Page 81 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
“Never.”
I didn’t want to ask if he was in love now.
“Can we take a walk around your garden? I need some fresh air.”
I didn’t. I needed to halt the conversation in its tracks.
“Good diversion. Yes, come on.”
I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders. “I have no shoes on.”
“So? Neither have I.”
He slid from the stool and held out his hand to me.We linked our fingers, and it reminded me that was a fairly intimate thing to do. We weren’t justholding hands.
“Who looks after all this?” I said, as we walked through the French doors and out onto a large patio. There was a large lawn and beyond that, the woods.
“I have a gardener. An old guy and his grandson come every week. This is beyond my capabilities.”
“Finally, something you can’t do,” I said, laughing.
“I know. It kills me, of course, but I can’t be perfect at everything.”
We walked down some steps to the lawn. It was perfectly mown with stripes, very regimental. There were trees lining both sides.
“How far does it go?” I asked, looking down to the wooded area.
“I have something like twelve acres. I rent some of it to a girl for her horses. They’re over there.” He pointed to his right. “Tomorrow, I’m going to take you into the woods.”
I shuddered. “Me and woods don’t get on,” I said, laughing.
“So you’ve said. All the more reason to walk through it with me.”
“I’ve always been a little afraid of the dark,” I said, as we came to a standstill.
“Sit,” he said. He sat on the grass first and pulled meto his lap. “There is nothing to be afraid of once you know what’s there.”
“When you were a child, what about the monsters?”
“My monsters were all real, Ruby. No one under my bed. No one in my closet. They lived in the same house. They presented themselves as honest men who loved the children they cared for.” The spite in his voice chilled me.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I don’t want you to remember the past.”
“I like to remember the past. It keeps me focussed on what I want from life. I still have sins to perform, Ruby.”
He fell silent and I felt his breath on the back of my neck. I should have been scared. I wasn’t. I should have run from him a long time ago. I didn’t want to. There wasn’t anything he could tell me that would make me want to leave him. When he left me, he’d break me, I knew that. But I was willing to stay put until that day happened. I just hoped I’d cope with the pain.
“There is one more, Ruby. One more who must pay. I’ve been searching for him for a long time, but now I know where he is. How will you feel about me, then?”
His words were quiet, but I heard every word. They chilled me to the bone.
“Are you telling me you intend to do what you did before?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed hard. His arms around me tightened.
“I guess I’ll have to figure that out when the time comes.”
