Gabriella seemed to be more at peace since coming to the island, even though she spent most of her time sleeping, the rest starring unseeingly into space. She didn't seem to respond to any external stimulus, not even Rayne or Maria. Navia was an extremely talented cook and prepared many dishes that Maria could get down her in her comatose state. Rayne had broken away from sitting with Gabriella to explain to Navia the situation.
"Navia, I should have warned you that I was bringing Gabriella here. We met in England and then she was abducted and my sole focus was on finding her before she was harmed."
Rayne hung his head, clearly upset that he had not found her before the damage had been done. Navia had loved Rayne more than she ever thought possible to love a man, but she had always known while Rayne was fond of her, she knew she never had held his heart. She had hoped this day would never come, but knew it had been inevitable.
After a long breath, she began to speak in that beautiful melodic island accent she had, "Rayne, you have been so good to me. You have always given me the choice to be here in your beautiful home, allowed me to run it as if it were my own. You owe me no explanations. I will help you care for this woman Gabriella, for it is clear to see that you love her and only her as a man should love the woman he wants to spend his life with. For you to love her, I know she has a good heart, and as long as she does nothing to hurt you, I can be happy."
Rayne listened to her words incredulously. He had expected a tirade of furious words, as would have been her right, as he probably would have if the tables were turned. Navia was truly an amazing woman, and he had never been more grateful to have her at his side. He reached out to her and drew her close to him, thanking her for taking Gabriella into not only the house that she called home, but into her heart. Navia brushed his thanks away and walked from the room to go see if Maria needed anything. Maria assured her there was nothing that she had not already seen to, so Navia took her basket and left to wander to the market place for fresh vegetables and goods for the following days meals.
Maria marveled at the home where Rayne had brought them to. The sound of the ocean so soothing and close, the warm breezes kissed Gabriella's face where she lay in an over-sized bed which was dressed in the softest of linens. Navia had brought in several camisole type night dresses that had fit Gabriella perfectly. Navia had blushed profusely when Rayne had been the one to place Gabriella into the slipper tub filled with warm water and scented with tropical flower oil Navia had provided. Between Maria and herself, they had scrubbed as gently as possible, Gabriella and managed to get all the tangles and matts from the months of neglect and abuse out of her hair. When she was dressed and her hair had dried, it spread out across the pillows in a billowing black cloud of beautiful tresses. Navia stood gazing at her for a long moment, thinking how beautiful and yet fragile she looked. She could only imaging the abuse this poor girl had suffered from all the scars, bruises still bluish green and healing wounds on her body. She never asked that had happened, she felt it was too painful and harsh, and she wasn't sure she even wanted to know. She was a constant guest in Gabriella's room and Maria slowly relaxed, confident that Navia meant only to help, and that she held no malice for the woman that had captured Rayne's heart.
Rayne slept in Gabriella's room each night, his overly large frame draped into a small lounger near to her bed. He didn't want his love to awaken in the middle of the night and be frightened. He was afraid she would awaken and fear she was still in Torquemada's cruel grip. He spent as much time as was humanly possible with her, refusing to leave the room at all for weeks. Maria forced him to return to running his businesses, attending to correspondence, but even with that he was in her room by her side more than he was not. Eventually life settled into a routine and he would awake and then go bath and change into clean clothes, return to her room for breakfast, which sometime he could coax her to eat, sometimes it was Maria that got food into her. After that he would read to her and then he was off to attend to his shipping business, answer correspondence and he had sent letters to Javonnie to have him attend to anything that was pressing back in England. He had explained all that had happened and described Gabriella's condition to his friend. He knew it would be a long time before those letters reached him, but he knew eventually there would be a response. Perhaps Javonnie could offer some assistance, something that might help break the daze she appeared to exist in.
Navia was very concerned as the days turned to weeks and then months and there was no response from Gabriella. No spark of recognition to the two people that should have been able to pull her back from the black abyss that the torture had pushed her into. She searched through herbal remedies, looking for something that might help pull her back. Finally she made the long trek to the other side of the island to see the medicine woman. She spoke of Gabriella and that she had endured incredible pain, abuse and torture. The medicine woman nodded knowingly and shuffled through her hut reaching for first one herb and then another. She placed them into the small wooden bowl she used to mix herbs and began to crush them with a pedestal like an apothecary would. Slowly the leaves and twigs turned to a course powder. The old woman slowly rose from her chair her bent and crooked old frame slow to move and mumbling in her quiet incessant ramblings she shuffled over to a row of jars with covers. She picked up several and put them down before she put two in her apron and then turned to a cabinet with some small branches with berries that she had hanging there from their drying. She made her way back to the table and put a couple of pinches from the jars and then the leaves and berries into the small bowl. She resumed her mumbling and mixing. After much mumbling and mixing she reached for a small vial and carefully put the mixture in it and handed it to Navia.
"Put a dash into a drink or any food you can get down her. It may take many weeks for this to begin to work. If she can be brought back from the land of the living dead, this will work. Should you need more, come back."
