“Huh, yeah,” Jesse said, and Mira worried he thought she meant him being the threat and not the act of the two of them sneaking off into the woods. Mira was about to clarify but Jesse continued. “It might have been the stories of how they all sort of disappeared. I’d told her about how slaves escaped and created maroon colonies in the swampland. Remember, Celine was always wanting to leave Kipsen? She liked the idea of disappearing like them. They built communities by living on these small plots of high ground. Not much land at all. Twenty acres at most. They built cabins using wooden posts. Grew rice and grain that they sometimes traded. They just made do, but they lived. Managed to start a new life for themselves. That appealed to her. The idea of having some sort of control over your life. They didn’t actually have control though. They were still slaves outside of what they’d created, but they came to this swampland and found their own autonomy. They created their own rules, their own lives, found their own freedom. I think she liked the idea of escaping. Disappearing and starting over as somebody else.”

“Maybe that’s what Celine wanted to do. Escape, but from what? She has more now than either of us ever will.”

It was a whisper of contempt Mira had let slip in her moment of honesty, but Jesse noticed. He raised his eyebrows in the expectation she’d say more, but she felt it unnecessary to spell it out for him. They’d both seen the expense taken for the wedding, money that could have changed either of their lives, now wasted. Celine wanted to start over, but didn’t everyone want to start over in some way? People with less than Celine still suffered through, and what exactly did she want to leave? Celine had gotten everything she’d ever wanted, that’s what she’d told Mira, so what made her want to go?

Jesse said they needed to go farther on the trail. Mira went on ahead, picking up her pace as she ventured deeper, but she didn’t know where to go or where they should be looking. Soon the thicket grew dense enough that she was forced to stop, afraid she’d get lost and end up alone. She turned around and saw Jesse was right behind her. “Okay, what are we doing? We can’t search the entire swamp for her.”

“No, we can’t.”

Mira expected him to tell her his plan, but he kept on the trail. It eventually curved to the left, separating from the canal. This was where Jesse stopped, leaving the trail and going toward the water.

“What are you doing?”

“Celine?” he called, low at first, and then louder. He did this for a few minutes with Mira watching.

“Celine’s not here,” Mira said when he’d stopped for a minute. “We’re alone.”