Page 123 of The Executioners Three
It’s all right. I am here to keep you warm, my love.
TRAVELER NUMBER ONE
pointing
Look, my love, through yonder trees. Maybe ’tis a logging camp. I have heard of a generous man named Allard Fortin here. Perhaps ’tis he?
TRAVELER NUMBER TWO
I think you are right, my love. Let us approach and see.
TRAVELER NUMBER ONE and TRAVELER NUMBER TWO kiss affectionately and exit upstage left.
No really, exit upstage left, Freddie.
Oh my god, I’m serious, Freddie Gellar. You and your boyfriend get off this stage right this moment.
LUMBERJACK NUMBER THREE
rushing onto stage
Oh look! Two new travelers! Time to go!
pushing at TRAVELER NUMBER ONE and TRAVELER NUMBER TWO
No, but really. Berme isthatway. So come on, you two.
pushing even more forcefully at TRAVELER NUMBER ONE and TRAVELER NUMBER TWO
Movethis instantor you’re going to get an F in chorus, Freddie! And if you think that abdominal wound hurts right now, Mr. Porter, just wait until I’m finished with you. And all of you out there in the audience, stop cheering! They’reteenagers,for goodness’ sake.
ENDING
Things were looking up for Theo Porter. Sure, he had a hole in his stomach that hurt like hell and someone had spilled hot cider on his boots. But it was so easy to forget that when he was kissing Freddie Gellar.
She made everything easy, from understanding what had happened to him to actually imagining a future.
Above all, kissing her was easy. Just the most natural thing in the world. Theo forgot he even had stitches across his abdomen because her lips and her sighs and her fingers were the most potent painkillers.
So it was inevitable that they would—once more—lose themselves in each other on stage, audience be damned. Just as it was inevitable that, after being forced off by a frantic chorus teacher, they’d aim for the shadows behind the water mill.
It was a place Theo had started to think of astheirspot, ever since that first pageant rehearsal that had changed everything between them.
They half ran, even if it reallywasagainst the doctor’s orders, and the almost boisterous noise of the pageant faded, softened, muffled completely as Freddie pulled Theo around to the other side of the mill.
In moments, the only sounds were voices echoing into the night and the soft burble of wintery water.
“Gellar,” Theo said softly as his hands slid around her waist and he pulled her close. He’d never known he could find 1600s garb this sexy, but he was really into it on Freddie. With her wild hair and sharp eyes, with her curves and her wit…
“Yes, Mr. Porter?”
“I would like for you to know that you are just as good at distracting me now as you were two weeks ago. I mean, technically I have an abdominal wound that’s four inches long, but I don’t feel a thing when you kiss me.”
“Well, I do have that effect on everyone.” Freddie preened, flipping her dark curls over one shoulder—and revealing the pale line of her neck.
Theo had to forcibly restrain himself from immediately kissing her there. He wanted to have this conversation first. It was important. So much of his life reallywaslooking up—he had a guaranteed spot at Allard Fortin, as well as more than enough money to fix his Silver Sweetheart, pay for college,andget his dad a better apartment.
But Theo wasn’t sure he could really enjoy any of it until he said exactly what he needed to.
