“You know,” Seth said late
the following evening, as he and Kemp came back from the stables, “she a nice
woman, but so sad.”
“Katherine you mean? Yeah,
she is.”
“She has to stop living in
the past.”
Kemp smiled. “Are you really
going to corner her and give her your lectures?”
“Somehow on her I doubt
they’d work. She’s probably had enough people already telling her it’s time to
get back to living. So you see, what we have to do is find her a man.”
“Seth! No way in hell are we
going to play matchmaker. Among other things there’s no time. We leave tomorrow
evening.”
Seth just smiled wickedly as
he crossed the lawn towards the gardens behind the manor house.
Kemp hurried to catch up
with him. “You know I’m right.”
“I know.” He was about to
say more when they saw Katherine sitting on one of the benches, staring up at
the star speckled sky. He crossed to sit down on the end of the bench. “That’s
one thing I’ve learned to love about this place. You can really see the stars.”
Katherine jumped slightly
before smiling. “I agree. In the city they’re virtually invisible.”
Joining them, Kemp sat
cross-legged on the ground in front of Seth, leaning back against his legs.
“Where are you from Katherine?”
“New York City. Well I was. Now I’m, I guess
betwixt and between with no real roots any more.”
“You’re not going back there
again?”
“No. Too many memories, all
of them bad. Well, most of them. I do have a couple of friends there still—I
suppose. But it’s been ages since I’ve seen them and who knows if they’d even
welcome me back after all that happened.”
“Do you want to talk about
it?” Seth asked softly as he rubbed Kemp’s shoulder.
She smiled at him, shaking
her head. “It’s over. I’ve done more than enough talking. The
people I’m living with at the moment are quite tired of me doing so, I’m sure,
and it doesn’t really help anyway.”
Kemp looked up at her. “I
agree. You just have to let things take their course. It will get better in
time.”
“You’re too young to
understand. That’s not going to happen.”
“You weren’t listening to me
last night, were you?” Kemp said, bristling. “I know exactly what you’re going
through and I know that the pain will lessen if you allow it to happen. It only
lasts when you hold it tight and refuse to see the futility in doing that.” He
glanced up at Seth. “Of course finding someone who cares for you helps too.”
“And you didn’t listen to me when I said I have no intention of
putting myself through that ever again.
Oh don’t worry, at some point in time I’ll get back to my life. I can’t keep
living off of others forever. But it will be someplace new and very different
from where I was before.”
“Like Alaska?” Seth said with a laugh.
“Gods no, I hate the cold.”
“Well tell you what; if you
ever decide to leave Europe, come visit us. New Orleans doesn’t know
the meaning of the word ‘cold’.”
Katherine smiled. “You know,
I just might take you up on that—someday.”
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