The Garden's End (MLM)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

                "Shh," Oliver traced down Pip's jaw with his fingers. "I thought it might be you. I didn't dare hope."

                Pip stared. The first thing he noticed was that Oliver smelled of alcohol. Too much of it. The second was that Oliver was looking him over as if assuring himself that Pip was alive and well. Pip lowered Oliver's hand from his mouth, his heart hammering in his chest.

                "You're not . . . angry with me? For embarrassing the family?"

                Oliver looked as if Pip had slapped him. "I . . . no. Pip, I—I had only been making excuses so Helen would not see how worried I truly was. You know that, don't you? That none of it had been real?"

                Pip nodded wordlessly. Oliver faltered and took Pip's face in his hands. "A-Are you feeling better? Can I kiss you?"

                Pip searched his face. There was more he wanted to say to Oliver, to ask him why he hadn't visited, but one glance at his untouched bed and the dark circles around his eyes and his hollow cheeks told him all he wanted to know; Oliver hadn't been sleeping at all.

                His heart swelled. How could he have doubted Oliver's love for him for even a moment? How could he have believed that Oliver didn't care what happened to him? He had clearly been worried out of his mind, wondering whether Pip had gotten any better.

                But why hadn't he come to see me? Pip couldn't help but wonder, and shoved the thought down. How dare he? If he was so willing to believe that Oliver had abandoned him without a thought, then he didn't deserve to be visited.

                He wrapped his arms around Oliver's shoulders and pulled him in, kissing him softly. That turned hungry and desperate too quickly to process, but Pip could only melt into Oliver's embrace.

                "I love you," whispered Oliver against his lips before he took them in his own again. "I love you, Pip, I love you."

                "I know," said Pip and forced himself to pull away. "I love you more, but . . . I—I have to go see Lord Westcott."

                "Stay here," said Oliver. "I've missed you far more than he has."

                Pip grinned and kissed Oliver's lips again. "I cannot. I have to go."

                Oliver held Pip's hand against his lips, sighing into his palm. "You haven't the faintest idea how happy it makes me to see you moving about again."

                "Then you'll come to the forest today?" Pip said eagerly. Oliver hesitated. "Please! I've been so desperate to see the stream again, and I've missed you terribly. Can't you come? For me?"

                Oliver bit his lower lip, thinking, then he grinned and kissed Pip. "Anything for you."

                Pip bounced a bit on his feet, already imagining himself in the cold water, Oliver's warm body pressed against his own. "I love you so much, Oliver," he said, peppering the laughing young master with kisses all over his face.

                "Stop it, or I'll never let you leave," he said, his arms tight around Pip's waist.

                "All right, all right," said Pip, still grinning. "I really have to go now." He kissed Oliver. "Really have to go."

                "All right!" he laughed.

                "Around ten," he said. "That's when I'll be finished in the gardens."