Adelaide

Love's Power

Adelaide

I was shamefully happy.

I was going to say it. I was going to make a murderer, a cowardly selfish man, the happiest man on this earth.

"Yes."

I watched his face. I watched his dark eyes lighten, and shine in their hollow sockets, I watched dimples appear and his perfectly white teeth come out from hiding to glow in the middle of a thing before unknown to this handsome face, a smile.

A Week Earlier…

Charles

I waited for half an hour, then, as I knew he would, he came. It was easier than I expected. My mind has relished this sudden clarity and made my body strong. I feel alive again. I buried him in his father's wood; he deserved to be near him, they are both the same- arrogant, handsome, and foolish.

Adelaide

In little under a week I was to be married to Robert Croft. I kept trying to be pleased, but the emotions wouldn't come. He came to see me and we sat under the bent apple tree and he talked of his plans for what will soon be his estate. I don't remember any of them. I was watching the blackbirds pecking at the windfall apples and wondering about their lives. Did they have a husband forced upon them? Did their parents make them marry a friend? But I have been brought up well. From the day I was born I have been told I will grow into a lady, marry a rich husband, give him heirs and serve my family till I die.

After he had gone I walked up the lawn and looked with sudden fondness at the home that I would soon leave. I thought of all the happy times I have had here, I thought especially of my childhood games in the garden, playing with Robert and curious, quiet Charles, and the Balls with all mama's lordly friends and me Robert and Charles together, as we were then. But I also thought with great sadness of Charles, and how he had, two summers ago said he must not acquaint himself with me.

I still felt the hurt that his words befell on me. I could only be honest to my self, and even I had to scorn my self. My feelings would never go away, and they had to, if I was to be a respectable lady.

A short while later I was sitting in my window seat reminiscing memories never made, when I saw him. My true love. Pounding, fiercely against my chest my heart threatened to throw me out the window to embrace him. I watched a little longer, as he rode gallantly up our long drive, just long enough to see how much he had changed. To see how his cheekbones stick out of his face, his skin, clear and fragile, marked with tiny scratches, only the most searching eye could see. Much to my dismay I also noticed a change in him. If what I knew of him is true to his nature, he was not himself that day.

Hating myself I turned away, I had to get over my fantasies. I walked slowly across the smooth wooden floor, for a second I wished to slide along it, to shriek with delight, to savour my last carefree childhood days.

Charles

I went to her house, to speak of the estate with her father. But my pleasure came when I saw her at her window; she looked like a bird trapped in a cage. My heart will set her free.

Adelaide

At dinner my father, sitting half a dozen yards from me at the head of the table told me how Charles had paid a visit to him to discuss estate matters, first time in along while, he continued. I allowed my mind to wander from the stuffy room to my airy rooms. In my cupboard was my wedding gown. I had not set eyes upon it yet, as it would increase the reality of the inevitable. But now I was curious as to what it looked like