Stormy Weather
Summary: It's a stormy October night, and Lucy-Ann is happy to be safe and sound inside her house. But is she really?
Author's Notes: This is sort of a sequel to Life As Adventure, only this one will focus on Lucy-Ann and Philip rather than Dinah and Jack. :)
I know that some fans might find the idea of pairing them up together a little peculiar, because they see the four of them as almost-siblings. Well, I thought about it long and well, and I also had a look at the books only recently, and I must say, somehow I don't see them that way. I see them as friends. Anyway, the topic will be adressed in this one, at least more than it was in the other fic!
There will also be a little hinting at sexual content at the very end of it … but nothing explicit! I'm hope I'm alright with the rating!
The two Adventure Seies fics I wrote just popped into my head after reading natida's All things unsaid, which I would very much recommend you to read if you share my love for this fandom! I received some very helpful encouragement to write and post this fic, coming from natida and awilliamsbbc.98 and I'd like to say Thank You for that!
I'm not abandoning my Narnia fanfiction!
Disclaimer: Again, just borrowing the characters. Adding maybe a little bit to their characterisation here and there, but trying to avoid OOC-ness, of course!
XXX
Lucy-Ann was quite used to stormy weather, but the way the wind was howling outside tonight was disconcerting. She was happy to have closed the door behind herself that evening – having shut out the unruly October weather – and she didn't plan on opening it up again, let alone going anywhere until morning.
Her plans about not opening said door were soon crossed, however, when there was a pounding on the front entrance to her little cottage. Who'd be coming to visit today, and in that stormy weather as well? she wondered as she stood up and went to open.
Just before pulling on the knob she hesitated a moment, but a well-known voice, coming in muffled through the wooden door made her hurry. "Lucy-Ann, are you there?"
She pulled the door open to reveal Philip standing on her doorstep in the whipping rain. He was wet-through and looking chilled, dark hair for once plastered flat across his forehead, dripping water down his face. He wore jeans and boots, both of which were soaked through and covered in mud.
"Can I come in?" he asked unnecessarily.
Lucy-Ann nodded and stepped aside to make way for Philip to slip past her into the narrow hallway.
"Thank you," he muttered.
He must be freezing, she thought and went to fetch a towel. On her way she also picked up a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt and a warm jumper from the cabinet in her small cubby. She took all of it back to Philip and said, "there you are. Got you some dry clothes, too. You need to get out of those wet things. Those are Jack's actually, but," she grinned, "that's all I can offer you."
"Thanks," he muttered again and took everything from her. She turned to leave him until he had got changed – not that she had never seen him in his underwear before; they had grown up together since they were teenagers, but all that was actually awhile ago.
He came into the kitchen a few minutes after her, clad comfortably in Jack's warm and dry clothes and gratefully accepted the mug of hot tea she offered him.
"Where shall I leave the wet things?" he asked in between sips of tea.
"I'll hang them up in the cellar room," she offered at once. "You can stay here until you're all warmed up. You're still shivering."
Ten minutes later she had hung up his jeans and jumper and jacket and put his boots in the cellar as well to dry. She returned to the kitchen and made to find them some biscuits. It was late and she wasn't hungry, but munching biscuits and drinking hot tea was always making everything better.
"So," she finally said, clutching a hot mug of her own, "now, will you tell me what you've been doing out there in this weather?"
Philip stared gloomily at the tin of biscuits and finally he fished one out and began nibbling on it. It was rather unusual for him to not have stuffed down at least a handful just after she had put them out on the table, but Lucy-Ann decided not to comment on that.
"I just came back from the Walkers," Philip finally started explaining. "One of the mares was expecting her foal and they called me when there were complications. But the stream has flooded the Main Street, thanks to the darn storm and all that rain pouring down, forcing me to take another road. By the time I finally got there, both, the mare and the foal were dead."
"Oh no, that's perfectly horrid," exclaimed Lucy-Ann, feeling genuinely sorry for both, Philip and the Walkers.
The Walkers were friendly people owning a small stud farm only a few streets away from Lucy-Ann's tiny cottage. She had known them since she had moved into town and Mrs Walker had already given her a couple of riding lessons free of charge. Sometimes she would go to watch the horses with a group of children from the kindergarten where she worked; they always loved that. The Walkers had also been thrilled to know that one of Lucy-Ann's oldest friends was a veterinary in the next town.
The news of the dead mare and her foal were devastating to Lucy-Ann and she thought of her friends compassionately. But they didn't fully explain how Philip had ended up, wet-through and freezing, on her doorstep. She asked him about it.
"Very easy to explain," he grumbled, fishing another biscuit from the tin. "I was on my way back when a tree came crashing down on the road right in front of my eyes. I had to drive into a field on the side of the road to evade being crushed by it, and there my car got stuck in the mud. The best I could think of was to walk here and ask you if I can use the phone. Although now that I'm all warm and dry I'm rather tempted to wait until the morning, before having my car pulled out."
"You can spend the night, if you want," said Lucy-Ann, "but do call Wendy and tell her where you are, will you?"
Wendy was Philip's girlfriend, although at the mentioning of her name he suddenly blushed a little and said, "not to be worried about. It is … sort of over."
Lucy-Ann raised her brows. "Sort of over? Or over?"
"Well, over … I guess."
"How can you not know for sure?" she wondered.
He looked at her sheepishly and explained, "because she never really says anything clearly. It's always could be and might be and then lots of if's and when's. Honestly, most of the time I really don't know what she wants from me."
Lucy-Ann was torn between laughing and scolding him. But before she could decide to do either, Philip said that he was going to call his mother.
"Someone'll have to feed Wally in the morning," he explained.
Wally had been a stray dog Philip had adopted almost a year ago, after a vicious farmer had been trying to shoot the poor thing. In the end, Philip had been the one who had taken the bullet meant for Wally, the dog, and it had very nearly cost him his life. Still, the first thing he had done after being released from hospital was to go and fetch the dog from the pound it had been taken to. Ever since then Wally had been part of his life.
Wendy, a young and very pretty nurse, had joined into his life at about the same time. During his stay at the hospital Philip had created quite a reputation for himself among the young nurses, most of whom were unmarried, and they had seemed to think of him as knight in shining armor for saving the dog's life – much to his sister Dinah's dismay.
While Dinah had expected him to drive them crazy with his constant complaints about the hospital food, instead they were all feeling very sorry for him and were forever supplying him with sweets and homemade cake to make up for it. Lucy-Ann remembered him cheerfully telling her and his mother one time when they had come to visit, "if they'll keep me here in the hospital much longer, I'll be too fat to walk by the time they'll let me go."
Looking at all the supplies, stacked about in the room looking pretty much untouched, his mother had replied dryly, "only if you're finally going to start eating them, rather than just collecting them." She had been rather disconcerted at the lack of appetite he had been displaying for a while after being injured.
Things had gone back to normality very slowly. There had been many ups and downs on the road to recovery for poor Philip. And the whole time the nurses had been hovering about, making Lucy-Ann almost as annoyed as Dinah was with them. She knew it was for different reasons, though: while Dinah was vexed by the fact that the young women didn't think her brother to be such a nuisance as she had thought they would, Lucy-Ann had been annoyed that they were hovering about him, caring and compassionate, as if they had known him as a friend for a long time – when really they barely knew him at all!
Nurse Wendy had even gone as far as to pester Dinah, who had been interning at the hospital around the same time, until she had given her advice where she could 'run accidentally into' Dinah's brother, after Philip had been released. And indeed, she had managed to 'run into' him and charm him into agreeing on a date with her. One turned into two and then three, and it became something of a relationship. She was a redhead, just like Lucy-Ann, but taller and not nearly as freckled.
While Philip phoned his mother to ask her to feed the dog in the morning, Lucy-Ann started preparing the tiny bed in her spare room upstairs. The storm was still raging and she would be glad to know her friend safe and sound at her place and not outside having his car pulled from the field. That could be done in the morning!
Outside the window she could see how the old tree in her front yard was bowing dangerously, forced back and forth by the pressure of the wind. The landlord had talked about cutting it down many times, for it was old and rotten, and quite suddenly she wasn't too sure that it would hold out against the storm.
She was almost done preparing the bed when she heard the steps creak as Philip made his way up. He was just coming into the room when the tree outside gave a long dangerous screeching noise and swung even further towards the house.
"Lucy-Ann, you must get away from the window," Philip exclaimed at once, sounding alarmed. "The tree is going to fall over any moment now, and we shall be glad if it comes down the other way. The street is deserted, it won't do much harm there, I should think."
For a few precious moments it did look as if the tree was going to falling on the street, but then there came another harsh gust of wind and swung it towards the little cottage.
Lucy-Ann didn't register that she was still standing dangerously close to the window. She was rooted to the spot with a sudden bout of fear. She watched the tree come closer and closer as if in slow motion, until a hard grip on her arm pulled her back to reality – and almost out of the room. But it was too late.
With a deafening noise the old tree crashed through the thin roof. One thick branch came down directly where Lucy-Ann was standing. The force of it pushed her down to the ground where she found herself caught underneath, the branch holding her captive. She felt a stinging pain for a moment, but she couldn't tell for sure what part of her body it came from. Then she became aware of someone's breath coming out in short, harsh gasps and quickly realised it was her own. But where was Philip?
She heard his voice even before she could see him. He must be somewhere close she realised, somewhere –
"I'm going to get you out," he called and his voice sounded uncharacteristically frantic. "Any minute now, I'll just have to move that branch."
Now she could see him moving about. He was getting soaked through once more thanks to the rain pouring in now through the broken roof. There was a long scratch on his cheek – from a smaller bough most likely – but other than that he seemed unharmed. He was panting with effort, trying to push away the branch that had caught Lucy-Ann underneath itself, but it wouldn't let itself be moved because it held the weight of the whole trunk. That was partly a good thing because otherwise the trunk would was crashed down on Lucy-Ann but it also meant that to move that single branch, the whole tree trunk would probably have to be moved. And Philip, strong though he may be, didn't have the power to do that.
"Listen, I am going to call for help on the phone," he finally panted. "Stay where you are, I'll be right back."
If Lucy-Ann were given to sarcasm, she might have asked him where on earth did he believe she was going to go, but instead she was paralysed with fear. She did wonder why she didn't feel the pain any more. Wasn't she wounded?
The rain poured in mercilessly and Lucy-Ann was soon soaked through and chilled to the bone. Sooner than she had expected she heard steps from outside the room; Philip of course. He had called for help on the phone and was just now coming back up, taking two steps at a time, judging by the sounds of it.
"Lucy-Ann, the phone is dead. The storm must have damaged the line. I don't understand it, though, I just got through to Mother only a moment ago!"
"The tree," she groaned. "It fell through the telephone line as well. It runs up the wall on the outside just on this side of the house."
"So I've got to get you out of there myself," he concluded, sounding tense but determined. "But I can't move that branch as long as it is attached to the rest of the tree. I'll have to cut it off. Do you keep a saw in your house somewhere?"
"In the cellar room, there's a cupboard, right where I put your boots in front of to dry," Lucy-Ann got out breathlessly. She was getting into a more and more desperate mood, never having been very calm in dangerous situations. "Please, do hurry, Philip! I feel like the tree is going to suffocate me before long."
"I'll be right back," he called and off he went, bolting down the stairs again. It felt like forever to Lucy-Ann until he came back up and when he did he was carrying the saw. It was brand new and Lucy-Ann had never used it. If there was anything to fix about the cottage Mrs. Walker would send her son over to come and help her out, and he would always bring his own tools. Lucy-Ann didn't even know really how to work properly with a saw.
It was a good thing Philip did. He was half-way through the branch, when he suddenly stopped. The tree trunk the branch was attached to had made a dangerous movement, ready to crash down on Lucy-Ann completely.
"If I cut right through the branch, it'll no longer support the trunk," he said, looking around wildly. Lucy-Ann thought that he was looking very strange, almost unfamiliar, his face an anxious grimace and raindrops pouring down his cheeks, looking almost like tears. He was, under normal conditions, a cheerful person, as long as he wasn't sick or hurt (then he could be very grumpy). But anxiety wasn't something she had often witnessed about him; he had the tendency to stay calm and think practical.
Right now the most practical thing to do was to find something to support the tree trunk with, so that it wouldn't crash down the moment he cut off the branch that was holding Lucy-Ann captive. The only possible solution was the cupboard in the corner. It could be positioned under the trunk so that it would be able to hold up the tree.
Surely Philip had come to the same conclusion, and he made for the cupboard. It was a heavy solid wooden thing and Philip had a lot of trouble moving it. Finally he had it positioned. But the time he came back to saw on the branch he looked no longer like freezing from being soaking wet. The exertion had warmed him up.
He cut off the branch and cautiously moved it away from Lucy-Ann. But soon the cupboard, holding up the trunk was making screeching noises under the weight it held.
"It's about to give in," said Philip, "I ought to hold onto the trunk until you're out of danger. Can you crawl out of the room by yourself?"
Lucy-Ann, who was no longer captured under the weight of the tree, nodded. She disentangled herself from the smaller boughs that lay about and had caught up in her clothes and crawled from the room on all fours. It was only then that she realised she was bleeding. Her blouse was ripped and stained sickeningly with deep red blood, and now that she had taken notice of it she could smell it as well.
She crawled into the hallway and huddled on the stairs at the very top, waiting for Philip to come after her. He took an awfully long time to come and when he did, there was a loud crashing noise in the room behind him. She saw that he was just as dirty and wet as he had been upon his arrival at her house. He was also wearing his muddy boots again, staining her carpet. She would have scolded him for being so inconsiderate if not they had other things on their mind just now.
Philip knelt down beside her and his eyes went wide at the sight of the slash in her belly. "We'll have to disinfect that and bandage it. Do you have any first aid utensils somewhere?"
"I do, but they're in the bathroom cupboard."
And the bathroom lay next to the spare room where the guest bed stood. A huge part of the tree had crashed into that as well and it was plain to see that the bathroom was inaccessible. There was no way anyone could squeeze in between branches and torn down parts of the wall to get to the first aid utensils.
"Blow!" said Philip, realising that he couldn't take care of Lucy-Ann's injuries the way he wanted to. "I must think of something else … hang, on ... there's some stuff in my car! Mind, it's all meant for animals, but it should do as first aid. But bother! The car's stuck in the mud several miles down the road from here."
"We can go in my car, drive over to yours and back. Or you could go on your own, and get right back to me."
But Philip shook his head. "No, I won't leave you here alone in the house for a minute. We'll both go in your car, and we'll go right over to Dinah's. By the time we've reached my car, we'd be halfway to her place anyway! Until then I'll wrap my t-shirt around your middle to contain the bleeding a bit!"
"Okay," muttered Lucy-Ann. She was still wondering why it was that she wasn't feeling any pain. Neither was she feeling much of the cold. Wasn't it strange ...
"Stay awake, Lucy-Ann, you mustn't faint now!"
She looked into Philip's eyes; he knelt right before her, his hands were placed on her shoulders, squeezing them gently. She stared at him for what felt like an eternity. He was looking like an angel to her. A beautiful angel with wet, dark hair plastered to his forehead and a deep, worried frown on his face. Wasn't he quite handsome – despite that frown? Wasn't he –
„Lucy-Ann? Are you still with me?" Philip's voice seemed to come from very far away indeed and suddenly the image of him became blurry, black spots dancing before her eyes.
The next couple of minutes passed by in a blurr. She half-consciously felt Philip bind something around her middle, then haul her up into his arms and carry her down the stairs. He inquired about the whereabouts of her keys but found them easily enough on his own.
He was panting heavily by the time he had carried her to the car and placed her in the passenger seat. Once there she felt a sudden urge to cling to him. Her arms felt weak and heavy but she did manage to lift them up and grab hold of his hem and pull him close to her.
"Thank you," she said, and suddenly there were tears welling up and a sob escaped her, as reality sunk in; her house ruined. Herself wounded and helpless –
But Philip was there. Thankfully he was there.
For a split second it seemed as if he was about to detach himself from her hold, and it might have been a sensible thing to do, seeing as she needed medical assistance as soon as possible. But she needed the comforting more right now and he must have sensed it.
"It's going to be alright," he said, after a while. She had sobbed into his shoulder, staining his jumper with a bit of her blood as she clung to him. "Everything's going to be sorted out in the morning."
Gently, very gently he began moving backwards, away from her embrace, but before he let go of her completely he placed a soft kiss on her wet forehead, and then another one right on her mouth. Next he blushed and mumbled something, sounding much like an apology. Lucy-Ann was confused. Why would he apologise? Hadn't he just carried her all the way down to her car? Hadn't he just done everything to help her? She couldn't bear the thought of how the night might have ended if not he had passed by her house after that little accident he had had with his car.
And him kissing her like that hadn't been at all unpleasant. Maybe he thought it inappropriate because they had always been a bit like brother and sister. But then, they weren't brother and sister. They were friends.
Friends who both had no significant other.
Suddenly Lucy-Ann's heart beat faster. Could it be that she saw more in Philip than a friend? Could it be that he saw more than that in her? She thought back at what he had said about Wendy. About it being over. There had been more than one Wendy in the last few years since he had turned twenty – and neither had lasted more than a couple of months. Actually, come to think of it, Lucy-Ann couldn't quite remember just how many of those Wendys there had been so far.
As for herself; her own life hadn't been so very different than that. There had been a suitor here and another one there; quite a few of them, actually, lining up on the doorstep to get her to agree on a date. And yet, none had ever seemed good enough.
But Philip ... of course, he hadn't ever asked about going on a date with her – never thought about it, she knew. But still, he was the one rescuing her now; her hero.
"You're my hero," she heard herself mumble, and she looked over at him, sitting behind the steering wheel of her car, brows knitted and concentrating on the road. At her words, his features softened and he glanced over with a smile on his face. It was the last thing she would remember seeing later before her head slumped against the window and her eyelids drooped and she fell unconscious.
She didn't remember anything at all at first when she woke up much later, feeling nicely warm and dry. But then the memories came flooding back, when Dinah's face appeared above her: she was at Dinah's! Philip had taken her here the night before. She had been crushed underneath the tree that had fallen through her roof and had been injured. The telephone had been dead, as well; the tree had crashed through the line. Dinah had taken care of her injuries. Lucy-Ann inquired about them.
"You had a deep cut in your middle where a branch ripped into your skin," Dinah told her. "You needed stitches on that. I also disinfected the wound. You also suffered a sprained ankle and countless bruises and cuts, but none of which are very threatening. You shall feel terribly sore for a while, though, and walking will give you trouble."
Lucy-Ann nodded, quietly. "Was I in shock? I didn't feel any pain at all last night. But, I say, was I feeling woozy."
"Yes, you were in shock." Dinah nodded. "But I also made you swallow a few painkillers, when they wear off, you will probably be in for a miserable time."
"Where's Philip?"
Dinah grinned and nodded towards her small couch, where her brother was huddled up in an awkward looking position, his eyes closed, giving off very faint snores. He was wearing a different pair of sweaters than those Lucy-Ann had given him the night before, but again Lucy-Ann recognised them as Jack's. But it wasn't a surprise that Jack had deposited clothes at Dinah's; seeing as he had more or less moved in with her – at least for the times when he was in town.
"Philip's going to wake up feeling stiff as well," said Dinah with a giggle. "I do wish I had been able to offer him a better place to sleep than the tiny couch, but the only other space is the bed and that was occupied by you and me." She cast her brother another short, but rather fond look. "He was really exhausted after he brought you here last night, but he was too anxious to do anything else but watch me taking care of you. We nearly argued when he was trying to tell me I was doing the stitches all wrong."
Lucy-Ann smiled. "He got wet-through from the rain twice last night. I shouldn't wonder if he caught a terrible chill."
"If so, it would be at least partly his own fault," said Dinah. "I told him to get changed the very minute you two arrived here. There's a cupboard stuffed with clothes of Jack's, but Philip wouldn't let me alone with you. He was hovering about all the time while I took care of you. It nearly drove me crazy."
Lucy-Ann suddenly couldn't resist the urge to smile. "You two …" she mumbled fondly. "Always quarreling. Will it never end?"
"I don't suppose so," said Dinah. "He's just too much of an idiot." But the way she said it, Lucy-Ann could hear the affection in her friend's voice, and decided it would be enough to know. She wasn't going to force it out of Dinah how much she really loved her brother.
"Listen, I have to go to work," Dinah informed her. "I shall hope that the streets will be accessible after the storm, but then – the hospital isn't that far."
Lucy-Ann nodded.
"There's not a lot of stuff to eat in the kitchen, but I've got eggs and toast. Have the old idiot prepare you some breakfast when he's done sleeping." She pointed at Philip once more. "Oh, and tell him I called both, the kindergarten and the veterinarian clinic that you both won't be at work today. Do tell him that we'll get things fixed with your house and his car as well. But until then you can stay at my place for as long as you want."
"Thank you, Dinah."
Later Lucy-Ann must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing she noticed, was Philip sitting on a chair by the bed, looking at her worriedly. His hair was sticking up more wildly than ever, and the scratch on his cheek was looking angry and red, but he smiled.
"Awake again?" he asked her, in a gentle tone.
She smiled back at him. "Thank you," she said. "For getting me here."
"What else would I have done?" he asked. "I'm glad you're going to be alright. Dinah's got you all fixed up, she's such a genius." He wouldn't have said that out loud for Dinah to hear, of course, but secretly Lucy-Ann made up her mind to tell her.
"You helped fixing me, too."
He laughed and asked her if she was hungry, but she wasn't. Maybe it was the painkillers; she felt still sleepy. And Philip, too, looked tired. She told him.
"Dinah's couch isn't much of a place to sleep on," he admitted. "Not for a fellow my size anyway."
Lucy-Ann snickered. "There's room enough in the bed, for both of us. Hop in with me."
He lifted an eyebrow at the invitation. "You're in nothing but your underwear in there."
"You've seen me in my underwear before," she reminded him.
"Yes, but you were a little girl, weren't you? And I was more or less a child myself as well." He had blushed a very deep crimson. Just as he had the night before after kissing her on her mouth. She thought that he probably remembered that moment very well, and he must also remember her telling him that he was her hero. She didn't feel brave enough to repeat the words, now that she was in her right state of mind again, but she couldn't help thinking it.
"You're not usually so shy," she finally heard herself say to him. "Why now, it's only me ... get those sweaters off and get under the covers. You need to sleep as much as I do."
"Wouldn't you think it would be highly inappropriate for me to undress and crawl into bed with you?" Philip asked, still hesitantly. "What would old Freckles say, if he knew?"
Lucy-Ann giggled a little. "You mean, about us sharing the very same bed he uses to share with your sister?"
"Ewww," said Philip, pulling a face, "don't remind me!"
Lucy-Ann smiled. „Please, do stop worrying; I want you to come into this bed with me." You're my hero.
There was still a doubtful expression on his face but then he pulled the sweater over his head. The t-shirt he wore below came off next, and she blushed when she realised that she hadn't see him bare-chested recently, at least not since he had been injured by that bullet that had torn through his middle last winter. There was still a very prominent scar to remind of that incident, and it looked awfully ugly on his belly, but she found that she didn't mind at all!
Philip left on the sweatpants and crawled swiftly under the blanket, but stayed on his side of the bed, as if not daring to touch her.
"You can come closer," Lucy-Ann said with a smile that he couldn't see, because she was lying with her back turned to him.
"I mustn't," he replied softly. "If I did, there'd be other things on my mind rather than sleeping."
"You don't think you could restrain yourself," she asked, "if you were to be pressed up against me?"
"Well, I'm certainly not going to do anything you wouldn't want me to do," he replied, a little huskily. "But I don't suppose I could hide my … er, feelings."
Lucy-Ann chuckled. "I want you pressed up against my back."
There was a long moment of silence, but then she heard the rustling of the blanket, and then Philip was rolling over and, wrapping a strong arm around her middle, he snuggled up close to her. She giggled.
"Isn't this exciting," she said. "At least you must be very excited indeed - I can feel it!"
"Well, sorry about that," she heard him say, still sounding somewhat hoarse. "I can't help it, you know. I never thought I would find myself in a situation like this with you. Not that I regret it, though …"
"I do wish we could go for more than just hugging," said Lucy-Ann. "But I would feel funny, doing something naughty with you in Dinah's bed."
"So would I. Especially since you are wounded. What if your stitches came loose?" He made a short pause, then added, "but, my word, you are cheeky today, Lucy-Ann! Fancy you asking me to get all naughty with you here!"
"And you seem uncharacteristically reserved today, Philip," she replied. "How come you're not as keen on going further than this as I am?"
"I am," replied Philip, and he tightened his grip on her. "But as you said, we can't. I might hurt you. And just so you know; I'm quite able to control myself until a better time arrives."
"I wish for it, very soon – I do," said Lucy-Ann. She wriggled even a little deeper into his embrace and announced, "I think I shall try to sleep some more now. Could you please stay here and hold me tightly?"
"I shan't go anywhere," promised Philip. And she knew he had no intention to break that promise. And so she fell asleep, dreaming of stormy weathers and falling trees and of Philip, being her hero.