From Shadows to Starlight

Give Me Your Hand

Chapter Eleven

Give my thy hand, oh fairest, whisper a gentle "Yes." Come, if for me thy carest, with joy my life to bless." --La Ci Darem La Mano, Don Giovanni.

Give Me Your Hand

“I…I…I was at supper,” Alana stammered, backing away. Erik realized he’d let too much emotion show in his question, and he had frightened her. But his emotions were hard to hide at the moment. She didn’t know how he had felt when she was gone.

“It is nine o’clock,” Erik said, gesturing dramatically towards the clock on the wall. There was no way that she had been at the restaurant for three hours. He looked at her coldly, expectantly, waiting for her to explain herself. Her face was red, and she appeared very nervous, as she should be.

“I know….” Alana was searching for words. “Oh no…after sunset! And it stopped raining…we’re supposed to have left by now, aren’t we? Oh.” She covered her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry. How could I be so stupid?”

Erik just motioned for her to come in. She obeyed, and he drew the curtain back from the window. It had begun to rain again. “We will still be staying here another day,” he said. “But you have not answered my question. Where were you all this time?” He hadn’t expected her to disappear for so long.

Still nervous, Alana answered, “I was at dinner for quite some time, and then I went for a walk.”

“Alone?” Erik had been afraid of that. When the sun began to set and she still had not returned to her room or his, he had begun to pace the floor, growing more and more distraught by the second, wondering where she was, if she was safe. After all, she had been through so much already. It wasn’t right, what had happened to her and her family. And he wasn’t about to let anything else happen to her ever again. He’d debated whether he should go after her or not, eventually opting to wait a while longer, to see if she would come back on her own. But time passed by, and still she hadn’t returned. He had been about to go search for her when she’d knocked on his door. “Walking the city streets at night alone is dangerous,” he said. There were dangerous people out there who roamed the streets at night. He would know. “You should not have gone.”

“But I didn’t go alone,” Alana said.

Erik was taken aback. Not alone? Who could she have possibly gone with? They didn’t know anyone here in Rouen that he knew of. But maybe Alana did. Suspicion crept into his thoughts. “So you were with someone.” The thought of her walking around the city with a stranger troubled him, even angered him. “Who?”

Alana looked reluctant to talk about it, but she succumbed to his icy glare and said, “Another one of the hotel guests. He joined me as I was finishing my supper, because we were both sitting alone. He was very friendly, and we talked for a while and then he invited me to take a walk with him, and I didn’t think I had anything better to do, so I went with him.”

Didn’t think she had anything better to do? Anger gnawed at Erik’s insides. So, she would rather saunter around Rouen with some overly forward stranger than come back and spend time with him, the person she called her friend?

“I’m sorry,” she looked genuinely apologetic. Good. “You must have been very bored sitting here alone. You know, when I was walking with Damien, that’s his name, I wished that you were there, too. But I didn’t think you would have wanted to come.”

Erik nodded. If she had asked, which she hadn’t anyway, he would have said no. It wouldn’t have been dark enough then. “It’s all right,” he sighed. “You would rather spend your time with someone else. I understand.” He had been a fool to even think that just because she said he was her friend that she would spend all her time with him. She could have a much more enjoyable time with someone, anyone, else.