Wicked Forest (DeBeers 2)

"If this were twenty years ago. I would say never, but what was once embarrassing and

devastating has become socially accepted dramatic fodder now. People are on television revealing deep family secrets every day. Shame is like a vestigial organ, no longer necessary. In short, maybe my mother wouldn't do it. but I wouldn't put it past my sister"

"Maybe it's all not true. Maybe it's a fabrication just to keep us apart. Maybe..."

"Yes," he said. "Maybe so. I need time to confirm all this for myself. In the meantime. I am asking you to be understanding and patient with me. For everyone's sake, not just mine or yours," he added. "Why risk the unnecessary critical attention and gossip? Some of us aren't strong enough to endure any more of that sort of thing."

I knew he meant my mother and Linden. He was right. What they certainly didn't need at the moment was more scandalous baggage placed on their shoulders. What's more, how would Linden react to such news? He despised Thatcher. How would he like to learn that Thatcher and he were related, were brothers!

And what would such a star,' do to my mother, whose mental problems had once put her in my father's clinic? These were very fragile people who could stand no added weight. What good would I have brought to their lives? Should I be selfish and tell Thatcher I didn't care about any of that? Should I be like his mother and insist on my own pleasure and satisfaction first?

"This isn't fair," I muttered. "None of this is fair, especially if it's true. Why do we have to suffer for their indiscretions, their weaknesses?"

"Sometimes there is a lot of wisdom in the old biblical sayings... the sins of the parents lie on the heads of their children," Thatcher said.

Now he was the one gazing at a commercial jet lifting toward the horizon and another world, somewhere far away from all our pasts.

"Wish you were on that?" I countered. He smiled.

"Very often, yes-- but," he said, drawing closer, "only if you were sitting beside me."

"Maybe we'd all be better off if we didn't have the ability to dream." I said.

"Then where would you psychiatrists bier Thatcher kidded,

I laughed, and he reached out to take my shoulders firmly. For a moment we looked into each other's eyes.

No matter what the truth is or what obstacles are placed in our way, we'll be together eventually. Willow. I swear," he said with such confidence and determination, he took my breath away. He brought his lips to mine. We kissed softly at first, then hard and long, as if we both wanted it to last forever and ever. I couldn't stifle a moan of pleasure, and he let his lips glide over my cheeks and around again to my lips.

When we stopped kissing, he put his arms around me and held me against his chest. We stood there silently for a long moment. I could feel his heart pounding and I'm sure he could feel mine.

"I've got to get to work," he said in a tight, cracking voice.

When I looked up at him. I saw his eyes were glossed over with tears.

"Okay."

"I'll see you every moment I can. For a little while, we'll be discreet about it. but I'll be working on this as much as I can, and we'll get to the bottom of it and to the solution as quickly as possible," he promised. "And without hurting anyone, if we can. Is that all right?"

"Yes," I said, not fully realizing what it was that I was agreeing to.

"When I saw you from the loggia before, it was as if the clouds had been blown away, as if sunshine had returned. and I knew why they call this Jaya del Mar. the Jewel of the Sea. You're the jewel as far as I'm concerned. Willow."

I smiled at him through my own glassy eyes now. He started back toward the path, then turned.

"You're still going ahead with all the legal motions to enable Grace to keep the property?"

"Yes. I'm seeing the accountant today and signing whatever has to be signed."

"Just be sure it's the right thing for them. Willow." "It is," I said firmly.

He nodded. "I'll speak to you later."

"In the darkness. You'll see me only in the darkness," I whispered to myself, and watched him hum; along until he was gone.

Then I turned and, with my head down, walked back along the beach. The sound of a tern swooping down on an unsuspecting fish drew my attention back to the sea. I watched and then I took a deep breath. As I started to walk again, something caused me to look off to my left.

At first, there was nothing to see-- small dunes, bushes, a cloud of sand flies circling madly over something- on the sand-- but then, as if he