Fall from Trace by Rebecca Connolly

Author:Rebecca Connolly [Connolly, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2020-01-29T18:00:00+00:00

Poppy had been in and out of the cottage all day, and Alex was grateful to have her gone for a bit. Everything got so muddled when she was around, and he needed to think clearly. He needed to be parted from the warmth of her presence in order to process appropriately.

He’d spent the early part of the day fixing her abysmal excuse for a roof, and the rain had added to the pitiful picture he had undoubtedly presented. But it had given him ample motivation to complete the task and avoid conversing with anyone, which is all he had wanted.

He couldn’t say that he’d actually mended a roof in his life, but that wasn’t about to stop him from spending as long as he needed to work away at it. Finally, it had stopped leaking, so he supposed he had done his job well.

Or well enough, at any rate.

He saw Poppy return from her errand, and it hadn’t taken much to understand that she’d gone to Branbury, for whatever reason. He’d taken care to force his curiosity far, far away, determined to distance himself from her and from the situation. There was far too much for him to do, and she couldn’t have anything to do with any of it.

After the cottage roof, he’d moved on to the barn, shoveling it out, even though Stanton had informed him it was unnecessary. He’d long been trained to work when he needed an escape, or whenever he was able, and sometimes even when he wasn’t able. There was comfort in the monotony of hard labor, of letting his mind wander where it would without much by way of direction. He became less burdened, less congested by emotions and thought.

Work was what he needed. Work. Purpose. Drive.

Reason.

As he sat before the fire attempting to dry out now, Alex smirked to himself. He needed reason, and he wasn’t sure where he was going to find it. Nothing he had done since his escape had been reasonable or been anything close to resembling it. All he had done was survive.

For years.

“You’re shaking, Alex.”

Alex looked up at Gabe, sitting near the fire with him, watching him with amusement.

“That’s because it’s cold,” Alex told him, barely able to keep his teeth from chattering.

Gabe chuckled. “It’s not, actually, but we’ll go with that. I’d say something about the wisdom of working out in the rain all day, but when you’re miserable tomorrow, you’ll understand it all too well.”

“I had to be outside,” Alex told him with a scowl. “There wasn’t anything to do inside.”

“You’re going mad with all this, aren’t you?” Gabe asked, sobering just a little. “Adjusting to life outside of the ship, not having tasks to complete or expectations…”

Alex began nodding before Gabe trailed off. “I found out Poppy has been hearing my nightmares.”

“Ah…”

He glanced up at his cousin warily, hearing a knowing tone in the one word. Sure enough, Gabe’s smirk was smug, and his eyes twinkled.

“What?” Alex snapped irritably. “There is nothing to smile about in that.

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