Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FOUR - PART TWO

Here we go. Cheers!

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Something fell off from the very moment Grace opened her eyes that day. As if she knew, deep down that something would happen and neither of them would like it. It was this nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. The strange urge to run, which she considered for a moment might be about her marriage, but then she looked over at the man resting next to her and was unbothered by it. Which wasn't an ideal thing to feel towards one's newlywed husband, but it was better than the threat she did feel in the pit of her stomach for some reason.

Yesterday she had tied the knot. A fitting expression. She was holding the knotted noose in her hand already, suspiciously eyeing every tree she was passing. The urge to come closer just as strong as the urge to stay away which had her in a strange limbo of stumbling a step forward, a step back. A dance of uncertainty and doubt. But why? What was so wrong about going for the safe option. Of wanting the security, a man like Beau Simpson could give her. Grace would learn to live with her decision, it was too late to run now anyways. She wasn't a coward, she honoured her word.

Beau had told her that he was a loyal man and that he sticked, even when things would get difficult, and Grace was one to stick around too. Far too stubborn to give up, but also far too stubborn to admit that she might have made a mistake in marrying Beau. She would learn to live with her mistakes. She owned Beau that much, she owned him the same amount of loyalty he showed her.

They were equals in their marriage and Grace won't sabotage a perfectly good thing she would benefit from for years to come, just because her heart was crying out for another man. A marriage was an economic prospect, something that had value in society, not a matter of the heart. Not in their world and this was the best deal she could have ever landed.

It was good, very good actually, but it wasn't right. Only did that matter little, Grace had the rest of her life, or more realistic, the rest of her husband's life to make it at least seem right. And Sarah Grace Kazansky never refused to face a challenge.

Grace was about to turn around, face her husband and close her eyes to sleep for a while longer, but then there was this strange feeling in the pit of her stomach again, rising up her throat, making her feel as if she had to puke. This was a feeling she needed to investigate, which had her climb out of bed, before moving over to the window, looking out through the glass front. It did have perks to be an Admiral's wife and if it was only the view from his almost luxurious living quarters whenever they were in Guam, so be it. Grace couldn't be troubled by it. She was troubled a lot more by other things.

It was no secret that Grace wasn't a fan of ships or the ocean, even her husband knew that much, which is why he had been so infuriating apologising about having received orders to board the Baltimore, his wife with him of course, once they would return from their honeymoon, even though Grace wasn't sure who it exactly was that found pulling these strings necessary. She would have done well in Guam on her own as well, Grace was a highly decorated Commander, not that she could tell Cyclone that.

Grace was sure he knew though. Which had resulted in him dancing around the topic of making Grace drop everything she was doing to follow him, as the dutiful wife she was meant to be. It had Grace biting the inside of her cheek for a while, but she did accept it in the end. She knew what she was getting herself into as she married Beau Simpson, he on the other hand had not even the slightest suspicion of what being married to her would contain.

She almost felt sorry for him. He was the lamb that was offered to the big bad wolf after all and all Cy did was look at her with his big brown eyes, which somehow were still just so wrong as she looked at them and offer his belly to her as if he wanted her to eat him alive.