Reap (The Harvest Saga Book 1) (8 page)

“Oh,” Zander’s eyebrows raised. “And, Abby, you should reconsider my proposal. Lulu’s not here to shield you anymore.”

“What? What do you mean?” She’s not here to shield me? Then it dawned on me. No smoke was rising from the direction of our cabin. She wasn’t home. She was always home before me, cooking dinner and buzzing around the house.

“What happened to her?” I tried to push by them, tears clouding my vision. Rough hands clamped around my upper arms.

“Abigail. Calm down. Nothing happened to her. She’s just been sent to Olympus on some official business,” he paused. “Indefinitely.”

I began to shake and blinked to release the tears that pooled heavily in my eyes. Those pools nearly turned red with rage. “Indefinitely? And, let me guess, you and your father had nothing to do with it?”

“Oh, we had everything to do with it. Like I said, you should really reconsider. She would want to see your wedding ceremony.”

I ripped my arms away from him. “I will never marry you. One minute you treat me like scum on your shoe and the next you threaten me? Unbelievable, even for you Zander.”

He grabbed me again. Big mistake. “Let me go.”

Crew stepped in. “Release her, now. You’ve had your fun with her, now let’s go. Surely you’re joking, anyway. Why would you take a servant as your wife when you could have any female in this village?” He clapped Zander’s shoulder and nodded for them to continue on their way.

“True. I could have any other girl in the village, or in yours,” he released my arms. “But, there’s fun in the challenge of breaking something so strong. Don’t you think, Crew?” His fingers slithered into my hair.

“Get off me,” I shoved him as hard as I could and he stumbled but didn’t fall. He and Crew laughed as they walked off toward the Preston house. If I had been paying attention, I might have noticed Crew looking back at me as I fled. I seethed toward home, knowing now I would find it empty.

Sitting in the dark, the
old rocking chair creaked and groaned with every motion. Back and forth. Back and forth. Creak, squall. Creak, groan. I was on the porch when Kyan came running toward the house. Somehow, he saw me. Maybe it was the motion of the rocking chair that caught his eye. He scooped me up and held me tight. Tears had been flowing from my eyes all afternoon, but when Kyan showed me that he loved me, in whatever capacity this was, the real crying began in earnest.

“They took her,” I sobbed and knotted the fabric of his shirt, dragging him even closer.

“I heard she had to leave and wanted to see if you were okay.”

I shook my head. “They made her leave. Sent her away.”

“Who?” He pushed me back, just enough to look at my eyes.

“The Preston’s. They want me to agree to accept Zander or they won’t bring her back. I’m not even sure if they’ll bring her back even if I
do
accept his hand.”

“You’re not marrying Zander Preston.”

“I don’t want to. But, what am I supposed to do? Lulu is in Olympus. I can’t just leave her there.”

“Has she ever been sent to the city before?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe this is one of those times. Maybe Preston’s capitalizing on her trip to trick you into agreeing to marry Zander?”

I shrugged. It didn’t matter. Lulu was all I had. And they took her. I needed to get her back. Kyan didn’t leave me. He guided me inside, lit all of the candles and fixed dinner for us. I could barely eat, and though he noticed, he kept silent on the matter.

He went to the creek for water so that I could wash up before bed and then took Lulu’s bed for himself. Though a wall separated us, I felt like we could see right through it, see each other. Right into one another’s eyes—one another’s souls.

∞

The next morning, the sun
was working overtime. The air was hot and dry. Apples were baking on the branches and falling to the ground. They were rotting faster than we could pick them. The children were busy. Running in and out of the trees, they plucked the rotten fruit from the ground and placed them in buckets. Some squealed happily until scolded by their caretakers or parents. Their buckets were filled quickly and by the day’s end a huge pile of rotten apples lay at the end of the orchard.

Kyan grinned and nodded his head at the pyramid of steamy, spongy fruit. Gnats and bees were busy buzzing around the pyramid of rot, making the most of the feast. Laney grabbed my hand and I told Crew to hang back with us for a while if he had nothing better to do. He did.

When the adults and supervisors were gone, and dusk had settled into the valley, we paired off into teams. Kyan and me versus Crew and Laney. “What do we do exactly?” Crew asked nervously. I decided a demonstration was the best explanation. I picked up a browning, wilted apple and chucked it at him. It was so hot and gross that it exploded when it hit his thigh.

For a moment, he looked stunned, but that only lasted a minute before he narrowed his eyes and grabbed an apple of his own. I tried to run but was too slow. His apple hit me directly in the calf. It was on. Apples flew everywhere. Their sweet smell and our laughter floated into the evening air.  Laney tried to hide behind the pile, so I knocked the whole thing over onto her. She squealed and laughed, running away from the apple-anch.

Crew and Kyan exchanged blows. Kyan had perfected his strategy over the years. He launched multiple apples at once. But, Crew’s aim was more precise. I ducked behind a nearby tree and barely avoided one of his stinging blows. We laughed and threw until we ran out of breath and collapsed on the ground in gasping giggles. It was one of the best evenings I’d had in a long time. 

When we were spent, we all took off in different directions, but somehow, Crew had gotten lost. His trail connected with mine. “You took a wrong turn back at the old dead tree.”

Shaking his head, he grinned. “I’ll never figure out this maze of trails.”

“You will. Maybe. I mean, you won’t be here long, right?”

He stared at me. “Right. Well, thanks Abby. You could have let me wander around.”

He turned to leave and I remembered how he’d treated me when I met him and Zander on the trail. Perhaps I should have given him bad directions after all.   

∞

The next few days passed
in a blur, but on Friday morning, a fierce red-streaked sky greeted me on the way to the orchards. My eyes were trained on the bleeding sky the whole way there. I passed Crew before heading toward Laney, and his eyes fell on mine and then sunk to the ground. He didn’t even want to look at me now. I guess Zander had done his job well. Crew and his family were staying at the Preston’s so I was sure Zander had divulged all sorts of information about our village. And, apparently about me.

His skin was raw, bright red where it had been pale. And, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Ky slapped him on the back. “You’re baked, dude.”

Crew smiled back and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know, man.”

“How do you pick cotton in the sun all day without frying to a crisp?”

Crew’s smile dropped. He shifted his feet. I looked at Laney and she nodded back at the pair. “I...our healer mixes this lotion using a local bark that blocks the rays of the sun so we don’t get burnt. I’m one of the palest in our settlement, so I use most of the lotion she makes, though.” He smiled sheepishly.

“Wow. I wish we had some for you. Looks painful. Here’s a hat, though.” He took the hat off of his head and tossed it to Crew. Crew put it on backwards, exactly how Ky had been wearing it. He looked up to see Laney and me looking at him and then quickly corrected the cap, the bill shading his face. But, I was pretty sure his neck turned a deeper shade of crimson for a few moments.

“Did he seriously not know how to wear a ball cap? Cottons are so weird.” Laney looked at me from her perch in the tree, dropping the apples into my wire basket. “I heard Lulu had to take a trip to Olympus. Are you okay in the house by yourself?”

“Sure.” I shrugged like it’s no big deal. “She has to go every so often. It’s not the first time I’ve stayed by myself.” I wasn’t about to tell her that Kyan had been staying in Lulu’s room overnight. Paige Winters would have me whipped within an inch of my life and Norris would no doubt be grinning as my blood spurted across his sickening face. I cringed at the thought.

“Oh! You’re coming tomorrow night, right?” I looked at her blankly. “Oh, maybe I forgot to tell you. We’re having a bonfire party for those from the other villages who are helping.” She leaned down and dropped her voice conspiratorially. But her voice was so loud, I was sure everyone within a ten tree radius heard our conversation. “It’s going to be so much fun. It’s at the old park after dark tomorrow.” Her blonde curls bounced with her excitement as she clapped her hands together.

“I don’t think I—”

“Oh, no. No. No. No. You
are
coming with me, Miss Abby. Don’t even think about weaseling out of this. We never get visitors here and we are going to be most hospitable.” An evil grin erupted on her face and I suddenly wondered just how friendly she intended to get with these people.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

Laney squealed and climbed the tree a bit higher.

“Abby?” Kyan called.

I ducked around the tree and approached him. Crew was standing beside him, barely making eye contact with me again. There was no lukewarm with him. He was either friendly or avoided me completely. “I need you in the trees until you have to leave. We’re behind on our quotas. Crew will go between and help both you and Laney.”

I nodded and began climbing the tree beside my strangely silent-normally bubbly-blonde friend. My back stretched painfully as I maneuvered into the tree. The limbs were close together and some of the knotted bark scraped me as I moved past making me wince. I went straight to work, settling myself in a comfortable spot and began picking. “Crew, may I have a bushel please?”

He passed me the small woven basket and our fingers brushed. I felt a jolt of electricity from the contact and broke it immediately. He jumped back, too, releasing the basket so that I jerked harshly back against the trunk. His lip snarled accusingly.

I rolled my eyes. As if I had done anything on purpose. I didn’t even know what had passed between us. It was strange, like a spark of static electricity without the physical zap—only the shocking feeling left behind.

I quickly filled the bushel and handed it down to him, making sure to avoid touching his hand again. The hour passed quickly and I was pushing it. I wanted to stay and help, but knew I had to get to the Preston’s house.

Reluctantly, I handed Crew the final bushel and began my descent. I had positioned my sneaker on the final tree joint and shifted my weight. The worn rubber on the bottom of my shoe couldn’t grip the tree’s bark like it used to. It slipped and so did I. I wasn’t that high up, but felt the wind in my hair as I began to fall, clawing at the small branches beside my hands, though I knew they couldn’t hold my weight if I did grab hold of them. I closed my eyes. This was going to hurt. My back didn’t hit the ground. Instead, two strong arms folded around me, one under my back and one under my knees. I clung to him, out of breath.

I couldn’t move. Beneath my bandages, I could feel the wetness soaking in. Some of the just barely healed gashes had just been torn open again and were bleeding. I panicked and began kicking and scooting away from him. Crew. He reluctantly let me go.

“Are you okay?”

His eyes searched mine, before they moved over my body. I winced as I stood up and began backing away. “I’m fine. Just shaken up. Thank you. Thanks, Crew. I…I have to go…to the Preston’s. Tell Kyan for me?”

He pushed himself to his feet, eyeing me warily. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt?”

“No. I just can’t be late. Thanks, though. Seriously. I owe you one.”

He muttered something under his breath as I ducked into the next row and quickly began walking toward the dreaded part of my day. I couldn’t let him see my back. 

∞

That evening I was sore
from the fall, or the landing, though it had been better than landing on the ground. I was sweaty and needed to be clean. The only one place I could think of that would both soothe my skin let me get clean: the lake. A swim sounded amazing. I grabbed some clothes to change into and a bar of soap and took off down the trail that into the woods beyond. The sun had set and crickets were serenading the evening. The tall grasses along the pathway brushed my bare legs. I’d rolled my jeans up earlier in the afternoon. It had been a hot, sunny day.

Crew’s bright red skin flashed into my mind and I smiled. I could smell the wild onions that thickened along the lake shore, made lush by the plentiful water and sunlight. My favorite spot was along the eastern side of the water, where a large flat rock jutted into the lapping waves.  No one else was here tonight. Some nights I had to wait to clean up. Most villagers, male and female alike, had lost their sense of modesty long ago due to necessity, but like my clothes, it was something I’d never been able to shed.

I undressed quickly, hung my clothes on a nearby tree branch and grabbed my soap bar. Lulu had made it with a rope sticking out of each end so we could secure it to our wrists when bathing and wouldn’t lose so many bars. It took a while to make soap, so each bar was a commodity. She and I both hated that job with a passion. I missed her. Exhaling, I gingerly sat on the end of the rock, dipping my toes in to test the temperature of the water. It was perfect. The sun had warmed it today, but only just enough. The cool nights had tempered it nicely. This was going to feel great. I unwrapped my bandages and peeled them away. Some were stuck to me, bonded with the dried blood from earlier. It hurt, but I ripped the fabric away. Best to do it quickly.

I slipped off the rock into the water and adjusted to it for a moment before swimming several yards out into the lake. I made the trip out and back at a leisurely pace several times. Approaching the rock again, someone was standing nearby undressing.  Oh my…no! It was Crew! I grasped my mouth with one hand and my breasts with the other and then decided to swim back out and wait for him to wash up and leave.