the art of loving ; lord tewksbury

eleven

"I can assure you, Daisy Winters, you are going to have the time of your life."

Chapter Eleven

"This is driving me insane. I feel like my brain is about to explode."

Daisy fell back onto the wooden floor of Tewksbury's treehouse, staring up at the ceiling and letting out an audible groan. Stacks of old journals surrounded the two teenagers, both exhausted from going through each and every one of them. After they were sure the coast was clear and Tewksbury's mother had disappeared into her room, they had crept back into his father's study to gather his journals and brought them to the treehouse. Daisy wasn't very keen on the idea of stealing the books, but Tewksbury assured her it was alright.

"Think of it as borrowing them," he had told her. "Father wouldn't mind, especially since this is important business."

Daisy had lost track of time, too engrossed with finding clues and hints of any connection between her destined marriage and her mother. She sat upright and crawled to the mouth of the treehouse, peeking her head out into the open air to observe her surroundings. The sun, once a yellow ball of fire in the sky had transformed into a semicircle as it ducked under the horizon. Night would fall soon, which meant Daisy didn't have much time left until she had to return home.

"We should take a break," Tewksbury suggested. "We've been at this for hours."

"We should just resume our investigation tomorrow. I have less than an hour until the sun fully sets. I better leave now if I want to make it home in time," she answered.

Tewksbury nodded. "You're right. I'll walk you home."

"It's a long walk."

"I know, but I'm not letting you roam the streets alone," he replied. "Come on, there's a shortcut we can take."

He shut the journal he had been reading and placed it on one of the many piles around them. Daisy followed as he made his way down. Once her feet hit level ground, she stretched her limbs and massaged her temples, trying to ease the tension from all the research they had been doing.

"Are we even going to find anything?" Daisy asked as they trudged through the woods and back into the estate. "I've flipped through so many journals, more than I can count on my fingers and toes combined, yet nothing has come up."

"We just have to dig deeper. We've only gone through, what, half the pile today? Something is bound to turn up eventually," Tewksbury said.

"Maybe," Daisy sighed. "I just don't want our efforts to be futile. I've been racking my brain for as many theories as possible, but now I think it's become one big mush of thoughts."

"We shouldn't give up. We'll find something, alright?" the boy replied. Daisy nodded warily, her mind still swirling with worry. She wanted to believe they would find an answer, but she still had her doubts. What if there wasn't actually a connection? What if she was simply overthinking things again?

  "Tell you what," Tewksbury interrupted her thoughts, noticing her unease. "We've spent almost half the day cooped up in that treehouse exhausting ourselves. Not to mention the past week trying to come up with a plan. We deserve a break."

  "We have taken breaks. We're taking one now, too," the girl pointed out.

  "A proper break," Tewksbury said. "A full day where we don't think about anything to do with our plan, with those journals, with our supposed marriage. Just a whole day of two friends, doing fun stuff friends do."