IN THE ARMS OF LOVE Alistair h

IN THE ARMS OF LOVE

Alistair had been in Coffs, doing the funeral for the husband of a couple who had been very fond of him during the two years he'd
been their pastor. He'd just turned his car westward, heading for the Glen when his cell phone rang.

"Alistair." It was Joimus. "I need you to come to our house as soon as you can."

Something in her voice clutched at his heart. "Maximus? Has something happened to Maximus?"

"No, Alistair." There was a pause on the line for a moment. "It's Ahnna."

He pulled off the road onto a wide space, suddenly afraid to continue driving as he listened to her. "What?" he breathed, his voice hoarse.

"The man who killed Marce. Turns out he was staying out on Travis' ranch. He...he came on our land today, just a bit ago."

Alistair closed his eyes.

"Ahnna, she was out picking daisies for you. He saw her. Thought she was Marce still alive."

"Why? Why would he think that?"

"Did you ever meet Marce?"

"No. I don't think Ahnna did, either."

"Alistair, Marce was Ahnna's sister. They looked almost like twins."

"Did...did he...?"

"No, she's alive. But he grabbed her, tried to choke her, then attempted to shoot her in the head."

He began to feel sick. "Where is she?"

"In one of my extra bedrooms. The medics were here, checked her out. She's got some deep bruising on her neck."

"What about the man? Where's he?"

"John killed him, Alistair. When he tried to shoot Ahnna, John had to kill him."

"Does...does she know about Marce?"

"She does now. She needs to identify the body, I'm afraid. John said it could wait till morning but not longer than that." She paused again. "I'm really worried about her, Alistair. She's just lying there...like some part of her is gone. She needs you."

"I'll be there," he said, pulling out onto the two-lane road again. "I've just left Coffs, but I'll be there really soon."

He didn't even remember how he got to Maximus' house, couldn't recall the road or the traffic, just that he had to get there. He left the door of his car open and ran through the front doorway, not stopping to knock. "Which room?" he gasped.

"Upstairs, second on the left," Joimus answered. He was halfway up the stairs before her sentence was out.

He paused outside the closed door, gathering himself, whispering a prayer, and lay his palm flat on the door panel a moment before opening it. She lay on her back on the bed, her dark hair spilling over its edge. Her eyes were closed, her face so white and composed his breath hissed in. She looked like someone in a coffin.

"Ahnna, darling," he whispered, kneeling beside the bed, taking her right hand between both of his. There was no color in her face at all. Slowly her lids opened, just barely, and a large tear rolled out of the corner of her eye, tracking down her cheek.

"Oh, Ahnna." His kissed her hand, gently, over and over.

"They're all gone now," she whispered. "Every one of them. She was here, right here, and I never even saw her. I never saw her." She closed her eyes again. "I didn't know."

He slid his arms around her, laying his head on her chest. It was then he really saw the marks on her neck, large angry bruises were forming, making a pattern in the form of a man's fingers. She had nearly been killed and at the same time had found out her sister, her only remaining family, had died. His heart wrapped around her, anguished to pull her inside himself, to take away her pain, her fear, her loss. Suddenly she shuddered from head to toe and a convulsive sob wrenched its way up her throat.

There was room on the other side of the bed and he moved around, lying beside her gathering her to himself, just holding, holding, holding and rocking her slightly as he whispered into her hair. She cried desperately for a long, long time, her fingers clenched in the material of his shirt. Even though it hurt her throat terribly, she couldn't stop, and she sobbed and sobbed, overwhelmed by loss, by remembered terror. And even when her crying lessened, she clutched his shirt. The look in the man's eyes, the unbearable pressure of his hands on her neck, they were there, right there. "I...I was so scared," she gasped. "I thought...I thought...." She couldn't form the words.

So he held onto her as she held onto him, wrapped as closely into each other as they could get. The reality of his presence, the sound of his heartbeat, even his breathing was all that was keeping her attached to earth. Shudders still tore through her from time to time, and drowning in them, she clung in absolute desperation to him as he kept up a constant murmur of endearments and assurance.

He was wrenched to his core by what had happened to her. He'd been in Coffs, good Lord, he'd been all the way in Coffs! Jenny came
flooding into his mind. He hadn't been with her when she died. Eight and a half months pregnant and she'd driven out alone, both he and she confident in her return. But she never came back. His son was never born. If Ahnna had died while he was in Coffs....

His whole soul ached with the love he'd found again, found with this quiet, gentle woman in a land so far away from England. He closed his eyes, damming in his own tears. "I love you," he whispered. "I love you beyond all measure."

Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. "I don't...don't want to go back to my flat." A huge sigh flowed through her. Alone, there, no, she couldn't manage that. "Jo...Joimus says...I can stay here...but...but...it's so...so close. Close to where...."

"I know, I know, darling. I understand." His mind was racing.

She sighed again. "I'm so tired. So...tired." In a few moments she sagged against him, her breathing evening out.

"Sleep," he murmured. "Sleep, my love."

Joimus poked her head in the door to check on Ahnna and met Alistair's eyes. Very, very carefully he settled Ahnna on the bed and tip toed out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. "She doesn't want to go back to her flat," he said seriously.

"I've told her she's welcome to stay here with us as long as she likes."

"I think it's too close, Joimus, to where she was attacked. "She feels nervous about it."

"I don't know where else she can go, Alistair."

"I could take her to the mill."

She smiled fondly at him. "I'm sure that would be all right, except for the fact that you are an unmarried minister and, though I would
understand completely as would anybody who knows you, still for you to take a young, unmarried woman into your home, just the
two of you...."

He knew she was right. Pastors were not permitted things the general public accepted in other people. "All right, then," he nodded, coming to the conclusion he knew he'd been heading toward all along. Without a further word, he went back into the room, lay beside her again, and held Ahnna as she slept. Yes, this was what he wanted. Not just because of circumstances, but what he truly wanted. Satisfied, somehow released from his tension, he, too, fell asleep as the quiet hours of the afternoon ticked away.