Head in the Clouds

Chapter 9: Feelings

Deidre's felt fear before. She's felt fear many times. Fighting those wolves- terrifying. Fighting the strongest men in Jericho- petrifying, but this... this was a special kind of fear.

This was a fear that started in the pit of your stomach before getting a grip on your heart. This is a fear that reminded you of everything you held dear before letting you know just how easy it is to destroy it. This was the type of fear that made you stand before the person who filled your heart with joy offering you a chance to run away with them while reminding you of everything you could lose.

"What?" She gasped softly. She didn't realize it, but he had taken her hand into his.

"Runaway with me," he repeated.

"You're a coward," he thought to himself, but he didn't mind as much as he should. He was too busy focusing on Deidre's face to care about his self-serving actions, "Well, maybe now we can be together."

Deidre's mind was going a thousand miles per minute. It's hard to decipher what she was really thinking since it all seemed like a jumbled mess swarming around her.

"To where?" Deidre managed to spit out.

"Anywhere," Clyde continued. The rain began to ease, but neither of them noticed.

"But why? Are you in trouble," her voice became panicked.

"No," he calmed her, "Deidre, I just want to leave... with you."

Deidre looked at him with an intense glare, "Clyde if you're messing with me-"

"D, I'm not," he laughed slightly.

This- this was the solution to his problem. He didn't need to risk his time with her or tell her his secret if he left with her. He could already see it.

"Why?" She uttered still a bit shocked.

He thought, "I can't tell her the real reason. She'll hate me."

"Because I want to be with you," he claimed settling for a half-truth.

That was enough to knock the wind out of her. Hearing Clyde says he wanted to be with her. How long had he been planning this? Did he find her beautiful after all? Did it matter? Well, not really since that one sentence was enough to distract her from his possible deception.

"Clyde-"

"D," he interrupted her placing her face into his large hands, "do you remember what you told me when we found those cottages in the middle of nowhere three years ago?"

Deidre didn't have to think back far. She remembered that day. She and Clyde had been riding their horses far away from the city, and they stumbled upon a meadow. There was nothing but grain stalks and sunlight for miles, but they managed to stumble on one secluded house sitting right in the center of nothing, then she looked to Clyde.

"I want to go to a cottage far away from the world too," she recited her three-year-old words like they were spoken moments ago, "where no one expects anything from me, and I can ride Nadja, and read books, and watch the sunrise."

Clyde nodded slowly as though entranced by how soft and reminiscent her voice was. Even if his deal was in the spur of the moment, he did adore Deidre and everything about her.

"And then you said-" she began.

"I'll take you there," his voice interrupted her's finishing the quote.

"I didn't think you remembered," she said.

"Of course I remembered," he chuckled a bit.

Could this be? Could she really run away with Clyde and be happy in a cottage somewhere? What about her job, the invasion, the king? What about her Mom and Dad.