Page 1 of Enkindling

Chapter 1

Echoes of Forgotten

Kathy

And just like that, any hopes I had of being left to bask in my most recent triumph went dancing out the window. Outside, the summer sun was shining with a fierce intensity that perfectly reflected my mood up until a second ago. Now, I had no choice but to gaze longingly at the lovely day as my exasperated brain launched into overdrive, trying to devise a possible means of escape. Joseph Williams had the unfortunate tendency to cause such a response.

Here he was now, towering over me, his cologne wafting out in tendrils to clutch at me in ways I could tell his hands were longing to imitate. The smell of him was pleasant but I fought hard to stop it from letting me put my guard down. I could sense the desire emanating from the man; it seemed to grow with each passing second, forcing me to become more conscious of my breathing. His white teeth gave even more brilliance to his charming smile, and my belly became tied up in all sorts of knots. I struggled to keep a straight face.

For the moment, he had me trapped. The hallway wasn’t very long, but it might as well have been the span of the English Channel now and just as empty. I was practically up against the wall; he was so close.

I looked up at him politely and tried not to dwell on the poorly masked hunger in those eyes. Joseph Williams had never been one for reluctance.

“I must say, that was quite an impressive show,” he was saying in his usual silky tone. “Your brilliance is astounding.”

“I’m flattered, Mr. Williams,” I replied coolly. “Your approval is worth much in these circles.”

“Not just in these circles, my dear,” he assured me in his confident drawl, his eyes still boring into mine. “But you deserve it. In fact, I’m soundly convinced that in only a few short years, you could be running this entire faculty. It’s prodigies like you who prove that age is but a number…” His eyes finally shifted from mine, leisurely taking in my frame.

My eyes, meanwhile, threw furtive glances up and down the hallway. I had to get out of this situation, and soon. I was running out of patience fast, and I couldn’t afford to make a rash statement out of sheer annoyance. Not with him.Come on, brain, don’t just hang me out here to dry!

“Again, I’m flattered, sir,” I said in my most professional voice. “Now, if you would excuse me, I really must get going.”

He didn’t budge except for his widening smile. “Come now, Kat. We’ve been through this before. You may call me Joseph. ‘Joe’ is even more preferable.”

I wouldn’t prefer calling him anything but ‘Mr. Williams.’ That name hit a little too close to home, threatening to invoke memories of a time I had almost managed to forget – almost. But it would not do to entertain any familiarity with this man, even if it was for the sake of keeping such memories consigned to darkness. I also hated the fact that he called me ‘Kat.’

“Thank you, Mr. Williams,” I said sweetly. “But I really couldn’t. And I hope you don't mind, but I'd rather prefer you call me Ms. Cruz.” I added an apologetic smile for good measure and then initiated my attempt to walk away casually.

“Just a second if you please, Ms. Cruz,” he replied instantly, adding a flourish to my name, and placing a gentle but firm hand on my shoulder.

I gritted my teeth and fought back the immediate urge to explode. Instead, I paused, turned around to face him, and plastered a smile onto my face. “Yes, Mr. Williams?” I hoped my voice didn’t sound as icy to him as it felt leaving my lips.

“I wanted to suggest that we further discuss your presentation over lunch. I think you raised some interesting points that require further… Examination. Say tomorrow?” His thumb was stroking my arm.

“With apologies, sir, I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” I brushed his arm away as civilly as I could manage. “I’d be happy to appear before the board again to address any issues at your convenience, however. Now, I really must be going. Please excuse me, sir.”

With that, I successfully managed to worm my way out between him and the wall. I started down the hall at an easy pace, mere steps away at last.

“Very well, little Kat,” he replied softly, and I could hear the smug smile dripping from his voice like syrup. “A raincheck it is.” Undeterred as usual.

I didn’t stop to respond. I also decided to assume the light brush I’d felt against my retreating derriere was purely incidental.

***

Under the early afternoon sun, my mood became buoyant again. It was a gorgeous day. There was no room to dwell on thoughts like Joseph Williams going out of his way to wait for me outside the conference room. How convenient for him that me having to gather my things ensured that I was the last to leave. At any rate, I could worry about him later. For now, it was time to be alone and celebrate my victory. I would go home early, bask in my triumph for a bit, and then dive headfirst into work on the back of this fresh motivation. I was pumped.

I set out across the lawn, reveling in the fresh air and the openness of the grounds. I liked walking through this part of campus. There was nothing to spoil the view this high up. One could see clear to the rolling, verdant hills in the distance and the purple, misty mountains even farther beyond them, which seemed to delicately brush against the azure sky at the point of the horizon like a lover’s caress. The rest of the campus was stretched out in an idle sprawl across acres and acres of vibrant green glistening in the sunlight. Between that and the distant hills was the town, its numerous buildings marching outward for miles in every direction, broken up by the occasional expanse of manicured greenery until finally surrendering fully to the embrace of untrammeled nature once again. The massive river snaking its way sleepily through the plains in the distance acted as the barrier between the two.

It was a view that took my breath away. It was vast and open. It was, for me, a vision of the future I so hoped for.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Joseph Williams again, sauntering across the grounds at a different angle, his arm casually around the waist of a pretty, young secretary who was tittering away at something he was saying. I shook my head in distaste. The man was approaching sixty, married, with children around my age, and had more money than any person should. It was not enough for him, though, because the most illuminating rumors concerning him fluttered about on the wind if one only knew where to look, nor were they all rumors. Being one of the chief benefactors of the university, he held kingly status here, and he was not shy about leveraging it where he saw fit.

Catching myself in such brooding thoughts despite my earlier resolve, I exorcised them with a quick shake of the head and started down the gentle slope with renewed vigor. A draught of the crisp air filled my lungs and slowly sapped such concerns for the moment.

By the time I got to the road, the stagecoach I’d seen rattling toward me in the distance had arrived. The cabby reined his horse in with a flourish and waited dutifully for me to board, gracing me with a warm smile the whole time. There were three other young ladies in the cab, students by the look of them. We greeted each other as I sat, and we were off again. The journey was pleasant, if bumpy, and I stared placidly out at the trees around me, my roaming thoughts only periodically interrupted by the cabby’s occasional calls of “To the left please, my ladies!” or “To the right if you would!” The girls kept up a steady stream of quietly animated conversation interspersed with giggles here and there.

I smiled absently to myself; the magnitude of the last few hours only began to dawn on me. My looming presentation before the Faculty of the Humanities had been a constant source of nerves for me for over a month, and now that it was over, all I felt was relief and a rush of gratitude. Mr. Williams seemed to have been right about one thing, if nothing else – so far as I could tell, I had impressed more than a few of the campus nobility. It might not have been much in the grand scheme of things, but I had been personally asked to submit my application and present my ideas by the Dean himself, and that was not a small matter. At the end of it all he had beamed at me like a proud papa and nearly shook my arm off as he told me how proud I’d made him and how he knew there was something special about me from the start. I allowed myself a modicum of pride over that. Professor Van Horn was something of a personal hero of mine.

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