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Paolo Tennant arrived a few days later, intent on announcing their engagement.

Nick knew that Melanie had been found out by way the earth shook under the town a few hours after the big arrival. Paolo Tennant could manipulate the elements to do his bidding. However, the elements reacted when he lost his temper. Like now.

Kevin looked over at Nick, who tried to keep a straight cool face.

“Do you know what happened?” he asked.

Nick shook his head, his eyes focused on a point above Kevin’s shoulder.

“Nickolas, talk to me,” Kevin said.

Nick looked into his mentor’s eyes, and saw kindness and concern, and the truth spilled out.

“Nickolas…” Kevin said, distressed. “Why?”

“Because I love her,” Nick said. “I couldn’t let her be trapped like that.”

“Tennant isn’t like most men, who would drop interest in a defiled maiden. All this has done is made him angrier, and more intent on marrying her,” Kevin said, ashen faced. “Just to make her miserable. I fear for her safety.”

Nick put his head in his hands.

“What have I done?”

________________________________


Melanie wept in her room, hearing Paolo rant at her father, talking about tainted, filthy, worthless, disgusting…but he would still be marrying her.

She thanked the gods for allowing Nick’s face to be blocked from the memory of her deflowering, because now all Paolo was interested in was the name of the man who took what was rightfully his.

“Nick,” she whispered into the wind. “Please help me.”

Thirty minutes later, Melanie’s mother knocked at the door.

“Melanie, Mrs. Richardson is here to get you ready for tonight,” she said softly, her eyes sending apologies to her young daughter.

Mrs. Richardson, Kevin’s wife, came in, and closed the door after her mother. She then locked it.
“Here’s what’s happening, Melanie. I know about him. Kevin is taking your father and Mr. Tennant to his gallery, as a distraction for what’s about to happen. Your love is coming now to this house, and will be waiting under your window within a few moments. You will go to him, and the two of you will leave Riverwoods and head west. You need to leave New York, as the contract only binds you here. Kevin and I did a lot of research in the past hour about it. Now, pack some things, it’s almost time,” Mrs. Richardson said in a whisper.

Melanie did so, and she heard a whistle under her window.

Nick was on a horse, looking up at her.

“We don’t have much time, drop your things, and then jump.”

Melanie did so, and once she was on the horse, she wrapped her arms around him, and he took off.

__________________________________

Kevin and his wife, Kristin, faced Paolo with determination.

“Where is she?” he demanded Kristin.

“I don’t know,” she said, confidently. “I went to the powder room, came back, and she was gone.”

Paolo groaned, and it sent a tremor throughout the town.

“Your apprentice, where is he?” he asked Kevin.

“Gone as well, sir, haven’t seen him in days. I believe he went to Jamestown to visit family,” Kevin lied easily. “What does he have to do with any of this? The last of my knowledge is that he and Miss Woods were mere acquaintances. Nothing more.”

Paolo groaned again.

“My apologies, Mr. Richardson, I had heard from one of the girls in town that they were close. She must have been mistaken. These Woods are seriously toeing the line with me, and have been since I was first involved. I apologize for interrupting your day. If you hear anything, let my men know,” he said.

With that, he was gone.

Kristin looked at Kevin with her eyes full of fear.

“Do you think they’re going to make it?” she asked, frightened.

Kevin held her tightly.

“I don’t know, but I hope they do.”

_______________________________

Two days later, Nick and Melanie were outside of Rochester, New York.

“How much longer?” Melanie asked as they ate in a small diner.

“On horseback, about one more day.. I figured St. Catherine’s would be the best idea, since it’s in Canada,” Nick said simply.

Melanie smiled. She was actually going to get away from the hold Paolo had on her, and hopefully she would be marrying the man she truly loved. The man who had rescued her from Paolo.

She didn’t know much about Canada, but Nick said that it wasn’t all that different from New York.

After they’d paid, Nick helped Melanie back on her horse, and they made for Canada.

____________________________________

They reached a spot where they could make camp for the night. With a kiss, Nick told her he’d be getting firewood and to stay close to the horse.

“Be careful,” she warned him.

“I will,” Nick said, smiling at her.


Melanie waited while Nick got more firewood for the night. She heard footsteps approaching and smiled as they got closer.

“Finally, I was freezing…wait, no, where’s Nick?” she asked as she saw two men approach her. One mumbled a spell and she immediately slipped into unconsciousness.


Nick woke up with the sun shining in his face. He couldn’t remember much, just a man saying Melanie’s name as another muttered the Unconsciousness spell.

“No, MELANIE!” he cried out, running for where he had left Melanie with the horse.

Neither could be found.

“No, no no no, this isn’t happening,” Nick said, desperate tears flowing down his face.
He made a quick run for the town they had just left behind, eager to buy a horse to rescue the love of his life once again

_______________________________________________
“You told me that your apprentice was headed for Jamestown, yet he was found with Melanie near the Canadian border,” Paolo was saying to Kevin a couple of days later.

“Paolo, I didn’t know anything of my apprentice’s relationship with Melanie. If I did, I would have discouraged it,” Kevin said, not backing down from the cold man’s gaze. “How is she?”

“Still stubborn as a mule, broke one of my men’s jaws with her foot. Bars are on her windows now.”

“Well, best wishes. I must be getting back to my art. When will the wedding be?” Kevin asked.

“Three days time. I wish for you to paint her bridal portrait. You are the best,” Paolo said dismissively.

“I will consider it. I am a busy man.”

Tennant left the gallery and Kevin breathed out a quick sigh of relief. Nick hadn’t been killed, and he was grateful, however, Nick couldn’t come back to Riverwoods without all of Tennant’s men being on him.

Kevin painted a portrait of a stormy sea with a small ray of sunlight, struggling to break through. That sun reflected his last hope that his apprentice, a young man he’d come to love like a son, would be able to save his love from what was due to be a disastrous marriage.