Pinnacle (ONGOING)

Chapter Twenty-Four

     The first few days of recovery were tenderly dealt with. The pain in my wrist was excruciating, and the pain in my head sometimes plagued me so deeply that I couldn't remove from bed for hours. It was a blur of people coming in to visit, Shannon was one of the people I remember in the sea of hazy cousins and neighbors.

     When she came in, she did not coddle me, she did not ask me one hundred questions or bombard me with physical affection. She just stood there, a distance away from me with tears in her eyes. It made my own sting, and my lip trembled. It was something I had not considered on our next meeting, how she would act now that her abuser was free.

     "My dearest friend..." Shannon began, smiling sadly. "Your little hand..."

     I could not imagine how I looked as I'd refused to look in a mirror since the accident. It would break what little resolve I had.

     She still made no move to touch me, and I swallowed my tears, nodding. She knew what it meant to me to be potentially maimed for life. Though the wrist was not malformed, it was unlikely that it would ever be the same.

     "Michael is sniffing around..." Shannon blurted.

     I paled, but I had to admit that I knew it. Ever since word of his escape and his hand in the kidnapping, he had been in my dreams. I felt him in the night, his muddy thoughts debating on what his next move would be.

     "You will never go back to that place, friend." I reassured her. "You are grown now, and capable too. When William sees him next, he will never walk this earth again, not even will he be reborn as a mote of dust." I said quite seriously. "Unless I intervene, then it will be even less time." I smiled.

     She smiled a little in kind, but it was no use. There would be no cure to this feeling but the one.

--

     The wedding had inevitably been put off which was my sorrow as every night I wanted nothing more than to lie in William's arms as we slept and healed.     

     "The school will still be there from now until forever, doe eyes..." William had gently placated, finding me curled up in the bay window of the tearoom with a messy sketch in my lap.

     "I do not care about the school..." I sighed. "I care about _you_. Us. I want to be your wife, William..."

     He knelt beside me and hugged my crunched form.

     "I am going to town to do some business for your father." He said, "Would you like to come with me?"

     "And watch you buy shows for the horses and discuss business with old men with too much money and time on their hands? I do not think so." I teased.

     "Why you little ingrate!" He laughed. "She knows nothing of romance, what are women coming to these days?"

     "Indeed." I replied soberly, "What God cursed you with such a hellion of a wife?" I cracked a smile, quoting Mr. Menzies.

"God knows..." He breathed, face coming towards mine "And thank God he does." 

     Kisses were rare these days, to make matters worse, as the prying eyes of my parents seemed even more hawk-like in my current state.

     "Go, before my doctors see you." I laughed, knowing they had just left for London 10 minutes prior. "And bring me back some chocolate!"

     He executed a very gallant bow, "Yes, ma'am." And was gone.

--

     Afterwards, I continued the attempt to draw with my left hand as my right hand still sat in a sling.