A Place In the Sun

44

Gillian woke up in her room that morning at Wildwind lying snuggled next to Ryan's warm body. She didn't remember how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered of the night before was sitting alone watching the sun set as she cried. Gillian reached up and stroked Ryan's face, trying to wake him. After a few seconds, his eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning," he said, smiling as he saw her face.

"Last night…"

"You fell asleep on the bench; I carried you in here. I figured you didn't want to spend the whole night sleeping there."

She nodded in agreement. "Last night we were acting really stupid."

"I only told you the truth," he said, looking away.

"Ryan…"

"What?" he almost snapped.

"Why are you being like that?" she asked.

He didn't reply, but instead pulled on some clothes and walked past her and out in the hall towards the stairway. She grabbed a robe and quickly pushed her feet into a pair of slippers and followed him down to the kitchen.

"Good morning," Edmund greeted as the couple made their way into the room.

Maria looked at the two of them and knew something was up. She raised her eyebrows at Gillian when they made eye contact.

"What?" Gillian shrugged, looking at Edmund and Maria. "Ryan is being a pig-headed stubborn jerk, that is all." She haughtily took a bite of her breakfast as it was set down in front of her.

Maria looked at Ryan. "We had a disagreement, that's it," he said.

"Ryan blames himself for Kata's kidnapping," Gillian filled Edmund and Maria in.

"What?" Maria asked.

"Hey, last night, Gillian was saying it was her fault," Ryan told her.

"Ryan, Gillian, this is ridiculous. This is Ray's fault, not yours," Edmund said.

"It's natural that you'd want to blame yourself or even each other," Maria told them. "But at the same time, you have to know that the one at fault is Ray. You two need to work together and help each other through this. You are only going to make it worse if you push each other away. Edmund and I definitely learned that a long time ago."

"I tried to tell him that this morning, but he did not want to budge," Gillian said.

"Ryan," Maria prodded him to say something. Instead, he put down his spoon and left the room without a word.

……….

When Katalin woke up that morning, she cautiously looked around her. She shuddered as she pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to keep warm, as she remembered what had happened.

Ray had fallen asleep and Kata thought that maybe this was her chance to get away. She knew there were houses not that far away and maybe someone there would be able to help her.

Kata made it only to the door and opened it when he called out her name. Her heart sank with dread and fear as she froze in her tracks. Then, on impulse, she started to run outside. Within a few yards, he caught up with her. He yanked her by the arm and slapped her leg hard. Ray half-drug the young girl back into the cabin as she squirmed, trying to get loose. He brought her inside, took her into one of the bedrooms, and opened up a closet door. He was still holding tight to her arm and he swung her into the closet and slammed the door behind her. The force of being thrown into the small closet dazed her for a few moments. She heard Ray push something up against the door and when she tried to open the door, it would not budge. She yelled at him to let her out, but he did not reply. Finally she gave up and flung herself upon the floor and cried herself to sleep.

Now awake, she looked around her small prison. It was hardly wide enough for her to lie down in. There was a rough blanket folded in one corner and some clothes hanging on the bar above her head.

"Are you awake?" she heard Ray ask from the other side of the closet door.

"Yes," Kata replied quietly. She heard something being pushed aside and she asked, hopefully, "Are you going to let me out?"

Ray laughed at this. "Don't expect to get out of there anytime soon. Not after what you pulled last night. Now, I'm going to open the door, but don't you even try to come out."

Katalin huddled still in the corner as Ray opened the door and put a plate with toast and a glass of juice on the floor. Then he closed the door and once again pushed a heavy object against it. "Now, go ahead and eat. And if you need to use the bathroom, just yell for me. I don't want you making a mess of yourself and stinking up the place."

As Kata heard him turn and walk from the room, tears rolled down her cheeks. She gingerly picked up the toast and began to eat it.

"Mommy and Daddy will find me soon," she told herself.

……….

"Three o'clock this afternoon, right?" Gillian asked Edmund.

He nodded, "The money is ready."

"I want to go with you," she told him.

"No, stay back here at Wildwind. You don't need to be in the middle of that," Maria told her.

"But I am in the middle of this!" she replied emphatically.

"Maria's right, let Dimitri and I handle this," Edmund told her.

"You are pregnant and you were told to take it easy and so far I don't see you doing that," Maria said.

"How am I supposed to just sit here and do nothing while my daughter is out there somewhere with Ray?" she asked.

Maria sat down next to Gillian and tried to comfort her. "Honestly, we can't answer that. But, Gillian, it won't do you or Katalin or the baby any good to go with Edmund this afternoon."

Gillian looked to the floor, knowing they were right.

"Now, why don't you go on upstairs and take a shower," Maria suggested.

"I'll go find Ryan and try to talk some sense into him," Edmund told her.

"Thank you, Edmund, for everything."