6. The Way Back

They headed back to the mansion. The path was now stygian. The moon had not yet risen, and no starlight was strong enough to penetrate the canopy of that old growth arbor. Lucia was very grateful for the careful maintenance the path had been given. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face, let alone an object on the path.

That was the reason Illumi was giving himself for not releasing her hand. If he was unable to see anything but vague shadows, she must be, for all intents and purposes, blind. And most people found blindness at least a little disconcerting. They had been walking for a while and he wasn't feeling any distress from her aura, however there were some unfamiliar feelings, along with embarrassment, and lots of curiosity. He wondered how long she would stay silent.

"What was that?"

Not much longer it seems. "What?"

"That creature, before you came."

"Oh. That was Mike."

"Mike. Mike? It has a name? That terrible monster has a name?"

At that Illumi stopped, and dropped her hand.

"Yes. Mike has a name. Mike is the latest champion of a very rare breed of sighthound developed by the Zaoldyecks." He took a few steps away, turned, and continued, "My father personally trained him, and like his sire before him, he capably, loyally and faithfully protects the Zaoldyeck Family Estate from the many who would seek to harm us."

She was freezing. He had dropped her hand and moved away from her. That was without question the longest speech she had ever heard Illumi deliver. Certainly the longest directed to her, but it was so coldly and unemotionally recited, that it was painfully obvious she had offended. Who could have guessed that the vicious slavering beast was someone's pride…a beloved pet? The sun having departed, the autumn night was chill with hints at an early frost and Lucia's filmy dress was woefully unsuited to the rapidly falling temperature. The cold of the ground stabbed at her bare feet, and she shivered.

There it was… the distress. He could see it pulsing in waves from her aura. He had caused it of course. She had made him angry with her blithe dismissal of Mike and he had wanted to hurt her for it. It was a different world the Zaoldyecks lived in. Every trip he made outside the mountain reminded him of the truth of the lessons drilled into him since infancy. Those living on the other side of these walls could never understand what it was to be a Zaoldyeck. They may occupy the same planet, but they would never live in the same world. She was from that other world, so he supposed it wasn't very fair of him to fault her for her lack of understanding. Now she was standing a couple of meters away, feeling sadness, distress, and hurt, emotions he was quite familiar with having directed at him, though usually from targets, not clients. And she was trembling.

"C-could we p-please go b-back t-to your home now?" Her teeth were chattering, "I l-lost my shoes in the c-clearing…"

The shoes! He was an idiot. Seriously, he was going to devise a new personal training regimen tomorrow morning that involved concentration through multiple painful distractions, because if this little contretemps had addled his brain this far, there was a good chance he could wind up dead from lack of attention to detail on his next job. But what was he going to do about the shoes now? He couldn't very well tell her, 'Oh I've been carrying them around all this time.' After what he had just said to her, she would surely believe he had deliberately made her walk barefoot as some kind of punishment. He didn't want her to think of him as some twisted sadist. He didn't know why, but something cringed inside him when he thought of her looking at him the way she had looked at Milluki.

"I could carry you the rest of the way." It was all he could think of at the moment, and it would solve the shoe problem and the cold problem, in addition to getting them to their destination very much faster. Not that he had thought of the time they were taking walking back together as a problem up to this point. But he didn't have any jacket, or even a vest to offer her, and she was obviously very cold.

"Ha!" arms wrapped tightly around her torso, she barked a bitter little laugh; there was no humor in it, "I don't th-think so. I'm h-hardly a lightweight." Lucia was not heavy, she was tall and slender, but while she knew it would pose no problem for a man to carry her over a mud puddle, or over a threshold, or even across a swollen creek, at fifteen she was almost a woman grown. There was no way Illumi could carry her for the three or four kilometers remaining to his house. He must still think of her as a little child!

She was serious, he could tell. He sighed, as once again, unintentionally, she brought home the differences in their respective situations and perceptions. She had never even seen the giant gates to the estate grounds that every Zaoldyeck must be able to open on his own. He had no idea what it was, but he was certain she didn't measure her weight in tons.

He walked up to her in the darkness. "Put your arms around my neck."

She started, not having heard his approach. "All right, it's your b-back!"

Her arms went around his neck, and there was that feeling again. The dry, cold air must be creating a lot of static. He stooped to put his right arm under her knees, and lifted her off her feet, holding her in front of him. She didn't weigh anything at all, under fifty kilos. He had tried (really) to smooth her dress down under his arm, but apparently it didn't quite reach all the way down to her knees, and so the hem was now slowly sliding down, or rather up, her thighs. It would probably be drafty, but it couldn't be helped. She removed one arm from his neck to push the hem down, or up, but when he started to run she squeaked and hastily put her arm back. He smiled but quickly suppressed it as he ran.

Illumi could run like the wind! Like all girls of her standing, Lucia had had equestrian sports since she was a child, but even a galloping horse seemed slow in comparison to Illumi. It was breathtaking! To judge by his breathing, and the steadiness of his heartbeat under her right ear, he wasn't even exerting himself. She risked a glance up at his face, but she still couldn't see anything, which was a good thing since she could tell by the air rushing by that her legs were completely exposed again. She was going to burn this dress! Well, maybe not. Maybe she would want something to remember this day.

There was no need to hurry their return. Now that he was holding her, he could tell she was warming up. All of her distress seemed to have vanished, and he sensed that she was enjoying herself. Illumi had never thought about running as something either enjoyable or not, but right now, with the spongy earth underfoot, the warm and soft Miss VerHoffen held against his chest, and the woodsy scented air rushing past, he felt that he would like to run on like this forever. He wasn't going at a very fast pace for him, but she had already turned her face into his chest, so he didn't want to go any faster and risk scaring her. He supposed for a non-Zaoldyeck, she had already been through quite a lot, and she was the daughter of a very important client…and it didn't really make much difference if it took a little longer to get back to the house, did it?

Reflexively, Lucia turned her face into his chest to hide her blush, although it was so dark there was no chance he would see it. Something to remember This Day! How could she ever forget it? Had it really been only this morning that her mind had been consumed with thoughts of tomorrow's shopping trip with the daughter of the Prime Minister, getting a suitable Birthday present for her battle-ax of a Great Aunt, reviewing preliminary designs for the upcoming Winter Carnival, and completing her essay for History class? Then her father had asked her to accompany him to the Zaoldyecks' and now the entire world had been distilled down to one thing: Illumi. And right now he was holding her in his arms! She didn't want to think of anything else, she couldn't. It was just too much, too all-consuming. There just wasn't room for anything else, was there?