Eva's Sins.

LXV

„An aching heart doesn't tell anyone what it feels if its dear are in danger"

  The cold of that cloudy day made him feel even chillier than he'd been before, despite the fact that the horse he was riding was soaking wet because of the mad gallop, for Brian was spurring him all the time just to clear his mind. But neither the gallop along that huge field nor the wind that was being felt so harsh on his face could cool his soul. Per contra: he felt his mad heart acting up in his chest while his mind was somehow benumbed and this made the top of his head hurt him so much.

  And he stopped: feeling that the horse, on whose back he was, lacked already powers. Actually, the exhausted one was Brian, who felt the necessity to stop the horse due to the headache that became even more painful with each past second. Then, when the horse stopped and started to powerfully snuffle from his nostrils in the attempt of regaining powers and normal breath, Brian also shuddered along with the horse which suddenly shook his body to calm down his skin that chilled right down his spine because of the contrast between the cold of the air and the heat of his body after that mad run, and that weird sensation as if thousands and thousands of needles were piercing his body, started to hover around him like a clever and sly cat that lurks on the mouse which has considered himself enough clever and which tried to eat the cheese, left in the corner of the room, like a bait.

  Actually, Brian felt the same: as being in someone's trap. Of someone's, but he wasn't aware of whose, and he started to feel this since he had first met count Shark for the first time. And, that day, when Bardain told him that he again feels the danger sneaking around him and that it'll be better for Brian and Eva to leave the country, at least for a while, that feeling of fear and anxiety came back to him, so powerful that made him feel breathless.

  That's why he went to the stables: to try to run away from the world, to escape reality, the one from his mind, and to chase away the fear that snuck in his soul, a fear that was only making him feel vulnerable, weak, incapable of controlling his emotions.

  Suddenly, he winced: „wait a minute! If Bardain came here and then went to London, it means that he'll be back to Image late at night, at the earliest, or tomorrow at dawn. Then... what about Eva? Has she been left completely alone?" And Brian again shuddered and watched back, at the place wherefrom he came galloping.

  Then, as if feeling the danger hardly blowing down his neck, he jumped again on the horse's back, off whose back he descended for a short period of time to allow the animal normally breathe, without a heavy burden on his back, and, spurring him, Brian started to gallop back, to the count Shark's castle.

  But, halfway, he changed his mind to turn back to Shelby Storm's castle, and he turned left at the same crossroad where Colby lost track of Bardain, for the first time. Then, he galloped like the wind through the forest and crossed the fields in the same gallop, till he got to Image.

  It was already dusk when he got to the village and a cold rain started already to sift from some patchy clouds, gathered over Image. But Brian didn't care that he'll wet his clothes or that his horse, heated after the mad gallop till there, will die. What really scared him was that something could happen to Eva, and this was somehow making his heart stop in his chest, from time to time.

  And when he got in front of the Stonebridges'house, he jumped off the horse's back right away and rushed to enter the house, calling Eva's name.

  Behind him instead, the black horse kneeled down, looking for comfort from the cold soil wet with rain and also imbued with the pain of the sky while bitter tears, sifted from the sky, were jumping on the animal's heated and sweated back that felt that he lacks powers to stand up and to look for salvation into a warm stable.