The prison tent was situated on a rock table. There were no carpets or cushions or other furnishings. Theo stood in the far left corner his body stooped because he was taller than the tent at that end. They had stripped him of all but his second skin and his leather trousers. He was bare footed. The stone hung around his neck, thank God. He turned.

“Danielle.” His tone was sharp with reprimand.

She stopped inside the entrance and they stared at each other for a moment. For days she had managed to keep thinking of everything and anything but Theo and his duplicity. She wanted to avoid a showdown. She had stayed away from him except for her one weak moment a few nights ago when she came to the tent to talk to him about Barb’s letter written before Dani ever came to Haven in response to three text messages sent after the letter was written.

More than that odd mystery, the subject of forgiveness had sent her running to Theo. She felt drawn to the prison tent, drawn to Theo to get another perspective on forgiveness. In spite of her determination to ignore Theo for a while, that strange letter had sent her into the chill night to spend an hour arguing with Stokely about her rights. In the end she was glad for Stokely’s strict adherence to his orders, for his discipline. She had not demeaned herself by going in to seek Theo’s advice about anything. She was still angry with him about his thievery and lies. What would Theo know about forgiveness except that he needed to be forgiven more than anyone?

She had played it cool after having eavesdropped on Maddie and Isa’s conversation and fell back on denial to put out of her mind anything she had overheard about the Sapphire, the Stone of Power and its mystical attributes -- the Bond -- or how any of it related to or affected her judgment in regard to Theo. After her late night visit with Stokely, Maddie had appointed Januise to keep an eye on Dani and steer her away from Theo if need be, but it had been for nothing, because Dani no longer wanted to go anywhere near Theo.

But that was then and this was now. Now she had come to see Theo out of necessity. She had wakened hours earlier shaking and covered in sweat.

“… look at me look at me …. Daddy, look at me!” She was eight years old hanging upside down from her knees on a metal bar. She wore jeans, pink and white Keds and her favorite pink t-shirt with a sparkling rainbow heart on the chest. The hem of the shirt was hiked up over her thin torso. The upside down image of Daddy with his thick wavy black hair and deep blue eyes that made people look twice glanced at her over his shoulder. His eyes were full of malice she was too young to comprehend. His smile was a smirk.

She may have been too immature to recognize or interpret but she had, subliminally, absorbed the message in her father’s eyes and now she understood him without a doubt.

I don’t like you, his eyes and smile conveyed. I could disappear you anytime and maybe someday I will. But he never had and now Dani wondered, what held him back?

The memory and all that had happened in the intervening hours had gotten the better of her. Upon seeing Theo Dani’s self control finally slipped and all her tamped emotions boiled up to the surface.

He looked haggard. Dani had not expected that. He looked tired and worn out. His eyes were bloodshot and the flesh around them was a spectacular blend of blue and purple and yellow. His face looked pulverized. His nose was bent and there was a raw wound under his left eye. His arms were freed from that beastlt log. She took all this in but little of it registered at first because anger carried her forward. She had held the anger back for so long and never suspected it would erupt because she believed she had her emotions well in hand. As she crossed the space she drew her arm back and thought of Daddy giving her twelve years of uninterrupted dread … of Mama leaving her behind … of the boyfriend convincing her to trust him … of Jordan so completely, instantly dead it could never be taken back … of Angie allowing her to ignore the box all those years … of Maris not knowing the difference between sex and love … of Barb daring to tell her she needed to forgive … and of Theo stealing her sapphire and deceiving her about it.

She reached him and her open hand connected with his cheek. He made no attempt to dodge her fury or to deflect the blow, just stood there and took it which made Dani angrier. The blow vibrated painfully to the back of her hand and into her wrist. He blinked and his head turned fractionally. The whole scene reminded her of how Georg had struck Theo that day, open handed, yet hard enough that Theo’s hair flew. She had wanted to tear out Georg’s heart. All she wanted now was to tear out her own duplicitous heart and stomp it into the stony ground for every drop of faith, hope and love that had poured out of it onto such ingrates.

Theo stepped closer.

His voice was full of concern. “Take slow even breaths, Danielle,” he instructed. How dare he? Who was he to act like he cared – still!

She pulled in a great gulp of air but it did not help. She tried again and failed again. Her head started to spin. She grabbed two fists full of Theo’s beard and stepped up on his bare feet and pushed up on her toes. The physical contact brought almost instantaneous calm and Dani sucked in a huge replenishing breath of air. She took another breath. Her breathing normalized and her head cleared.

They were right up against each other, face to face. If her tight grip on his beard hurt, he did not react to it, he only put his hands on her waist to steady her.

“Why are you here?” He asked after a moment or two of stunned silence.

Why indeed? She had not come to slap Theo around. She had not wanted him to know the depth of her feeling. Who was she kidding? She had not wanted to know the depth of her feeling.

She had come because all morning her work crew had talked of nothing but the news of the anticipated arrival of Ruby on the morrow and that the King and Queen were expected to arrive on the same transport, all to the accompaniment of furtive glances at her that shifted into knowing glances at each other. Driven insane by their behavior, devoured with panic by the pending reunion with Mama, Dani escaped early, dodged the unfortunate assigned to tail her and made a bee-line to the prison tent.

She had no faith in her ability to talk her way around the guards so she came upon them from behind and nailed them in quick succession with one rock each, rendering them unconscious. She knew that she was in deep trouble now with The Matriarch, but the need of the moment had outweighed her fear of Maddie’s murderous mother. She knew her time with Theo was limited so she moved on because there was no time to waste.

“My mother and the King are to arrive tomorrow on the same transport bringing Ruby.”

“Ruby?”

Yes, Ruby, the victim.” She missed the strained quality in Theo’s voice – she would think of it later.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“About what?” What was the matter with him?

“Mama!”

After a moment he caught up with her. “Oh.” and then, turning his head ever so slightly away he remarked with some truculence, “This is why you came to Haven. Talk to her.”

“About what?”

“How can I know that?”

“See? I am not ready. I have to leave, I have to get out of here.”

“And go where?”

“You are not helping.”

“What do you want me to do? “

She just looked at him in frustration. What had she expected?

“You have to come with me.”

“How do you propose we escape? Will you saw through theses chains with your knife?”

She leaned back and looked down. For the first time she saw the iron bands around each ankle, joined by chains to a short three or four foot chain leash attached to an iron spike embedded in the rock. She felt fury rise inside her, for the humiliating treatment Theo endured but more so for the impediment it presented to her desire to escape.

“I can’t leave you here to die.” She said it while feeling it would be most inconvenient and noted with a feeling of indignity he did not try to deny death was on his menu in just another day. She became aware of moisture on her fingers, a thin watery blood was smeared across them. She looked at his cheek, finally aware how seriously wounded he was with a gash on his cheek and his nose broken. It looked as if a child had stitched the wound.

“What the hell happened to you? Who did this and why?”

He offered no answer, only touched his knuckles gingerly to the ragged seam, looked at the resulting smear of blood and infection on his finger then sucked it clean.

“Answer me.”

“No one of consequence; it was well deserved so think nothing of it.”

His answer infuriated her all the more.

“You are leaking.”

They were still standing very close but by now she had loosened her grip on his beard and taken a step back.

“You can face your mother,” he said in a reassuring voice, turning back to what for him was probably a safer topic. If only she could say the same.

“I’m scared.” She dropped into a whisper, afraid that saying it aloud might increase its potency.

“Not you. You are fearless.”

“All right then, I am angry,” All trace of the whisper was gone. “I might do or say anything.”

“Than do or say anything; why would you do anything less?”

“She is not my mother; she is the queen.”

“You will not accomplish anything worthwhile if you keep hyperventilating.”

He left her and scooped up a cup of water from a wooden basin into a short wooden cup and handed it to her.

“Drink.” He began while she sipped at the cool sweet liquid.

“Wait for her to come to you; do not go out to greet her.”

“Like I’d do that.”

He ignored her interruption. His hand held her elbow lightly. With the contact the same eerie calm as before took over and her breathing steadied. She wondered if he was aware he had that affect on her. He kept his voice low, as if he did not want to be overheard.

“If you meet at a place of your choosing you have the upper hand. You will be in a position to exert your independence and force her to treat you like an adult. I imagine she will want to greet you as her child as she has not seen you since you were twelve.”

Danielle nodded, while it struck her as odd that he had not phrased that as a question. She did not recall telling him the specifics of her history with Mama. He certainly had never asked for them.

“So take that advantage away from her. Insist that she call you Danielle. Dani-girl is a child’s name. It is important that you express your anger for your mother in a controlled manner otherwise you will come across sounding childish.”

She feared disappearing into a rage more.

“If you think the meeting is not going well, or that your control is slipping, walk away.”

“What if it happens before I know it?”

“You must not allow that. Plan ahead. Decide your limit before the meeting. When you feel yourself slipping past that limit, walk away.”

“You make it sound simple.”

“You can do it Danielle.”

Dani shook her head.

“If you start to show either stubbornness or pride, take that as a warning. Either one could result in a loss of control.”

They were silent for a moment, just looking and before she could talk herself out of it, Dani curled her fingers into his beard again. She had secretly wanted to do that for a long time, but until today it had seemed silly, frivolous, not to mention an invasion of his personal space. But having done it once, she discovered a need to do it again. The crisp curly hairs felt course and soft at the same time. She tugged gently bringing his head down, stepped up on his feet again, went up on her toes and planted her lips on his mouth. It wasn’t any sort of erotic kiss. She had no idea how a man liked to be kissed.

His surprise touched her lips as a warm puff of expelled breath.

She dropped back on her heels onto the long bony tops of his feet.

“Why did you do that?”

I don’t want you to die, she thought but did not say out loud. Jordan’s sudden death had left a crater in her soul. If Theo died he would leave behind something far worse than an inconvenient gap on her shrinking list of friends, he would leave a wound that might cleave her in two.

All she said was: “Do not think this means I am not still mad at you.”

“I would be disappointed in you, Danielle, if you were not.”

He was still bent over her and his mouth was very close, so she kissed him again, with a bit more certainty. He did not respond.

“You taste like wood.” She touched her lips with the tip of her tongue.

His eyes were on her mouth when he answered her in a remote voice.

“From the leather scrap I use to clean my teeth.”

“Oh,” she said with a curious wonderment in her voice that seemed unwarranted. “Wood smoked leather.”

He nodded. The atmosphere inside the tent seemed suddenly close and heavy. Theo hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her up until her toes bumped his knees. As his mouth closed in on hers, heat erupt in his eyes – the same heat she had seen in them the very first time she laid eyes on him, but there was so much more than lust in his eyes this time. His mouth opened over hers and pressed down, moved hard and fierce, the heat of his breath amplified the taste of wood and leather. His hand held the back of her head while his arm tightened, pressing her body hard against him. This was no peck on the cheek. This was not a platonic kiss of friendship and it definitely was not brotherly. To her utter amazement and surprise, her body ignited in response to it.

Dani’s fingers, still buried in Theo’s beard tightened into fists.

That seemed to be Theo’s signal to relent. He stopped kissing her abruptly and sucked in air, sifting it between his teeth. He spoke, his lips moving against her lips and his voice husky and shaken.

“You have to leave now Danielle.”

He released his hold on her lowering her gently to stand on her feet. He took her hands in his and withdrew them from his beard; he held them for an instant. His breathing was uneven. He was bent forward, his forehead resting on hers.

Dani wordlessly nodded her head. What could you say after thunder landed on you?

He let go her hands, straightened and backed up two steps

The cry went up outside as the guards were found unconscious and shouts were relayed. She had been with Theo for only a few minutes but she was glad, so glad that the cry did not go up until after he had told her it was time to go. Danielle kept her eyes on him as she backed up to the flap and held his gaze until the curtain fell.

Next Chapter: Chapter 20