Chapter Twenty Four: Father's Repentance
'Oh, puuurrrrrrr,' was all Baron thought could describe how he felt about kissing Haru. It was soft and sweet, but at the same time hard and passionate. All that mattered was the slim brunette in his arms.
Haru had somehow managed to wiggle her arms free, but she wasn't about to try slipping free any time soon. Her arms were now firmly around his neck, in an effort to get closer to him, obviously feeling the intense magic that he himself was. The world seemed to tip from underneath them, but Baron was far too good at keeping his balance to allow such a thing to throw him off, or to distract him from kissing the sweet brunette in his arms.
Eventually, the world stopped trying to tip them over, and the light that he could still see through his eyelids had dimmed considerably, almost fading altogether. But again, he didn't care about anything but the sweet angel in his arms.
A collective gasp was heard from behind him, making Baron stiffen and wonder just when his private moment with Haru had become a public one.
With much reluctance, he broke off the kiss, and looked over. His green eyes widened with astonishment.
"What on earth," he whispered softly, not being able to think of anything more to say.
He and Haru were now in a large and lavish bedroom, with a crowd of servants breaking away from their vigil next to the huge bed in order to look at him, their eyes wide with astonishment.
Then Haru gasped.
"Baron! What happened to you?!"
He once again looked at his brunette, a little worried to have put them in such a situation like this.
"I don't understand how we ended up here, but I promise that if any-"
Haru pressed two fingers to his lips, slight fear evident, but for him.
"It's not that," she said softly, allowing her fingers to stray away from his lips, and caress his face with one warm hand.
But the touch was like nothing Baron had ever experienced before. Always before now, glossy fur had been a barrier between him and human touch, but now… Haru's slightly callused fingers were gently tracing his naked jaw line, not a single hair to be seen. He raised one hand to feel his face through the glove, stunned at how the sturdy cotton felt against his bare skin.
"Is it possible?" he whispered, still staring at Haru, who was staring right back at him, wonder evident in her features as he reached out and caressed her cheek lovingly. His dream of being solely of the human world was now a vivid reality.
"It's true," a hoarse voice coughed out, making the lovers look over to the bed again.
The shadowy figure on the bed was leaning against a mountain of pillows, and his beady eyes glittered with tears by the candlelight. An older maid spoke out, her voice close to tears.
"Ah, but he's the very image of you in your youth, My Lord!"
The figure in the bed sighed.
"No. His eyes are far kinder than mine ever were. Wiser, too… so much wiser."
Baron's eyes suddenly narrowed, and he wrapped one arm around Haru protectively.
"We'd best get out of here, love. That man's nothing but trouble."
"No!" the man protested, struggling to rise from his bed as a few servants gently pulled him back within the soft creamy sheets. "No! I've been waiting to talk to you for so long-"
"Really? Because I've been hoping that we would never meet," Baron spat out, a familiar growl working its way past his throat, although it wasn't as loud without his cat genes anymore. Haru touched his cheek softly, although she was completely aware of whom the sickly old man was. Her love's new appearance was an explanation that would have to wait.
"Wait a second, Baron. He might have learned something by now."
"Enough to make up for my mother dying of a broken heart?" Not now. He would never cry in front of that monster. Instead, he held Haru closer for comfort, and she held him tenderly, but a little firmly.
"Let him try," she implored. "It will haunt you the rest of your life, if you don't let him at least try while he still has a chance."
Baron bit his lip, wishing with all his heart to deny the man that had helped give him life, and then tried to take it away. But Haru, he could never deny. Fighting the urge to keep growling, the tawny lord gave a slow nod to his sire, who took a troubled sigh of relief, although the action was close to tears.
"A good woman you have there, my boy." The figure took another troubled sigh. "Son, words can't describe how sorry I am, for what I did to you and dear Maria. I knew I was in the wrong, even when I tried to… to kill you." The man choked on the hard words, his deep grief evident.
"I've tried finding you several times since then, to beg you and your mother's forgiveness and take you both home, but I could never locate you. I feared you both dead, but I've been trying to hold on, just to see you once more, if a girl ever broke the spell on you."
Haru quirked an eyebrow, but kept her mouth shut. Baron held her closer, and she could feel how faintly he was trembling with anger. The man collapsed on his bed again, gasping horribly.
"The twenty-two years since that night, I've regretted it with every fiber of my being. It was my fault that you were born a half-cat… my own stupid fault. It's been haunting me ever since. If there was some way, any way, that I could turn back the clock, I would do things the way I should have done them. If I only could…"
"But you can't," Baron said softly, still angry. "Nothing can change the fact that Mother died of grief, or that I was forced to grow up in seclusion. What could you possibly hope to offer me, to make up for what I and my mother have lived through all these years?"
The shadow figure in the bed gasped weakly.
"Everything I possess. None of it made my sins easier to bear, but I want you to have it. My house, my lands… everything." The man made a final painful gasp. "Please… let me give you what I can. You deserve more than even a king possesses, but it's all I can offer you. Please… I don't deserve your forgiveness, but… if… you could find it… in your heart…"
It was too much for Baron. Slowly, he released the girl in his arms, and made careful steps up to his father's deathbed. The servants that had been gathered around the sickly master immediately cleared away so that the dashing young man could lean across the cream-colored sheets, and hesitantly cover his father's hand with his own.
"I've often thought about what might happen, if we ever met," Baron said softly. "I imagined you grabbing a sword and trying to finish the job you started when I was born. I imagined taking the sword, and running it through your heart for making Mother cry, nearly every night for as long as I can remember. I always pictured you as a terrible monster, although you looked like a different one each time I thought of you. The only thing I never imagined was an apology. I never thought that you might regret what you tried to do to me and Mother."
But did he really have it in his heart to forgive the man? Baron thought about all those times growing up, when his mother would tearfully try to explain to him why they had to stay inside the walls of the cathedral, and why his father wasn't around. He thought about how the crowd had reacted seeing the true him, and how repulsed they were.
Then, as suddenly as a flash, those thoughts dissolved into nothing. All he could now remember was Haru's sweet smile, and her quiet willingness to do whatever was right, even if she had to pay a heavy price. He thought of all the afternoons he spent with her, and all the days he would watch the streets below from Toto's pavilion, praying to catch a glimpse of his beloved brunette, to last him until the following Sunday.
Even now, he could feel the warmth of her gaze on his back, and her silent admiration of his strength, both physical and mental. All of his anger was now less than a wisp of a memory.
Baron smiled peacefully, and leaned over his father's face to kiss his cold and sweaty brow once.
"If it weren't for your actions, I never would have met Haru. For that reason at the very least, you're forgiven," Baron whispered.
The old man gave a gurgled sigh of relief.
"James… take this down. Everything I own goes to my only son…" the man's mouth kept flapping, but no sound was issuing forth. The perplexity on his face made the unsaid question perfectly clear to the lord's son.
"Mother named me Baron Humbert von Gikkingen."
"Humbert?" Haru asked, pulling a confused face. The tawny lord grimaced, all too aware what the question was.
"There's a reason I introduce myself as 'Baron' alone. And that's it."