The Golden Desires (8 page)

He knew it was a diversion but conceded that
perhaps it was best that he play along with it. He did not want to argue with
her, and he certainly did not want there to be vexation between them. For now
he would let it go.

She saw him take a deep breath, as if trying to
realign his thinking and ready his words.

"The mill was busier yesterday. There was
enough warmth yesterday, we think, to create more water flowing, and that
enabled the water wheel to flow more freely, so it was a good day of milling
all round."

"I am glad. I know how you get when your days
are not busy," she said and smiled at him with the deepest look of
affection, making his heart pound in his chest.

For a moment he just looked at her, enjoying the
look of her eyes, her mouth, her hair. He knew they were friends, and he knew
they were lifelong companions. But he wished so much that they could be more,
that sometimes he found that it physically hurt inside.

"Come, let us wash up and then leave,"
she said all of a sudden, at the same time taking more bread, including one
slice with some mushroom spread on it.

Adrian knew who it was for but said nothing.
Despite how the man seemed to be affecting Isabella, he was a man nonetheless
and even Adrian could see and concede how little food he must have had in
recent times. No matter how the two men might not wish to know each other, Adrian
would at least help her to keep the strange man alive.

~~~~~

"Here," Isabella said to Trent as she
approached him. "I have food for you, but come with me and let us find
somewhere quieter and less open."

Trent absorbed the look of her, thinking about
their earlier kisses. He became aware in that moment that since arriving in
this
impossible
place, he had become completely obsessed with her …
enamoured. But the problem for him was not knowing if that was real or not. He
wasn't even sure if
she
was real, so how could he begin to be certain if
any of his feelings were real.

He grabbed his packed up gear, stood and
immediately followed her, the two of them now more comfortable with having to
work together to avoid the different obstacles that each other could see in
their path.

She led him to an area where the people of the
village bathed, but she knew no-one was ever there in the mornings. It was a
place people tended to go late in the afternoon, after a day's work was done.

Trent was suddenly aware of the sound of water and
when he focused he could see that she was leading him to a small pool with a
waterfall flowing into it. It was the first moving thing - apart from her, her
friend and the ancient he had met - that he had seen in the grey landscape that
was his constant view.

Isabella sensed his attention and questioned him
with a look of curiosity on her face.

"Do you see the water?"

He smiled broadly all of a sudden.

"Yes!" The word came out almost as a
laugh, he was so joyed. He wondered why he had not been able to hear the water
running from within the main part of the village, but quickly dispelled the
question in his mind. Right now he was able to see water that he could drink
and he could bath in.

Isabella watched him edge closer to the side of
the pool, crouch down and touch the water with his fingers. Instantly he looked
back at her and smiled.

"It is warm," he said and she laughed at
him.

"Yes, it is where we bathe."

"But to drink?"

"No, do not drink that. There is water
running through it constantly so it is alright to bathe in, but we gather our
drinking water up further from here. I can take you there now if you
wish…"

"No!" he said, too intrigued by the warm
water pool before him. "No, thank you Isabella but I would like to just
stop here for a while and take my time to enjoy this, if you don't mind."

She nodded at him, and stood to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"You wish to bathe. Do you not wish to do so
in private?"

He stood and came up to her, putting his arms
around her and kissing her on her lips, making her melt against his chest as he
felt her arms enclose him also.

"Are there any other people here now? From
your time?"

She shook her head.

"No. No-one comes here in the morning. It is
usually later in the day when anyone bathes."

He kissed her again, deeply, and heard her groan
escape from her throat.

"Stay with me. I have so much to ask about
your life here," he said and she nodded once more.

He edged closer to the water and gave her a smile.

"I am going to undress, Isabella," he
said, wondering what she would do.

Instantly she turned away and presented her back
to him, but not before he saw a distinct level of redness on her face.

He undressed quickly and tentatively crept into
the water, feeling a soft and silky texture on the ground in the water, under
his feet. It was like sinking into a hot bath, and he relaxed down, eventually
putting his head under and vigorously rubbing his hair to loosen what he knew
must be extreme layers and levels of  dirt on his scalp.

When he turned around to face her he saw that she
had turned back again and was watching him with a vast smile on her face, and
intense amusement in her eyes.

He treaded water as their eyes locked.

"Do you want to come in?" he asked her
and she blushed again.

"I
should
bathe today, but no, I do
not think so, Trent. It would not be right," she replied, all the while
looking longingly at the water … and him.

Looking at him mostly covered by the water, she
could see his arms and his shoulders, and liked the shape of them. She knew he
had told her he had reduced in size since starting his journey, but she liked
his shoulders. And she was curious about what his body would look like once she
helped him to once again be eating regularly.

She saw him smile brilliantly at her and then dive
under the water. When he came up she was laughing at him.

"Do you do such things in water, where you
are from?"

"Yes, where I have lived we have large pools
but the ones I have been in were mostly man-made. I have never seen anything
natural like this. Not natural and so warm, although I know there are such
places around still."

He watched her as she sat, looking at him with the
look of intense curiosity, as if she still could not believe he was in her reality.

"I should wash those clothes in here,
too," he said, nodding his head to indicate the pile of clothing he had
just removed. "Could you pass them to me, Isabella?"

She stood and walked forward, crouched down, and
one piece at a time, passed his items into the water for him to catch, wash in
the water, squeeze out, and then pass back to her to put on the ground before
doing the same to the next item.

"Thank you. I shall get out now," he
said but she continued to watch him, seemingly not comprehending what he had
said. He laughed softly at her. "Isabella, can you please turn around for
a few minutes?"

Finally he saw her face realize what he was
implying, and she turned and walked back to his backpack, brought it forward
for him, and then turned and walked a short distance away, keeping her back to
him.

"I dreamed about … touching … your
body," he heard her say softly, and he was instantly aroused, immediately dreading
she would turn around in that moment.

"I did, too. Touching you and … kissing
you."

He pulled from his pack the cleanest clothing he
had - not that anything was
really
clean anymore - and quickly put them
on.

"Okay, I am dressed. It is safe to turn
around now."

Isabella turned and saw that he was in different
clothing. She watched him as he gathered up his wet clothing and haphazardly
threw them over various rocks to let the sun and warmth from the ground under
them, dissolve the moisture from the fabrics.

"This part of your village must still be
intact then?," he asked her and she nodded.

"It seems so, does it not? I do not know what
happened here but I believe Elder Rhys has more to tell us."

He came and sat beside her. Still all he saw was
dirt around them, even though to her was the view of greenery and colour.

"No-one is here?" he asked her, suddenly
desperate to see what she saw, and wondering if the same action of placing both
of his hands down on the earth would provide him with that view.

She nodded at him.

"It is safe."

Trent lowered his hands one at a time. When both
came in contact with the earth he felt the same energy surge through him, once
again forcing him to close his eyes and just indulge in the feeling.

When he opened them he was astounded by the colour
around him. The green of the trees and bushes, and grass before him. But nearby
he could see lavender coloured roses climbing up one of the walls, and the
scent from them was heavenly.

As Isabella watched his facial expressions as he
moved from one time to another, she saw something new. A small tear was
appearing in his eyes - just enough to show moistness where a moment ago there
had been none.

"What moves you so?" she asked him and
he turned his focus to her.

"
Everything
."

He moved his eyes away from her for a moment, once
again looking all around him.

"Your land is so beautiful. It should never
have changed…"

He felt overwhelmed by emotions and needed to be
closer to her. Knowing - weighing up - that he would lose the views around them
when he moved his hands, he made the judgement then to stand up, seeing the
landscape instantly change back to the brown and grey it naturally was to him.

Isabella saw him reach out his hands toward her and
she stood and walked into his arms, once more feeling the pull toward him,
while he focused on the intense need to kiss her with a hunger that at times
was not there but right now, in this moment, was highly invigorating to him.

They clung to each other, kissing with intense
desire, and yet still he found no arousal in his body - it was her lips
touching his lips that drove his hunger, and it was if his body knew she was
not his …
yet
.

She pulled away from him suddenly.

"You must be hungry," she said,
remembering the bread she had carried with her.

He laughed out loud, for a moment confusing her.

"You have no idea."

Seeing she did not understand the play on words,
he did not say anything more. He sat down on the ground and she sat before him,
as he placed his hands down and watched the vista change once more.

Isabella broke up the plain bread first and fed
him piece after piece, neither of them saying anything.

"I also brought a piece with small amount of
special mushroom spread that Cook Nina prepared. I like it but not everyone
does. Would you like to try?"

The thought of tasting fresh mushroom made him
salivate as he nodded, eager to try a different flavour from the bread, which
perfectly served to fill his tummy but left a gap of taste on his tongue.

Slowly he saw her present to his mouth a small
piece with the brownish spread over it, and he pulled it in.

He felt like he was in food heaven. It tasted
similar to mushrooms he had eaten in the city, but the depth of the flavour was
incredible. Without thinking he let out a groan of contentment at the effect it
had on his taste buds, and had closed his eyes to savour the flavour.

Suddenly he heard her giggling at him, and he was
awoken from his enjoyment, presenting her with a sheepish grin.

"I have not tasted anything that good for so
long," he said and she happily broke off another piece to present to him.

~~~~~

"I must not stay here much longer or others
will notice my absence," Isabella said to him as they both relaxed on the
ground, lying down but facing each other. "But I shall come and find you
after the evening meal. Will you stay here now?"

Trent nodded. While he could not keep seeing the
grass and greenery, it was still a peaceful place to be, and he could wash more
of his clothing in this spot while listening to the waterfall.

"I will. I do not think I can sleep here at
night due to the sound of the water but I certainly could sit here all day. I
might even venture back into there," he said, pointing to the pool once
more.

Isabella sat up to begin her move toward getting
on with other things she should already have been doing.

"Now that I know you like mushrooms, I shall
be able to bring you more flavours to try. I can see that your appetite is
already mending, and it will be good for your body to have better
sustenance."

"Thank you."

She leaned into him and kissed him softly, at once
feeling the passion for him so pulled away quickly.

"I shall never get anything done if I keep
kissing you, and that would not do at all."

~~~~~

Left alone, Trent pulled everything from his
backpack and laid it out in the sun. The warmth of the ground had resulted in
the few things he had already washed earlier, already being close to dry, so he
was eager to wash more items.

Uncertain about what lay ahead for him, he decided
he would move ahead as if he would leave again when he found the strength, so
could make himself prepared for the journey in the meantime. He knew inside of
him that he would not … could not … survive a return journey, but he had to
move through the day with something to do. A part of him yearned to be in
another time - in her time - but as he could not see people of that time unless
he made himself visible, he opted to remain hidden in his own time when she was
not around. At least for now he was in a place where he could bathe and be
clean, and completely relax.