Nice Day For A White Wedding

There is no pink anywhere. Petra has gone. She must have made her escape while I was falling to the ground. She didn’t even bother sticking around to see her handy work in action. Well, more fool her because she didn’t get anywhere near the amount of damage I suspect she wanted to. Alex said there were tunnels all over the house and grounds so there could be some kind of tunnel from which she appeared and disappeared. In fact, it would make sense for there to be a tunnel directly to the orchard. In times of trouble you could pop out here and be hidden amongst the trees.

I reach up with my good arm and feel the back of my head. A stinging pain where I touch makes me gasp. I can feel a pretty big bump there but when I bring my hand around in front of my face and check it, there’s no blood. I steel myself to look down at my ankle, hardly daring to see if there’s bone poking out of it.

There is no bone sticking out. I tell myself not to be so dramatic. Sure, it’s a bit painful but it’s not so painful that I couldn’t walk on it. I lean forward, ignoring the pain in my shoulder and I reach down and roll the bottom of my leggings up. There’s a blue bruise forming on the inside of my ankle already. I poke and prod at it, gritting my teeth as pain shoots up my leg. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think anything is broken.

Wow! Looks like I’ve just had one hell of a lucky escape.

I push myself slowly to my feet. By the time I am standing, my weight on my one good leg, I am covered in a film of cold sweat and I feel quite sick. I blink away the tears of shock and self-pity that fill my eyes.

I take a tiny step, testing out my ankle. It hurts like all hell, but it holds. I limp forward a step and then another. The tears run freely down my face now as each limping step jerks my shoulder. It’s going to be a hell of a long walk back to the house, but fucking hell, Petra, you evil bitch, you won’t get rid of me that easy.

Alex

I look up from my laptop at the knock on the library door. “Come in,” I call with a frown.

To my surprise, Boris slides awkwardly into the room. He looks nervous, twisting his hands together, and refusing to look me in the eye.

“What is it, Boris?” I ask immediately.

“Cindy went out on Nikita alone,” he mutters.

I nod, impatient. Has he come here just to let me keep tabs on Cindy or is he worried he shouldn’t have allowed her to.

“Nikita came back a few minutes ago. Alone,” he adds, his eyes sliding away from me again.

He’s still talking, but I’m no longer listening. If Nikita came back alone, it has to mean something has happened to Cindy. She must be hurt. If she’d gotten off Nikita and forgotten to tie her up, Nikita might have wandered a little, but she wouldn’t have come right back to the stables. And certainly not in a manner that made Boris feel the need to come and tell me about it.

Panic rises inside me. Cindy could be unconscious somewhere. She could have broken an arm, a leg … her neck. Jesus! I shove my laptop away, the report I was reading forgotten, and jump to my feet. I streak past Boris. I can hear his feet behind me as he follows at my heels.

We tear through the house and across the gardens to the stables. One look at Nikita confirms that she was spooked. Her eyes are wide, the whites showing around the edges. She’s covered in sweat and panting.

“Take care of Nikita. I’ll go and find Cindy,” I shout over my shoulder to Boris.

He nods his head but he still doesn’t move. Just stands there shifting from foot to foot.

“What is it?” I demand. If he knows something, he needs to tell me what it is.

“I … I’m sorry,” he says. “I should never have allowed Cindy to take Nikita out alone. But she’s usually so gentle and I just thought—”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, cutting him off. “Just keep your phone on you. As soon as I find her I’ll call to bring the truck around.”

He nods and goes towards Nikita.

Without taking the time to saddle Milan, I jump onto his back. Pushing him to his maximum speed, I leave the courtyard and follow the grass that is a little churned up from Nikita’s dash home.

Looks like I’m heading in the same direction we went this morning and I think I know where she was going to. The orchard. She seemed pretty taken with it this morning so it makes sense she would go back there. I really have no idea how far she might have gotten, but she can’t have gone beyond the boundaries of this land. I’ll stay out here all day and all night if I have to, but I will find her.