Through the Darkness: Of Love and Loss Series Book One

31

Upon returning to DC, they spent their days packing up Elyria's belongings and shipping them ahead to Idaho, visiting and sharing meals with Daphne and her family, and taking walks to Elyria's favorite spot in the park if time permitted.

When the day arrived for their departure, Everett found himself fighting back tears while Daphne and Elyria hugged farewell.

He had dreaded this day, this moment, from the instant he'd awoken that morning and couldn't help but feel guilty for ripping her away from her home. The train whistled, and the conductor hollered for the passengers to board, prompting the two women to break their tearful embrace.

Daphne wiped the moisture from Elyria's cheeks and sniffled. "We'll write and visit as often as possible."

Elyria nodded and stepped away. "I love you."

"I love you too," Daphne called out behind them while Everett helped Elyria onto the train. "I'm going to miss you dreadfully."

They entered the passenger car with a wave goodbye and found their seats just as the train lurched into motion. Then they sat in relative silence for the first hour before Elyria removed her hat and rested against his right shoulder. "Everett?"

"Yes, love?"

She sighed and wrapped an arm across the front of his waist. "You've been so quiet I thought you might have fallen asleep."

He turned and kissed the top of her head. "I've just been thinking."

"Me too... what about?"

"Oh," he murmured, with a slight shrug of his shoulders, "just rambling thoughts for the most part—how I hope you'll grow to love our home, and if you don't, will you resent me for taking you away—"

She clapped a hand over his mouth before he could say more. "I knew from the moment I told you I loved you that there'd be changes in my life, some I may not even like at first, but I will never resent you."

"You may change your mind."

"I will gladly spend my life anywhere provided I get to be with you." She settled back against him and let out a contented sigh. "Even if someone tried to tell me Malad is the ugliest valley in the world, I will never believe it. The description you wrote is what I see, and to me, it is a veritable paradise."

He leaned against the cushioned headrest and stretched out his sore leg. "What were you thinking about?"

She hid her face against his sleeve and giggled. "I knew you were going to ask me that." Tipping her face up to meet him, she smiled. "Now that we're married, do you think Marcus will miss your nightly visits?"

A bark of laughter escaped him. "He mentioned those?"

"He said they were the reason he bought you the train ticket."

"I knew he had an ulterior motive," Everett chuckled. "And to think I actually believed him when he said he couldn't bear to see my heartsore face anymore."

"That's probably true, just not the reason behind it."

Everett laughed and shook his head. "Would we still have ended up right where we are—I wonder?"

"If you hadn't left, you mean?"

He nodded. "I would have been home when you arrived, possibly even watched you walk up the path and wondered who the beautiful redhead was on my doorstep."

She brushed her thumb across the back of his hand. "Would you have been surprised to see me?"

Everett closed his eyes and let the picture form in his mind. "Without a doubt, but no more so than when I first saw you that night at the train station." He smiled, his voice lowering to a hushed whisper, "I heard the tap tap tap of your walking stick, and when I turned and found you to be its source, my world shifted and righted itself. I couldn't believe it."

"I'm not what you'd pictured?"

He turned and looked at her. "Not even close. What I envisioned you to be is a pale shadow to the reality of you. You are beautiful in every sense of the word."

A pretty blush warmed her cheeks and then bloomed to encompass her entire face and the expanse of bosom above her neckline. "Thank you, I've heard that I favor my mother."

"You don't like compliments, I take it?" He teased with a gentle kiss on her brow.

She shook her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her right ear. "It's one thing to be praised on a neat row of stitches I've sewn and quite another to be flattered on something completely out of my control and owed entirely to my parents."

"Well, in that regard, you and I are alike."

Elyria pulled away and grinned. "You mean to say you get complimented on your looks? Daphne told me you were handsome underneath your bandages, but I never—is it more awkward for a man than it is for a woman?"

"To be told they're beautiful, do you mean?"

She nodded and adjusted her position so she could cradle his face in her hands. Silence hung in the air between them. She removed his spectacles and placed them in her lap, then brushed her fingers over the ridges of his cheeks, nose, and eyebrows in the same way she'd done before.

Only this time, her movements were slow and measured—he assumed to allow herself a moment to fully bring his image to mind.

"I don't get anywhere near the number of compliments I did before the war, and it's quite pricked my vanity. Do you think it's my new scars or my spectacles at fault?" he murmured, finding it difficult to focus on anything other than the desire to kiss her.

Her lips bent in a smile that hit him straight in his gut. "You don't sound too worried about it if it is."

He tightened his hold on her waist and leaned forward. "It wouldn't matter if everyone thought me to be a hideous, one-eyed ogre now, so long as you loved me."

Threading her fingers through the hair near his left temple, she cupped his jaw in her palm and pressed a tender kiss to his lips. "We make a fine pair, don't we?"

He nodded and kissed her again before pulling slightly away. "A blind beauty and her hideous ogre."

"No," she whispered with a smile. "Pegleg and her Captain Rattlesnake, whom she loves and adores beyond measure."