Mississippi
Brian Belden hesitated in the doorway of the motel room. Honey was sitting on the edge of one of the twin beds, staring, he presumed, out the window. He rapped his knuckles lightly on the wall, not wanting to startle her.
“Hey, Honey,” he said.
She turned to face him, and he could see that she’d been crying again. Not that he blamed her. He’d shed a few tears of his own in the past twenty-four hours. Tears of relief when they’d found the two girls and tears of anger when he’d realized how close they’d come to losing their lives.
Now, the villains were in custody facing a barrage of charges, and Trixie, his intrepid sister, was going over events, one more time, for the authorities. Matthew Wheeler was with her and Jim. He and Jim had both wanted to be there to support Trixie, and when Mr. Wheeler suggested it might be better for only one of them to sit in on the interview, Brian knew it was his duty as her brother. But something in her blue eyes and the way she’d clung to Jim’s strong hand told him that, right at that moment, Jim was the one she needed.
Besides, Honey, quieter and less forthcoming than his sister, still had him worried. So, leaving Mart and Dan in the motel dining room, he’d come to see if he could help.
“Hi,” Honey said softly. “Is Trixie still in with the FBI?”
“Yeah, you know our Trixie. Once she gets talking there’s no stopping her.” He crossed the room and took a seat beside her.
“They’re lucky to have someone so smart to assist them,” Honey said quickly.
“I agree with that, in theory at least. In life, I think I’d prefer my sister was a little less smart about sniffing out mysteries and crooks.”
“It wasn’t Trixie’s fault. You know it wasn’t!”
It was rare for Honey to raise her voice—she almost never argued with any of them.
Brian took her hand in his. “I know that, Honey. I can’t help it, though, if I wish just once that Trixie would wait until we were all on hand before rushing into danger.”
“That was me,” Honey cried. “Don’t you get it? I tried to explain. It was my fault. MINE! Not Trixie’s. She didn’t trust the Auguileras— she wanted to wait for you to get back from the show. She wanted to leave a note. She picked up on them using the wrong name. I was so stupid! Anyone could get it mixed up! That’s what I said. Can you believe it? What an idiot. Everything that happened was my fault. I said we should go with them. I was impatient. I almost got us killed, and I don’t know how any of you can ever forgive or trust me again.”
It was a long speech and, for Honey, it was pretty much to the point and coherent. “Honey, I understand how you feel. I really do.”
“How can you?” she asked, her anger subsiding as quickly as it had appeared. “You never do the wrong thing. You always make the right choice. You’re smart and dependable, not a naïve fool.”
“You’re not a fool, Honey. I can’t, I won’t let you talk about yourself that way. You made an error of judgment, I’ll grant you that, but you weren’t deliberately reckless.”
“Well, Trix isn’t deliberately reckless either, but you all jump on her whenever something goes wrong.”
“Do we?” Brian scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I guess we do, but only because we’re usually scared witless at the time. Besides,” he gave a half-smile, “she always has you to leap to her defense. So you’ll have to excuse me if I leap to yours.”
Honey managed a half-smile of her own. “I know I can always count on the Bob-Whites; I know I can always count on you, but it doesn’t change what I did. When we get back to Sleepyside, I am going to tell your folks and my mother that this is all because of me. I know Trixie thinks this will probably get her grounded forever, but that wouldn’t be fair.”
“I don’t think anyone’s getting grounded forever,” Brian said easily. “I admire you taking responsibility, but Trix wouldn’t want you to take all of it. And you shouldn’t. We’ve all made mistakes here, including Trixie. She should never have taken that swim.” He waved his hand at Honey when she opened her mouth to protest. “She knows that. And after everything that happened, your dad should have insisted we all stay together. Leaving you two alone was totally reckless.” He saw her flinch at the criticism of her father, but Matthew Wheeler had said those very words himself, and Brian knew them to be true. “And as for us guys, we’re more to blame than anyone.”
“How do you figure that?” Honey demanded.
“We knew you girls were on to something big, that we were dealing with dangerous characters. Heck, Honey, the two of you had actually done what we always ask you to do and included us in pretty much everything. And we go off to some exhibit, leaving the two of you exposed. If I could charge us with something, believe me I would.”
He felt Honey looking into his dark eyes and could see from her expression that she knew he meant what he said.
“You’re not to blame. None of you. That’s silly.”
“Tell that to Mart. He knows he’s the one who pushed to go. I don’t know if he’ll ever forget that.” He could still see his brother’s face, strained and white, the freckles standing out. And him mumbling over and over: “I’m sorry. I didn’t know they’d be in danger.”
“How could Mart know that they’d come after us like that? We knew they were criminals, but we had no idea they’d resort to kidnapping. None of you could have expected that.”
“No,” Brian said after a moment. “I guess you’re right.” He watched as Honey nodded her golden head. “But if we couldn’t know, then you couldn’t either, right?”
“That’s different,” she protested.
“I don’t think so.” He slid a strong arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her close. “When I think how close we came to losing you.” His grip tightened and Honey tilted her head to look up at him.
“Sorry,” she said but there was a hint of a smile on her face now.
“I’d say don’t ever do it again, but…”
“I promise. We’re cured. Trixie and I are going to be so careful from now on.”
“Good to know.” Brian allowed himself the luxury of dropping a kiss on the top of her head. Her smile reached her eyes this time and he dropped a second kiss on her honey gold hair. Near death experiences had to be good for something.
word count: 1155
Our recent rewrite reminded me of this little missing moment, which I wrote several years ago. I dusted it off, and the gorgeous Vivian took time out of her busy schedule to edit it for me (hugs). All errors are mine and mine alone. I always imagined Honey would be hard on herself over being so trusting in this book. This scene explores that.
Trixie Belden et al belong to Random House (though Honey and Brian insist they belong in part to me and my fellow H/B shippers) No profit is being made from these scribblings.
