The ride back was different.
She had known it would be. She had known from the moment she climbed onto the bike behind him and her arms went around his waist and the estate disappeared behind them that this was not the same journey as last night.
Last night she had held on because she was afraid of falling.
This morning she held on because she wanted to.
Her face pressed into his back and her arms around him and the territory moving past them in the early grey light....still enormous, still wild, the forest still going on forever in both directions....but different now. Not foreign. Not something she was passing through.
Something she was coming back to.
She tightened her arms slightly.
She felt him notice.
But he didn't say anything.
He just kept driving.
