Falling Like Snow

Three | The Encounter

Despite the cold, Lizzie's thick coat kept her warm. She hurried through the grounds, desperate to get out of sight of the house as quickly as possible. She wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with Caroline for; too many snide comments had been directed at her over the last four days, although Lizzie had to give credit where it was due - the remarks were fewer than they had been in their previous interactions.

Lottie had been spending an awful lot of time with Caroline since Friday night, but when Lizzie had confronted her friend about it, she had been brushed off. "Caroline isn't so bad, once you get to know her. It's all an act, really - a defense-mechanism."

Lizzie shuddered, but from the recollection of that conversation rather than the frigidity. She hated to admit it, but Caroline had seemed to be making more of an effort to be nicer to her. Almost too much of an effort; she was beginning to suspect that there might be something more than friendship between them. Well, she decided that she wished Charlotte luck and happiness, if she was right. She'd heard it said that love was blind, but apparently it was more superficial than that, for Caroline's appearance couldn't be faulted without doing the girl a disservice! Lizzie thought better of Lottie than that, though.

Soon escaping the mostly empty fields - having waved to a few sheep and cows as she circumvented them - Lizzie wandered through the sparse trees, and over and along rolling hills of varying size and steepness. Having struck out in a random direction, as had already become her habit, she simply took pleasure from the activity of walking and the immersion in nature. She maintained a messaged conversation with Janna as she walked, lingering at the top of each hill and using contact with her friend as motivation to hurriedly climb the next and gain reception signal again. Janna seemed to be taking an unfair amount of delight from her struggle, always responding to her immediately despite the frequent pauses which lasted anywhere from five to thirty minutes as she made her way down and up the hills.

Eventually, Janna got called away to complete some menial task. Lizzie didn't mind overly, eagerly embracing the opportunity to take in and marvel at the countryside. She slowed her pace, enjoying the cool air and the faint rustling of animals in the vegetation. Pausing a little way off the peak of her latest tor - the biggest one yet - Lizzie turned to face the direction she had come from. The wind stirred her hair, and she pulled it over one shoulder absentmindedly, too preoccupied with the breathtaking view which lay sprawled before her.

With a little regret (but not that much, for the walk had been well worth it), Lizzie realised that there was a much flatter path that wended around the hills, leading deep into the countryside from Netherfield, which stood isolated in the distance. She had ended up farther East than she had realised, having simply followed the path suggested to her by the wilderness. A nearby town could just be made out a little behind Netherfield. Pulling out her phone again, Lizzie took a grinning selfie, drawing in an arrow that pointed to the manor behind her.

Surprised to have all four bars of reception - even at Netherfield, she was lucky to get two - Lizzie sent the image to Jane with the caption 'You and Me'. Noting the time with disappointment, Lizzie determined that she would just climb to the top of the hill, and see if she could easily meet with the more direct path that she had seen heading in the same general direction as her. Perhaps she would be able to join up with it, and return along it. Doing so would take her less time than her fluctuating route, and Lizzie would rather make a round trip than return the same way she had come.

Her phone buzzed again as Lizzie clambered up the last few, steep metres. Smiling at Jane's response to the image, she began tapping out an answering message, so absorbed by their conversation that she failed to see the man stood at the top of the hill with his back to her, staring out across the scenery.