The Golden Desires Read Free

mill. But before the mill came into view he stopped and looked at her.
    "I want to show you a place that I found a
few days ago. I haven't told anyone else about it because, to be honest, it is
quite nice to have somewhere that is just mine for the moment. But I do want to
share it with you."
    Isabella found herself rather intrigued so nodded
at him but said nothing. She then found her hand taken in his as he started to
walk with her beside him, off the path and into an area of open ground where
only grass and a handful of low growing bushes grew.
    They walked a way before he stopped and turned to
her.
    "Here we are," he said, smiling as if he
were showing her a great secret, but she could see nothing different so was
only confused. "Sit down. Here."
    Isabella followed his direction and the two of
them sat on the grass. It was not something that she normally did so
immediately she felt different just from doing that, but still the look on his
face confounded her. She just could not sense what had him so … excited .
    "Do you feel it?" he asked, desperate
for her to confirm that he was not imagining things.
    "What?"
    "Put your hands flat on the ground … like
this," he said, demonstrating by putting both palms flat down on the
grass. He saw her do the same before he continued. "Do you feel it?"
    Finally he saw a look of realization on her face.
    "Adrian, the ground is warm - very warm…"
she said with a look of incomprehension on her face. "How … how can it be
so warm as that, Adrian? This late in the day, with the sun starting to go
down."
    "I don't know," he said, now feeling
even more excited. "I don't know how or why it is happening, but it is happening."
    "But is it always like this?"
    "I don't know! That is just it - we never
come out here after the sun comes down so we always assume the ground is warm
from the sun, do we not?" he asked and saw her nod slowly. "But what
if it isn't, Isabella? What if it isn't the sun that makes our ground so
warm all the time?"
    Isabella was stunned. She had been brought up to
believe that warmth came from the sun, and that they never went out at night
because it would be far too cold without the sun above, in the sky. There had
never been any reason to even think about the possibility that the warmth
didn't come from above.
    "You think that this warmth is coming … from
below?" she asked, pointing one finger downward into the soil. She saw him
nod, maintaining the large smile of excitement on his face. "But how, Adrian?
How could that be?"
    "I don't know, but I want to find out!"
He paused before speaking more. "But Isabella, I don't want other people
to know about this. I don't want to get you - or me - into trouble by
asking questions. I will try and figure this out, but with much discretion so
that no-one knows I am asking about it. I don't know who knows about this, so I
want to be careful."
    He saw her nod her head again, slowly.
    "Alright, but please be careful Adrian. If
someone knows the answer to this mystery and has not been honest with everyone
all of these years…"
    "Yes, I agree. I don't know who to trust
about it. It could be that generations have been telling each next generation
the same thing, and no-one knows about whatever it is that is generating the
heat. But I don't want to risk the wrong person knowing I am asking questions.
Do you promise to keep it to yourself?"
    "Yes! Of course. I would not do anything that
could result in you getting into trouble, Adrian. You know that."
    "Thank you. But Isabella there is something
else I wish to talk to you about…"
    She saw his face take on a serious unease all of a
sudden, making him seem more morose than she had ever seen him before.
    "Yes?" she asked him, nudging him to
keep speaking even though he did seem extremely awkward in that moment.
    "I…" he started but had a moment of
panic, wondering if he should say something or if there was a chance that he
would spoil things for them. It was such a long term