Beyond the Broken Angel

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

— hurting —

August 6th, 1938

GISELLE LISTENED TO Barbara and Albert play as she hung damp clothes onto the clothesline at the back of Dare Manor, her eyes glancing over to the two children climbing up the sycamore next to Will's wood-chopping block.

"Don't go too high," Giselle warned as she saw Albert reach to grab onto a higher branch. "Your brother will have my head if either of you gets hurt."

Albert seemed to heed her warning, letting go of the branch and moving to the one Barbara occupied, who was kicking her feet as she looked up at the sprawling branches above her.

Giselle turned back to her work, pinning one of Frank's shirts to the line before moving on to another article of clothing.

She picked up a white undershirt from the wicker basket at her feet, her heart jolting and cheeks warming when she remembered the feel of said shirt under her fingertips as Will kissed her like a man desperate for her touch.

There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between Giselle and Will that neither would bring up the events that occurred on Will's birthday, and that they would go back to normal and act as if nothing had happened.

Giselle had found that they couldn't quite go back to normal. Instead, they had to create a new normal, one with strained smiles and avoidant eyes and awkward conversations.

It turned out that maintaining a friendship after knowing the feel of each other's lips was a hard thing to do.

They mostly avoided each other, only speaking when the situation required it—a situation like someone getting injured.

A panicked scream ripped through the peaceful day, springing Giselle into action.

She immediately dropped the shirt she had started to hang on the clothesline and whirled around, spotting Albert hanging from a tall branch of the tree he had been climbing.

He seemed to have climbed up several more branches and slipped, his feet dangling nearly fifteen feet above the ground as he held onto the branch with all he had in him.

Barbara still sat the on the branch she was on earlier, looking up at her brother and crying in fear.

Giselle rushed over to them, tensing as she tried to rack her brain and come up with a solution to this very dangerous problem.

She quickly pulled Barbara down from the tree, setting her on the ground and nudging her towards the house. "Go get Will!" she told the girl. "And hurry!"

The little girl shot off towards the manor, a mess of sobs and tears.

Giselle turned back to the tree, grabbing onto a branch and pulling herself up. "Hold on, Albert!" she told the young boy. "I'm coming, okay?"

"I-I think I can try to get myself up!" Albert yelled out.

"No, don't move until I come get you!" Giselle yelled back.

"I can do it, Ellie!"

Giselle watched from several branches below him as he tried to swing a leg up onto the branch. His foot barely found a hold on the bark before it slipped, the momentum causing him to lose his grip and fall.