"...Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind."
-Shakespeare
"You're late. I almost thought you wouldn't be coming."
Her tone is light and teasing and it's obvious that she'd had no such doubts, but he still looks a little sheepish despite her reassuringly sincere smile.
"Well, you know how hard it is to get away sometimes."
She does know. Being Fon Master is a demanding job, and she's under constant guard (or constant surveillance, depending on how you looked at it), so slipping away undetected is always a challenge. It's easier to do in Grand Chokmah than anywhere else though--Peony is very understanding, and very observant as well, and always assigns her a single room on the ground floor at the back of the palace, with a window that slides open soundlessly on well-greased hinges.
Even so, her contingent of Fon Master Guardians often catch her returning in the early hours of the morning, though she easily quiets them by simply saying she'd been out for a walk. (And technically, she had been...just a long walk that had happened to take her inside Guy Cecil's mansion and private chambers for a few hours.)
It's easier when he comes to her, as he's done tonight, though that in itself is something rather new; a year ago, even six months ago, he wouldn't've dared sneak into a lady's private chambers--it wasn't proper, and both their reputations would suffer should they happen to be caught, Anise's in particular.
But really that just adds even more of a thrill to these stolen moments, that risk of discovery and the electric tingle of danger that goes with it, and it's getting to the point where he almost has to see her, and would fight his way through whatever guards or nobles or whoever is keeping them apart to spend a few quiet hours alone with her. It isn't the same during her "official" visits, when she stops by during the day; then, they are never quite alone--a lord or noblewoman will drop by uninvited to see the Fon Master or the local maestro will want a word (or five hundred thousand) or Pere will be happen to be clipping roses nearby or a Fon Master Guardian will show up to deliver a message that will call her away from their nostalgic little get-together almost an hour early, and they never have time to simply breathe and be themselves and remember who they were and talk about who they are now.
So even though Guy had nearly scrambled up the nearest wall that first night that Anise had shown up in his chambers, he still let her stay, he didn't send her away (which in her mind was essentially the same as inviting her back). She'll never know just how close he was to doing just that, or how thankful he is now that he didn't. Because at night, during those cautiously appropriated hours, they can feel like they have all the time in the world, as if they are free of every bond but the one that links the two of them, and that one simply draws them closer; it doesn't hold them down.
"It is hard. But it's worth it, isn't it."
He smiles at her, still charmingly boyish at twenty-six, and though there is a good metre or two between them, the way his gaze holds hers is more warm and intimate than any embrace.
"Always."
"…Time for you and time for me,/And time yet for a hundred indecisions,/And for a hundred visions and revisions…"
-T.S. Elliot
