Hurriedly looking away, Clara lowered her head and tried not to look at Horace, “We should get back, they must be worried sick.”
Seeing that Clara had avoided talking about his feelings, a touch of pain appeared in Horace’s eyes. He had no idea when she would accept him again.
Holding back his sorrow, Horace smiled at Clara gently, “OK, we’ll go back right now.”
They didn’t say a word on their way back. Horace was worried about her injury and wanted to take her back soon while Clara was feeling awkward.
Thinking that it was Horace who saved her this time, Clara hesitated for a while and said, “Horace, thank you for saving me this time. Otherwise, I have no idea when they’ll find me.”
Horace glanced down at Clara, and said, “You don’t have to say this to me. As I said before, it was my fault. I didn’t protect you well enough.”
“How was that your fault?” Hearing his words, Clara got a little anxious, “I was too stupid to trust one that I shouldn’t.”
At the thought of Diane’s taunt, Clara felt furious. She was quite stupid to trust someone who had hated her.
“Fire her when you get back. You can’t keep her.” Horace said in a soft voice but with cold glares.
Horace thought that he must have Isaac take care of Diane’s issue and make sure that she would never get near Clara again. What happened today should never happen again.
“You knew she tricked me there?” Clara asked in surprise.
“I ran into her before I found you. She said you got separated but I didn’t trust her. Then she admitted that she set you up after I made her and told me where you are.”
Now Clara had known the whole thing, “Was Sarah back when you came? Is she alright?”
Clara still cared about others when she was hurt.
Come to think of it, Horace was a bit angry but he replied patiently, “She’s fine. She just got lost and went back a little late.”
Hearing that Sarah was fine, Clara finally felt relieved.
Seeing that Clara was relieved, Horace thought that sometimes he hoped that she could be a bit selfish and thought more of herself and less of other people. But he also realized that her kindness was the reason why he liked her in the first place.
Horace shook his head and smiled wistfully at his unreasonable thought.
Seeing Horace’s wired smile, Clara asked in bewilderment, “What are you smiling at?”
“Nothing.” Horace just answered this word and quickened his steps. What mattered the most now was taking Clara to the hospital.
Soon afterward, they were back at the camping place.
Seeing that Horace was back while carrying Clara, people felt relieved but had the urge to gossip.
Their chief editor let Harper and Horace to find water together, but now she was carried back by him? Their relationship seemed complicated. Did she still like her ex-husband? Would she remarry him?
Sarah noticed Clara’s injured foot when others were secretly guessing their relationship.
“Clara!” Hurrying forwards and seeing her injury, Sarah said in a choked voice, “Sorry, Clara. My bad, I got you hurt.”
“It had nothing to do with you. Oh, don’t cry.” Clara comforted Sarah while grabbing Horace’s arm as a hint to let her down. But it seemed that Horace had no clue and was still carrying her.
Hearing that Clara was hurt, they stopped guessing and came forward to check on her.
“Diane just got back. We asked her where you were but she stammered and wouldn’t say a thing. Then she packed her stuff and was in a rush to take the cable car back. We were just worried about you. What happened to you?” Seeing Clara’s swollen foot, Stephanie asked in distress.
“Nothing serious. I got tripped over and sprained my ankle.” Clara just wanted to fix this with Diane privately as she didn’t want to speak ill behind her back.
“Then we better go pack. Clara, you must see a doctor as soon as possible.”
“That’s right. I’ll go pack now.”
…
They suddenly didn’t feel like hanging out anymore as Clara’s foot was hurt pretty bad.
Seeing that they decided to go back because of her, Clara felt bad. They finally had this chance to hang out, how could this trip stop just because of her injured foot?
Horace said before she could say something, “You guys can keep staying here and I’ll take her to the hospital. Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.”
Hearing his words, they took the hint and didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to interrupt them as they thought that Horace might want to pursue Clara at this chance.
Seeing that everyone was good with this, Horace said goodbye to them, carried Clara to take the cable car, and left.
Horace carried her to a clinic. He offered his hand to her as Clara was frowning when the doctor was dressing her wound, and said, “Clara, you can bite my hand if you can’t handle the pain. That’ll help.”
Finding it amusing, Clara brushed his hand away, “No, thanks. It’s not that painful.”
Although she said that, she was still touched by his offer. He surely was nice to her like before which was perfect if nothing else considered.
After her wound got dressed, Horace insisted to keep carrying her but she felt embarrassed.
Then they settled on carrying her on his back to the hotel after arguing.
The warmth which came from his back shook Clara to the core on a tranquil street in this strange land. She had pictured this scene five years ago.
She had pictured that she was carried by Horace on a road in a foreign country and appreciating views that she had never seen before like every couple in love when they were planning a trip five years ago.
“Horace,” Clara couldn’t help but ask, “can I ask you a question?”
“What?” Horace said while staring at her foot carefully as he was afraid that he would hurt her accidentally.
“There are so many women around you, why do you want to get me back?” Looking him in the eyes with her head tilting, Clara asked this question seriously as it had confused her for a long time.