Eden had awakened in the morning with her head pounding and her mouth feeling as arid as a desert. She had been sick twice during the night and had found it difficult to get to sleep. She was in a grouchy mood and just wanted to be out of the damned city. Gabriel hadn't said anything to her, just knocked on her door to see if she was ready before heading for a taxi, not even looking her in the face.
They sat in silence on the train back and Eden started to feel increasingly angry. Not at him but herself. She had made a total fool out of herself, an embarrassing sceptical. If he didn't want anything to do with her before he certainly wouldn't now. She tried to sleep but the events from last night would appear before her eyelids and nothing she did would make them go away. She also had the feeling he was staring at her while she couldn't see, burning a hole into her with his angry eyes. She opened her own as he turned his head to the window.
"I'm sorry Gabriel." She waited for him to speak but he just continued to stare out of the window, brows lowered behind his glasses. When they made it to the train station Gabriel hired a carriage to take them through the woods, possibly so as not to spend that amount of time walking with her alone, Eden thought. When he helps her step down his touch is light, only enough to assist and she didn't want to lean on him to much. She feels skittish around him now, not wanting to make him annoyed by being too close to him. Earlier that morning she had taken his arm and he had sprung back from her like she was fire, face suspicious. He was worried that she was going to try and kiss him again. Or do more.
His mother is overjoyed to have him back and he returns the greeting, giving her a quick hug. He brushed by Eden and entered the shop, leaving his mother looking confused and Eden dejected.
"Is everything ok? Did the meeting go well?"
Eden sighed and nodded, walking into Virginia's kitchen where she put the kettle on the stove to make them both tea. "Yes, the meeting went very well. We just had a…disagreement about something." Eden sat down and watched the other woman set out a cold launch. Virginia put down a plate and looked at her with anxiety.
"You got into a fight? Gabriel's not argumentative."
"He is stubborn though."
"He can be, but my boy wouldn't cause offence."
Eden leaned back in her chair. "No he wouldn't, would he?" Virginia poured her out a cup of tea, then sat down, as the soup boiled on the stove. Eden opened her mouth, wanting to spill out everything that had happened, but she stilled her tongue. What could she say to the woman? She clearly idolised her son. But she probably knew him better then anyone. "I - I don't know how to act around him. I'm not a cold person, I like to show affection but he doesn't seem to want it."
Virginia smiled and patted her hand where in lay on the table. "Oh but he does. It's true that he's never been one for hugs, even as a boy. But he's just shy." She was silent for a few minutes, sipping her tea. Finally she spoke in a hushed tone. "When he was five I got him a kitten and showered it with affection, used to take it everywhere with him!" She smiled gently at the memory before it stared to fade. "He held it too tight one day and suffocated it. He buried it and didn't tell me. But I knew." She saw Eden's shocked expression and leaned forward eagerly.
"You see? He cares about things too much, he loves too much. He's scared of hurting people so doesn't get too close." She looked at her with tear rimmed eyes. "My son wouldn't hurt anyone and it breaks my heart that he's alone, because I know he deserves better for himself." Her eyes sparkled as she took in Eden's face. "His whole life I've told him that he could be more, that he could go out there and take the whole world in his hands! But he never tried, wanting to keep doing his little hobby. And then you came along and he's doing it! Don't give up on him Eden, he just doesn't wanna hold you too tight, that's all."
Eden stared at her, wondering if Gabriel had been given many kittens.
*
He sat at his work station, intently working on a carriage clock. Eden took a seat behind him quietly, watching him work. He knew she was there, his shoulders stiffening at the sound of her dress rustling against her chair as she sat. He ignored her and kept on working, picking up his small, shiny tools neatly laid out on a dark velvet cloth next to him. It wasn't boring to watch him, as she thought it might be but soothing, his movements calmly precise and slow. She was lulled by the sounds of time ticking away, soothing her aching head. She finally spoke, just above a whisper. "I shouldn't drink. It loosens my tongue, makes me utter things I shouldn't. I embarrassed myself and you and I apologise. You must think I'm a fool."
When she had started to speak his movements conveyed irritability, fingers tightening a spring too tight in reflex. Now he put his tool down and sat back, head cocked to the side to listen to her, back visibly relaxing.
"It's ok, I understand." He turned to her, elbow resting on the back of his chair as he looked at her gently. "I was shocked. No one has ever behaved in that way towards me. I - I wasn't sure how to act." His eyes darted back and forth, like he was looking for anyone hidden that had heard his confession. "I mean, I was out of sorts." His eyes fell on her upturned face as he paused in consideration. "Why did you do it? It's like you wanted to humiliate me." His voice was small and hurt.
Eden moved forward in her chair, knees bent next to his chair legs. "No, I never wanted to do that. I know I was a sight in the restaurant but outside that wasn't to humiliate you. Gabriel…I like you. I think you're a humble, kind person and I feel safe around you. But - well. I also think you're attractive and I expressed that opinion in not the most tactile way possible." She could feel her face burning but she wanted to say it, to get her feelings across to him. "The only person I humiliated most was myself. It won't happen again."
His breathing rate increased as he stared at her, for how long Eden wasn't sure. His lips parted and trembled, like he was trying to stop himself from smiling. Finally he couldn't hold it back any longer and it stretched wide across his face. "You really mean it? You feel that way about me?" Eden nodded, her own mouth smiling uncertainly, not knowing how to interpret his change of behaviour.
"I can't explain it but I do. I feel like I've meet you before, like we had been close in some other time. It sounds silly but that's what it's like." She held her breath as he leaned closer to her, smiling.
"You want to stay because you feel something for me? Not just because I can provide you with an easier life?" There was a desperate hope shining on his face and he suddenly cupped her cheek, before brushing tendrils of hair away from her temple with gentle fingers.
Eden released a pent up breath. "I need to be near you Gabriel." She imagined that her face must mirror the hope on his face as she asked what she had been wishing for. "Do you? Feel the same?" She watched as his face froze, smile still in place but his eyes losing that happier light. Then he smiled softly, standing as he reached his hand into his pocket. Eden saw him pull out a small navy box from it and presents it to her while taking his seat again.
"I was going to give this to you when we were in the city but I got side tracked. I hope you like it." He watched her nervously as she opened the box and looked at the gold ring nestled inside. It was set with a tear shaped opal. "Your birthday is in October isn't it? My mother says it's bad luck to wear opals unless it's your birthstone."
Eden took the ring out and nodded "Yes, I was born in that month. It's beautiful Gabriel." He looked delighted and gently took her left wrist in his hand, while the other slipped the ring down her wedding finger. It fitted perfectly. Eden held her hand out before her, watching the stone flash blue in the light. This was it she thought, I've been claimed. Gabriel stood back up and she followed him. She'd just been made someone's fiancé and she could count the number of times he's touched her on one hand. She looked up at him and spoke with a slight plead. "Will you let me hug you? I think the occasion asks for it."
Thankfully he looked pleased by her request and she placed herself between his open arms, twinning her own around his back. She would have moved away but he held her tighter, hands on her arms moving down softly. He stared to explore her figure, fingers trailing over her shoulders and down her back, moving lightly to trail his fingertips down either side of her small waist before settling his large hands flat against her hips. She could feel his face by the top of her head, breathing in the sent of her hair.
"You're so tiny."
"Well, I would be next to you. You're huge. Although -" She tightened her arms around his waist "You have no hips at all. Just very, very tall. Bean poll…" She was blabbering on now but she didn't care. She pressed the side of her face into his chest, hearing his heart beating. While hers was calm his was starting to beat faster. Eden yawned, making her jaw crack. "I need to take a nap, haven't had much rest…"
"You can if you want to."
"I don't think I can force myself to walk home, I'll fall asleep on my feet before I get there no doubt."
His hands tightened slightly on her as he spoke "I meant you could sleep here. It's just a nap. My - my bed would be acceptable wouldn't it?"
Eden lifted her head from his chest, smiling at as his tentative manner. "Yes, thank you, that would be nice." He gently took her hand and lead her up the stairs to his room. It was small but very neat. He had a small bookcase by his bed. Eden raised her eyebrows in surprise. Not that many people had a book collection in the village, many not able to afford it. But the small bed called to her and she sat on it as Gabriel hovered by the door. As she removed her shoes and swung her legs up he shut the door, whispering her rest. Eden breathed in the clean smell of him as she succumbed to sleep.
*
The Palace was placed by the ocean. She could hear the waves rhythmically washing back and forth below. Soon she couldn't distinguish it from her own breathing, her own heartbeat. She was standing in a large vaulted place, a winding stair stretching up into nothing. And everywhere she could see paint. It splashed all over the walls in every colour imaginable. It squelched slippery under her bare feet and stained the bottom of her dress as she moved forward. The smell of turpentine assaulted her nostrils and made her head spin.
She was not alone, a man was also there before her. He had a paint brush in hand and, like everything else, was covered in paint. His hair was a dark knotted mess. He was feverishly working, bent over a canvas set at his feet. Eden took a step nearer and slipped, her hand reached out for support but caught onto nothing. She fell with a sticky flump onto the floor. The man straightened up suddenly, turning to her.
White blind eyes staring out of a once classically handsome face, now wasted, pinned her in place. "The Matchmaker sent you? I knew you would come." He pointed the end of his brush at the canvas he was working on and Eden saw it wasn't canvas but the floor. Amongst the swirl and explosions of colour she could make out herself, sitting up right where she was now, face very white and lips very red. She looked up the at the walls and watched dazedly as other images made themselves noticeable.
"Where am I?"
"You are-" he broke off and suddenly melted in front of her, dissolving into a puddle of paint next to her toes. Eden screamed in shock when she felt an icy cold claw grip her face and wrench her towards whatever it was attached to. Eden bolted up from the bed, her hands automatically reaching to touch her jaw. Nothing, she was alone.
