Page 56 of Sensing Selma
I sprayed the warm water over her, over her head, over her entire body, then gradually turned up the heat until steam filled the bathroom.
Color returned to her face, her lips, but still, her eyes remained distant and unseeing.
I turned off the water, dried her off then guided her into my room where I put her in one of my warmer nightgowns. Then I quickly changed out of my wet pajamas to put on dry ones.
She sat on the edge of my bed, staring out into nothing. Since arriving, she hadn’t said a coherent word.
“Okay,” I said as I gently laid her down. “You sleep in my bed tonight, dear sister. You sleep. I’m going to go out to have a chat with Major Cooper, then I’ll come back to stay with you, okay?”
She closed her eyes, her lips silently moving.
I left her and met up with Major Cooper in the hallway.
“Please, tell me what happened. What do you know?”
Then I noticed another man standing in the distance near the stairway, but I brought my attention back to Major Cooper.
“I was in London on business. We were about to return to our car to leave when I literally bumped into Holly. You can imagine my surprise. Not only had I not expected to see her there, but...her disheveled appearance, her incoherent blabbering, her shivers. It was all so confounding.”
“You did right to bring her here. A warm shower was just what she needed and she’s resting now.”
The man in the distance moved, and I suddenly realized who it was. My knees went weak.
Bradley. What was he doing at Moon Manor?
Major Cooper caught the direction of my gaze.
“Yes,” he said. “I was with Bradley when we found Holly.
My heart leapt to my throat. No, it’d stopped pounding altogether. No. No. It pounded like never before.
Damn. I was already emotionally distraught with Holly’s condition. I didn’t have the emotional strength to deal with another difficult situation.
But he came to us all the same, and the closer he got, the shakier I became. His approach was guarded, tentative, unsure how I would accept his presence.
“Hello,” I said with surprising calm. “Major Cooper tells me that you and he brought Holly back home. Thank you.”
He nodded with some discomfort. “Is she doing all right?”
“She’s sleeping. But I need to know what happened. What was she doing in London?
I thought of Ayra’s words, of Damen’s premier...but it didn’t fit. It didn’t make sense. How could his movie premier leave Holly in such a state?
“Was she with you two? She seems to be in shock, and I don’t think it’s the cold.”
“No,” Major Cooper said. “She wasn’t with us.”
“We happened to be at the Grand Majesty Theatre Royal.” Brad pressed a wry grin. “It happens to be the project my brother sent me to London to work on.”
I averted my gaze, unwilling to talk about his sudden departure from Selma Sanctuary or his brother’s part in it.
He cleared his throat and proceeded. “We are nearly finished with the renovation of the old historical theater and...” His voice trailed off.
Major Cooper smiled. “You see, I am a Patron of the Arts of the Grand Majestic Theatre Royal. As it happens, there was a movie premier nearby. We believe that is where Holly had gone.”
I nodded. So, she had gone there with him. “She left here without telling anyone.”
“She muttered profusely about her love for a man,” Major Cooper said. “Though quite incoherent for the most part, she seemed angry with someone, this same man perhaps...She called him a cheat, a scoundrel, a thief. If I understood correctly, I do believe she was talking about Damen Dominic.”
