Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

there to listen attentively to her report to Daddy at dinner. We, especially Ethan, would be her command audience, but I was prepared to say no firmly.
    “That’s very nice,” she said, smiling. “You two should be alone to catch up and make plans. Besides,you’ll both be bored with the endless details of this wedding. Enjoy.” She dismissed me with a wave and turned back to her assistant. I felt like a blow-up doll losing air and hurried away.
    Ethan was just coming down the stairs.
    “I told Mrs. Dobson not to set out places for us at dinner,” I said. “And then I told Lucille we’re leaving.”
    “What for? She’s not your dorm mother,” Ethan joked. “From now on, I’m the only one you have to check in with, understand? And you’d better, too.”
    “Right, tough guy.”
    He laughed, and we headed out to my car. Just as we reached the gate, we saw Daddy driving in. He stopped and rolled down his window.
    “Hey, welcome back, Ethan.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Where you guys going?”
    “Just for a ride and some dinner.”
    “Smart. I’d like to jump in with you. The place is a madhouse.”
    “We’d love to have you,” Ethan said. “Want to come along?”
    “You trying to get me assassinated?” Daddy quipped. “You look very nice, Semantha,” he said. “Have a good time.”
    “Thank you, Daddy.”
    “Your father is such a great guy,” Ethan said. “He deserves to be happy.”
    I never said he didn’t, I thought. I just don’t know if he will be.
    Ethan asked if there was anywhere in particularI’d like to go. Almost without realizing it, I directed him to follow the roads that would take us past my cousin’s home. Ethan continued to talk about our future, things he’d like to be able to do someday, and places he’d like to visit. This job, this whole new opportunity for him, was like Columbus launching his ships for the New World. His excitement was infectious, but the closer we got to Shane and Royce Norman’s home, the more nervous I became. A part of me wanted Ethan to know who lived there, but another part of me feared that he would be so shocked I had taken him there that he would be turned away from me. After all, my memories of his reaction in the motel were still quite vivid. I said nothing as we rode by. I was happy that neither Shane nor Royce was anywhere in sight.
    Later, we found an intimate restaurant with a small patio overlooking acres of beautiful prime Kentucky property. We could see the horses grazing near a small pond. It looked like an oil painting, because the clouds were so still and the horses looked so content. Ethan’s enthusiasm for his work and for our continued relationship was, as Daddy would say, just what the doctor ordered. We drank wine and had a wonderful dinner. The restaurant had a violin player who went from table to table. At our table, perhaps because he saw how we were holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes, he played “La Vie en Rose.”
    “That’ll be our song from now on,” Ethan said. He leaned forward to kiss me.
    Could the day have turned out any better? I did feel swept along but very happy about it. On our wayback, we occasionally held hands but said little. For me as well as for him, I suspect, it was like soaking in a warm bath, only our bath was full of love. We weren’t home late, but when we arrived, the house was quiet. Every statue looked asleep. The lights were dim, the old grandfather clock barely sounding its ticktock as if it were Heaven-stone’s slumbering heart.
    “They’re both probably feeling it,” Ethan whispered as we went up the stairway. “I’m sure it’s exhausting. They’ll really need to get away after this.”
    I could see that Ethan was fading himself. I knew he was trying to remain energetic for my sake, but I told him to go to sleep and get a good night’s rest. He did have a big day tomorrow. Besides, I thought, we were soon to be the master and mistress of this house. Daddy and Lucille would be on their honeymoon. It was no secret that both Ethan and I were thinking we would have a sort of honeymoon ourselves while they were gone.
    “Go get ready for bed,” I told him. “I’ll be in just to say good night.”
    “Just good night? We’ll see about that,” he joked, but by the time I got ready and into my nightgown and went to his room, I found him in bed and already in a deep sleep, so deep that when I kissed him good night, he didn’t wake. His eyelids didn’t