CHAPTER 12

Andrew had been standing by the window for the last half hour, eyes scanning the farm in search of a probably quite scared little angel who would suddenly emerge from the darkness that surrounded the house. When Mrs Snyder told him about Monica’s little journey to the nearest chapel, he was worried – but then, he would always worry about not having his angelic friend around when they were on Earth. What put his heart at ease was the fact that she had gone to meet Tess and that the chapel was quite near. Plus, Brady was with her and the friendly dog had indeed accepted the position as her protector.

Footsteps outside made Andrew more alert but seconds later he saw that Caroline was the one coming towards the main house.

“Good evening, Andrew.” She greeted, with a serious expression on her face.

The blond angel politely replied, looking at her for a moment and not missing the worried look in her eyes. “Good evening, Caroline. Is everything alright?”

“Y-yes... I was just... I’m just a little tired, is all. It was a busy day.” She looked at her mother, who just came into the living room with a friendly smile. “Hi, mom.”

“Oh, I’m glad that you’re here. Now we’ll just have to wait for Monica so we can have dinner.”

Andrew had turned his vigilant eyes back to the yard and let out a sigh of relief when Monica’s small form finally came into view, always followed by her loyal guardian. Brady could not give two steps without looking up at her, as if asking if everything was alright.

“Here she comes...” he said, heading to open the door for her, a smile now playing on his lips.

Caroline watched him for a moment and then turned to look at Margaret. “I’m not really hungry, mom, I ate something outside.”

“Oh...”

Mrs Snyder was going to say something else but her daughter left the room just afterwards. Monica climbed the porch steps and gave Brady some good scratch behind the ears before coming inside the house.

“Thank you very much for you company! We can do this some other day, what do you think, huh?”

A wet kiss against her cheek was her reply, and it managed to elicit a small giggle from her.

“I guess it means a yes...”

Andrew’s voice made her raise her head and when those doe-like brown eyes met his green ones he felt a certain melancholy he could not understand.

“Everything alright?” He asked, offering a supportive hand.

Accepting his help, Monica rose to her feet. “I saw Tess at the chapel!” She informed, with a slight smile and avoiding to answer to his question. At least talking about her dear friend and supervisor would help erase the sadness she was feeling right now.

“I’m glad you found her there, angel. She must have been happy to see you.” He smiled warmly at her, purposefully keeping her hand in his. “Let’s go to have dinner? Margaret is waiting for you.”

Monica’s eyebrows knitted together in worry as he led her to inside the house. “Did I keep you waiting for long?”  

“Oh, of course not, dear! I finished it just now.” The woman greeted her with a smile and then winked. “And Andrew here would not eat until he saw you crossing that door!”

Smiling, they headed to the dining room, where Mr Snyder was already waiting for their guests. Rafael had been invited as well, and conversation flew relatively easily to most of them. But Andrew could see the slight apathy in those sweet brown eyes that were now downcast. His dearest friend was staring at the food with no will to eat and one could notice she was tired – more tired than she would normally be.

Once dinner was over, the blond angel was relieved to see at least a glimpse of satisfaction on her meek face as Mr Snyder brought in a mug filled with her favourite drink. Sometime later, after they helped Mrs Snyder tidy up the dining room, the angels headed to their guest house, and if the day had been a tough one, now Monica was glad that at least she could cross that dark path having Andrew’s arms around her shoulders; both he and Rafael talking about their assignments there.

She did not take part in the conversation, however. That would mean revealing what had been going on with Ian and Caroline and it was last thing she wanted to happen. At least for a while.

Monica bid her angelic friends good night and quickly headed to her room, leaving a worried Andrew behind. She changed into warm green flannel pyjamas – with small coffee cups designed on them, but instead of lying in bed, she took a seat by the window; knees brought up to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs. The fireflies dancing outside, somewhat defying the darkness and shadows, caught her attention for a while.

A light knock on the door followed by a familiar voice took her out of her reverie, though.

“Angel?”

Andrew stood by the door and her slight smile was an invitation for him to enter.

“Hullo, Andrew...”

The blond angel walked up to her and also took a seat by the window, opposite to her. “I went to drink some water and sensed you were not sleeping...”

“I guess I slept a lot these days... to compensate the jet leg effect from turning from angel to human forms...”

Her little joke made him chuckle, but he still could sense there was something wrong.

“I noticed you barely ate at the dinner...”

“I was not very hungry, you know. Besides, Margaret is very generous with food... It reminded me of Tess.”

Nodding his head, he kept on trying to find out what had been puzzling his beloved friend. “You two talked?”

“We did... It was so good to visit the chapel and hear her voice, Andrew... It was like going back Home for a little while because this is what that small chapel looks like... It’s like a tiny bit of Home here on Earth where angels can go and feel the Father’s love... and I felt like I needed a little break from the farm... even though this place is beautiful too...” she tried to explain her reasons without having to lie to him. Lying was never an option, especially to an angel of truth. “Does that sound confusing?”

The questioning look on her face was particularly adorable. And she would never sound confusing to him.

“Of course not, baby.”

“I saw you were busy talking to Mr Snyder about your job so I did not want to interrupt you two...” she added, fearing he would feel excluded from her little outing.

But Andrew wasn’t. Much on the contrary: it was possible to see much tenderness through his shining green eyes. “Margaret told me that too. And the fact that you had a bodyguard with you kept me from worrying. A lot.”

Eliciting a tiny smile from her, he reached for her hand. “Is there anything else you want to talk about, angel? I can sense some worry in your spirit I cannot fully understand...”

Monica lowered her eyes and looked at their intertwined fingers. “I guess I’ve been trying to find the right direction in this assignment... And so far I’m not totally certain I’m following the right path...”

Andrew nodded, not wanting to push her into voicing what she was feeling. She would eventually open her heart to him.

“You’re following your heart, angel. And I don’t know a more trustable path other than that.” She turned her eyes back at him; dark brown pools filled with so much affection and gratitude that no words were needed. “Do you think you could get some sleep now?”

“I guess I can try...”

She let him guide her up to bed and once she was comfortably settled, he pulled the covers up to her shoulders. “Warm enough?”

Monica nodded her head. “Thank you.”

“Take some good rest, angel. You have work to do early in the morning.”

She blinked back at him, looking like an obedient little girl. “I promise I’ll try.”

Andrew lowered his face and brushed a loving kiss against her forehead. “Sleep well, angel. Have sweet dreams if you can.”

“You too, Andrew.”

He still kissed the back of her hand and finally left the room, hoping that whatever was troubling her would have less impact on her on the following morning.

It took a long time before Monica started to drift off into a light sleep. Not even the silence of the night managed to accelerate her human body sleeping process, even though it helped her relax, along, of course, with Andrew’s loving presence a while earlier.

Her eyes were shut when she felt the whip mark against her skin burning. And then Ian’s angry voice reached her ears like a threatening thunder.

“You stupid woman! Get out of my way!” he screamed, before slashing the whip once again, but now against her face. She moaned with pain and averted her eyes from him to look at Amazing Grace, who was favouring on her leg and could barely walk. A moment later, Ian was riding her and hitting the animal with so fury that suddenly Grace was bleeding.

“You can’t do this! Stop it!” she shouted, trying to reach them and put herself in front of the horse.

“Outta my way!”

“Stop it! You’ll kill her!”

“And might as well kill you too if you spoil my plans!”

Grace nickered and raised her front legs as he kept on hitting her.

“No! Stop! Please, Father, make him stop!”

Ian kept on shouting at her but now she could hear another voice together, a much more familiar one, trying to calm her down.

“Shh... Angel, it’s ok... I’m here...”

“Andrew...”

Her voice was low now, but she was still wrapped up in the nightmare, so Andrew elected to hold her gently, so that she knew, even unconsciously, that there was an angel of God watching over her.

“It’s a bad dream, Monica... You’re having a bad dream...” he spoke softly against her ear. And in an attempt to hold her a tiny bit tighter, the blond angel ended up touching her injured arm.

Still asleep, Monica flinched almost immediately and whimpered in pain at his touch, pulling her arm back to her. Andrew frowned with concern at that reaction, and very carefully raised the sleeve of her pyjamas to investigate its cause.

His heart broke when he saw the angry red mark crossing her forearm and at the realisation that the soft pressure he had applied against it he had just hurt her even more.

“Oh, angel, I’m sorry... I’m so sorry, I didn’t know!” he spoke, feeling terribly guilty and also scared at what he could see now. “Father, what happened to her?”