Today had been a hot one. Tea leaned against the balcony railing and contemplated the lights of Llanview, which twinkled in the rosy sky. She tilted her head to catch a bit of breeze, which floated past her and inhaled deeply of the scented air. How lovely it was tonight! It reminded her of the first days of summer in her past when she had been filled with a sort of expectation - an expectation of exciting things to come. She could remember the thrill that would go through her thinking of what summer would bring - the lazy afternoons, the picnics, fireworks and all the festivals in the city. Even though she had known hardship as a child, she could still remember how much fun she had had with her brothers playing ball or games outside in the hot sunshine. Those were the good memories that she had. There were others not so good, of course.

She halted her reverie and began thinking of the present. It's a beautiful evening and I'm all alone. Strange how she felt as if this was a natural thing now. The past few weeks seemed like a dream sequence fabricated by her loneliness, but she knew it had all been too real. So real, in fact, that the dull ache in her heart had not gone away. She pressed her lips together subconsciously as she thought of the touch of his lips on hers. How wrong she had been to think that a kiss could be the beginning of a promise for greater intimacy. That's all she had ever wanted even though she knew her tough exterior sometimes painted a different picture.

Tea turned around and resolutely walked back into her room. The desk was piled high with her work papers and a slightly rumpled suit hung over one of the chairs. She reached for a pair of tortoise-shell reading glasses and a glass of sherry, which she had been drinking and settled herself somewhat uncomfortably into the big chair behind the desk. No time for regrets of any kind. Her professionalism began to take over as she opened up several law books and began writing furiously. Bo was now formally accused of Georgie's murder and she still had a lot to summarize with Nora. It didn't look good for him at all now either with the results of the paternity test. Their only hope was to get the results of the independent test back. She didn't know how Nora was holding up through all this. If she had been in Nora's place and it was Todd who could have fathered another woman's baby. Back to work, she admonished herself. No time for any more of this kind of speculation.

The clock in the suite chimed and Tea looked up. 2:00 a.m. The stillness in the room made the noise of her pencil writing sound strangely bizarre. She stifled a yawn. Another fifteen minutes of this last summation and I'll hit the sack she thought. The words began to blur and she didn't realize that her hand had dropped the pencil or that her head had sagged as her eyes closed in sleep.

Everything suddenly went dark and she found she was looking down at a clump of primroses near a large tree. She cast her eyes around to see that she was in a section of a huge forest with large, looming trees covering the sky and patches of light filtering through the branches. A gray mist hung over the clearing she was in making it hard for her to see in the distance.

"Find her! She's got to be here somewhere," yelled a booming voice a hundred yards or so away. She caught her breath and seeing a thicket of bushes nearby, threw her body into them. Holding her hand to her mouth, she heard the thundering noise of horse hooves hitting the hard surface of the ground. She crouched lower to the ground and peering through the leaves, saw a large, stocky, older man on a white horse looking over in her direction. His eyes roved from point to point as if seeking a movement of any kind. For a moment his eyes stared right in the direction where she was hiding, but just as quickly he grabbed the reins of the steed, dug his heels in and galloped away.

All was quiet in the forest again and Tea tentatively moved an inch. She waited another couple of minutes and hesitantly pushed her way through the foliage. She almost screamed as another sound hit her ears. A shadowy form on a jet black horse stood right over her blocking the strong sunlight streaming in from overhead. She looked up and gasped out loud. He sat astride the stallion, his shoulder-length hair flying from the wind; his eyes cast down on her. He was garbed in a rich royal purple, a cape slung over his shoulders.

"Are you all right?" he asked her looking at her cowering below him. His disheveled hair revealed a long, narrow scar on his right cheek.

"Yes. Who..are you?"

I am Todd Lord of Llanfair, which is not far from here. You're in trouble, aren't you?" As he said this, he paused as if listening for a sound she couldn't possibly hear and with lightening quickness reached down, grabbing one of her arms and pulled her right up on his horse. It had all happened so fast that she only knew she had wrapped her arms tightly around his waist as the horse lunged ahead through the shadowy forms in the forest. A blur of images raced by the riders and horse as they sped down the earthen road in the late afternoon.

She chanced to look up from his shoulders as the veil of the forest lifted and they arrived in a clearing. At a distance she saw a magnificent stone dwelling and somehow knew they were headed there. He never once looked back at her but she knew he felt the tight squeeze of her arms around his middle.

As they began to near the castle-like country home, the horse began to settle into a comfortable canter and she had a chance to look around the surroundings. It was a breathtaking expanse of property with rolling pastures and lush vegetation. The hues of the afternoon sky formed a canopy over the brownish-gray stone structure, which loomed ahead of them.

"Llanfair" he announced as he brought his horse to a stop in front of massive stone steps leading up to an even more formidable entrance. He jumped agily down from his mount and holding up his arms, waited for her to dismount. She slid down with his help until she pressed into his chest and slyly stole a look at the face so close to hers. His eyes were coppery hazel with lashes longer than she had ever seen. His nose was rather long but well defined and pointed. He had full lips surrounded by a moustache and short beard and dark wheat-colored hair, which draped over his broad shoulders. At the same time she was stealing a look she sensed that he was studying her, too. His eyes traveled over her face and down her body with what she thought was admiration, sending a wave of embarrassment through her. He noticed her uneasiness and the corners of his mouth turned up in a mock grin. She almost felt a sense of humiliation as he looked knowingly at her. His face became a mask once again with no sign that he had been at all intimidating.

"Todd! Do we have a visitor?" a tinkling, melodic voice called out from nearby. Tea turned to see a woman with a sweet, sunny face standing several yards away near the entrance to a garden next to the house. She was middle- aged but with a girlish look to her and she was carrying a large basket filled with a variety of beautiful spring flowers. She was dressed casually as if she had been working in the garden, but the material of the dress she was wearing appeared to be well made and quite expensive.

"More like a runaway!" Todd retorted but he had a smile for the woman who had addressed him.

She put down her basket and walked over with such a welcoming face. Tea knew immediately that she was someone very important to this stranger and someone who was very kind.

"Hello. Welcome to Llanfair. I'm Victoria Lord, Todd's sister." Tea took the hand that was offered to her and smiled faintly. She fully expected that she would be questioned as to her identity, but Victoria seemed to be sensitive to Tea's difficulty in revealing anything at that moment.

"Don't mind my brother, my dear. He is an individual of many moods, I'm afraid." Victoria said somewhat loudly for Todd's benefit.

"And you're not?" Todd threw it back at her but he seemed to enjoy their little bantering.

"Behave Todd," his sister chided him and with a conspiratorial look for Tea said, "You'd best be on your guard with him. He's an incorrigible tease."

Todd continued to take care of his horse and made a noise as if to suggest that he never paid any attention to her criticisms.

Tea knew she was being observed by Victoria who lost no time in ushering Tea up the front steps to the entry of the home.

"You look as if you need some cool refreshment. Come in. I believe Ellen has just made a fresh jug of tea." She shot a look at her brother who shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he didn't exactly care what they did. Tea looked back at his tall form standing in the sunlight giving his horse a treat for the grueling ride they had just had. She couldn't help but look at his shimmering hair and masculine physique. Appearing to be otherwise engrossed in what he was doing, he suddenly turned to look at her again with a devilish turn of his lips. Magically, their glances held for an instant and then Tea turned to enter Llanfair with Victoria.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:: The stories published on The Florencia Lozano Home Page are the property of the individual authors. You may not: Distribute the text to others without the EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION of the copyright owner. You may: print copies of the information for your own personal use, store the files on your computer for your own personal use, reference hypertext documents on this server from your own documents.

This site (and linked sites) is not affiliated with ABC Soaps and is not endorsed by them. The images, characters and settings are all copyrighted by ABC Daytime. All material included on these pages is for educational purposes, in accordance with the "Fair Use" Act.