Love Is Won

Part Seventeen

"It's okay," Danny said, unable to think of anything more as he held Adah close to his chest.

He slowly began to rise to his feet, lifting her up in his arms so that he could reposition and sit next to Jessica and Ilse with her in his lap. Danny kissed her temple and scooted closer to Jessica in an attempt to conserve as much heat as possible between them. It was getting colder and the four of them had begun to shiver.

"I don't have a story Mem," Adah said solemnly.

"It's okay," Jessica assured her, echoing Danny's words as she reached to take her granddaughter's hand.

Adah's sobs had tapered off and the four of them sat in silence for a while longer, feeling the cold but numb to its chill. It was only Jack's long moan of despair that punctured the otherwise perfect bubble of silence. The pure, genuine bout of laughter that followed snapped the tension in half and the girls leant down from their perches to pet the sombre Poodle.

"He knows everything, doesn't he Mem?" Ilse giggled.

"He does sweetheart, he gets it," Jessica said, smiling at Danny.

Danny attempted to shape his mouth to form a grin in return but his muscles were heavy and he felt as if he were sinking. The despair he felt for Jessica's granddaughters in relation to their parents' divorce had skyrocketed. He had always held feelings of the sweetest affection for them, but as their short getaway was concluding, he knew for sure that he loved them as if they were his own, which made their grief all the more difficult for him to deal with.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him quietly as the girls fed their stash of dog treats to the whining Poodle.

"Yeah," Danny said. "I just hate seeing them like this, it's so sad."

"I know."

Jessica rested her forehead against his and felt his warm breath on her neck and face.

"Okay, are we ready to go?" she eventually asked.

Adah and Ilse nodded and rose to their feet, allowing Jessica and Danny to stretch their numbing legs out in front of them. Ilse took Jack's lead in one hand and the sleeve of her sister's coat in the other, and sleepily led them back to the cabin.

The walk home seemed to take much longer than their buoyant stroll towards the heart of the woods. Their feet dragged and their eyes drooped; their hot breath steamed in front of them as they trudged on in silence. Danny looked into the darkness and marvelled at how Jessica, Adah and Ilse knew the woods like the backs of their hands. They walked on assuredly, confident with every step they took, while he occasionally tripped over low hanging branches, stubbed his toes on rocks and wandered into brambles. He trekked along behind, craving the warmth of home.

***

Adah and Ilse sat facing one another in the spacious whiteness of the freestanding guest bath. Their slender figures were cradled in the warmth of the water, with the suds of the generously poured bath melt lathering their pale skin.

The older sister tipped her head back as a stream of warm water was poured over her head and shampoo was massaged into her scalp. She squinted up at the ceiling, attempting to keep the water and suds out of her eyes, while simultaneously watching as the light caught the bubbles that drifted lazily above her head.

Ilse had retrieved an old, brightly coloured tube filled with washing up liquid from the back of the bathroom drawer and was delighted to find that it was full. She took a breath in and slowly released it through pursed lips, her cheeks puffing outwards as the air left her mouth and hit the thin seal of washing up liquid that clung to the circular space of the yellow plastic wand she held between her fingers. A strong flow of bubbles spurted out of the other side and up, into the air.