Devil to PayPart 20I fell asleep, eventually, and woke up sweating like a pig, and shaking with fever. I had to wake him, I felt like shit. "Lighe, love", I murmured in his ear, touching his head with one trembling hand. He opened the blue things and stared at me, muzzily. "Sblom?" Then he felt the heat. "Fuck!" He leapt up and got me some water, which I drank; desperate to replace the liquid I'd sweated off during the night. Everyone woke up just as the dawn was breaking. Viggo saw to the fire, Tino made me tea as soon as the kettle boiled, and Andy brought a bowl with some luke warm water in it for Lighe to sponge me down. He offered to help wash me, the kind little lad - but Lighe refused, with a sweet smile. So Andy took my damp blanket to hang it on the bushes to dry. When I looked at Lighe in puzzlement at his refusal, he shook his head. "I like to do stuff for you, love ...and if I can do it for you, I will." It made me feel...cherished. Orli and Billy made me a liquid breakfast. Don't ask, I didn't. Eggs beaten up in milk, or something. Tasted okay, sweetened with the wild honey Tino knew we'd find in one of the trees around the cave. I drank it. I needed all the help I could get. It stayed down, which was good. After breakfast Viggo came over and told us we needed to talk...all of us. I knew this, I'd heard them whispering during the night - but Lighe had been sleeping. He looked at Viggo with an expression bordering on panic on his face. "Vig, we're not going to move again, are we?", he said, quietly, not looking at me at all. "Sblom is not very - um, strong at the moment, and...". His voice tailed off. I felt for the poor bugger, I did, really. I was a fucking albatross, all right...but I was loved. They all gathered around my bed. I felt like a fucking Roman Emperor holding court, but it was kind of them not to make me move too far. I was shaking like a leaf...some days were better than others. This was a bad day. Tino and Andy didn't have a clue what the meeting was all about. So at least we were equal in that. Bills smiled at me - nothing too awful, then. "Right", said Viggo, breaking the strained silence. "Well, here's the deal. If we stay here forever - well, we'll grow fucking roots. We're well hidden from Smiley and his gang, but we're hidden from help, too. No one has any fucking idea where we are. Tino said there's a village about twenty miles down the valley that has an inn with a phone. Orlando and I are walking there. Tino, you can lead the way. No arguments - we need help. Now." No one looked at me, but I knew, and they knew, what was meant. Tino had turned pale. He stammered "It will be dangerous for you to walk to the village, even with me. I..." "No, Tino", Bill interrupted. "They are going, and that's it! Dom? Lij?" "Yes, fine!" I said. They had arranged it all. They didn't need us to tell them they could go. Lighe smiled over at me. "Fine by me, too. When?" "Couple of days", Orli rubbed his healing arm. "When we've sorted a few things out." "Such as?" I was interested. Why a few days? Why not today... tomorrow? "Who we're contacting when we get there. Food to take with us. Are we staying there, or coming back? All we've decided so far is that we're going. What we do when we get there is another thing entirely." Viggo put another log on the fire. We all sat there, thinking. Bill had an idea, then Lij put in a suggestion. A plan was forming. Tino and Andy sat in silence, until we'd run out of ideas. "Come, Andrea. Let's go and fetch the milk and bread. I'll ask the old woman if she has a backpack or rucksack that we can have, and extra cheese and bread, in a few days. You can always post her some money, later on." He smiled at us, and beckoned to his brother. "Come!" Slowly, Andy got up off the sanded floor, and they left the cave together. "So, that's it, then!", grinned Billy. "You ring anyone and everyone you can think of, and wait there for help. I'll stay here with Dom and Lij, and prepare a welcoming committee!" Lighe snuggled closer to my side. I put my arm around him. "Not long, Dom", he whispered, "not long, now." Tino returned from the farmhouse later, bearing bread, milk, eggs and a lump of cheese. And a battered rucksack that looked as if Noah had packed his supplies in it ready for the imminent flood. "She said we could have this - no payment necessary", Tino grinned. "And fresh bread and things on Tuesday." "And today is...?" I queried. Fuck, I'd lost track of time. "Saturday", Bill said. "Sunday", Lighe offered. "Sunday", Tino confirmed. "You can hear the church bells coming up from the lower valley. Sunday." Sharp as a razor, my Lighe. He didn't miss much. "Where's Andy?", Lighe asked. "He said he'd come berry picking with me this morning." Tino laughed. "Secret mission. Something to do with football, and Dominique." What the fuck? Andy came back a bit later, gingerly carrying a board in hands that were dappled with green paint. He smiled at me. "Look!", he cried, waving the green wood at me triumphantly. I stared at it. It was a football pitch. "It is nearly dry - we play soon, you and I. Manchester United against Zagribivec Mostoypleyevar". I know that's how to spell it, now. It was printed on my heart in letters of flame, by the time we'd finished. Andy spent a happy half hour writing the players� numbers on some small pebbles he had collected from those dotted around the cave floor. Then we played footie, using the pebbles as men, for hours, until the light went. He giggled, and whooped and shouted, for once the kid he was. Warmed my fucking heart. Lighe went with Orlando to collect the fruit. Andy promised to inspect it minutely when they came back - while whipping the arse off my best striker, and sending him flying off the board with a deft flick of his finger. We all remembered Lighe couldn't tell a blackcurrant from a deadly nightshade. Checked the fruit would definitely be. Orli got offended. "I", he pointed out, crossly, "was brought up on bloody fruit, man. You can trust ME, even if Elijah is half blind when it comes to recognizing the stuff..." At this point, Lighe smiled and thrust the basket in Orli's hands, pushing him into the sun. "You're disturbing their concentration, dude. Soccer...no, football... is a deadly serious sport. You're English - you should know all this shit!" Orli protested that he, although English, was not the slightest bit interested in football. Shows you... he had the looks but no finesse. There was no hope for him...the Philistine. Andy and I returned to our footie. Much more important than fucking fruit! *** The moon had gone down, the cave was in darkness. I was lying with my head in the crook of Lighe's arm. His other arm was across my chest. I could hear him breathing. Then, a slight sigh. "Are you awake?" "Yes, love. Can't sleep. Thinking about, y'know, Tuesday." "Fuck, Lighe - me, too." "Sblom?" "Hmm?" "I love you." He kissed the top of my head. I shifted upwards, until my head was level with his. Then I kissed him back, soft and sweet. He made a contented sound somewhere deep in his throat, that promised much when I felt up to it. "Lighe - do you want...um... is there anything I can do for you?" He wasn't stupid. I'd said that before. "No, Dom. Just lying with you is all I want, right now." I kissed him, again. He was bloody lovely...and I wondered if he knew it. Although that didn't matter. For I knew it... with every part of me. |