AN:- So sorry that it took me sooo long to add any more to this story! It's been a hectic, hectic year. Anyway if you actually waited around for this story and read this after all this time thank you very much! I have more material to come so it shouldn't be anywhere near as long until another update. Hope you like and please let me know what you think :) x

2. X- Sephy

My stomach churned as I slipped away from him into the darkness. The skin of my arms and my hands longed for him again, my chest ached with the need to be with him once more and my heart beat a furious, irregular rhythm. Hurry, Sephy. Hurry. I moved as quickly as I could towards the house, my movement rippling the leaves of the rose bushes as I passed. In my haste I snagged my dress on a thorn but I hardly noticed. I was giddy with joy. That the wildest, most forbidden of all my dreams seemed now about to come true. The girl who had written that letter a lifetime ago had hoped but I knew now she had never really believed this would come to pass.

Once I reached my room, I flung whatever I could get my hands on into the holdall I had open on my bed. Shoes, shirts, dresses. Anything and everything that was in easy reach was stuffed unceremoniously into the bag. I didn't have time to care about creases and frankly I didn't give a damn. I had to hurry- how long had I been away from him now? It already felt like an age. I was wired, my limbs were tingling all over and my heart raced like crazy. Callum was here. Callum was going to take me away. We were going to be together. 'A place for us, Sephy. You and me…' It was all I'd ever wanted and more. All the deepest longings of my soul had been yearnings for him and for us. For the impossible place where we could be together. And now it seemed we were going to find it. Callum said so and I would believe him. I could trust Callum. I felt my stomach twist a little. I was so excited and happy but…

A voice was nudging at my insides; it prodded me with needling fingers. You trusted him before, Sephy, remember. I pushed it away, placing one hand on the swell of my abdomen. 'He loves us. Callum loves us. More than anything' I whispered silently, soothing myself. I said it over and over in my mind, silencing the shudder of doubt. I centred in on all the happy snapshot memories I had of Callum, pulling them from the corners of my mind, flooding my synapses with them. Drenching my mind and my soul with his voice and his smell and his touch. The sidling muttering subsided with each image but my longing for him had only increased.

Go to him, Sephy. He's waiting. I swept my eyes round my belongings one final time then walked out, pulling my bedroom door behind me for one final time. I began to edge my way towards the front door. Beyond it was Callum. And the future. Our future. At first I tiptoed my way down the stairs, so afraid of making any sound. I feared with the slightest jolt my illicit happiness would shatter, this reprieve we had been so unexpectedly granted revoked with equal suddenness. But each footstep seemed like an age, and the staircase stretched out in front of me, forever descending. The thought of Callum being snatched away – at being shut off from him again – made me desperate.

My pace quickened and then I was half tumbling down towards the door, taking the steps in small leaps and bounds, two, three at a time. The sound bounced noisily of the walls of the reception hall as my feet at last made contact with the carpeted floor of the entrance way. And now the door was nearly in reach. So close. I reached out my arm, stretching my fingers for the handle. Almost there…Just one more step...

My fingertips grazed the door knob, the cool of the metal like salvation against my over-heated skin. I began to twist, my hand wrapped round it more determinedly now. He's just beyond this door, Sephy…One final push….

Someone's hand clapped itself on down on my shoulder, like the weight of the whole earth. I jolted. My fingers slipped on the handle of the door. Then, my whole body ran cold –

'Where are you going, Princess?'

To be continued (soon I promise!)