Drowned History by Rebecca Lovell

Author:Rebecca Lovell [Lovell, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frozen Flame Press
Published: 2018-03-13T06:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Alice usually slept far more soundly than George, so when he sat straight up in the middle of the night clutching his chest and woke her up she knew something was wrong.

“George?” Alice sat up and put a hand on his arm. She was surprised to find he was shaking. “George, are you all right?” Instead of responding, he put his arms around her and held her so tightly that for a moment she couldn’t breathe. When he loosened his grip a little, Alice put her head on his bare chest and closed her eyes. His heart was racing beneath her cheek and she waited until his shaking had subsided to look up at him. “What did you dream about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, his voice flat and unsteady. He let go of Alice and she reached up to brush his sweaty hair out of his face.

“Why don’t I go and make us some tea? It’ll calm your nerves,” she said, knowing that there was very little chance she could get him to go back to sleep anytime soon.

“I’d rather have a stiff drink,” George replied, not surprising Alice in the least. It was what he always did when he woke up from one of his nightmares and she nodded, reaching for the lamp beside the bed. “No,” George said, catching her wrist in one of his hands and holding it firmly. “Leave it off.”

“All right.” She watched him slide out of bed in the light that came through the window from the moon, then did the same. She paused to put on her dressing gown, then saw that George had left his own over the back of his chair. With a sigh, she picked it up and carried it out to where he was sitting on one of the chairs in the living room and staring at the bookshelves on his wall. “Come on, now, you’ll catch your death.” Gently, she draped the dressing gown over his shoulders and he looked up at her as if he’d finally realized she was there.

“Thanks,” he said, and Alice was relieved to hear his voice was steady again. “I’ll get us something to drink.” He stood up and pulled on the dressing gown but didn’t cinch it closed, and Alice sat on the sofa and looked at the bookshelf. She wondered what he had been looking at.

Since she slept beside George almost every night she knew that there were times that his nightmares were more frequent, but this was the first he’d had in a while and she had a feeling from the way he acted that it was a bad one. He returned from the kitchen with a bottle of gin and two small glasses. Alice wasn’t much of a drinker but she knew it would put him more at ease, and she picked up the glass after he poured her a small drink.

“You know, a proper lady wouldn’t be drinking in the middle of the night,” George said, and Alice could tell he was trying his best to act normally.

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