Ravendorf Ch. 04

She fell asleep before she made any decisions. She woke to the sounds of the caravan preparing to move out. She again followed at a close distance, making certain no one ever saw her even as she never lost sight of the wagons. Aidan was riding her horse most of the day. She kept pace with the travelers. She never looked back.

They reached Pieter’s castle before the sun had begun to settle behind the trees. Lila got as close as she dared. She could hear and smell the sounds of the celebrations as Pieter welcomed his new bride and her family.

Under the cover of darkness, Lila crept into the castle, pausing whenever she heard a sound. Her own heart thudded in her ear. She could hear her breathing and was certain that it echoed through the whole castle. She had to check every door in an effort to locate her girlfriend. She finally found her at the end of a long hallway. She pushed open the door and allowed it to fall silently into place. The heavy wood thudded and she flinched, freezing as she waited for the whole army to race to arrest her. “Who’s there?” a voice whispered across the room.

Lila turned toward the shadow sitting up in the bed and moved until the moon light spilling through the window glowed on her face. “It’s me,” she answered.

“Lila!” Aidan exclaimed, climbing from beneath the heavy blankets and closing the distance in a rush. She folded her arms around the slight gypsy. She pressed her lips to Lila’s, the touch firm as she slipped her tongue into Lila’s mouth. Lila returned the hungry kiss. The two days of traveling had been the first time they had been apart in three weeks. “I knew you would come!” she exclaimed in an excited whisper after they broke apart.

Lila broke away, searching the room as she spoke. “Quick. Get changed and pack your belongings. We need to leave right away. If we travel all night, they’ll never catch us.”

Aidan did not move, her eyes following Lila in the dim light. “I can’t leave. I’m getting married tomorrow.”

Lila stopped moving, turning back to Aidan. “I thought you didn’t want to marry him. You were going to run away with me. What happened? I waited by the creek for you.”

Aidan laughed. “That was just talk, Lila. I was wrapped up in all you made me feel. I can’t run away with you. I can’t believe you thought I was serious.”

“You never gave me any reason to doubt you,” Lila replied. “We belong together, Aidan. I know it could work.”

“It’s a nice thought,” Aidan sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. “But I can’t run away from my responsibility. I guess, living as you have lived, you wouldn’t understand that feeling of responsibility.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lila demanded. “Just because my family doesn’t live in a house and we travel, do you think we don’t have responsibility? We have more responsibility than you can imagine. I don’t have a servant that waits on me hand and foot. We have to cook and set camp and practice for our performances. I know about responsibility.”

Aidan closed her eyes, trying to think of something that would placate the young gypsy. “I didn’t mean that, Lila. I’m talking about responsibility to my family and to my father. He needs my marriage to Pieter to secure his business. Your father would never ask you to compromise your life for that purpose.” She stood, shaking out her hair as she moved toward Lila again. She placed her hands on her lover’s hips. “Besides, I don’t think I could live without servants. I’m not the type who can cook and set up tent stakes. Your life is not the life for me.”

Lila stepped away from Aidan, trying to keep her anger at the front of her emotions. If she allowed her anger to slip, the pain would be too intense. “Your life is not for me,” she echoed. “I would feel like a caged animal within these walls. I would not be satisfied to simply wait on you to be in the mood for me. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life lying in the room next door to you, listening to you be with Pieter, and then taking the leftovers.”

She pushed away Aidan’s outstretched hands and rushed by her former lover to escape the encroaching walls. If she didn’t flee immediately, the building would collapse on her. She would give in to Aidan’s desires.

She fled into the forest before collapsing in tears.

When she hadn’t shown up in Heidelberg, Quinn had started searching for her. He found her in Berlin, wasting away to almost anything. She was living on what money she made from selling her body. It was not easy for him to convince her to return to the camp. Even when she had, she had not recovered from the emptiness in her heart for a very long time.

Aidan. Quinn was right. She was falling into the trap again. Margaret was beautiful and unattainable, and that made her even more desirable to Lila. The symptoms were evident. She didn’t want to think that Margaret could be as cold and calculating as Aidan had been, but Quinn was right.