@@@@@He touched it to a lamp wick, and she could 582
@@@@@He touched it to a lamp wick, and she could see his face
Scarlett ached with longing
He put the glass chimney on the lamp and held it high
There's a bedroom upstairs where you can sleep It was not nearly as
primitive as the room downstairsThe tall four-post bed had a thick
mattress and fat pillows and a bright woolen blanket over its crisp
linen sheetsScarlett didn't look at the other furnishingsShe let
the blanket fall from her shoulders and climbed the set of steps beside
the bed to burrow under the covers
He stood over her a moment before he left the roomShe listened to
his footstepsNo, he wasn't going downstairs, he'd be close by
Scarlett smiled, then sleptThe nightmare began as it had always
begun-with the mistIt was years since Scarlett had dreamed it, but
her unconscious mind remembered even as it created the dream, and
she
began to twist and thrash and whimper deep in the back of her throat,
dreading what was to comeThen, again, she was running, with her
straining heart pounding in her ears, running, stumbling and running,
through a thick white fog that twined cold swirling tendrils around her
throat and legs and armsShe was cold, as cold as death, and
hungry,
and terrifiedIt was the same, it had always been the same, and each
time worse than the time before, as if the terror and hunger and cold
accumulated, grew strongerAnd yet it was not the sameFor in the
past, she had been running and reaching for something unnamed and
unknowable, and now ahead of her she could glimpse through streaks
in
the mist Rhett's broad back, always moving awayAnd she knew that
he
was what she was searching for, that when she reached him the
dream
would lose its power and fade away, never to returnShe ran and ran,
but he was always far ahead, always with his back turned on her
Then
the fog thickened, and he began to disappear, and she cried out to
himYou're dreaming, it's not real Strong arms lifted her
and held her, and she was warm and safe at lastScarlett half-woke
with a star
