Page 62 of The Masked Baron
Ellis whispered back, “Describe her to me.”
“She has lighter coloring and is very slender.”
“Eliana!” he whispered fiercely. He did not move but said again, “Describe her!”
“She is too far away for me to ascertain any other details, and it is growing dark.”
“I must go to her!”
Andalin didn’t have sufficient strength to hold Ellis back, but with all her might she clung to him. “No, you will scare her and lose her in the cover of the coming darkness. Let us announce loudly that we will return tomorrow. I will watch to see which way she leaves. Then, tomorrow, she might come again, and we can follow her in the light of day.”
“This is against my better judgment,” Ellis whispered, his breath coming in short spurts. Andalin kissed the leather that covered the top of his cheek. She felt him swallow hard, and then he pulled her back to him. All the while she kept her eyes glued on the woman.
“Tomorrow,” Ellis announced loudly, “we will come back one last time before the weather and chance of snow make it impossible to do so.”
Andalin smiled widely and as sincerely as possible under the duress of the moment. “How utterly marvelous!”
Ellis reached past her and walked Ginger around so the horse was facing the opposite direction and Andalin could mount without breaking her view of their guest. Ellis helped her up and then mounted his stallion.
Andalin hadn’t been on the horse for more than a moment when the woman slipped from her sight and disappeared around the other side of the rock wall.
Andalin turned Ginger and pulled her up against the great black horse. “She went behind the rock,” Andalin whispered.
Ellis was unsettled and edgy. “Can you make it back without me?”
“I think so. I take the stream to the edge of the forest and then follow the tree line back to the house.”
Ellis reached his hand out and wrapped it tightly around hers. “Do I dare leave you and search? I can’t risk losing you too.”
Andalin gave him a half smile. “What would anyone want with me? Go. I will be well.”
Ellis ran his hand through his hair. “No, I have waited this long. You are thinking more clearly than I am about this. I will wait so I have less of a chance at losing her. If I scare her now, I might lose all hope.” Andalin’s eyes mirrored the sadness she saw in Ellis. “And I do not want you to be alone. I have wreaked enough havoc inside of you today to give me cause to repent for the next ten years.”
Andalin smiled shyly. “At first, yes. But then you managed to make up for it.”
The profound sadness in Ellis’s eyes softened, though he did not smile any longer. “Come, let’s get home. When we get to the tree line, can you run Ginger?”
“Yes, I think so,” Andalin said, though she wasn’t sure how long she could hold on for.
They started back, weaving their way through the forest along the stream’s edge. Once they reached the tree line, Ginger easily followed the stallion’s fast gait. After a wild and hard ride, they were finally home.
Ellis disappeared to go over his map and make plans for the following day. Andalin wanted to race down to the kitchen and speak with the others, but she did not know if Ellis would appreciate it. Instead she retired to her room and wrote Papa another letter.
***
Ellis could not fall asleep. Despite all his frailties of character, Annie loved him. He had wanted it to be so and thought he had imagined the signs several times. She was too wonderful, too good. But it was not just an elusive hope now; it was true. And equally wonderful, he was close to being reunited with his sister.
If it hadn’t been for Annie, he would not have been at the waterfall at all. Between basking in his newfound relationship with her and the near discovery of his beloved Eliana, sleep eluded him.
He got up and composed a letter. He marked it urgent. Then he spent a good hour reading verses of scripture to calm his troubled mind. When that didn’t knock him out, he tossed and turned while plotting ideas and dreaming about kissing Annie again.
When dawn inevitably arrived, Ellis woke with a start. It was a wonder he had succumbed to slumber at all, and a needed blessing. Today he required his wits about him.
Ellis dressed quickly, donning his mask for what he hoped was the last time. He thought about the locked doors in his secluded wing of the house. Should he have Mrs. Lewis and Hannah air them out? Would Eliana be sleeping there tonight? They had once been like two halves of the same person. They could read each other’s thoughts and sense each other’s presence. They had been as close as any brother and sister could have been.
Ellis reached for the jacket he had laid on the back of his desk chair the night before. His eye caught on Eliana’s journal. It had been more revealing than he had expected. Instead of rejoicing in the lost part of his sister, it had brought him guilt and self-revelation. They had been close siblings, but the last year or so before Eliana disappeared, their relationship had changed. He had been in denial about it until he read her words.
He should have known she was upset. Mother had sent him to school that year, and when he had returned on summer holiday, she had done nothing but praise his efforts and stature. He had been worse, constantly bragging about his adventures with Kerrigan and his other schoolmates. And then there was Katrina; she had captured his attentions, and poor Eliana must have felt like she had been cast aside from everyone’s notice.
