The Way Back Home

Chapter Thirty Seven: Ashes

Her hand reached for him as she kept her perch on the swing. Will took ahold of her hand in both of his own, so much more massive than hers, and pressed her palm to his cheek, his thumb stroking the inside of her wrist.

"Tell me what you're thinking, Emmanuelle." His voice was so patient and gentle; she had never heard a more soothing cadence from a man. "I know you're overwhelmed with what's happened today."

She reached with her own thumb to trace along his sensuous lower lip. How tempted she was to wrestle him to the blossom covered ground and kiss him and pretend all their problems had disappeared. "Yeah, it's a lot for me to take in...what might be in store for me. I don't know how I'll rectify it, but I know that no matter what Erik might do to me..."

A frigid shiver ran up her spine at the thought of seeing that awful excuse of a man again and Will immediately noticed her pulse racing within her wrist as he removed her hand from his cheek.

He inhaled and exhaled a deep sighing growl of a breath, subduing his internal fury at the thought of this villainous tormenter within a mile of Emmy, let alone talking to her or touching her against her will...

"My love, you ought not to offer yourself as a sacrifice to bring him down. Can you not go to your police and tell them what he did to you?" He knelt before her on the ground, cradling both of her fragile hands in his. "Surely he must answer for his crimes."

"It's more complicated than that, Will." She removed one of her hands from his grasp and ran her fingers through his dark brown hair, brushing a few waves off his forehead. "He has wealth and power... He's had time to study my every move over the time since I've met him, so he would be expecting me to do that...even though he's threatened my mother before when I told him I would... I know it sounds crazy, but you need to trust me, my prince. I've handled myself in my era for a long time... And I plan to give him hell the next time he dares to lay a hand on me."

"My darling, please understand. I don't doubt at all your strength and intelligence." Will tenderly interlocked their fingers, taking in the sheer size difference of their hands. All of her small fingers were dwarfed by his that were much longer in length. "If I cannot be there to physically protect you from him, I can at least urge you to proceed with extreme caution. With all that I've seen these last three years... you meet all types of men... and you witness what they're capable of when they set their eyes on something they want. Don't underestimate what he might do when you return back to your time."

He looked up into her beautiful green orbs, his fingertips tracing along the scars on her pinky and ring finger. His eyes briefly closed as his subconscious thrust to the forefront of his mind that horrific vision he had seen from his dream.

His Emmy being chloroformed by the shadowy bastard, smothering her mouth and nose as she struggled and her eyelids closing as she succumbed to the submission of Erik's mercy...

The thought of never seeing her lovely irises shine with life, and her eyes never opening again in this "sleeping death" as the writings on the now burnt picture ominously prophesized...

A broken sob escaped Will as he leaned down, laying his head in her lap in a moment of emotional vulnerability. He tried to hold back his tears from staining her skirt and he felt her fingers stroke his hair in comfort.

"Shh... Will, it'll be okay. Once I make things right back home in 2020, I'll come back to you." She leaned down and placed a kiss on his cheek before he raised his head back up to face her.

"My Emmy... beloved..." He cleared his throat before any further sobs could devastate him, not wanting to seem like a sniveling little boy instead of the hero she deserved who would withstand anything to protect her. "The mere thought of that... that criminal going anywhere near you... I would tear him apart if had the opportunity. That dream I had...back in the train compartment. Tom came to me and showed me... what Erik did to you that night in your home..."