Chapter 12. Just Give All You Can Give
Alone in the training room, Corinne sat with her chin on her hands waiting for Louis to return. She had found his note attached to her preferred blade explaining he had something to take care of and would return shortly. Well, she had been waiting for a quarter of an hour and Louis still hadn't come back. Maybe he didn't understand what shortly meant. After all, it was Louis.
Deciding not to simply wait around, Corinne started to explore the passageways. She had to be careful as some were laced with traps to ward off any potential visitors. Briefly she wondered if anyone had been caught in one. Most of the traps were harmless, but a select few were quite lethal. Corinne shuddered. Thankfully Louis had enough sense to tell her which tunnels to avoid. Confident in her abilities, she continued to explore.
One room caught her attention. It wasn't neat and tidy like the others, rather extremely disorderly with books and parchment strewn about the floor. Atop the desk were even more books in stacks of about four or five all with pieces of parchment stuffed between the pages. Corinne picked up the nearest one, a thick leather-bound volume, and began to flip through its pages.
She was utterly fascinated by the book's contents. Louis was not only a master swordsman, but an inventor as well! And a highly skilled one judging by the book she held. The designs were precise. Numbers she didn't understand graced the pages. Corinne felt self-conscious looking at them. He was so intelligent! What did he need her for then? She was merely a country girl who could read and write well enough, but that was the extent of her education. Surely Louis didn't see her as one of the projects from this book. Shaking the thought, Corinne flipped the page. She gasped, nearly dropping the book.
On the page was an exact likeness of herself. She traced the drawing with her finger. It was almost like looking at her reflection. Why had Louis drawn a picture of her, she wondered. She brought the book closer to her face and noticed a few simple lines written under the picture.
Just love. Just live. Just give what you can give, and take what little you deserve.
Corinne read the words over and over again. Just love. Was Louis in love with her? No. He couldn't be. She was his student! And teachers did not fall in love with their students. Perhaps she read the words wrong. Just love. Perhaps she wasn't reading it wrong. Teacher or not, Louis was her friend too, and friends could fall in love with each other. She gasped. His behavior leading up the masquerade ball suddenly made sense. He was cancelling their lessons because he didn't want to teach her. And he didn't want to teach her because he was in love with her. Louis was in love with her.
Was this really happening? A moment ago Louis was nothing but her friend and teacher. Now he was in love with her and she- Her heartbeat quickened. She loved him as well. Corinne felt her cheeks grow hot as she realized it. Over the little time she had known him he had hurt her and screamed at her and practically kidnapped her. But he had also trained her and cared for her. She'd learned so much because of him. Of course she loved him. It would be foolish not to. She had to tell him right away. Corinne rushed back to the training room. Louis still wasn't there. No matter, she would wait for him. She would wait for him forever if she had to.
...
Aaahhh! Corinne knows! How do you think Louis is going to react? I mean, she was totally snooping around in his stuff. Also, to give credit where credit is due: the poem-like thing Corinne reads is from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. (How appropriate, right?) Technically it comes from the song "Please Miss Giry, I Want to Go Back", but the melody is from "Once Upon Another Time" which gets reprised in the first song mentioned.