They stood in her bedroom, it was nighttime and the hearth in her room was filled with the sounds of a roaring fire. The room was cast in warm light but all either of them felt was cold and the pounding of their heads from on-coming headaches. To their right was a desk, the surface covered with a mound of papers, letters in fact, letters from him to her. She stood in front of the fireplace, her back to the flames with her arms cradling each other at the front of her body. She smiled softly at him, it was a smile that he was familiar with. In the past, whenever they were together, she would always have that same smile on her face. He had asked her about it once before, asked why she always smiled when she was around him. Her response was a simple and somewhat shocked statement of how happy she was to be around him that she couldn't help but smile. But why now, of all times, after they had just finished yelling at each other?
They didn't care how loud they had been, didn't care if the servants or her family and friends heard them. They just wanted to be heard over each other, for the other to hear what they were trying to say. Eventually she had taken over the argument and her booming voice was the only one to echo across the room. She subtly dared him to try and interject on what she was shouting at him for, on what she was saying. She had spilled it all out in front of him, how she found out, what she did after she found out ,and what she thought he could do with his position and where it could be shoved up. However, he couldn't stop himself from smiling back at her, perhaps in the end she would forgive him?
Looking over at the letters littering the surface of her desk, for a brief moment she became lost in thought. Soon enough, she broke free of her inner thoughts and looked back at him and began to speak in a calm, even happy tone of voice.
"You want to know something Termonious? I've saved every letter that you've written to me, every single one, even the ones from when we were kids." She closed her eyes as she spoke, her smile growing soft as the memories flooded her mind.
"I've saved them all because reading them always made me happy, they made me feel as though you were right here beside me. They made me feel special, loved and treasured. But your first letter has meant so much to me that it's kind of embarrassing to talk about." She chuckled at the statement, earning a soft chuckle from him as well.
Then her smile dropped and at the sight, so did his, what could have changed her mood so suddenly again? Looking to the side, her brows knitted together in deep thought, he didn't dare attempt to say a word.
"Katherine actually said something to me after a year of us sending letters to each other. She said to be careful with you, she said that you might hurt me. I guess she was worried that you would end up breaking my heart." She said, a sad smile briefly following the sentence as she turned her head back to him, the smile fading into a sad frown.
"Honestly, I thought that she was just joking around because what reason would you have to hurt me. I couldn't think of you hurting me, at least not like I thought she had meant."
To be continued...