Page 34 of Hansel and Gerhardt
“A chimney.”
Two sets of eyes locked.
Gerhardt slapped the back of his hand against Hansel’s great chest. “Look. It’s directly between us and the tower. We make for it, arrive by nightfall, then ask to shelter for a night or two. Won’t it be nice to sleep indoors?”
“In what doors? You have no idea who or what that is—if it’s even a house chimney!”
“What else would it be?” Gerhardt was back on his knees, clodding sticks together, flinging the cooked meat out of the fire, preparing to leave. “We can offer them some of our boar in exchange for a good night of sleep. Maybe even a bed!”
“We haven’t agreed to this,” said Hansel, automatically making for the carcass, helping to pack up, as though Gerhardt might leave without him if he wasn’t quick enough.
“It’s this or risking death and starvation by spending a week riverside.” Gerhardt paused his preparations to look Hansel in the eye. “Let’s do it, Hansel. Let’s go to that house, let’s go to that tower, and let’s survive.”
Hansel’s squeezing gut screamed at him to stay out of that forest. But Gerhardt’s bright eyes and hopeful smile filledhis heart with the desire to keep him happy. The differing considerations might have warred in his chest, but trumping the lot was the pink of Gerhardt’s cheeks, the ease of his arms, the aspect of a man fed and a part of life, no longer clinging on by his fingernails.
And all things considered, it was only a few days, three at the most, and they’d make it to that tower.
Hansel looked again.
There.
Civilisation.
Where his new life would begin.
Where he would live with Gerhardt, where they’d have their own home. Just the two of them, and money and food. And if he could only convince him his heart was true, maybe more.
“Very well, Gerhardt.”
Gerhardt jumped up excitedly, dropping his sticks as he ran to Hansel. “You won’t regret it!”
Gerhardt pulled up just short, just before he touched him, shoving his hands into his pockets, even as he grinned his success.
Hansel, still on his guard, warned, “If we get in trouble, any trouble at all, we head directly east until we hit the river. And if we get separated for any reason, follow the river to the tower, no matter how long it takes.”
“Yes, yes, Hansel. Let’s get—”
“Swear it to me.” He held out his hand for Gerhardt to shake on it. “Swear you’ll keep your promise. That we’ll go to the city together. That we’ll at least start our lives there together. Whatever happens next.”
Gerhardt grabbed his hand heartily. “I swear it to you, brother.” He looked deep into his eyes a few seconds, and with each one, his exuberance shifted. Morphed into something that stroked along Hansel’s spine like beautiful fingers, that swepthim up, gathering about him a blanket of warmth. As his eyes mellowed, so he lowered his voice and said, “I told you, I won’t leave you for anything. It’s you who has the choice. Not me.”
With that, he leaned forward on his tiptoes, and kissed Hansel’s cheek, but before Hansel could turn his face to catch those lips, he was away, snatching up his bundle of sticks and cooked meat, skipping down the rock, calling over his shoulder, “Catch me if you can, Hansel!”
The Dark, Dark Forest
Hansel couldn’t possibly catch him, and Gerhardt knew it. He had to carry the boar, and Gerhardt hoped he’d remember to bring some fire. He should have done it himself, but he needed to get away.
His heart fluttered, and he felt lighter than he had in all his life. The feeling of Hansel’s hand in his, that little breath he took in when Gerhardt kissed his cheek moments earlier…
Gerhardt had been so close to wrapping a hand around his waist, pulling him in and telling him he had it all wrong. That he adored him, wanted him from that day forward.
But that guilt.
And the strangeness of it all.
Men did fall in love with each other. He knew that from the men who worked in the brothel with his mother.
But men didnotfall in love with their stepbrothers. He may have been little more experienced in the ways of the world than Hansel, but of that, he was sure.
