Read Online For Elise by Sarah M. Eden - Free Book Online

constantly put between them. Frustration seemed unavoidable.
    “I . . .” Elise finished the sentence with nothing more than a shaky breath.
    Miles turned away. What could he possibly say to that? It was an obvious “no.” She wasn’t happy. He had always imagined that if he could just find Elise and bring her home, everything would be fine. She would be happy. He would have his dearest friend back. All would be well again.
    But that hadn’t happened. She was there and miserable, and she felt nearly as far away as she had been the past four years.
    “Miles.” Elise’s quiet voice carried to him several paces away from her.
    He stopped but didn’t turn back. He couldn’t bear to see her solemn and unhappy expression. Despite the anger so often in her eyes, it was the pain that hovered just beneath the surface that sliced through him every time he saw her.
    “I do like trees,” Elise said.
    He nodded but kept his back turned.
    “And unlike some people, I have never fallen out of one.”
    “I was pushed,” Miles corrected.
    “I said I was sorry,” Elise answered and sounded very much like she’d rolled her eyes, though Miles doubted she actually had.
    He glanced over his shoulder. Elise allowed a fleeting upward twitch of her lips. Almost a smile. Almost.
    Her gaze shifted to the tree ahead of them. “How many hours do you suppose we spent sitting under our tree?”
    “Most of our childhood, I would say,” Miles answered.
    “I have needed a meadow, Miles.” She seemed troubled. Deeply troubled. He closed the distance between them. “And a tree where I could sit and think through my problems.”
    Miles forced himself not to take her hand. She had pulled away from that gesture too many times.
    “It is a very good tree,” he said. She hadn’t looked away from it yet. “A decent substitute for our old friend.”
    Elise looked up at him. There was suddenly so much worry and uncertainty in her eyes. What have you been through?
    “Will you introduce me?” Elise asked quietly, almost hopefully.
    “To the tree?” It was the sort of request Elise would have made when they were younger: playful, imaginative, but this time without the enthusiasm that had been so much a part of her character. “I would be delighted.” He hoped his smile was encouraging.
    He walked at her side as they crossed the meadow. She didn’t put further distance between them. But what was she thinking? She was impossible to read.
    “It is an oak,” Elise said. “Our tree was also an oak.” Elise studied the tree they now stood underneath. “Have you sat under it often?”
    “It has only just become warm enough to do so. And I have been away for several weeks, in Nottinghamshire, then Lancashire.”
    “And Stanton,” Elise added.
    “That was an unexpected stop,” Miles said. “But a fortuitous one.”
    She looked at him again as if uncertain he was sincere. “You are glad you found me, then?”
    How could she doubt it? “Are you glad you were found?”
    Her brow furrowed. “I don’t know yet,” she whispered.
    It was a confusing answer. “Perhaps this tree will tip the scales in my favor.”
    “It is a very fine tree.” Elise looked at him, a question in her eyes. But she just as quickly looked away.
    She began circling the trunk of the tree, her fingertips sliding along the bark as her eyes studied the branches above her. She used to do precisely the same thing when she was very young, except she used to sing as she’d circle, skipping and hopping.
    Miles watched her fingers as they rubbed along the trunk. She always said she liked the feel of the bark beneath her fingers.
    “You won’t mind if I come sit here now and then?” Elise continued her perusal.
    “You may sit here whenever you like.” He leaned one shoulder against the tree trunk, bringing Elise to a halt.
    “I don’t know where the picnic blankets are kept,” she said, fingers still on the tree trunk. “And I would rather not sit on the damp