CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“ELLIOTT, YOU’RE GIVING ME A heart attack watching you twitch around like that.
” Roslyn plucked a bottle of Wite-Out out of her metal drawer as she typed to make herself appear busy.
It was the ides of December. Her desk was decorated with little snowmen, ice-frosted pine trees, and a miniature of the Marlborough Mountains that Wulfram made.
The rumors were that Wulfram was her new flame.
She could hardly keep her eyes off of Elliott’s sleepless jitteriness as his limbs sprung at a rapid beat. He was dissolving.
“Roz, I need to leave the art department.” He handed over the paperwork. His hands were blistered. “Please. It’s killing me.”
Roslyn inspected the lettering as she held the documents up to the light, squinting at the fanciful swirls of the signatures. She was conversational. “Are you heading home for winter break after the hibernal?”
Elliott dragged his hands through his hair, bent over with torture. The last thing he wanted to think about was the hibernal and James’s potential hanging.
To celebrate the winter season, AEscwulf College transported itself into a Jack London novel with rugged adventure at every turn–sled dogs imported from the Yukon Trail of Canada were available for students to cross the small powdery campus with ease; St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd mixes were offered as companion dogs for hikes to remain calm in the imminent tribulation of the solstice; outdoorsmen led expeditions where daring students could learn to survive in the wilderness per The Call of the Wild.
All of the explorations of nature were complete with complimentary rations of 1 ⒈／⒉ sun-dried salmon, a slice of bacon, hard bread, and brackish water as though they were Buck on the Thirty Mile River.
There were elaborate distractions everywhere.
Elliott didn’t even realize that until his second year.
Elliott had to pretend that he was interested in the chemistry department that Lucien studied in for any other reason than Lucien.
Roslyn handed Elliott a cup of nutmeg-spiced eggnog as he fidgeted. A couple of reindeer sugar cookies perfumed the air in an aroma of freshly baked warmth as she handed him a bundle of treats.
“Elliott, did you go skiing?” She whispered at last. She leaned toward him with a motherly hand on his arm. “You can tell me if you hit the slopes, I’ll help you.”
Elliott mumbled incoherently. “Hit the slopes?”
Roslyn tapped her nose. He shook his head.
Behind Roslyn stood a mammoth glass window that gave view to the snowed landscape where the Saexhelm Library was buried under snowfall and bright lights were strung over the bookshops blanketed beneath the early snow in the Yuletide.
The Nixon Forest was overrun with brash, eager students attempting to learn how to navigate rafts of saw-logs.
Freshmen threw snowballs at each other; sophomores tried to learn commands, shouting “Mush on!” to the sled pack of snow hounds.
The older students congregated to exchange their wills and final wishes.
Near the mountains, the biting wind froze over the river end, nipping every scarf and sweater, ravaging December hats from heads.
Already, its ice was frothing, slavering, lurking hungrily for sacrifices.
“Alright then. Welcome to the chemistry department.” Roslyn stamped the documents with approvals and an inch of his anxiety dissipated, then, slowly…
his body flooded with relief. He needed to replicate Lucien’s schedule.
“By the way, your forgeries were terrible, Elliott. No offense, art was never your calling unless you kept at it fixedly.”
“You’re an angel.” Elliott knocked her over in a bearish embrace. He inhaled her peppermint scent, she was the closest presence the students had to their mother, and she was the first face he saw whenever he stepped into the art annex. “I’m really going to miss you, Roz.”
“Same here, kid. Take care of yourself.” Roslyn warmly embraced him in return and passed him a chemistry badge afterward, accepting his art badge, and the bribery chantilly mini-cakes. She munched, “Are these the good ones?”
“Yeah, Beno?t’s Patisserie on Marseille Street.”
“Wow, you spent good money on this, smart kid.”
Roslyn traded him for her annual homemade ginger snaps that made the art halls smell divine at the end of the year.
Unexpectedly, her eyes shone with tears and pride.
“I hope you get as far away from Banebury as your restless feet can take you when you graduate. Even though AEscwulf is free for you, it’s a risk. Be safe.”
“Thank you.” Elliott forced his hands to steady. He swallowed the creamy eggnog. “There’s one more thing.”
“What do you need?”
Lucien’s mind was murderously determined, and it frightened Elliott. Someone said Lucien had vowed to kill James even before the hibernal.
Elliott opened his mouth. “Could you please write me a recommendation to become an undergraduate chemistry professor assistant?”