Silver Bound
There are different reasons a scene might be cut from a work in progress. Perhaps for pacing, or the characterization is wrong. This one was cut in early revisions for several reasons. First, the scene didn't fit where it was in the manuscript. Second, the tension created between the heroine and a secondary character didn't add to the story, nor was it necessary. Perhaps most importantly, it was a little too long a scene for what is essentially a backflash. It didn't move the story forward.
Still, since this scene was cut, what actually happened between Jewel and Guy before the events of this story isn't detailed otherwise, so I thought you might enjoy reading it.
Please note:
This is unedited. Completely. It was cut before further revisions, so there are
inconsistencies. The details of Jewel's and Guy's early relationship have changed,
as well as other timing issues. Still, I hope you enjoy the flavor of the scene
and their history.
Deleted Scene from Silver Bound
The holo-print fell from her fingers onto the table. The accompanying missive floated to the floor. Jewel Quinn’s focus hazed, the blurred image of a man, born and raised among the space stations, had forced all words to fail. She shivered.
“This is your betrothed, dear Jewel. Your future. If the boy waiting in the foyer is your friend, as you say, then he will understand. For most of your young life, I’ve tried to end your connection to him for your own good, but you must do so now. End it, before either of you get hurt.”
Jewel nodded, though the staleness of the air meant her father had already left. She sat alone in the elegant sitting room. At the clomp of boots down the hall, she sat up straight, forced her hand to stop stroking the scar on her neck, and shoved her shaking fingers into the folds of her gown.
The two budding men, three years her senior, entered the room, but the one tall lanky frame took up all her breathing room.
“Jewel, you should have been there,” Guy Trident said without preamble. His eyes glistened, bright and eager above his dusty work clothes.
Jewel’s stomach pitched. In a moment of clear bittersweetness, the full force of her love raised hope and laughter for the slightest moment before her world tipped a little to the side for a blink in time. Why she should realize at this precise moment that she loved her friend? In love? The cruelty bit deep. The pang in her stomach curled into a fist. She fell back on the one thing she could, her plans, her sure course, but she couldn’t say it out loud.
“I couldn’t go to the county dance, Guy. Papa wouldn’t let me.” She left the disappointment out of her reply.
“That’s why Brice went with me, right?” Guy clapped the back of his friend, a brooding young boy of dark hair and even darker eyes. Another pang shot through Jewel, another moment of clarity shining recognition into her life. Her jealousy of Brice Levski was wasted emotion. She’d wanted all of Guy’s time, when she should have saved her heart years ago. Since Jewel could remember, she’d been in competition for Guy’s attention with his best friend.
“Come on. We wanted to spend the Starsday fishing before I have to herd the cattle for market tomorrow.” Guy, the young owner of his family ranch, smiled in the face of the work that would take most of his days and parts of his nights for the next few weeks. Work that filled him with pride as much as she, but that same work meant she’d never have him as her own. She could not marry a working man. It wasn’t in the plan. In her plan.
For the first time in her life, she did her best to share Guy without hesitation, since in only a matter of months, she’d be gone from his life. She looked into Brice’s frown. “That alright with you, Brice?”
Brice jerked back and his eyebrows shot up. “Sure, Jewel.”
With that, her decision to share nicely went round the bend. All of a sudden greedy for Guy, who she’d never see again by the end of the year, she snatched his hand and led him down the hall, past the butler, and out the front door.
She ran. Guy huffed beside her, hand still gripped around hers. True to his never failing instincts, he stayed apace with her, without question. Down the grand steps, across the wide drive, and down the beaten path that led to his ranch, her nearest neighbor for many a measure. Brice followed behind at a slower pace, and once she no longer heard his rambling shuffle, Jewel forgot him.
She took off through the fields and toward the shaded stream before she dropped, panting, under the cloudless sky.
They lay like that, hands still clenched, until their labored breathing settled. Jewel couldn’t make her heart slow, though. Her free hand had crept up to rub at her scar again before she pulled it away and looked at Guy. The light glinted in his sun streaked hair, so full of life, so nearly perfect. If only he weren’t a rancher.
Head tilted toward hers, Guy squeezed her fingers and grinned. The sway of the sourgrass and the rustle of the fields as they lay on the ground secluded them. Alone in the world as they never would be again.
Guy spoke into the quiet, startling a flock of birds to take flight with a thick rustling. “Wish you’d been there. Not a single person worth dancing with. Brice had enough drink to fell a bull. But he still swept Sue off her feet.”
“Sue’s fiancé probably wouldn’t like that. She’ll leave this little planet behind and go live with the Terraloft. Never have a care again, on those luxury ships. She wouldn’t ruin her chances for a local boy.” The truth of that stung at her eyes.
“Mayhap.” Guy grew still and the grin faded.
“Besides,” she continued in the emptiness. “There’s no need for me to go to dances or date boys. My plans for the future are all set. I’ll marry a Terraloft and bring my father pride. My father got the final contracts today.”
Guy’s face paled. She’d never seen him look so stricken before. It was a look she hoped to never see again. Chances of that were slim. She’d be gone, like Sue, within months. A small sound squeezed from her throat.
The eagerness for that life, the one she’d planned since she could walk, dimmed a bit when Guy dropped her hand to the cold ground. Tears clouded her vision.
Before she could clear the wetness from her cheeks, he was gone.
