When a beautiful but mysterious stranger offers nineteen-year-old Evelyn a fresh start, away from her tough life on the streets, desperation sees any initial doubts overruled by curiosity of the heart. But after arriving at Edenhall Park - an ancien...
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Thick brown strands whipped across my face as Amelia pushed her foot further onto the gas. With the roof down, the warm jets across my scalp seemed to blow away memories of the morning's events. The smells of early spring lay thick in the air, the fresh aroma of newly cut grass filling my nostrils for the first time in a long time. It smelt like hope.
The engine growled as Amelia shifted the wooden gearstick to pick up even more speed; eager to get to wherever we were going. As I looked across to the driver's seat, Amelia's flaxen, chin-length locks appeared to glitter; dancing around her in the reflection of her sunglasses as we sped past open fields and rolling hills.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," I yelled, battling to make myself heard over the roar of the car.
"You don't even know where I'm taking you yet," Amelia laughed, diverting her eyes from the road to glance at me.
"Wherever it is, it's got to be better than where you found me," I replied, shaking my head.
"Trust me, you're going to love it!" Amelia replied, shifting gear again and causing both our heads to snap back with the force of the accelerator.
Trailing my arm over the car door, the wind streams pushed through my fingers, freeing them from their usual tense fist position. I tipped my face towards the sky and squinted my eyes against the sun. Inside, my stomach fluttered like the birds that appeared to be following our journey overhead. I'd never seen such an array of colours; they didn't look like any birds I'd ever seen before. I wondered if they were somehow following my journey into the unknown. A bright, wild collection of chaperones in the sky, free to go wherever the wind took them yet choosing to follow me for some reason.
If I thought about it hard enough, I could probably remember a time when I'd felt as free as I did in that moment. Hopeful. Maybe even happy. But it would be buried away somewhere deep in my past. Back in a much easier time.
As Amelia focused on the tarmac rushing under the tyres of the blood red convertible, I watched her from the corner of my eye. I had never seen anyone quite so captivating; so enigmatic that she could convince strangers to drop everything and trust her.
Almost sensing my train of thought, she lifted her manicured hand from the gearstick and placed it over mine, resting loosely on my knee. The clean, porcelain and red combination of her nails on her skin only served to highlight the dirt under my own. I dug them into the faded stonewash denim of my jeans, not wanting her to notice.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" she asked, keeping her eyes straight ahead. The road had begun to narrow, and the vast, open countryside had given way to ancient trees, growing denser the further we travelled.
"I'm sure," I responded, clearing my throat to disguise the uncertainty in my voice.
The shade of the thick foliage had turned the air cooler as we continued to speed towards our destination. The April sun was now an occasional broken glimmer through the branches, catching my skin and causing the fine hairs to stand and fall in their own syncopated pattern. The thick woodland dampened the constant growl of the engine, allowing the birdsong hidden within its branches to grow more cacophonous.
