
eyes.

“
Not now, Tess!” His eyes
shone in the moonlight, they were filled with concern. I looked at
his aura and it showed concern as well, but nothing more. This put
me at ease somehow, so I took a step back. Alex was trying to
soothe her, and was succeeding somewhat. Estelle got on her feet
and started walking again.

From somewhere in the
shadows I sensed another presence. I didn’t want to alarm Estelle,
but I couldn’t get into Alex’s head to explain myself so I stayed
back and then disappeared into the woods to go check it
out.

The shadowy woods looked
menacing even for someone like me who shouldn’t fear death or harm
of any kind. A low cloud clung close to the ground and the
moonlight shone weakly through the tree tops. I kept moving through
the forest trying to pinpoint the presence that I was sensing, but
it seemed to be moving.

I stood still and focused
once more. Off to my right I felt a faint whimper, I turned toward
the sound and I heard someone start. I could sense their fear so
keenly that I almost felt the same fear myself. I tried to focus my
eyes in the darkness, and there in one little heap sat a small
child, crying very quietly.

I got closer, and the child
seemed to freeze. He was afraid of me—he too could see
me.

“
Don’t worry, I am an
Angel, I won’t hurt you,” I told him.

He had wrapped his arms
around his knees, and he slowly peered at me from above
them.

“
I don’t believe in
ghosts!” he said firmly.

“
I told you I am an Angel,
not a ghost, and whether you believe in me or not is irrelevant
because I exist regardless.”

My belligerent tone seemed
to put him at ease, so he lifted his head and looked at me straight
in the eyes.

“
You are pretty,” he
commented, getting over his fear.

I smiled and crouched so I
could be level with him. “What are you doing here all alone in the
middle of the night?”

“
I ran away from home!” he
said, his stubborn streak showing on his freckled face.

“
Why?”

“
Because…they work me to
death there.” He motioned with his head.

“
Where?”

“
At home, they give me too
many chores,” he said, unconvinced now of his own logic.

“
It seems like it’s either
working to death or starving to death, for you now.”

He smirked and kicked a
pebble at his feet. It went right through me and his face lit up
with excitement at the spectacle.

“
Wow, you really are a
ghost! Sorry I said I didn’t believe in you.”

“
What’s your name?” I
asked him, trying to suppress a laugh.

“
Jonas.”

“
OK, Jonas, follow me,
there is someone I want you to meet. She will take you home,” I
said, and I got exited at the thought that perhaps this lost little
boy was somehow Estelle’s saving grace.

On the way back to the
road, Jonas asked me a million questions, but never waited long
enough to get an answer. Once we were back on the road, I found
Alex looking anxious and worried.

“
Where have you been?” His
eyes were shifting from me to Jonas.

“
I sensed him,” I said
defensively.

“
Oh, I…” He looked down at
his feet remorsefully.

“
Wow! How many angels are
there?” Jonas eyes were wide open with amazement at his luck, not
just from finding one angel but possibly a whole bunch of
them.

“
Just two, Jonas, the
third person is a very nice lady whom we are helping out,” I
explained.

“
Are you sure? She looks
like an angel too.” Jonas moved toward Estelle as if he were under
some sort of spell.

Estelle rested her head
against the trunk of a tree with her eyes closed. She looked
beautiful in the moonlight, her porcelain skin shone almost as much
as ours did, her auburn hair glimmered in the moon light. Jonas’s
approaching footsteps woke her up and she fluttered her eyelashes a
few times to get her eyes focused. Then she squinted to make sure
her eyes were not deceiving her.

“
Who are you?” she asked
with her sweet soft voice.

“
Jonas, who are
you?”

“
Estelle.”

A big smile crossed his
face. “Your name means Star.” Then he turned bright red all the way
up to his ears.

“
And how did you know
that?”

“
My mom and dad are opera
singers, they sometimes sing to me a song about a star,” he said
with a crooked smile.

“
And why aren’t you with
your mother now?” Estelle inquired.

Jonas explained his sad
tale to Estelle, who upon hearing it to the end, resolved to take
him home. She had a way with children, especially this one, who
seemed to be a handful. As they made their way up the path, she not
only was able to win his heart, but his complete trust and
devotion.

My plan seemed to be
working well so far.

“
Alex, I’m going to fly
ahead and look for the boy’s parents, I’m sure they are out looking
for him and I intend for them to reward Estelle for her kindness
with a ticket out of town.”

“
Good idea,” said Alex,
somewhat distracted.

About two miles down the
road I saw a woman on horseback and a man on foot, holding a
lantern and looking weary. I flew to the woman on the horse, who
unmistakably was Jonas’s mother. The road was coming to a fork and
the two of them were debating which way to go.

“
This way!” I insisted.
“Jonas is safe, please come this way”

The man holding the lantern
stopped and looked as if he were listening.

“
Monique, I have a feeling
we should go this way.”

The woman exhaled. “Let’s
hope this is another one of your hunches!” she said turning her
horse. They resumed their calling for Jonas and were soon rewarded
with a response.

“
Poppa, Mamma!”

Once the horse was in view,
the boy ran up to them.

“
Jonas, you silly boy!
What exactly were you trying to prove?” the father scolded, more
relieved than mad.

Jonas looked down and
rehearsed back the polished apology that Estelle had been
practicing with him.

The father raised one
eyebrow at the uncharacteristic good manners coming from his son.
Then his eyes fell on Estelle, who stood motionless down the path.
Her feet were bare, and bleeding.

The woman got down from the
horse, and ran to her son, wrapping her arms around him and kissing
him all over.

“
Oh dear, silly boy!” she
repeated over and over, while Jonas scrunched his freckled
nose.

The man looked at Estelle,
and she looked down embarrassed by her appearance.

“
You must be the one
responsible for finding him…and coaching him?” the man said with a
rueful smile, so much like Jonas that it was almost
comical.

“
I am, sir. I found him,
or rather, he found me up the lane.”

The man looked down at her
feet and some of the bruises on her arms and bit his lower
lip.

“
May we be of some
assistance to you, since you have been such a help to
us?”

“
I...I…” Estelle
shrugged.

Jonas’s mom looked up from
her child and surveyed Estelle for a moment.

“
Arthur, she looks tired
to me, perhaps she can come home with us tonight then we’ll sort
this whole thing out tomorrow.”