Disclaimer: This fanfic is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. Neither "Inuyasha" nor the "Painted Veil" belong to me
Sesshomaru never made it to that meeting, entranced with the hope of a new beginning in the arms of his wife. They spent the morning making love, all limbs intertwined, with soft pants and moist lips, that covered the same skin that he only knew in darkness. With an eagerness that he only knew in dreams, his wife's hips welcomed him earnestly, and in the trance of love, both of them found solace.
On the days that followed, they walked, hands linked together to the sanpan that brought them to Paibi and its daily grind of children, malcontent troops and disease. With the soft sounds of the river as company, Kagome discovered that his husband was not only a man of science, interested only in the tangible and concrete, but also a lover of art and poetry - one that could recite Yeats and Byron from memory, his baritone voice murmuring softly in her ear:
"All things uncomely and broken,
all things worn-out and old,
The cry of a child by the roadway,
the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the ploughman,
splashing the wintry mould,
Are wronging your image that blossoms
a rose in the deeps of my heart."
Stripped bare of all the pretension that colonial society gave them, she listened to his worries and concerns. About how much he detested the apathy of the British, so reluctant to provide for the needs to the small infirmary - unconcerned for the lives that they considered inferior - or how he often worried about his brother, who was young and rash, but also ambitious and hard working. She found out that he was often worried about his ability to provide for her -believing her to be far richer than she was - and that among his dreams was to live in a place where he would not be seen as a foreigner to mistrust as it was in England, nor a Nikkei bound to the mores and prejudices of imperial Japan.
After sister Sara's passing, Kagome gave him his lunch and joined him in the small alcove that was set as his private study. She brought her koto after he reluctantly admitted that it reminded him of more innocent times, in which his mother laughed and his father was healthy and prosperous - before illness took them both and left him and Inuyasha all alone in the world. After the languid notes of the koto lingered in the stone halls, often his lips found her, and her body welcomed him on the desk, pants, and moans muffled in the hollow of his pale neck.
Little by little, Kagome discovered that her husband did not see her, not because he did not want to, but because she had never bothered to do the same. His golden gaze made her soon forget about the azure eyes that had played with her foolish heart, and his touch had a tenderness that could only be mistaken as love. Playing with the children, she twirled in the convent's patio, heart filled with hope for a brand new start until suddenly she felt her knees buckle and her world went black.
AN: Thank you Elohiniar, Naoko and LakRipper for following and reviewing!. It really makes my day!