TouchStone for ever (The Story of Us Trilogy) by Sydney Jamesson Read Free Book Online

Leave the covers and look at me.” I take hold of his hand
firmly.
    Reluctantly he lifts
his head until it’s level with mine. Fixing him with a magnetic stare, I see
how those blue, green hues have mingled into a kind of speckled pallet of
cerulean light. Even with apologetic eyes he’s beautiful.
    “I’m sorry for
behaving so irrationally yesterday and causing you to crash.” I feel my lips
beginning to quiver. “I didn’t mean what I said. I need you. I want you here
with me, forever. Nothing will change that.” I rest my cheek in his upturned
palm.
    “You didn’t cause me
to crash. Elise was in the car with me. She became incensed and grabbed the
steering wheel. We veered off the road and ended up in a ditch because of her
psychotic sense of injustice.  It had nothing to do with you.”
    “But if I hadn’t sent
you away, you wouldn’t have been driving the car. And …”
    “… And nothing. I
would simply have driven around for a while and returned, unscathed.”
    “You say that but …”
    “No. I say that
because it’s true. We both needed time to process what we’d learned. It was
distressing but we’re both stronger for it and we’ll get through this
together.”
    Through happy tears I
am nodding. “I can’t believe that Elsie is dead, Ayden. You must feel
terrible.”
    He clears his throat
and blows out a gust of air. “I feel for her but I’m not grieving; for the girl
I knew perhaps, but not for the woman she had become. She was damaged, through
no fault of her own. Yet she chose to take the path she did and to behave as
she did of her own free will.”
    “She did. But any
loss of life is tragic in its own way. She’s been so badly treated. She didn’t
learn how to love.”
    “That’s a very
charitable way of describing her failings.”
    “No it’s not, Ayden.
It’s the truth.”
    He’s nodding and
swept away, lost in his thoughts.
    “Are you thinking
about your childhood, your time at Bright Hill, your marbles?”
    He shakes his head
and smiles softly.
    “Maybe you should
leave them with her when you attend her funeral.”
    He’s startled by my
assumption that he would even consider making an appearance. “Why would I
attend her funeral?”
    “Because you loved
her, once.”
    “Be that as it may …”
    “You have to go.”
    He gives me a
reproving look. “I don’t have to do anything of the sort.”
    “You’re right, you
don’t. But at least think about it.”
    He pats my knees
beneath the blanket. “I will.”
    I grasp at his hands.
“I came to visit you last night when you were concussed. I was so worried about
you. Do you feel okay? ”
    “I’ll be fine.” He
offers a reassuring smile. “I heard you but I couldn’t respond. I came around
in the early hours and paid you a visit but you were sleeping.”
    “You did!”
    He nods. “But enough
about me, how are you feeling? Ready to come home?”
    I’m nodding my head
and the bed is shaking.
    He’s laughing at my
overly animated response. “It feels good to be here, with you.”
    “That’s because it’s
where you belong,” I state smartly.
    He offers a
tight-lipped smile. “Yes. It is.”
    Nurse Lorna makes her
presence felt with a cough. “Excuse me Mr. Stone, but I would like to take
Elizabeth’s blood pressure and temperature now.”
    He pulls a
disgruntled face and takes a backwards step. “Go right ahead. She’s all yours
for the next ten minutes.”
    I watch him head off
into the bathroom; the door is ajar and I make a point of observing him.  I’m
tracing the line of his broad shoulders and muscular back; the way he fills his
jeans front and rear. No wonder my heart rate is a little high, suddenly. He
winks at me and it skips a beat. Oh, how I’ve missed this husband of mine.
    Lorna inflates the
cuff at the top of my left arm and catches me looking. She leans in to whisper.
“He came here last night in the early hours and stayed for half an hour, just
watching you sleep.”
    “He told