Chapter XXXIII

It was a beautiful evening on the very first Friday of May which meant that only a week from that morning, Hester would be officially a twenty-year-old woman and her teenage years would be gone forever. But she still had a week to be a teenager. As soon as the sunshine touched her pale, peaceful face, her hazel eyes opened and she smiled so widely she chuckled herself "It's going to be such a good day!" she whispered to herself, aware of the fact that she was probably the only person in the House of Dreams to be awake.

Hester woke up early that day, even though it was Friday and she had another day off work. She was asked by Marshall to meet him at half-past nine at the Rosefield House which he called "the Douglas' residency" to everyone's delight. She asked him to show her his previous artwork before their regular art lesson. She knew that Marshall would be there alone, with his father and sister at work and Mary with Hester's own mother and her aunties at the Red Cross meeting. Marshall especially picked this day and morning to show Hester his work because he knew that if he'd start doing that whilst his parents and his sister were at the house at the same time they'd be there too, looking and admiring all of his work and he didn't want that as he told her, he wanted to show her his work and passion in a calm way so that he could really get her true opinion on it.

Hester found a very true and wonderful kindred spirit in Marshall. She loved teaching him easiest piano pieces she knew and arguing with him about why he is playing something wrong, too loud or too quiet, or with a use of a wrong hand. She knew that Marshall didn't have any musical talent but she didn't mind teaching him at all, for she knew very well that it was one of his distractions from him thinking about his soon coming back to the reality of the war. Besides, it was a distraction for her too so that she wouldn't have to think about her poor brother Selwyn whom she knew she'd have to cure from the disease that attacked his soul so fiercely in a matter of three months.

Just like she suspected, Marshall and Daria met and became friends in an instant of which she described in details in her letter to Gilly. Hester wrote to her oldest brother that "both approve of each other, dearest so don't worry.". Even Poppy who at first seemed very hesitant about Marshall got to really like him, especially his brown curls. It was strange for Hester to see Marshall meet up with Jo for the first time in so long. Vance held onto Hester's and Marion's hands then as she too didn't know what to expect to appear on Marshall's face or leave his mouth but thankfully the only thing that happened was that the two embraced one another happily, their past romance from five years earlier almost entirely forgotten, for it never could be forgotten completely. For the whole day, Marshall was trying to learn how to play with Fleur and her doll which made everyone almost cry with laughter at the very view.

Vance and Marshall, whenever they were in the same place together, were always next to each other and Vance's arm would be in Marshall's as she'd look up at him and see his scars on his neck. However, she'd also look into the bright and never changing eyes of his and smile with gratitude that she can see and touch him. Hester's own eyes would always fill up with tears whenever she'd see them together like that and she always wished that their sister Cornelia would come earlier than in a few months time and see her brother too.

Hester put on her never ageing white blouse with a flowing neckline and short sleeves. She then she put on her regular grey trousers with buttons on the side. Around her neck was the necklace she had never taken off ever since the day Phillip put it around her neck on her seventeenth birthday and which she'd always touch tenderly every morning and grin at her reflection in the mirror, thinking about her friend fighting for her freedom too, like he recently wrote to her in his last letter.

She then quietly went downstairs, ate cereal with milk, put on her grey hat and left the house deciding not to ride her bicycle, after all. It was too wonderful of a day to not simply take a walk and marvel at the blue skies above. Before she knew it, she reached "the Douglas' residency" and before she could even think of knocking on its door Marshall stood in front of her with a hat from the time of another war resting on his head. Hester laughed when she saw him "What in the world are you doing?" she asked him as she came up on the verandah and now stood in front of him.

Marshall smiled impishly at her and then winked at her before bowing "As nobody from my elders is now present at our house I am its master and I am welcoming a certain Lady Ford into its warm embrace." he took her hand in his and kissed it gently as Hester blushed a little and allowed him to lead her inside the house.

"I'm no lady, Marshall." she said as he took off the hat and put it aside, starting for the stairs that led to his room.

He turned around to look at her and raised his eyebrows "Sure you are, kid." he said to her, smiling "To me at least." he then winked at her again and she hit him playfully on the arm making him laugh.

So they sat together in Marshall's room and he was showing her every sketchbook which she wanted to see and this meant that she wanted to see every single one. She was admiring each sketch and drawing with glowing eyes. Marshall could draw and paint absolutely anything, he wasn't like she thought he'd be, that he'd be good in a particular aspect of art like portraits or still life. No, Marshall Douglas whom she thought always to be the opposite of talented or ambitious, was a brilliant aspiring artist with a twinkle and a vision in his green eyes. He was very enthusiastic, he was describing everything she asked him to describe to her and she listened to everything he was saying, smiling and marvelling with as much joy in her eyes as in his own.

Suddenly, Hester held a painting in her hands with a pattern painted on it, it was a beautiful silky pattern of warm colours and an Eiffel Tower painted in the centre of it. She frowned mysteriously at it which caused Marshall to look a bit worriedly at her "What is it?" he asked her.

"I know this pattern." she said slowly, examining the painting in her hands and then she looked back at Marshall "I had it on a scarf which I lost at the beach one day… well… several years ago actually." she looked into his eyes and he raised his eyebrows once more. He stood up still a bit slowlier than he'd normally, and went over to his wardrobe. Very quickly he drew something out of its inside shelf and sat down next to Hester again. "Oh, my!" she clasped the silk scarf in her hands with wide eyes and just as wide smile on her face as she looked at it, tracing its delicate texture and memories within.

Marshall smiled at her with a great amount of merriness and gleam in his own eyes "I was walking down the shore, waiting for an inspiration for another painting and suddenly the wind has brought me this beautifully original scarf." he touched the material gingerly and he and Hester smiled at each other softly yet deeply "And so it was, after all, my inspiration."

"And I was looking for it for so many days afterwards!" she chuckled with sudden tears in her eyes yet a smile never leaving her lips "I'm so glad that it was in good hands and that it wasn't engulfed by the ocean instead." she looked up at Marshall again and he grinned back, a bit absent-mindedly she thought.

"Take it then, Hester, it's yours." he took the scarf in his hands and put it gently around her neck, the pastel colours highlighting her black hair and pale complexion, causing him to hold his breath for a second "It belongs to no one else but yourself ." he added.

Hester touched the scarf again but then took it off slowly and put it into a pocket of his shirt so that half of it was still hanging down decoratively "Take it with you, Marshall." she said to him softly "May it remind you of the brightness in the world and of your home." she smiled at him and he smiled back, patting the scarf in his pocket.

"I will, then. If you're sure?" he asked her once more even though he knew it was pointless to do so.

"I'm sure," she replied and realised that she said it quieter than she thought she would and Marshall leant in slightly, looking into her eyes as if to say something more.

Hester simply looked back into his eyes, trying to calm her heart down and wondered what was happening, for it was the very first time in her life when she truly wasn't aware of anything happening at that precise moment. It was as if she was the sun on the edge of the horizon, almost reappearing on its surface yet still with a few minutes left to reflect upon the Earth. Finally, she blushed lightly and then straightened up, causing Marshall to do the same. "Shall we start the lesson then?" she asked him after a few moments of silence which didn't need any words at all.

Marshall smiled a bit sheepishly all of a sudden and reached out for a new piece of paper and a piece of charcoal. He handed them to Hester, his very own and first art student "Of course, kid." he replied but something in his voice felt different, and Hester realised that something between them, something in the air surrounding them felt strange and unearthly almost but she couldn't get her head around it and therefore, she took the paper and charcoal from Marshall's hands and again said quietly:

"Let us begin."

The sky was cloudless and its colour unbelievingly and heavenly blue. May was there in its full capacity and volume and it spoke amounts of the enormous weight of delight. Hester walked down the lane from the Douglas' residency with her hat on and her arms folded behind her back as she was enjoying the sun shining down on her. ""Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"" she whispered and thought of Selwyn in an instant. She was surprised herself to smile at his remembrance because whenever she'd think about him now the feeling appearing in her soul was definitely not the one to smile about. She decided on something, though, that once Selwyn would come back home, she would recite this sonnet to him, with him joining in maybe even, and she could cure him out of his sadness in a second ""Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May…"" she then opened her eyes again and remembered, very suddenly, Seb, her once sweetheart who more than once recited that very same sonnet to her in his letters. She wasn't used to thinking about him anymore, or about Flora for that matter, but even so that void still filling her heart was something she always felt whenever she'd think or remember bits of poetry.

"Hester! Hester! Wait!"

Hester stopped abruptly, at once knowing whose voice it belonged to as she turned around with her cheeks all pink "Marshall, you shouldn't be running!" she said worriedly as he stopped before her, panting "Your head…" she started but Marshall interrupted her by waving his hand as he finally took the last deep breath to steady himself.

"It's fine." he said "It's been fine for at least a week now. The rest has paid off." he smiled at her and she smiled at him, both looking a bit curious until Marshall's face suddenly encapsulated an emotion it never truly did fully, a seriousness combined with passion "Hester, I need to tell you something." he said finally.

Hester came up closer to him and felt her heart pounding slightly in her chest "Go on?" she said hesitantly.

"I don't know if I should but…" he shook his head "Oh, what the hell, if I won't say it I'll hate myself forever." he suddenly took a step closer to her and now they stood only inches away from one another, Marshall looking down at her and Hester looking up, her neck hurting a little already.

"What is it?" she asked him slowly even though the puzzles in her head started to finally set in the right place.

"Do you remember when I told you that I haven't known for sure that Jo wasn't the one for me until just recently?" he asked her and she nodded "That recently was actually the day when I arrived back home and saw you playing piano in the Ingleside's living room." he said fiercely with a smile both on his lips and in his eyes as he reached for her hands.

That was it, oh God, that was it! Her mind screamed as if she was being ripped in half. That feeling, these emotions whenever she'd see him. That feeling she had when she saw him on that day when she played the piano… It all made sense, it just clicked. She was always told by her parents that the reason true meaning of love is so hard to find is because the feeling one has in his or her heart whilst discovering it, is never something extraordinary, it is quite the contrary: it's calm and temperate yet all at once and with full speed of simply… knowing.

Hester thought about Seb: did it feel any different? Yes, with Seb she felt as if she was on fire, she felt as if her heart could pop out of her chest as she was almost scared to breathe. It wasn't like that now. Her heart beat faster but not tremendously faster, she breathed normally, her mind was clear and for the very first time in her life, Hester felt certain. "I know I'm not poetic like Seb was." Marshall said, looking deeply and honestly into Hester's twinkling eyes with a grin on the lips of his own "I'm not an educated man. I'm not in any way near being "financially stable" but for Heaven's sakes I am selfish and I do love you more than anything I've ever known in my life." he said it fiercely as he squeezed her hands as if for reassurance of his words.

Hester's lips broke into a smile as she squeezed his hands back "I don't care you're not any of those things." she said quietly to him, her voice calm and steady yet full of brightness "I don't care you're not like Seb, don't you ever be like him." she released her hand and put it on his cheek as he observed her every move attentively "Marshall, I love you for you and for all the shapes and forms that you are." suddenly Marshall's green eyes filled with such happiness that Hester's own filled with tears "Yes, I love you too, dearest." she whispered finally and he put his hands on her waist as she put her hands on his chest, where she knew they fitted perfectly.

"Kid," he whispered "-you've just made one miserable man a very happy one with his head full of dreams.".

"I'm glad." she whispered back "I just hope that your dreams match mine somewhere along the way."

"They do." he said decidedly with a smile "They've always have." and then he kissed her, as simply as it can be done and just as complicatedly also. The wind was blowing on them softly as their kisses deepened and became even sweeter, there on that lane and right in front of the ancient Lighthouse, there in that village of Four Winds where now Hester knew anything could happen.