Stealing Grace (20 page)

She was still sitting in his lap, him on the floor. They hadn’t taken their eyes from each others. She didn’t want him to have doubts about her. Had she not shown him over and over how much she loved him?

Alex let out a sigh of relief, he almost looked as if he’d cry, just sitting there shaking his head back and forth, taking it all in. She put her hands on his cheeks and then he finally spoke.

“I don’t deserve you. El, I’m serious about this. We are going to head out past the city, take a day trip. I’m gonna marry you...for real, and we can spend the rest of the day there. There’s a festival coming, I saw a poster for it in the city. It looks like it’ll be fun.”

“That sounds perfect. I. Love. You.” She made sure to enunciate every word, burning a whole in his eyes with hers.

“I know. I won’t doubt it again, I promise. I love you, too.” He pulled her hands down from his face, holding her left hand so tender, rubbing her ring finger with his thumb.

“May I?” he asked timidly.

“Yes, silly! I’m yours already!” Elena was crying her happy tears, the ones she could never hold back.

He smiled as he slid the ring on her finger in front of her wedding band and they both gazed at it for a moment like it was magical. It was a band just like the first but it had tiny diamond hearts completely covering and surrounding the silver band. He wanted her to have both, for both weddings, each with a different meaning and purpose.

Then he wiped the tears from her cheek with his finger, wrapped his arms around her, his face on her neck. She ran her fingers through his hair, scratching his back and shoulders, knowing how much he loved that.

The storm outside was growing more angry, but they hadn’t even noticed. Forget the wine. They couldn’t let go. They lay down on the floor together, letting the candles burn down, and wrapping the other end of the blanket around them. Alex lay behind Elena with his arm around her and his other under her head.
Perfect
.

She could feel his love for her when he touched her and it made her feel safe and tingly and...warm.

They stayed like that all night as the storm raged on outside, but in their minds, it was only the dim moonlight falling on them through the window, casting shadows. It was all a sweet reminder of their life up until now, their journey of forgiveness and gratefulness.

* * *

They woke in the morning with it still drizzling but the storm had passed. Alex was a little weary to go and inspect the damage the outside. There would be a lot of cleanup and he was not looking forward to it. Elena turned into him.

“Good morning, husband.”

“Good morning, wife.” He chuckled and she smiled looking down at her newly adorned ring finger.

“Is this ok? I mean, I can’t wear this out of the house can I?”

“Ehhhh, no. It’s mainly for the future. One day, El, we are gonna get out of all this and live like normal people. I just wanted to you to have something physical, that you could touch, an anticipatory gesture of what’s to come,” he said looking smug at his cleverness and play on big words.

“Yeah, I figured that,” she succumbed smiling pulling herself into his chest.

He just laughed, allowing her to settle into him.

“Did I ever tell you how much I
love
it when you call me El?” she told him, not opening her eyes.

“
Really
? Hmmm. Well then, El, how about we get some breakfast?”

She smiled widely, letting out a little groan of happiness. Then she remembered, she hadn’t thought about it all night what with all that had transpired. What had happened with the husbands? Did the storm hinder them from spreading the news of their wives escape? Power was still out she recognized. She popped up to look at Alex and he immediately knew.

“Ok, let’s get up. I’ll go investigate.” He helped her to her feet then slowly grabbed her, his arms around her, heads together. “Thank you.” His eyes were closed and they were swaying back and forth.

“For saying yes? How could I not? You’ve got to give yourself some credit, Alex. You pull some pretty smooth moves sometimes,” she said it jokingly but was totally serious.

“If you say so.” He chuckled and actually blushed bit. “Alright,” he said reluctant to let go, “I’ll go outside and survey the damage, before making the calls.”

She winced at that thought.
Poor Alex is going to be out there for days cleaning up that mess.
She made her way to the kitchen and started the coffee.

Alex was getting dressed in the bedroom when they heard a knock at the door. Both came around their corners to look at each other. Alex, no shirt on, buttoned his jeans and with his bare feet padded to answer the door. Elena ran back into the kitchen, wearing only Alex’s button up green shirt.

“Hey, Lewis, what can I do you for?” Alex was leaning against the door frame so their guest wouldn’t try to come in. “Some storm, huh?”

“Yes it was, and apparently, we have a problem. Is your wife here?” Lewis asked, as if he knew the answer.

“Of course she is. Where else would she be?” Alex asked folding his arms over his chest.

“Some of the wives escaped last night. We don’t know how but they are communicating with each other somehow, to organize this. A couple of others and myself went to help Roger last night with a crisis at the mill and while we were gone, they escaped.” He banged his fist on he doorjamb. “All three! It’s a conspiracy!”

“Hmmm, you hadn’t left her alone before that right?”

“Well, no, I-” the man sputtered and huffed.

“Well, then, isn’t it likely that she knew you’d be gone for a while and had time to run for it, especially with the storm last night? You’ve got to be more careful, Lewis. First Howard, now you and whoever else...” He trailed off, trying to look disappointed.

“I know, I know. This has never happened in the community before. You’re right, it was careless but what was I supposed to do? The council is going to meet in a couple days to discuss it. Why didn’t you come to help? Then your wife wouldn’t be here either,” Lewis growled unhappily.

“My phone and power have been off for a while. I do live the closest to the river. Maybe he tried but couldn’t reach me. We were here all night.”

“Can I see her? Just to make sure she is here, and you’re not bluffing.”

“Now why would I do that, Louie?” Alex said smiling and speaking condescendingly.

“Because it’s embarrassing. I know you, You’ve got your father’s pride. Just let me see her and I’ll be on my way.”

“El?” Alex called sweetly.

Elena peeked around the corner, trying not to show her half naked body, but sure he could tell anyway.

“Yes?” she said, spatula in hand.

“Oh...Well, Alex, you sly dog you. I’ll be off then. Keep an eye on her. Women are just...evil, Alex. This act could all be a trick for you to let your guard down and then she’ll be gone like the rest of them.”

“Don’t worry, Lewis. I’m all over it,” Alex stated while pulling the door shut, forcing Lewis to step down. “Sorry about the wife, tough break.”

“Thanks. Remember what I said. See you in a couple days.”

Alex shut the door and turned to her.

“You’re
evil
. Did you know that?” She just smiled. “Well I’ve got to say, you do look devilish in my shirt.”

She bit her lip, nodded in playful agreement and turned to finish breakfast. He followed her in, grabbing a cup of coffee, then sprinting back to the bedroom to finish getting dressed. Once he was dressed in his fitting long sleeve t-shirt and tennis shoes, he slowly opened the door.

“Wow.”

Yes, there were a few limbs down. Yes, there were leaves everywhere. Yes, the yard had standing water, but that was it.

“Really”, he wondered out loud to himself, “this is it?” Maybe the storm hadn’t been as bad as they had thought it had been.

* * *

After breakfast, Elena got dressed quickly in her perfect fitting blue jeans and pocket v-neck shirt. Alex eyed her as they walked down the porch, she noticed, and liked the way her looked at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She liked it that he found her attractive. Nobody had ever seemed to before, except guys who were just jerking her around.

They climbed in the truck and made the short drive to Roger and Amy’s.

Boy, was Alex wrong about the storm.

It had been disastrous. Power lines down everywhere, trees and huge limbs strewn over the roads, fences and yards. Parker’s garage had been smashed completely in. Some of the lower roads had some standing water over them. When they reached Roger’s they were surprised because his yard didn’t look that bad either, like theirs.

Roger was drinking a cup of coffee on the porch and he straightened up when he saw them pull in. When they stepped out, both out of the drivers’ side, Roger yelled to them.

“You just missed Lewis.”

“Yeah, he already paid us a visit this morning,” Alex said as he placed a hand on Elena’s back, helping her up the steep steps.

“I figured. You must have been convincing. He doesn’t suspect a thing.”

Once inside, Elena and Amy greeted each other.

“Would you two like some coffee?” Amy asked, already grabbing some cups down for the hooks.

“Sure, love some,” Elena said.

She wanted to run to Amy and tell her everything about Alex and his proposal last night, Amy was her only friend after all. This would have been one of those normal gushing-to-tell-your-best-girl –friend-all-the-sweet-details moments, but under the circumstances, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act.

She wasn’t normally the tell-all kinda girl anyway.

Alex and Roger sat on the couch and Amy and Elena fixed the coffee cups and brought them into the living room to serve.

“Thanks, babe,” Roger said, not even trying to hide his affection anymore.

He really had changed. Amy smiled at him as she sat at his feet, her arms resting on his legs. It had been a couple weeks since Roger’s ‘awakening’. He and Amy seemed so incredibly happy. Elena couldn’t help but smile when she looked at them.

Elena sat next to Alex, their arms and legs touching on the sofa.

Alex told them the whole story about their escapade the night before. They all wondered who would be next. What would be the next move? The festival was in 1 week, about eighty miles away.

Alex told them of their plan to renew their vows then, on their own terms. Roger sat silently for a moment and then spoke to Alex.

“Alex. Could we, uh... Can we intrude on your wedding day?” He turned to look at Amy, without waiting for Alex’s answer. “What do you say, babe? Will you marry me,” he looked bashful, “again?”

Tears streaming, Amy managed to get out an answer.

“Yes, Roger!” she squealed and hugged him.

Elena had thought the water works were done but here they came again. Could things get better than this? Alex said what Elena couldn’t get out.

“Yes! Nothing would make the day better than that.”

They sat, in complete contentment the rest of the night laughing, talking of plans and ideas for the future and the plans for the girls. Could life get better?

They were all about to find out.

Chapter 9

Four days left until the festival. Alex was wondering about the other men. His ‘friends’ for all intents and purposes, if any more of them could be saved from this life. If any of the others might be feeling that something was wrong as he and Roger had. Would it be worth it to try and find out, risk everything for it?

Alex wondered also about God. Did he really play a part in all this? Was he the main reason? There had to be some higher power watching over them. Elena was his perfect match and the glue in this operation.

He also considered just running away after the festival and never coming back, try to take care of stopping the community from far away somehow. They didn’t exactly have a plan on how to do that anyway.

Elena had been collecting ‘evidence’. She had marriage certificates, courtesy of the internet and the freedom of information act. She also had pictures of Meredith, one of the wives that had come in the office with her husband with a horrendous black eye and bruised wrist. Also another wife who had big bruises on her arms. Elena had taken stills from the surveillance video in Alex’s shop.

The only other thing she had were written testimonies; hers, Amy’s and three of the women they had already been set free. Elena got them to sign a form letter just before they had gotten out of the truck that day. She hadn’t thought about it with Pam.

It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

* * *

“The council meeting is tonight. You going?” Elena asked while both her and Alex were sitting on the couch reading opposite each other, legs intertwined.

They were trying to clear their minds and relax their bodies. It was extremely exhausting to worry and plot all day and night.

“Yeah, I kind of have to. They don’t have these very often. Matter of fact, I’ve never even been to one. You’re only allowed to come if you have a wife. It’s a big deal.”

“What do they do with the wives during the meeting?”

“You know…I don’t know. Ironic isn’t it? Having a meeting to discuss leaving your wives alone...as all the wives are home alone,” he said and laughed at the stupidity of it all.