I tucked my hair behind my ears and stared into the glass. Then I untucked it, laying it over my shoulders. I leaned in closer to the mirror then backed away. After a sigh, I turned from side to side.
Strange. Nothing appeared to have altered. Yet something had definitely changed, because I felt different inside. Happy, trusting, new.
Still, my unchanged reflection puzzled me, or maybe I was simply reacting to the way I was being seen through Henry’s eyes, someone who loved me. I bit my lip, remembering…
“Spring?” Mel’s voice startled me as she called through my bedroom door. “Coming down to breakfast?”
I was forced to pull myself away from the mirror and the memories as I answered in the affirmative.
She was grinning ear to ear when I opened the door. “I think I’m your good luck charm.”
I was endeavoring, quite unsuccessfully, to hide my huge smile.
“You’re utterly buzzing, babe.”
“I am not,” I claimed, knowing I most certainly was.
As we walked down the stairs, I could hear Henry’s voice coming from the kitchen. It made me want to slide down the banister and tumble into his arms, Lilah’s glares notwithstanding.
“Oh,” Mel said as she drew my cell phone from her pocket. “You left this here while you and Henry were, umm…” She was smiling again. “Someone called twice for you last night, but I didn’t pick up.”
I checked the missed calls. “Anabel.” I frowned. “Wonder what she wants.”
“Did she stay back at school in the house with Julia?” she asked. “Those two have nothing in common. She’s probably just bored.” Mel’s brown curls bounced as she trotted down the stairs ahead of me, leaving me to return the call.
I ducked into the dark library for privacy. Its walls were lined with shelves of leather-bound volumes. Half of one wall was adorned with an oil painting of a gray-haired man in a Navel officer’s uniform.
Must be one of the Knightlys, I mused as I gazed at the noble figure, feeling an almost reverent affection. So different from my family. I dialed the number, remembering my father’s upcoming nuptials and feeling surprisingly happy for him.
Anabel answered after the first ring. “Spring?”
“Hey stranger,” I said. “Holding down the fort?”
“I know you’re on the road, but I didn’t know what else to do. But, I mean, I thought I should tell someone, right?” Drama queen Anabel rambled on for a minute but I wasn’t following. At one point, I actually held the phone away from my ear. “I didn’t think she was, like, that unhappy, did you? But why else would she say that?”
“Anabel.” I rolled my eyes. “Tell me again, slowly, what’s going on.”
When she spoke this time, her words were still muddled and confusing, but the picture they painted in my mind was all too clear. And suddenly, I was stone-cold sober.
“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling simultaneously sick and numb. “Julia actually…did…” I couldn’t finish, but swallowed hard and sank into an over-stuffed leather chair. When I’d heard enough, my mind snapped into gear, making the decision. “Okay, okay. Don’t do anything else for now. I’m coming home.” I was speed-dialing Julia’s cell a split-second later. Voicemail. Like I feared.
Just as I ended the call, the library door flew open.
“There you are.” Henry’s voice boomed brightly across the room. He looked like heaven, pure heaven. All I wanted to do was run to him, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t bear to tell him the truth.
“I’ve been looking all—” His smile dropped and he stopping in place. “Are you…?”
I squeezed my stinging eyes shut but heard him rush forward, felt him take my hands.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was almost panicky. When I opened my eyes, he was kneeling in front of me.
“I need to go home,” I managed to say. “Right now.”
Henry’s eyes were large like black Frisbees.
“I need to go home right now,” I repeated. When I attempted to stand, he held me down.
“No.” His voice was gruff and his grip tightened. “You’re not leaving me now. What happened?”
I tried again to stand, but every limb in my body was weak. The next second, his arms were around me, pulling me to the floor beside him.
“Tell me,” he said in a low voice. “Let me help if I can. Please.”
“I just talked to Anabel,” I said, breathing hard.
“Anabel,” Henry repeated, staring into my eyes. “Your roommate?”
I nodded, trying to hold it together. “She told me, she…she flipped out and took off. She’s been depressed, I knew that. Maybe I shouldn’t have left her. And now she’s gone.”
“Anabel?”
“Not Anabel.” I sniffed, dropping my eyes, not able to look at him as I continued. “Julia,” I whispered. “She ran away…with Alex.”
All was silent; neither of us so much as breathed. Henry’s face was gray and still. His inscrutable eyes drifted from mine to the empty space beside me.
“Julia,” he said. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, briefly recapping the phone call.
“They left together last night, so it’s been hours,” I said. “She’s unstable; she hasn’t been herself for months. I thought she was getting better, but she actually mentioned something about Alex a while ago. I…” I put a hand over my mouth. “I thought she was kidding.”
Henry’s grip on me slackened. He stood up, leaving me on the floor, alone.
“You know Alex, what he’s done to other…” I couldn’t complete the sentence. “I have no idea where they went, but I have to try and find her, or at least be home when she comes back.”
Henry was standing in front of a large window, staring out at nothing. The morning sun was streaming through a slit in the drapes, shining on him like a spotlight piercing the dark room. It should’ve been a beautiful sight, but there was nothing beautiful about his face when he turned around. He wouldn’t even look at me.
“You understand why I have to go,” I said.
He fingered his chin. “Today?”
“As soon as possible.” Gripping the chair behind me, I pulled myself to my feet.
“Driving?” he asked.
I nodded then attempted to call for Mel, but the tall room seemed to swallow my voice.
“It’s twelve hundred miles,” he pointed out.
I shot him a glance, and his expression showed that he wished he hadn’t said anything. I made my way to the door with no other thought than getting on my way, no time to spare.
“Wait,” Henry said from behind. “You don’t need to drive. We have a plane.”
“No, I couldn’t—”
A phone was already at his ear.
Nothing specific was given as a reason for our hasty removal and there was no time for bon adieus. Only Cami and Henry were with us as we rode in silence to the airfield behind their house. Henry handled our bags from his car to the private plane, all while still instructing and directing unintelligibly on a tiny black flip phone over the deafening jet engines.
Just as I was about to start up the metal stairs, Henry caught my wrist. “Yes, right, but just hold on a sec.” He was looking directly at me but I could tell he was talking on his phone, then he held it away from his ear. “Spring,” he said in a rush, “I don’t know when I’ll see you again.” He held my gaze for just a moment before he let go of my wrist and went back to his phone call. I didn’t even have time to reply before Mel was pushing me up the stairs to board the plane.
“What’s our plan?” she asked as we taxied down the runway.
Still a bit shaken and still feeling where Henry had been holding my wrist, I shut my eyes, my mind whirling too fast. “I don’t have one,” I admitted.
“Remind me,” Mel added. “What exactly did Henry’s letter say about where Alex took Cami. Maybe there’s something that can help.”
I opened my eyes to peer out the window. I could see Henry leaning against the Jeep, arms folded, talking to Cami as he stared toward the plane. Whatever he’d just told her sent both hands flying over her gaping mouth. Then she reached out and grabbed her brother’s arm, shaking him.
