Old Habits Die Hard.

Chapter Six.

Gabriel charged out the main doors of Kathryn Sinclair’s grounds and chased after the little boy running wild around the gardens. The sun was not merciful to them as he pulled the tailored jacket off his head and threw it aside onto the grass, and opened a few buttons on his shirt.

He heard the squeals of Kathryn behind him as she came running out behind him and chucked her shoes to the side onto the grass and joining in. Her dress flew up behind her like a cloud, and her necklace bounced against her chest across her bare shoulders and neck. Her red hair swirled around her shoulders like a dancing fire as she ran and purposely shoved Gabriel to the side.

He enjoyed moments like these. When Kathryn Sinclair showed the purest of loves for the relationships with people that was innocent and untainted, and he sometimes wished he could have said the same for their own. She charged after the little boy who was yelling and running away from her, laughing. He was her sister’s son, William the 4th.

”Kathryn, that is no way to be acting. It is not like a lady!” Her sister, Sarah, called from sitting at the doorway with her parents holding a cup of tea. Sarah was as blonde as her father and as stern as her mother. She enjoyed chastising her younger sister as much as her mother did, but was much more unforgiving. Gabriel hadn’t remembered the last time he had seen Sarah display a smile, and wondered if it would crack her face if she did after all these years of hiding it.

”Sarah” Kathryn twirled between the large bushes and fountains like a dancing ballerina. “I’m teaching your son how to act like a child, whilst you continue to teach him to act like a man decades older. He isn’t going to war any time soon.”

Gabriel bounded through the garden after Kathryn and William the 4th, and threw Kathryn to the ground. He heard many protests of the female Sinclair’s about the state of the dress Kathryn was in. They chased William the 4th across the grounds and towards the edge of the forest where he screamed in excitement and laughter.

Gabriel laughed to himself at this glimpse of innocence that he had left far behind with the new entanglements and vines of thick black adolescence. He caught the boy first and pulled him through the air. Kathryn had finally caught up where she continued to torturously tickle the boy and the trio fell into a heap on the grass, breathing heavily.

The boy charged off back away from the pair as they lay side by side and watched the clouds slip past the blue skies like passer-by’s.

”What if it hadn’t been a mirage, or a trick of the eye? What if I hadn’t still been dreaming and Christian Wythers-Holt has come back?” Gabriel said breathlessly to her.

He had told her everything he had seen. He always found it necessary, as she’d know something just by the looks of his eyes.

”Enough, Chorley.” She continued to take plentiful gulps of air. “Christian is dead. We surely saw to that.” She whispered, always with an edge of spite to her words.

”We don’t know what happened that night, Kathryn.” He whispered back to her, as if the edge of the woods held ears.

”Gabriel, stop it. Christian is dead. He cannot get to us now. He is food for the worm.” She slid up onto her elbows and stared across at him as he seconded her movement and followed her to stare back. Her eyes would catch him each time he looked at them, glassy and glittery green, but held the thoughts of a darker nature.

”Kathryn. Let’s just be logical or even rhetorical.” He pulled a blade of grass up and began to rip it into strings. “Tess Doverfield was killed several days ago. Tess, who was a friend of ours, was murdered, drained of blood. And I’m very positive I didn’t hallucinate his face outside my home.”