A GENTLEMAN AND HIS WIFE
Fan Fiction sequel of: "A gentleman and his mistress"
From: Lovely Vero
Chapter 12
"The Princess"
Part 3
Final
Writer's note: Due to delicate subject of abuse explored in a small part of this chapter, please read with warning in mind.
Previously on: A gentleman and his wife
(…)
They formed a straight line of protection in front of the forest, before freeing a path for the sorcerer to appear in front of their eyes.
"It can't be." Elijah watched, dumbfounded.
"Elijah…" Katherine called, with a smile blessing the corners of her lips, while grabbing his forearm.
"Oh damn! I'm going to be in trouble." Charles rolled his eyes, while sliding himself behind Katherine.
"What you know that sorcerer?" Finn asked, in shock.
"Yes!" The both exclaimed, simultaneously.
"His name is Damarco… He's one powerful sorcerer; he'll help us, Finn!" Elijah exclaimed, joyfully, while grabbing his brother's shoulder, under Finn's speechless expression.
"What are you doing, brother?" Finn asked, before grabbing Elijah's left upper arm to retain him by his side.
"Let me go, Finn, It will be ok, let me talk to him." Elijah suggested, while nodding his head to reassure his brother of his present action.
Elijah walked in direction of the sorcerer, his feet buried, with each step, in the warm of the sand.
"If you don't move, maybe he won't be able to see me?" Charles murmured into the right ear of Katherine.
"How large and thick do you think I am, Charlie?" Katherine mocked. "I believe Damarco have already seen you."
"Damn! A man can still hope, can he, Miss Katherine?" He mumbled, disappointed.
"We come in peace!" Elijah yelled, while raising his right hand in the air.
Damarco raised his own hand in the air, before ordering the indigenous, in a foreign dialect, to lower their weapons.
"We are not here to hurt you." Elijah yelled more, while approaching the sorcerer, not even sure that the past version of Damarco would recognize him or not.
"Young Elijah, they do not understand a word of what you're saying to them." Damarco finally addressed the Original, before rolling his eyes to the blue sky. "You look like a fool while gesturing this way with your arms."
"Damarco!" Elijah exclaimed, joyfully, while approaching his friend - the sorcerer at a near foot of distance. "I wasn't sure if you'll be able to recognize us?"
"My spirit is eternal and the necessity of the human time is therefore not an issue." Damarco explained. "Tomorrow is not existent, yesterday has vanished, and therefore I know only the eternal."
"If it makes sense to you, it certainly makes sense to me." Elijah responded, smiling.
"What brings you back into your own past, young Elijah?" The sorcerer asked him, while leading the way to walk back toward the ocean.
"My missing family, Damarco, their coffins have been located in this century, in this present year, and on this particular island." Elijah explained to him, respectfully.
"I know." Damarco replied, while nodding his head.
"You know? You always knew?" Elijah responded, disturbed more than words could explained. "You knew when we'd met in the Bahamas?"
"I knew what your future path would be, Elijah Mikaelson, it was not my place to go against it." Damarco replied to the Original. "You brought the young woman with you?" Damarco commented, while raising his chin at Katherine's standing position.
"She is my wife now." Elijah replied, proudly.
"As it was meant to be, and I can see a young infant attached to you as well." Damarco added. "Was it the young one that your wife was worried about in our previous encounter?"
"Yes, Theodore, he's our adoptive son now." Elijah confirmed.
They finally reached the group standing position near the water.
"Finn, let me present to you, Damarco." Elijah presented the voodoo sorcerer to his brother.
"It's an honor to meet you." Finn responded, respectfully.
Damarco nodded his head at him, before raising an eyebrow at Charles who was standing behind Katherine.
"Charles Brownston." The sorcerer called, while crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Who are you calling, me?" Charles asked, while sliding his head in a "peek-a-boo" style, from behind Katherine's back. "Well, if it's not Damarco, my friend!" He added, while stepping a foot aside, with redness showing on his cheeks.
"You were told to not use your magic power to such extend, warlock Brownston!" Damarco reaffirmed, with a narrowed sight.
"Well you see, I was actually not supposed to be mixed in the middle of all this my greatest sorcerer." Charles started explaining.
"Charlie, just hold your peace." Katherine mumbled the warning, between her teeth.
"Is he mocking me?" Damarco rolled his eyes to the sky, while shaking his head.
"No, Charles is simply … Anxious in your presence." Elijah tried to calm the sorcerer, with a warning look addressed to his friend.
"I'll give you the authorization to find the missing members of your family, Elijah Mikaelson, you can proceed. No one will harm you on this island." Damarco confirmed to the Original.
"Thank you for you kindness, Damarco." Elijah nodded his head in respect.
"The sky is darkening; I would hurry your crew if I was you." Damarco suggested, before turning on his heels and walking back to his own group of ingenious. "Charles Brownston, don't play with faith, or faith will catch you sooner mostly than later." He added to the warlock.
Charles turned his head toward Katherine, before drowning his sight into hers, while shrugging his shoulders. Whatever the sorcerer meant, they both knew that it could only be a bad omen related to him.
Finn's crew advanced into the tropical forest of the Island, with the Captain and Sylvester placed at the head of the group, while wielding hatchets to cut the dense vegetation placed in front of their walking path, with Elijah, Katherine and Charles on their heels.
"Here's the waterfall." Finn yelled, while turning his head back at them.
"We are here, Elijah." Katherine murmured, while sliding her trembling fingers in his right hand. "You will finally be reunited with your family." She added, while lowering her head on his right shoulder.
Elijah lowered his head nears hers, before kissing her hair.
"Thank you for being here with me, Katerina." He murmured, softly.
"Always and forever, Elijah..." She responded, in a low whisper, while raising her head and catching Finn's intense glance directed at them.
"We'll need to cross the river!" He yelled to his brother and crew.
"Well, I wouldn't say no to a bath to this point." Charles exclaimed, smiling, before placing both of his hands on each side of his waist.
"Just be careful of our "friends" placed on each side of the bank." Finn mocked, while blinking an eye at him.
Charles turned his head before noticing crocodiles guarding each side of the waterfall.
"There are crocodiles in the Caribbean?" Charles exclaimed, dumbfounded.
"Don't forget it's a "sorcerer" island, my dear friend." Elijah mocked, while entering the water up to his waist, followed by Katherine and the crew.
"It's so nice of you to remind me of this simple fact." Charles replied, while rolling his eyes.
Present time, eight months later …
"Miss Elizabeth, Miss Elizabeth…" Gardie yelled, while rushing, breathless, inside the castle, with his clothes in tatters.
Elizabeth managed to rise on her feet from the armchair where she was resting a short moment earlier, while giving orders to the maid to bring Theodore to safety in his nursery. She held her nine months pregnant belly while taking slow steps toward the corridor leading toward the entrance of the Castle.
"What is it, Gardie?" She asked, with vampire guards on her heels, who had been alerted by the loud scream.
"The Manor, Miss Elizabeth …" Gardie mumbled, out of breath, while lowering his upper body, his hands placed on his knees.
"What happened to you, Gardie? And what happened to Master Elijah's Manor?" She asked, in shock.
"Master Elijah's father burned to the ground the Manor." Gardie explained, with teary eyes. "And I believe he has found where you're hiding, Mrs. Elizabeth."
"What?" Elizabeth asked, with a mouth opened expression. "How, when … Are the staff safe and sound?"
"Earlier this morning…Yes, everybody is alive, but it was a scene of devastation, Mrs. Elizabeth." He shook his head, in disbelief.
What follow this exchange could only be remembered by Elizabeth as commotions, deaths, suffering and turmoil.
A loud noise was suddenly heard. The entrance door was pushed down by a group of vampires under the loud order of Mikael, and Elizabeth was pulled into strong arms, brought into safety by one of the Elijah's vampire guard, leaving Gardie to be pushed on the floor, and hit on the head, before falling unconscious in front of her eyes, and under her loud cry of horror.
A sudden pain hit Elizabeth in her womb, leaving her unconscious on the floor a second later.
Elizabeth slowly regained her consciousness a few minutes later, while being hit by a stronger pain than the previous one, located at her abdomen. She dragged herself on the marble floor, while lowering her hand under her skirt, before raising it full of blood in front of her sight. Something was wrong with the baby… She raised her head before noticing the guards' dead bodies lying sporadically in the corridor, near her own position.
She finally saw through her blurry vision two feet approaching her lying position on the floor, before seeing Mikael kneel by her side.
"Hello my dear, you don't seem too well at the moment?" He grinned, viciously, while wiping the blood left on his hands with a handkerchief. "Excuse my bad manners in your new home, Elizabeth, but I had no other choices but to pull some hearts out of the chests of these poor vampires."
"Help me…Please." She begged him, in a low whisper, while strengthening her right arm and hand toward him. "I'm going to lose my baby."
"And why would I do such a thing, my dear?" Mikael grinned. "I had giving you plenty of chances to side with me the past few months, and yet, you've always declined my generous offer."
"You're…You're heartless and a monster…" She mumbled, angrily, between her teeth.
"Mm… I've been called worst." He shrugged, before rising on his legs, "Now, look at the mess you're making with all your blood spreading on the marble floor… Tsk… Tsk…Tsk." He added, before hitting with her feet the right side of her abdomen, causing her to scream under the pain. "Good luck, my dear Elizabeth. I wish you a liberating death."
Elizabeth took one last breath, before losing consciousness once more.
"What are you doing?" Elise asked Mikael, while reaching his standing position near Elizabeth.
"I'm getting rid of unnecessary collateral problems." He smirked.
"By letting a pregnant women drown in her blood?" She asked, shocked, while pointing a finger at Elizabeth.
Mikael forcefully grabbed Elise left wrist, before pushing her body on the wall behind her back.
"What is this woman to you, my dear? You were certainly more aggressive into achieving our plan before?" He asked her, while pushing a hand on her throat.
"I am a lot of things, Mikael, but a baby killer is certainly not one of those ones." She mumbled, angrily, between her teeth.
"Charles' heir is irrelevant to me." He shrugged, before forcefully grabbing her left upper arm, and pulling her into the parlor room of the Castle. "Now…" He added, while pushing the witch into the room. "It's time for you to send me back into the past, my dear. Open your "grimoire" and do your jambalaya tricks, or whatever you need to do to make me go back in 1494."
Elise stumbled over the furniture, before raising her sight in Mikael's.
"Fine, Mikael…I'll send you back." She smirked, before grabbing her "grimoire", her back turned at his sight, a devious smile plastered on her lips.
She'll send him back alright, but not into that specific year, instead, she'll send him into another dimension where nobody would ever find him, and she'll finally have an open path to achieve her own devious plan.
Black Pearl Island – 1494
"Elijah!" Finn screamed, while entering the creek with a torch placed in his right hand.
The Original rushed beside his brother, before lowering his sight on the coffins placed in front of his eyes.
"We found them." Elijah smiled, while noticing one that its cover had already been opened. "Was it yours?"
"Yes." Finn nodded, before approaching the empty coffin. "Are you ready?" He asked Elijah.
"Yes." Elijah nodded, while grabbing the edge of one of the coffin's cover, before slowly raising it open.
"You're about to meet your in-laws my dear." Charles lowered his head near Katherine's, before murmuring those words into her ears.
"I've never been so scared and afraid at the same time, in my entire life, Charles." She mumbled, nervously, between her teeth, while raising a hand in front of her chest.
Elijah smiled at the blonde mummified woman who was lying immobile in the coffin, before pulling slowly the dagger from her chest. After a few interminable seconds, the young woman coughed several times, before strengthening her body in a sitting position, and looking haggardly at her surroundings.
"Where am I? Elijah?" The woman mumbled the words, while drowning her sight in the one of her brother.
"Rebekah…"He sighed with relief, with a smile blessing his lips. "1494, my dear, but you're about to embark into the future." He smiled, under her shocked expression.
Finn pulled the dagger out of his younger brother's chest, before seeing him reopened his eyes widely.
"Hey brother, welcome back!" He greeted him, before pulling Kol into a sitting position.
"Finn…Elijah? What in the bloody hell is happening?" The youngest Original asked, disoriented.
"Don't forget to feed them blood." He suggested to Finn, while throwing a gourd to him, before turning his sight toward the third coffin.
Elijah walked toward it, before realizing that he was unable to open its cover, by his only strength.
"It's mother's one." Finn confirmed.
"I can't open it…" The Original mumbled, angrily, while using his vampire force.
Finn reached his brother's position while trying to push the panel at his side, but without being able to succeed.
"Charles? What about a spell?" Elijah asked his friend, short of ideas.
"Unlikely." Charles responded, while shaking his head. "If a past spell locked this coffin, without knowing the origin there is no way that I'll be able to open it with a new one."
"Damn!" Elijah yelled, before hitting the coffin panel with his closed right fist.
"Maybe I can help?" A male voice suggested.
They all turned their head toward Damarco who had entered the creek.
"Damarco?" Elijah whispered, with a smile blessing his lips.
"I'm doing this for you, young Elijah, don't forget it." The sorcerer warned him, with a raised eyebrow. "Step away from the coffin." He suggested, before raising his hands, while reciting incantations.
A strong wind twirled into the creek for a few minutes, and suddenly, the cover of the coffin opened under a shrill noise.
"Now take your mother and leave the island as soon as possible, before the dark forces forbid you to do so, Elijah Mikaelson." Damarco yelled at him.
"Katherine helped my mother get out of her coffin?" Elijah screamed under the strong wind, while raising his sister into his strong arms.
Katherine approached the coffin, before sliding her right arm around Esther waist.
"Who are you?" Esther asked the young vampire. "You look like …" She added, perplexed.
"Tatia … I know…" Katherine replied, while helping Elijah's mother step outside the coffin.
"What is your relationship with my eldest son?" She asked more, while narrowing her sight at Katherine.
"We don't have time for this now; we need to leave the island." Katherine replied, while helping Esther walk.
"Are you his mistress?" She demanded, in a firmer tone.
"No, I'm his wife." Katherine finally admitted, under a deep breath.
"Not the answer that I was hoping for." Esther mumbled, angrily, between her teeth, while stepping outside the creek.
They rushed back into the tropical forest under a dark sky, filled by lightning and thunder.
"What is this? Charles?" Katherine yelled at him, while feeling drops of the pouring rain fall from her eyelashes.
"I believe Miss Katherine that the supernatural world is not particularly happy with us at the moment." He shouted his answer back to her.
"Well, if you can bring us back home, Charles, I promised to not bother you for help for a very long time." Elijah screamed at him, while helping his sister walk.
"I see the beach!" Charles yelled at the group, while raising his hatchet in the air to cut a palm tree branch, before being hit by a terrible pain at his foot, and falling on the ground unconscious a second later.
"What happened?" Finn screamed from behind, before rushing at Charles' side with Elijah on his heels.
"I don't know?" Katherine replied frantically, while kneeling near her friend, before passing a nervous hand through her wet hair. "One minute we were talking and the next he fell unconscious on the ground."
Finn raised the fabric of Charles' pants on his left leg, while looking at the red marks left on his ankle, before seeing a black insect growling rapidly on the ground a second later.
"He has been bitten by a scorpion." He whispered the words, in shock.
"What?" Elijah asked, dumbfounded.
Finn called two of his pirates, before ordering them to carry Charles toward the beach.
"We need to get him on the boat, quickly!" He yelled under the heavy rain. "Sylvester, whatever happens, you have to promise me to bring my family back into the "Princess" do you hear me?"
"You have my words, Captain." The pirate replied, while nodding his head.
They embark Charles in the jolly-boat. Then, they swam toward the few other ones that were floating on the agitated water, before helping each other climb inside the embarkations. Elijah suddenly turned his head toward the beach while seeing his brother standing alone under the tormented sky.
"Finn, what are you doing? Come aboard, quick brother!" He screamed to him.
"I'm not coming, Elijah … I'll stay here." Finn yelled back at him.
"What? No … What are you talking about?" Katherine screamed to her past lover, while lowering her upper body near the water.
"I've never wanted to be brought back to life… I've never wanted this vampire life." He yelled more. "Let me chose my faith, please."
"We can't wait for you, Finn, our time is limited now!" Elijah yelled more. "Think of Charles! Please, come?"
Finn shook his head, while waving at them.
"Leave in peace, brother..." He sighed, while seeing the crew rowed toward the Princess ship.
Elise rushed beside Elizabeth unconscious body, before grabbing her right wrist and feeling her pulse: slow but steady one. There was perhaps a chance to save her and the baby.
"Miss Eleanor?" A disoriented Gardie, who had regained his consciousness called, while stumbling in his walking path toward her and Elizabeth position. "Oh my God, what happened to Mrs. Elizabeth?"
"Who are you calling? Oh yes…Of course." She responded, while blushing and regaining a sense of the masquerade she was playing. "Gardie, go upstairs… Find me a set of clean towels, a cushion, and a bowl of fresh water….Now!"
"Yes, of course, Miss Eleanor." He responded, while rushing to do his tasks.
"Oh, dear Lord… Mrs. Elizabeth … What happened to her?" The nanny asked, while frantically descending the stairs.
"She went into labor, and she has lost consciousness." Eleanor explained to the young woman. "I send Gardie for fresh towels, go help him."
"Yes, of course!" The help responded.
Elizabeth suddenly regained her consciousness under intense pain, her sight lost in Eleanor who raised her head, while sliding her right hand at the base of her neck.
"Where's Mikael?" Elizabeth asked.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Elizabeth, he left the Castle. He said something about leaving town." She reassured her, while nodding her head. "I couldn't leave you behind in this condition."
"My baby… I've lost so much blood already?" Elizabeth asked the young maid, worried for the health of her unborn child. "Save the baby, don't think about my own life."
"Well… You need to breathe and stop worrying… I'll help you deliver your baby, and I'll save the mother in the same time, ok?" Eleanor suggested to her. "We can move you to this point. You'll have to lie down on the floor."
Elizabeth nodded her head under a loud cry of her labor pain… Her own faith and the one of her baby were now in the hands of God.
…It's been two years now since "their" departure, and to this point in time I've lost all hope inside of me to ever see them come back into the present time.
Elizabeth wrote the last line in her diary, before slowly dropping her pen on the desk, and closing the pages, with a single tears running on her right cheek. She raised the back of her right hand to sweep it away, before turning on herself while hearing the noise of small steps heading toward her sitting position.
"Aunty Elizabeth?" She heard the voice of the young Theodore calling her from the entrance of parlor room.
"Come toward me, my sweet child!" She encouraged him, while opening her arms and hugging him near her heart a second later.
"He asked for you, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring him downstairs." Eleanor informed Elizabeth, with a smile blessing her lips.
"Indeed, it was a good idea." Elizabeth replied to the maid, before bringing the young toddler on her lap. "What do you want to do today, Theodore?"
"I want to work in the ga'den with ga'die!" He exclaimed joyfully, while clapping his hands together.
"You want to help him in the garden?" Elizabeth asked the young child, while caressing his dark hair.
"Yap…" He answered her, proudly.
"Then we'll go find him." Elizabeth replied, before kissing his forehead.
"Mrs. Elizabeth, Mrs. Elizabeth …" The yell of Gardie echoed into the corridor of the castle's entrance.
She raised her head to take a look at Eleanor, who shrugged her shoulders while not knowing the purpose of this loud commotion.
"Why is Uncle Ga'die screaming?" Young Theodore asked, in surprise.
"I don't know, sweetheart." Elizabeth shook her head, before seeing the breathless gardener entering the parlor.
"They are back, Mrs. Elizabeth, they are back!" He informed the two speechless women.
The summer morning fog had covered the major part of the land and the garden, but that fact couldn't stop the staff to rush outside the castle walls, before standing in a perfect row with their hands crossed behind their backs. They were impatient to see Master Elijah, Mister Charles, and Miss Katherine coming back to their new home. Their sights lost in the fog view, under a perfect silence.
Elizabeth took the first steps toward the garden, while waiting for the dark silhouettes to advance more toward the castle, the beats of her heart echoic into her ears with the hope that what Gardie have seen was really the prospect of "their" return.
Theodore freed his hand from the firm grip of Eleanor's, before stumbling on his little legs on the grass to reach Elizabeth standing position. He encircled her right leg of his little arms.
"Oh my God..." She exclaimed, before raising her right hand in front of her mouth to forbid her to scream. "It's them!"
"I've told you, Mrs. Elizabeth, I felt it in my heart and soul that it was them." Gardie confirmed, while nodding his head and standing at a few feet of distance.
The group approached the staff emplacement on the grass land, with, placed at its head at a few meters in front, Katherine and Elijah. They reached Elizabeth, before holding their pace and facing each other.
"I've never been so happy to see you, Elizabeth….All of you." Elijah mumbled the words, between his teeth, while passing a nervous hand through his tangled hair, before turning his sight toward his wife.
Katherine swallowed a nervous lump in her throat; tears rolling frantically on her cheeks. Her sight fixated at the young toddler who was grabbing Elizabeth's leg like his life depended on it, in a peek-a-boo gesture to his mother, without even recognizing her.
"He's in good health." Elizabeth confirmed to Katherine, while nodding her head and passing the back of her own right hand on her wet cheeks.
"Thank you." Katherine mumbled the words, while letting herself fall on the grass, her sight lost in the one of her young adoptive son. "Thank you for taking care of him." She thanked her friend sincerely. "What about …. What about you, Elizabeth, the baby?" She asked, worried.
"The baby was born under difficult circumstances and conditions; I had lost a lot of blood and almost died. Eleanor helped me though the birth of my child, but no worries, he is in good health." She confirmed, coldly.
"It's a boy." Katherine said, with a timid smile blessing her lips.
"Yes, I named him Olson." Elizabeth confirmed.
"Charles is behind us, he'll be here soon." She informed Elizabeth, while turning her head toward the silhouettes that were approaching.
Elizabeth remained silent and expressionless, while lowering her head,
"How long…I mean…" Elijah started, before lowering his head, lost in a range of intense emotions. It was obvious to a blind that a lot of time had passed since they had left the present time to go back in the past. "We were gone for how long, Elizabeth?" He let out of his mouth the forbidden question.
"Two years, Master Elijah." Elizabeth confirmed the number, her sight lost in his. "It's been two long and painful years."
"Oh my God…" He let out the words, with a loud sigh. "We're so sorry Elizabeth."
"Master Elijah, Miss Katherine, we are so happy that you are back." Gardie stammered the words, with a smile up to his ears and while nodding his head. "That is what counts the must at the moment."
"Thank you, Gardie." Elijah nodded.
Elizabeth kneeled near Theodore before grabbing his frail shoulders.
"You remember that I've told you about your mommy and daddy and that one day they'll be back to take care of you?" She asked Theodore.
The young infant shook his head at her aunty, while drowning his sight in hers.
"Well this is your mommy and your daddy, go give her a hug." She pushed him toward Katherine. "She had missed you so much."
Katherine raised her sight, before seeing the young infant timidly approaching her, while sucking on his little thumb.
"Hello." Theodore greeted his mother, his brown eyes lost in Katherine's.
"Hi" She responded, while raising her shaking right hand, before caressing his hair. "You want to give me a hug."
Theodore nodded his head, before raising his little arms around Katherine's neck and hugging her. Elijah kneeled by their sides before caressing his son's head, tears filling his eyes.
"Elizabeth, let me present to you my sister Rebekah, my brother Kol and my mother Esther." He presented them, before rising on his feet while hearing them approach.
"Damn brother, nothing less than a castle would suit your Royalty self, as I can see?" Kol mocked, while standing with both of his hands placed on each side of his hips.
"I guess this accommodation will have to do." Rebekah added, snubbing, while rolling her eyes.
"I believe a bit of "respect" coming out from both of your mouths would grandly be appreciated at this moment." Esther mumbled, angrily, to her youngest children, while greeting Elizabeth by a simple nod.
"It's a relief to finally see Master Elijah's family being brought home, safe and sound." Elizabeth greeted them all, while lowering her head in respect, before calling a few maids with a gesture of her hand. "Please, bring Master Elijah's family to their private quarters."
"We'll talk later, mother." Elijah nodded to Esther.
"Very well, Elijah." She agreed, while giving a condescending stare at Katherine, before following the maids.
"Your mother hates me." Katherine mumbled the words between her teeth, while taking Theodore in her arms, before rising herself back on her feet.
"Well hate is probably a strong word." Elijah replied, while rolling his eyes.
"I'm sure you must be exhausted." Elizabeth said, while turning on herself to direct her walking path back to the Castle.
"Elizabeth." She heard a broken voice calling her name.
Elizabeth froze, while holding her pace, the beats of her heart rising dangerously in her chest. She slowly turned on herself before facing "him".
"Charles." She greeted, toneless, while sliding her sight on the father of her child. A beard was covering his face, but other than that physical change, he was exactly the same man that had left her side two years ago.
"How long were we gone from this present time?" Charles asked Elijah, while keeping his sight drowned in Elizabeth's.
"Two years." Elijah replied, while lowering his head and closing his eyes. The Original knew instinctively how hard it would be for his friend to accept that fact, and furthermore, how hard it would be for Elizabeth to accept the "new" Charles who had come back to this present time.
"I'm so sorry Elizabeth, I'm so sorry…" Charles tried to apologize. "What about the baby?"
"You have a son." She managed to answer, coldly, before turning her back at him.
"Elizabeth?" Charles called, once more.
"Not now." She managed to answer him, before walking away from Charles, her feet leading her toward the castle.
Charles took a step to reach her, before being held immobile with a firm grip of Elijah's hand on his left forearm.
"Give her time, Charles." Elijah suggested to his friend.
"I'm not sure "time" will do the trick, it certainly did not help the situation before." Charles mumbled, angrily, between his teeth, under the worried look of his friends.
A discreet knock on the door of the study room made Elijah turn his head from his standing position in front of the window.
"Yes, come in." He yelled.
The old wooden door creaked while letting inside Eleanor who nodded her head discreetly at Elijah, before blushing and raising her large pair of glasses on the tip of her nose.
"Master Elijah, you've asked to see me?" She asked him.
"Yes, please take a seat…Eleanor, Isn't it?" He invited her to seat in front of his desk, with a hand gesture, before taking his own sitting place. "I'm sorry if my memory is not serving me correctly?"
"Yes, it's Eleanor." She blushed once more, before lowering her sight away from his. "We've only been in front of each other a couple of times before; it's understandable that you wouldn't remember my name. And I wanted to add that I am so glad that you were able to come back home."
"Thank you." He nodded. "It had come to my attention that you were present when Mrs. Elizabeth gave birth to her son, and that you've helped her against…" Elijah coughed. "You've helped her against my father's wishes."
"I'm so sorry, Master Elijah, I was hired by your father, but, believe me, I had no idea what his personal vendetta toward Mrs. Elizabeth and your family was." Eleanor begged him to believe. "But I would entirely understand if you want me to leave the premises of this castle."
Elijah raised his right hand in front of her to hold her say.
"Far from it, my dear, none of this was your fault, and I am entirely grateful for your quick intervention. Without you, neither Elizabeth nor her son would have survived." Elijah thanked her. "Furthermore, I want to offer you my apologies for the way you've been treated by my father, and as recognition I would grandly appreciate if you could accept the "official" position of personal nanny for both my son and Elizabeth son?"
"Oh…." Eleanor let out the sound of surprise.
"You're not happy?" Elijah asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh no, no … I'm actually grateful of your thoughtful offer toward me, Master Elijah, but…" She responded.
"But?" He asked.
"There's something that I kept from you." She said, shamelessly, while lowering her head. "I'm from a witches' family."
Elijah shook his head, before rising on his feet and walking toward her sitting position, while smirking and crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Further more reasons to welcome you into mine, Miss Eleanor." Elijah responded, while handing his right hand to her.
Eleanor rose on her feet before slowly sliding her fingers into his.
"You knew?" She said, with a mouth opened expression.
"I've always known." Elijah nodded. "My father had chosen "you" not only for your maid ability to serve him, but more so in the prospect of using your magic for his villain needs."
"It was certainly very ungrateful of him." Eleanor blushed more.
Eleanor let go of his hand, while nodding her head in respect, before walking toward the entrance door of the study room.
"Eleanor?" Elijah called.
"Yes, Master Elijah." She asked, while turning on herself, her hands crossed behind her back, her shoulders straightened.
"I'm not my father." He added.
"That much I had figured out." She replied, while nodding her head, before leaving the room by closing the door behind her back.
"Elise" walked through the dark corridors of the castle, a smile plastered on her face, before getting rid of her glasses, and letting down her hair on her shoulders.
"Checkmate, Elijah!" She exclaimed, while smirking. "I infiltrated your life, the heart of your home, your son life, and yet …You have no idea who I really am."
Elizabeth startled at the creak sound of the nursery door being opened on its arch. She stood motionless in front of the window, her arms crossed over her chest, her sight lost in the landscape of the castle.
She closed her eyes, a hand raised on her chest while hearing the footsteps slowly approaching the baby crib. She held her breath while knowing that Charles was the visitor.
"Hey, beautiful boy… So, I've heard that you, little fellow, are my son." Charles asked, while lowering his head above the cradle.
The baby boy giggled while raising his little closed fists toward his daddy.
Charles bended his upper body before raising the small infant in his arms.
"Oh, sweet boy…." He let out the words, while rocking his son in his arms, a single tear rolling on his cheek, before closing his eyes to fully enjoy the intense moment to hold his son in his arms. "What name did you give him?"
"Olson." Elizabeth responded, from the tips of her lips.
"Olson?" Charles repeated, with wide opened eyes at the odd choice of name. "Is it a way to get back at my son for my own errors, Elizabeth?"
"It was my grandfather's name." She informed him, coldly.
Charles frowned at his stupid error, before kissing his son's forehead and laying him back in his crib.
"I'm sorry … It was untactful of me." He added, while swallowing a nervous lump in his throat. "My dear we need to talk, you've been… You've been avoiding me since I came back."
"Well, considering the fact that you've been avoiding me for the past two years, I say that we are even, Charles." She responded, before turning on herself to face him.
"You're mad, and you are entirely right to be mad, my dear, but you had agreed to this." He raised a hand toward her.
"I had agreed to this?" She exclaimed, in rage, a finger pointed at her chest. "No Charles, I had agreed for you to stay by my side, in this present time, while "they" would be send back into the past, I've never expected to be the one left behind by the father of my child."
"Up to now, I still have no idea what happened, Elizabeth, you need to believe me that I've never wished for this to happen." He confessed.
Charles kept his sight drown into hers, while discovering an ugly truth that he had never expected to see in the eyes of the woman he had falling in love with.
"You don't believe me, isn't it right?" Charles asked her.
She lowered her sight, while sighing loudly.
"You were always driven by a sense of adventure, Charles." She simply replied. "I always knew that about you."
"I never meant to leave you alone, Elizabeth, please believe me." He begged her.
"But you did, and I had to endure the worst two years of my life. I had to give birth to our son under the worst conditions possible." She busted at him. "Mikael wanted to kill me, Charles."
"If I had been here, I would have killed him myself." Charles mumbled, angrily, between her teeth.
"Him being an Original, it would have been impossible." She replied. "If it was not for Eleanor prompt thinking, I would have died while drowning in my own blood."
"I would prefer to die than let anything happened to you or Olson, my dear." He confirmed, from the bottom of his heart.
"And yet, you have already died, is not it, Charles?" She lashed out, while raising her chin, under his dumbfounded expression.
"How did you find out?" He managed to let out the words.
"Haggard eyes, white complexion, these are a few of the signs of a brand new vampire." She responded. "Well, I'm sure that Master Elijah will be content with the fact that he can add "vampire" to your qualifications."
"Don't be mad at him or Miss Katherine." Charles tried to explain, while passing a nervous hand through his hair. "I was bitten by a scorpion on this island, and was under a severe fever for hours, my chance of survival was slim, Elizabeth." He added. "Their decision was not an easy one."
"And their chance of coming home was even slimmer with you completely dead, would you say?" She added, slyly, while taking her first steps toward the exit of the nursery.
Charles grabbed both of Elizabeth's upper arms before pulling her into his arms.
"Listen to me, Elizabeth … We can rebuild our life, we need to believe that it's possible." He suggested, while drowning his sight in her. "I know that you still love me, I see it in your eyes, my love." He added, before lowering his head and crashing his mouth on hers.
She let out a small cry under the touch of his manly lips on hers, while trying to squirm herself out of his embrace by pushing forcefully on his chest. She managed to liberate herself of his strong arms, while stumbling a few steps back.
"I loved the man who left me behind two years ago; unfortunately for you, Charles, I couldn't care less for the man who's standing in front of my sight at the moment." She lashed out at him. "As of now the only thing that we'll share is custody of our son." She added, before turning on herself and leaving the nursery under the slam noise of the door.
Charles turned on himself, before taking a few steps toward the baby crib and lowering his sight on his son who had fallen asleep.
"I'll win you mother back, even if it takes me the eternity to achieve my goal."
The rays of the full moon illuminated Katherine's bare skin, her silky hair scattered on the pillow, with a blissful smile on her voluptuous lips.
Elijah slowly raised his right hand on the length of her long legs, higher on the tender part of her thighs, to finally rest it on the crucible of her waist. He had exhausted his wife into a lovemaking session that had lasted through the late hours of the night.
"If you're asking me for an "encore" I'll have nothing left inside of me to give, you'll have to work for two." Katherine whispered, mockingly.
He raised his hand higher, while sliding his fingers on the roundness of her right breast, in erotic motion that made Katherine moan his name, before grabbing her neck forcefully to make her turn her head toward him, with his sight lost into hers.
"I love you so much, Katerina." He pledged his love, before closing his eyes and lowering his head to tenderly kiss her lips.
"I love you too, Elijah." She timidly smiled, while raising her left hand to caress the manly skin of his cheek and jaw.
He gently pushed himself away from her, before sitting at the feet of the bed, his sight lost into the dark night, with the moon showing its brightness by the opened terrace doors of their bedroom suite.
Katherine grabbed her silk dressing gown, while rising on her legs and sitting by her husband side at the far edge of the bed. She lowered her head on his left shoulder, while grabbing his left arm with both hands.
"Don't…" She begged him, while shaking her head.
"Don't what?" He asked, swallowing a nervous lump in his throat, before lowering his head and rubbing his hands nervously together.
"Don't blame yourself Elijah, for everything that had happened." She murmured, while slowly caressing his hair at the base of his neck. "You brought your family back; you're a tenacious, courageous, loving man."
"Who am I supposed to blame then, Katherine?" He asked, while raising his teary eyes in hers. "We lost two years of our son's life, and my father put his reign of terror on Elizabeth and my staff while we were gone."
"Theodore is too little to even understand; it will be forgotten and forgiven, like it never happened." Katherine encouraged him. "As for your father…Nothing could have been done against him."
"Finn … I … I left Finn behind…I left my own brother behind…" Elijah mumbled, angrily, between his teeth.
"He wanted to die, Elijah. Even when I had met Finn back in 1494, he was against his own vampirism." She shook her head. "You wouldn't have been able to change that."
"The fact that you were with "me" now, did not help him, at all." He added, while frowning.
"I made my choice." She replied, firmly, while squeezing his hands in hers. "It was a choice from the heart, and coming from me, it means a lot." She added.
Elijah turned his head toward his wife, before raising his hands and slowly caressing the outline of her lips with the tip of his thumb.
"Charles…Elizabeth … We've ruined their life, Katherine." He managed to whisper the sentence, while feeling tears running on his cheeks.
Katherine lowered her head, while closing her eyes, her soul torn and mostly tormented by that simple fact alone.
"We'll find a way to make things right for them, Elijah, we will…" She promised him, before encircling his shoulders of her arms, with her head resting on his chest. "We'll find a way… Together, we'll find a way..."
Elijah grabbed his wife's chin, slowly raising her teary eyes in his, before lowering his lips on hers, with the luminous rays of the full moon promising the hope of a better future upon them…
"Stop pushing me!" Finn yelled to the pirate who pulled him aboard the enemy ship. "Kill me already, I want to die, do you hear me?" He shouted some more.
The Original brother had been abducted on the island, and into this enemy ship, soon after the "Princess" departure.
"It's not our place to choose." One of the enemies responded, before pushing him; face first, into the deck. "It will be the captain's choice, to let you die or live."
"The silver dagger I have attached to my leather belt? You see it? You just need to bury its tip into the powder that I carry in a small bottle in my pants' pocket, and I'll be dead, I'll disappear for good, do you hear me?" He begged the pirate to do.
"I hear you." A feminine voice exclaimed, before appearing on the upper deck, her red long hair flying into the strong wind.
"Who are you?" Finn asked, with a raised chin and a narrowed sight.
"I'm the captain of this ship." She responded, while going down a few steps to reach his lying position. "And I'll be the one deciding if you live or die?" She responded to him.
"You're a woman?" Finn replied, before bursting into laughter. "How can you even be a captain, and even more a pirate?"
"How observant of you, prisoner." She responded, before hitting his stomach with the tip of her right boot, under his groan of pain. "And you're a chauvinistic pig, named Captain Finn, I've heard about you… You're the vampire pirate."
"And you are…My lady?" He mocked.
"Captain Sage … And I haven't decided of your faith yet, Captain Finn." She replied, smirking, while sliding an appreciative glance on the length of his body.
It's the end of the route for this first sequel: "A gentleman and his wife".
I want to thank all of my faithful readers, and this from the bottom of my heart, for your awesome presence in this story, your reviews, for your favorites and follow options, or for reading me anonymously; it was a joy to have you aboard this saga.
Take good note that a second sequel named: "A gentleman and his family" will come at you this autumn 2013 - winter 2014. I can't say a date as of now because of my other projects of fiction stories, but be sure that I will write this second sequel for sure.
Until then, the biggest hugs send to all of you, Keep safe and be happy!
Lovely Vero
Reply to anonymous review:
Asherfan: Well, thank you, sweetie … It's true that my imagination knows obviously no limit!