Revised: Saturday 7th August

Chapter 14: The Truth Comes Out

"You are waiting for my sister?" asked Bella at Lucius. She had been to see Narcissa since she had been back in their fathers care and knew her sister was utterly miserable. She had been changed in the weeks she had been a wife. Being a daughter was quite clearly no longer enough for her, it was obvious she wanted more from life.

"Yes," the prince of Slytherin house replied in a quiet tone. Lucius had never wished to want her so much.

"Do you love her Lucius?" she enquired. She didn't even know where the question came from. She cared nothing for him and doubted he knew how to love even. He was hardly the warm sort was he.

"I have the most tender feelings of affection for her and wish her speedy return home." He said quietly. It was as awkward for him to talk to her of all people about her sister. Bella and he had never been firm friends.

"That is a yes."

"What does it matter how I feel for your sister now? She is with your father and rightly so when he needs her. But I cannot pretend I don't wish she was with me." He sighed deeply. That was all he wanted. Her to come home.

"I am certain she wishes to be with you as well." She said to him.

"You who was so against our marriage?" He questioned. He didn't think she of all people would talk to him like his.

"I can see what is in front of me…" she shook her head.

"And that is?"

"I think it is a couple who should be together." Her face was set and determined as she said that to him. She never had liked him and thought him unpleasant and arrogant. But there had been no lie in his eyes when he had spoken to her of her sister. And it had to be difficult for him. What he had said made her respect him for the first time. She had never seen him in the light before that she was then.

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"Yes papa I am fine." She said to him lying through her teeth.

But Narcissa saw her father begin to ignore her pain to comfort his. And she couldn't blame him for that she didn't think he had just lost his lifelong companion.

"I am going out for a ride ok," she said to him. She had to get away from him for five minutes. She should be riding at Wiltshire by now or be up in the Alps she thought to herself. She shouldn't still be at her childhood home.

She wondered if she was ever going to get to go on her honey moon. He husband was sure to be angry with her when she had left him.

And she missed him. They had been together all couple of weeks and she missed him like crazy. She missed his voice. His touch.

When she was not with her papa trying to ease his grief or trying to bring hers to heel all she was thinking was her husband. Because he was the only beacon of light she had.

She was hoping to write to him that night she had decided to cheek he was keeping well without her. He had done fine before but those few days had meant a lot to both of them.

She had so far not got Snowy back from Lucius. She didn't plan to be away more than two months and so there really was perhaps no point. He had said in his last letter he was going to keep her well excised. And if she was there then she had to go back. If she was there then those few days of happiness had been real.

No matter how much he contacted her and she wrote back she still felt as if she was betraying him by being here.

"Papa I want you to send Narcissa home to Lucius." said Bella on day as autumn set in.

"Why do you do this to me Bella, ask me to send the last person in this world I care about away?" He asked.

She ignored that comment. She knew they were on rocky ground at that moment. He did care for she was sure of it.

"Because she is not going to be her little girl forever; she is a wife and she has to be ready to be a mother soon." she said to him.

"She has to be nothing of the sort; she can stay here as long as she wants"

"Only she doesn't want to be here, does she? Anyone can see it! She wants to be her husband. You don't need her here, you just don't want her to grow up and get a life of her own. You aren't really grieving for mama, you just can't let her go. You want to make her as unhappy as you made my mother!"

"She is a young girl she needs to be with her family." he said to her.

Narcissa came in from the garden. She needed energy after her ride and had been on her way to get some food when she heard raised voices. She couldn't believe how her family were pulling one another apart since they had lost her mother.

"I am her father; I have a right to decided where she lives and who she sees."

"Not any more you don't! You have no right to use her grief for mama to get to her and drag her away from husband. She was starting a new life; she has a new world, new life." Bella insisted. "She should be there now!"

"But I am not ready to leave the old ones I want my girls back with me!"

"But we are not going to come back, we are growing and we have all left the nest or we should have."

"Not my Narcissa - she is a good girl and will stay with her papa."

"What, because you are grieving or because you just want a child? Someone to fuss about you in your old age."

"I don't think I have to answer that!"

"But please do just tell me."

"Because I want her to be here with me."

"Not because you're grieving."

"No."

Narcissa who had been listening at the door. She had heard it all. There was no way she was going to let this happen.

She turned on her hell and silently walked down the hall.

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"I cannot believe I was so stupid to think he was actually grieving that much and he needed me. Bellatrix was right all along and I just feel for it." Narcissa sighed. He was unbelievable. Bella had been right. He had been using her grief against him, "and I nearly left you. Lucius how could I?"

"Hush it doesn't matter. We are a world away from all of them now. We are on our honey moon. Just relax."

Narcissa breathed deeply and sighed. She shut her eyes and relaxed in to his strong, protective arms.

There bedroom up at the lodge was warm as they lay in it together.

The moment she had heard that her father had been lying to her she had left without saying a world to him and had returned to her husband's arms. She had asked that they go away and he just as he had said he would had whisked her off, and there she found herself in the Alps a million miles away from where she had been. Who she had been.

The minute they had got there her desire for one another came over them and so there she found herself once again naked in bed with him showering her in his kisses. She was so glad to have him back.

"If I am ever so stupid again you are more than welcome to lock me up until I have come to my senses." she said to him.

"Oh I will," he said as he kissed her. "We were apart, what a week? And I missed you like crazy." He pulled her ever closer.

"Well, I missed you too." she said to him responded to the very touch of his sensational hands.

"I am glad." he muttered shutting his eyes. "I am thrilled we are man and wife, and now no one is going to stop us."

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