Celine ran herself ragged every day. She did not eat or sleep, she spent all of her time working with the wild horses that had been sent from the ranch in Colorado to the plantation in Georgia, training them for the next racing season. At least fourteen hours of the day were spent on the track or on the corrals, with Rodger joining her until he dropped, usually around seven. He both lacked the stamina and drive to work like she did, for her work was blocking out her pain. His heartbreak was not out of real love, nor a first love.

   Celine was slowly becoming a dead woman walking. Her angles became jagged, gaunt lines and her her grew limper and her eyes lost their sparkle. But Nora and George allowed her to do whatever she needed so long as it made her survive, and devoting herself to working was the one thing she had left.

   Her maman would be sad.

    Spring passed and summer set in, with it's boiling Georgia sun and sporadic droughts. The evenings were no longer spent with Celi in the living room with her family and friends. Singing no longer filled the hall accompanied by the sound of dancing feet. She was outside all day until she was ready to fall from exhaustion, hours after Rodger had gone in.

  He was staying with them now, as his parents were just thankful to have him in the same country once again. They let him do whatever he wanted because of that. And it was a good thing for Celi, too. She didn't sleep very much considering her dreams were haunted by the masked man who still held her heart and was still in Paris. But when she did sleep, with plagued dreams, it wa because Rodger was there beside her. He'd wrap his arms loosely around her and she'd cling to him and softly cry herself to sleep - Leo, the chaperone, was present of course, settled between their legs, having recieved Rodger's assistance to get on the bed in the first place.

   Nora stumbled upon Rodger dragging a sheet and pillow behind him once, on his nightclothes on his way to Celi's room, but she didn't bother to say anything about it. If he helped her sleep that was fine. She continued in her search for a midnight snack of chocolate.

   An entire month had passed this way, and things did not look like they were going to change.

   Celi felt hollow inside.

   And then one day she nearly fell off her horse.

   She and Rodger were in the smallest corral, working one of the horses. He held the whip as she rode out the wide circles. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a black shadow, an outline of a cloak and the gleam of a white mask. She would have brushed it off as nothing as she saw him everywhere. But none of her hallucinations were ever so clear before. She looked again and there he was again, standing by the corner of the barn, hat casting shadows over his face.

   She felt herself slip and slid over the side of her steed. Thanking the stars she and Rodger had learned trick riding from the same circus that taught her how to manipulate ropes, she contorted herself, slid around the horse's side and swung herself back up into the saddle in a very fancy manner. Her eyea never strayed from his figure until Rodger realized she was staring and lowered the whip and reeled the leadline in. He had great difficulty hiding his smile. Well it's about time the bloody man got here!

   Celi slid off and stood next to Rodger as the dark figure approached. Celi's heart skipped a beat and her stomach plummeted. Sweat bubbled to her skin and her fingers dug into Rodger's arm.

   "Maybe walk slower, good sir!" Roger called. "She might think you're another one of her hallucinations. She sees you all over and is currently ripping the flesh from my arm." He pried her  cramping fingers up.

   On the other side of the fence he came to a stop, taking his hat off and staring hard at Celi. "I've seen her everywhere as well; I can't get you out of my mind."

   "This can't be real," Celi muttered.

  "It is. And -"

   "Get out. Get away from me and stay away from me. I hate you and I don't want you here. Leave."

  "I cannot. I -"

"No!" She screeched, lunging at him.

  Erik sprang back as she hit the fence, knocking the wind out of herself. She reached for him again, pure fury on her face, screaming as Rodger easily picked her up and restrained her.

   "You might want to move back and prepare to run," he said goodnaturedly as Celi began tearing at him. She aimed a well placed elbow to his ribs and fell to the ground when he dropped her in shock. She did not go for Erik though, instead she ran for the house.

   The two men quite obviously gave chase, well aware that ahe was not in her right mind at the moment.

   She burst into the front wall and screamed for their butler at the top of her lungs. "Willikins!"

   "Celine! You know Nora doesn't want you to track mud into the front hall!" Rodger scolded as he quickly caught up to her. She put at least fifteen feet between herself and the other two men, rocking from foot to foot, tensed.

   "Miss Celi called?"

   A very large, shirtless man came into the hallway, with blood running up and down his arms.

   Now out of the original trio, Erik, by far was the tallest, which was saying something considering Willikins had at least six inches on him. Not to mention the thick bands of muscle decorating his torso.

   "Willikins -" Celi began but the Treacle's butler held up a hand.

   "Willikins sense great distress. Miss Celi need hug."

   And to Erik's amused shock and Rodger's fluttering heart, Willikins placed his bloody arms around Celi.

   "Willikins - please remove that man!" Celi pointed at Erik, whe was now cursing himself for not bringing his lasso with him. He would not win in a fist fight against the man currently embracing Celi.

   Willikins let her go and stalked towards Erik. He had one expression, and that was glaring anger, which Erik now tensed under, not knowing he always looked like he could murder someone.

   "Willikins was about to clean up from foaling. When Miss Celi call him, he think more blood shall be shed. But Willikins recognizes you." He points to Erik. "Are you not man in mask whom Miss Celi cries over and had endless drawings of beneath the floorboards of her room?"

  Celi looked dangerously at Rodger, who simply shrugged. He couldn't keep secrets and she knew that.

   "Yes?" Erik said.

   Willikins folded his massive arms, looming like a statue. "Then Willikins will not remove you."

  Celi let out a strangled cough.

   He turned to her. "Apologies, Miss Celi. But you two love and therefore Willikins will keep you in love. Excuse Willikins since he is not needed."

   For a while after he left, the two remaining fellows waited for Celine's explosion to come. It didn't.

   "Oh, that Willikins," Rodger said, breaking the silence. "Every time I see him, even fully clothed,  my heart stops, I can't breathe, and places that generally have silent hearts start beating." He fanned himself with his hand.

   Erik felt a pang of jealousy. Celi was his. He didn't want her anywhere near other men.

   "He's married, Rodger," Celi snapped. "I'm going to get read for dinner." She turned an accusatory eye to Erik. "You better not be here when I get out of the bath."

   She dragged herself up the stairs.

   "I love you!" Erik yelled after her.

   "Shut up, you bastard!" Was his reply.

    Rodger slapped Erik on the back. "Well that went much better than I thought it would."

   Erik appeared flabbergasted. "How did you think it would go?"

   "Well the worst possible scenario would have been her dying at the sight of you. The best was her leading you into the mustangs pasture. The fact that she wants to kill you herself puts you somewhere in between which means she still cares."

   Erik didn't know how to reply. "Oh."

   "Where are you staying?"

   "The GrayHorse Hotel in town."

    "No move in here." Rodger looked back up the stairs. "Maybe you should join her in that bath."

   "I can't have a death wish until after she hears what I have to say."

  "Goos point. Now come on, let's find Nora and George and get you invited to dinner. And inform them you will be living here so they don't think you are an obsessive murderer who deludes over their daughter. Though it wouldn't be the first time."

  "What?"

  "Exactly. Welcome to the Crazy House."

   Four more chapters left, one is very steamy, and we are going to have a FOOOD FIGHT!!!