Mysterious Seduction

XXXII. Love and Pride

Ellie looked out her window from across the street.

She watched the old man climb out of the car and enter the hotel with guards surrounding him.

A little while later, another man entered the building with his own guards in tow.

Ellie took a long breath and sighed.

She turned away from the window and looked at her reflection from across the room.

She did not know if Byron was still alive, and if he was she hoped he would be there when she saved him.

-Above and Below

*****

With heart hammering hard against her chest, Emma ran all to the rear of the tent to find the smaller ones which housed the actors and crew.

She had been to Ulric enough times to know where Stella's tent was and she wasted no energy to go there.

Without bothering to knock, for she was honestly expecting to find no one, she pushed her way through the flaps, bursting into the tiny room with heavy breaths.

But the actress was there.

Stella whirled around, eyes round with surprise, to face Emma.

"What are you doing here?" Stella snapped, looking behind Emma, probably to check if she was with company.

"I am alone."

Stella's eyes darted back to her, filled with accusation. But instead of voicing it, the actress ordered, "Remove yourself from the premises, Emma."

Emma ignored her. "What happened here—" she stopped mid-sentence when her eyes landed on the basin of water in Stella's hands. Inside floated a white cloth. The woman herself was nearly in disarray, not in her usual glamour of fine gown and perfectly donned hair. "What happened, Stella?"

Stella looked at Emma for a long time before deciding her words were better left unsaid. "Go away, Emma. Go back to Wickhurst."

She walked past Emma with her basin full of water and out of the tent.

Emma turned and followed Stella who stopped and turned, blue eyes swimming in a pool of anger. "I have started to see you as not just another shallow gentry. You have always been wise, but I guess you are blind after all. Just like the rest of them."

"Then do make me understand what is happening, Stella. That is why I am here!" Emma almost begged, walking closer to the woman. Her throat was closing up on her as tears pooled her eyes. "This... I... Please, I need to understand. I do have trouble recognizing who to believe at the moment. Both my instincts and my mind tell different things and I am bloody confused!"

Stella looked about. When she faced Emma again, her lips were shaking and her hands tightened their hold around the basin. "You do not know what he has done for you." Emma froze. Stella scoffed incredulously. "You have no inkling at all, do you? Of course you do not! You are simply like the many damsels in distress in the novels you read, after all." A drop of angry tear dropped from Stella's eye. "Now, please, Emma, go. We have enough of you people from Wickhurst."

No, was Emma's first thought. No, she could not leave. If she did, she would find herself back in Wickhurst with no answers and more confusion. She looked at the basin Stella was holding. "Where is he?" Stella looked away and Emma demanded, "Tell me where he is, Stella or I swear to God!"