When Lena awoke, Winnie was not in her bed. She panicked a little at first, thinking she had tried to escape and was now lost in the woods, but she soon learned that Jesse was gone too and it didn't take long for her to put two and two together.
"Lena, did you sleep well?" Mae said after Lena had finished dressing.
"Yes, thank you."
"Can you do me a favor and take these biscuits out to Miles? He's down by the lake doing some fishing."
Lena nodded and took the plate from her. She headed down to the water's edge and saw Miles with a fishing pole, waiting for a bite. She nervously cleared her throat and he turned around. "Um, Mae said to bring these to you."
"No thanks," he said shortly.
Lena took a deep breath and set the plate down next to him. "I'll just leave them here in case you change your mind." She turned around and headed back up to the house.
Over the course of the day, Lena helped Mae do some cooking and cleaning around the house. Miles stayed out for the most part, but when he did come in, the plate she had given him was empty. She smiled a little when he wasn't looking.
At one point, the two of them made eye contact, but neither allowed it to last for very long. Miles still made Lena really nervous, even though she knew a bit more about his history. He was just so cold towards everyone that it was hard to like him. At this point, despite what Mae had told her, she still felt hatred towards Miles for kidnapping her and Winnie.
Mae looked at the both of them, taking note of their small wordless interaction. When Miles left again, she went over to Lena. "He still frightens you, doesn't he?"
Lena just barely nodded, avoiding eye contact.
"I understand. But Miles really does care about us, and the longer you talk with him, the more you'll see that what he did was just to protect this family."
Lena remained silent, thinking about Mae's words. But how could she ever learn to like someone who seemed to only feel hate towards her and stole her away from everything she ever knew?
When Jesse and Winnie returned, Winnie looked like a whole new person. She was eagerly smiling and laughing and it didn't take much for Lena to guess why.
Sure enough, when the two girls were about to go to sleep that night, Winnie explained to her that Jesse took her to his "Eiffel Tower", a very high cliff that they could climb to the top.
Lena sang softly to her to get her to sleep again, but Lena stayed awake for several minutes staring up at the ceiling. While she was glad that Winnie was okay and she didn't have to worry about her anymore, she herself was a different story. She hadn't had anyone to bond with like Winnie with Jesse and while everyone, aside from Miles, seemed nice, she still didn't want to be away from what she knew.
Winnie began spending nearly all of her time with Jesse while Lena stayed back with Angus, Mae, and sometimes Miles.
Mae was the nicest woman Lena had ever met. As the days went by and Lena helped her with the chores around the house, the two women talked and conversation came quite easy to her. They hardly ever ran out of things to talk about. The longer they talked, the more comfortable she became.
Sometimes, Lena would sit outside and just watch Angus make small creations out of wood. It was so mesmerizing to watch him transform a block of nothing into something with extremely intricate designs and patterns.
Miles was another story. No matter what Lena did, or how nice she was despite the fact that she couldn't stand him, he was always rude to her. He never looked her way, he ignored her as much as possible, and when he did talk to her, he used a tone that suggested that it was the last thing he wanted to do.
"Lena," Mae said to her as she swept up the floor. "Take this out to Miles. He hasn't eaten all day and he needs some food."
Lena nodded and took the basket of food from Mae then headed outside. "Miles!" she called. "I brought some food for you."
"I don't want any food."
"Mae said you haven't eaten all day. You're going to make yourself sick."
Miles just laughed, and she couldn't understand why the idea of him becoming ill was so amusing.
"Will you please just eat a little something? It would ease her mind."
"I said I didn't want any," he snapped. "Just take it back and leave me alone."
That was the last straw for Lena. She could not handle his attitude any longer. She slammed the basket down on the ground and took a step towards him. "You're hurting," she said sharply. "I get that. Mae told me what happened with you and your family. But you should look beyond your own pain and realize that you are not the only one suffering!"
Miles looked at her incredulously, shocked that she was talking to him in such a way.
"My mother gave birth to a little boy when I was only three years old. An hour later, he died from complications. I had a brother for only an hour. And after that, my mother and father couldn't look at me because I only reminded them of what they lost. They sent me off to boarding school at three years old so they didn't have to look at me anymore! Eventually, they couldn't afford to send me to school, so I was forced to come back home. When I was there, they both ignored me all the time. So you should consider yourself lucky that you at least have a mother and a father and a brother who love you! It's more than I ever had."
Lena whipped around and headed back up to the house, wiping hot tears off her cheeks. She hadn't meant for all of that to come out. But she was sick and tired of Miles acting the way he was. She may not have experienced that kind of loss, but she didn't even know what it was like to have anyone out there who loved her. At least he had a family. She never even had that.
Lena stayed out of everyone's sight until she had calmed down. The last thing she wanted was to have to explain why she was upset.
"Are you alright, Lena?" Winnie asked as they prepared to go to sleep.
"Hmm?" Lena said as she turned around.
"You've been acting strange all day."
Lena sighed and sat on Winnie's bed next to her. "I…I told Miles about me."
"You mean…everything?"
"Everything."
"Why?"
"He was just being so rude to me that I kind of just…snapped."
"Well, Mae told us what he's been through. It's been hard on him."
"I know."
Winnie hugged her friend, fully realizing that sharing her history with someone was not an easy thing for her to do.
