Queen of Hearts

A Part Of Us

Rob's POV

When I stumbled out of the forest, day was dawning. I couldn't go back to the house yet; couldn't face my wife right now, especially as she'd be as angry as a bull who had its tail pulled by Joan if I didn't have a reasonable excuse. I do not think she would believe I was running with ghosts all night. 

Although...judging from the past...

I didn't realise tears were falling from my eyes until I saw them in the locksmith's windows. I looked rough-tousled hair, pale skin, rugged breathing and puffy eyes. To only have a day to choose whether to give my wife, who had been on the run from the supernatural, up to the spirits, or to go down with my hands up and allow her to live without the one she loved all because she made a stupid mistake in courting a lowlife piece of scum in her twenties. Shut up, Rob. None of this is her fault, I scolded myself. I berated myself for even thinking I had a choice. I meant it when I told Florence I would die for her if it ever came to it. Of course I'm the one who will burn at the stake.

Florence's POV

I pulled weeds with shaking hands. I herded horses with stumbling legs. I spoke with not anger, but worry in my voice. Rob had better come back.

"Florence! Calm down!" Chris yelled behind me. I turned around and realised I'd shovelled horse shit right onto his chest from aggressively throwing the shovel over my shoulder again and again. I broke a smile.
"Well at least you're smiling. Look, he'll be back soon. He's probably looking for a place for you guys to live," Chris tried to reassure me. 
"No. He knows I love it here," I said bluntly.
Chris carefully took his shirt off, not letting the horse manure touch his skin. I hugged the fact that Rob had better stomach muscles than him. "Okay, maybe he just went for a walk. Living in a cottage with as many people as we do must get on his nerves sometimes."
"He likes company."
Stuck with nothing else to say, Chris shrugged and leaned on the fence post. Mark came jogging down to us.
"Flo, Anita wants you," he said breathlessly. He did a double-take at Chris. "You smell like a stable."
"Thanks mate," Chris said, clapping him on the back.
"No worries. Anita said it's urgent," Mark directed the last sentence at me. I let the shovel fall to the ground and sprinted up the field to the house, my hair flying behind me. I burst through the door and saw Anita sitting hunched at the kitchen table.

"What's the matter? Where's Joan?" I said.
"Playing with the lambs. Come here darling," Anita said in a low voice. She held a piece of paper in her pale hands. I sat next to her and took it. In Rob's scrawly writing that said he'd had education but never made something of it, I read:

Seven years ago, we left all our love and longing behind.

Seven years later, they know that we're hiding, and there's a part of us that they have now reached.

I'm sorry.

I knew what he meant before my eyes reached the last two words. In other, normal cases, the girl receiving this letter would pull pillars down while calling for her mother because her husband had gotten bored of her and reignited the flames of his old love and left her. Oh, how I wish this was the case. But Rob specifically mentioned the time: seven years.

I slid from the chair onto my knees, sobbing. The past was catching up with us. I knew someone had stirred something and that we were now in danger again. But what exactly had happened? Does someone know where I am? Or...or has Rob...

No. Rob would never betray me. He would never tell the wrong people-in other words, anyone from Salem-where I was. I said this in choking sobs to Anita, who kneeled in front of me and pushed my hair from my face, whispering condolences. Poor, innocent Anita. She only understood the last part of the letter, that my husband had to apologise for something stupid he'd done. She did not understand that Witch Hunters could possibly be at the front door within minutes to take me away, never to return. I composed myself, took a deep breath, and gazed into Anita's beautiful, motherly, caring eyes.

"I have to leave," I said in a hushed voice. 
"What? What does the note mean?"
I swallowed. "I don't know for sure. But it may mean Rob's told somebody where I am-somebody he shouldn't have-and they could...I could...they could get me. I'm a prisoner of the Salem authorities. I'm supposed to be dead!"

Anita started crying then. "Where will you go?"
"Anita-please look after Joan. Tell her about me and what I did, but let her know that she isn't a witch. Let her know her soul is as pure as they come."
Anita looked slightly confused.
"If a woman named Grace comes here and says she knows me, she does. Let her in. Talk to her."
"Florence, what...where...?"
My answer shocked her to high heaven. "Back to Salem. That's where Rob is. I know he is. And there's a few things I have to do."

Number one: Let Grace and JJ know I was alive all this time.
Number two: Let Salem know I was alive all this time.
Number three: Surrender to the fire.