AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You all right, Treadwell?”
“Sleepy,” I told Will, and then listened to Aleks talk about our timetable and the other teachers who were not there that evening. I didn’t look at him, but instead stared into the fire. Flames danced, causing logs to disintegrate to flickering reds and oranges, black at their core.
“Aye well, abodees looking affa tiret.” I somehow understood from this that Holly knew we were tired. “Come on!” She clapped her hands. “Off to bed with ye.”
Aleks and Simone remained deep in conversation on the sofa as the rest of us got up to go.
The stairs felt harder to climb this second time, and my bedroom seemed less beautiful. The complimentary toiletries in the ensuite bathroom smelled alien and cold. The bed felt that way too, and it was a long time before the door opened. Aware that my attitude was childish, I lay motionless as if asleep, though uncurled my legs a little to accommodate his.
“Stay sleeping,” he whispered.
Aleks’s breathing evened out after a short while, but an age elapsed before I relaxed under the starless black sky.
Chapter 12
Theceilingwindowshowedbright blue. A silver star twinkled in a corner, a remnant of the night before. A smile passed fleetingly across Aleks’s dreaming face. I got out of bed with care, so as not to wake him.
The worn pink granite of the window surrounds felt pleasingly uneven and rough under my fingers. Expansive woodland was visible through the three narrow panes of glass. I stood up on a soft chair to get a better view and gasped at the fairy-tale roofscape that lay below and to the left of the tower. The gable of the great hall rose high to the front, a huge chimney boasted diminutive battlements, and other lower layers of pink castle sprawled out haphazardly in front of me. There were three small turrets, upended cones that had been meticulously finished round and round with ever smaller and smaller lichen-dotted tiles. Tiny mismatched windows blinked in the sun: circles, squares, and one narrow bent rectangle. Sections of roof ended randomly, some with mossy little steps to nowhere; one jutting brick triangle had been shaped to fit the side of a sloping turret. The higgledy-piggledy nature of the scene reminded me of a drawing one of my smaller pupils had given me on my last day of teaching in London.
Enchanting as the rooftop was, my eye was drawn back to the woods. A footpath between trees suggested walks and fresh air and solitary adventure. I wanted to run up the path and started pulling on clothes with that intention.
“What are you doing?” Newly woken and seemingly exasperated, Aleks held up the alarm clock. My explanation didn’t change his expression. “Ah, it will be cold,” he said. “There is mud, rocks, trees, nothing else. Here…” He patted the bed beside him. “Is warm and nice.”
The forest pathway forgotten in an instant, I skipped straight over to him. Delighted to find him naked, I began kissing down the Aleks pathway instead. I loved the feel of the hairs below his belly button and rubbed my cheek against them as I waited for him to stop me, because he always stopped me. Feeling as if my bluff had been called, I smiled back round at him but found his face serious.
“You really want this?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered at once, for it was never actually a bluff, though… I looked down, unsure of where to begin or exactly what to do. Kissing. Kissing was always good.
He kept his eyes shut as I continued my exploration, negating any concerns about the position being unflattering. I revelled in the chance to experiment, and the deeper level of intimacy this development surely indicated. The process that had started with a kiss on a train was ongoing. Being with Aleks was stretching me, propelling me into new and deeply sexual ways of being.
The realisation was profound and a little overwhelming, and then Aleks pulled away and put a stop to everything. For a fleeting second I thought we were moving on to our more usual ways of being together, but he sprang back from me and into unexpected action. A thorough search of trouser pockets took place, and he got back into bed with his phone.
“There is hour before breakfast if you still want to go on your walk,” he said, gesturing in the direction of the windows but not raising his eyes from the small glowing screen.
I stood outside the room feeling the chill of the stone step, despite my boots and socks. I’d pulled on yesterday’s clothes and exited the room as fast as possible. Neither of us had spoken again. But now many questions circled around me. Had I just been dismissed? From my own room? Or found lacking in some way? Had I done something wrong? I had no desire to open the door and ask, so I decided to avoid further analysis of the situation completely. Running was an altogether preferable option, and I hurtled down the spiralling stairs, the sound of my feet echoing off the curved plaster walls.
An abrupt halt was reached when someone stepped out of their room, and I almost knocked both of us down the rest of the stairway.
“Treadwell, you sounded like a herd of elephants. Oh.” Will’s words came to an abrupt stop as he looked at me. “You okay, babe?”
“Going for a walk. There’s a path. I saw a path from the window.”
“I’ll come with you.”
We crept across the entrance hall and suppressed laughter as our hands fumbled with the various locks on the enormous front door. If there was an alarm, it was silent. The gravel outside was loud and crunchy, the grass beyond soft, and we soon located a path between the trees in front of the castle.
“I don’t think this is the one I saw,” I said. “But it’ll do.”
All was quiet among the old knarled trees, an earthy smell adding to the mystical atmosphere of the forest. My fingers brushed soft moss and crispy lichen, and then avoided a wet-looking mushroom. A white owl screeched and flew low over us, causing me to grab Will’s hand in fright. It landed on a high branch and swivelled its head to gaze down. “Wow,” I mouthed, and we continued along the winding path, which in due course led to a small lake. We stood as still and silent as our surroundings for a moment, the water a black mirror, reflecting the half-naked grey trees of autumn. Here and there smatterings of yellow leaves clung on, bright little lights in the gloom, the contrast even more dramatic when replicated in the dark pool.
I crouched to touch the surface of the lake, scooped a handful of cold water up and discovered it to be quite clear. Something moved in my fingers and I shrieked. “An eel or a fish! I think it had legs.”
“Wasn’t an eel or a fish then, was it?” Will hunkered down too, and we stared into the dark depths. “Never seen you with your hair down before,” he said, taking some of it in his fingers. “Soft.”
I reached out and stroked backwards across the top of his head. The short hair sprang back under my hand. “Yours feels just how I always thought it would.” I looked back into the rippled water and saw us sitting, hands out, leaning towards each other—
“Aye.”
