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Chapter Sixteen
Home, home on the range, or in the woods
Wherein Sydney makes a discovery in the woods and our heroes have to do some more walking
Curled up against Julian’s chest, her head on his shoulder, she drowsily watched the scenery pass by the swaying wagon. She’d gotten quite fond of her new clothes, partially because Julian’s hand had been resting on the bare skin above her knee since they gotten in the wagon. Occasionally his hand would skim a little further up under her skirt or like now it was sliding across her leg and down to rest on the inside of her other leg. Shifting her legs to rub his hand between them she lazily smiled up at him. He shot her a warning look even though it was his hand that was sliding unobtrusively up the inside of her leg. She bit her lip when his hand stopped, oh, so close, then began slowly skimming back down to her knee before repeating the process. Partially in need of a distraction and partially to see if either her father or Marshall noticed the inappropriateness of Julian’s hand she glanced across the wagon bed.
Her dad was grimly and purposefully ignoring them, which she decided to take as a good sign. Marshall was also trying to ignore the fact that his friend and CIA agent Sydney was comfortably curled up to mercenary and CIA Most Wanted list member Mr. Sark. She decided she ought to tell him about her plans to quit the CIA and move here with Julian, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to him later.
“Marshall,” she waited until she had his attention, “I just wanted you to be the first of my coworkers to know that I’ll be resigning from the CIA once we get back.”
He looked surprised and a little bit pleased at the ‘first to know’, “Really? Wow, I’ll miss you, I mean you’ve been my friend, well I think we’ve been friends, since I first started at SD-6 and then the CIA. Um, um…” he eyes flickered from her to Julian like he was having some kind of fit.
She saved him from asking, “Me and Julian are moving here, to this side of the mirror.” She cuddled a little closer to Julian, who had, somewhat to her disappointment, returned his hand, more appropriately, to her knee.
“That’s great!” Marshall surprised her by honestly and enthusiastically exclaiming. “Are you getting married?”
She froze at the simple question and she could feel Julian stiffen as well. They hadn’t talked about that yet. She didn’t know what to say, she didn’t want to sound like she was hinting for him to ask her because he hadn’t ever made an indication that he was thinking of it. In fact she wasn’t sure she wanted to, she had a ring, they were going to live together, raising their child, did she really need to go through with the whole ceremony thing.
Marshall picked up on the awkward silence and mumbled something like an apology, scrunching down in the straw and pretending to sleep. She didn’t bother to look at her dad, instead turning her head to nuzzled against Julian’s neck, they’d have to talk about it later, privately. Julian had relaxed again and was softly stroking her hair, it felt nice and soothing and soon she was falling asleep.
Her eyes snapped open and she stared at the collar of Julian’s shirt and the road behind them. She wasn’t sure what woke her up, but she was definitely awake. A quick glance around showed her that the others where all dozing. She stretched a bit, not wanting to wake up Julian. Twisting her head around to work out the kink in her neck a flash of red and blue in the grove of trees ahead of them had her staring in puzzlement. She twisted herself so she was more comfortable and rested her chin on Julian’s shoulder as she watched the occasional flashes of colours. The colours winked in and out of her sight as the wagon drew closer and trees alternately hide and revealed them to her.
Glancing around she noticed a partially overgrown tract leading off of the road they were traveling on and into the grove where the colours were hiding. As they drew even with the tract her heart started beating a little faster as she could make out the peak of a thatched roof. Sitting up, not caring that she was jostling Julian, she stared down the path in the trees as they passed by. A thatched, Tudor-style, two story cottage stood at the end of the lane, a red and blue stained glass window graced the front of the cottage.
“Julian!” she shrieked, elbowing him in the chest as she scrambled out of his embrace and rolled off the end of the wagon. She hit the ground and was up and trotting towards the break in the trees before anyone else in the wagon quite knew what was going on.
She was halfway down the lane to the house when Julian came running up behind her, calling her name. He grabbed her elbow, halting her movement, while he scowled at her, gun in one hand, “What are you doing?” he was panting slightly.
She pointed down the lane, “Look! It’s the house from my dream.”
He didn’t let go of her arm and scowled at the house, “Fantastic darling. But did you have to shout my name then jump off the end of the wagon to go running off into the woods?”
She laughed and glanced back down lane to see her dad and Marshall headed their way while juggling all of their belongings. “Come on,” she slipped her arm out of his hand and started towards the house again.
“Sydney, someone could live there, you can’t just walk up to their house,” he hurried to catch up with her, his gun still in hand.
“I don’t think anyone lives here,” she peered around as she stepped out of the trees and into the clearing the cottage was built in.
The cottage certainly had a neglected air to it, also an aura of expectation, waiting. Several spots on the thatched roof were thin, one window was broken out on the first floor and the yard was run over by wild flowers and weeds. The two additions were missing but otherwise it was the house from her dream, the unique stained glass window of the phoenix singling it out.
“Come on,” she gleefully grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the window she remembered looking into in her dream. The window pane was dirty and she was disappointed that she couldn’t look in.
“Here,” he tucked his gun into this waistband and worked the window pane up.
She ducked her head in and was thrilled to find the room, while empty and dirty, looking just the same as in her dream. “This is it!” she jumped a bit excitedly and Julian smiled indulgently at her.
“What’s going on?” Jack grumpily wanted to know.
“This is our house!” Sydney excitedly exclaimed before hurrying around the corner of the cottage.
Julian followed her while explaining to Jack, “She’s taken a fancy to the place. She wants us to move here.”
“We are moving here!” she exclaimed from the back of the house.
He joined her around the back of the cottage where she was staring at the wide expanse of rolling grass, stretching to where the woods finished encircling the clearing and the buildings within it.
While it may not have been his first choice he did have to admit that it had a stateliness to it. With the two additions Sydney had described it would very much resemble a country manor home. The circle drive out front along with the fountain were nice touches. Sydney threw herself at him, knocking him back.
“I want this house Julian,” she whispered into his neck.
He sighed and wrapped his arms around her, “We’ll have to see what we can do.”
“We’re going to buy it,” she firmly told him then grabbed his hand and dragged him back around to the front where Jack and Marshall were still waiting. Jack was looking skeptical, probably because they’d lost their ride and didn’t know where the next town was. Marshall was half in the fountain’s basin to see how it worked.
Marshall slid out of the fountain, “This place is so cool. Can I come visit you sometime?”
“Sure,” Sydney gaily told him.
“We need to keep moving,” Jack dourly spoke up.
When Sydney looked like she might suggest staying here for the coming night he pointed out, “Once we reach a town I’m sure someone will know who owns this place.”
“That’s right!” she smiled widely at him.
Gathering their packs they started back down the lane and along the road.
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