Alright, I missed the deadline, I know I'm horrible. I am very sorry.
It's been difficult these days, I haven't had much time to my lonesome. Even if we don't celebrate Christmas the family descended either way,
And this isn't exactly things I can work on in front of family. Have you ever tried writing in front of family? Besides being horribly distracted everyone wants to come and ask and LOOk at what you are doing. It is impossible.
But today I am finally alone. And so are Jane and Gunther so without further ado, the chapter awaits below.
As always this is for you Tessa.
They go into the house by the back door. Which had been but a few paces away from were their new precious cow was currently tied. Jane is surprised to find that she can see as there are already lit candles, she wonders who lit them but doesn't care enough to pose the question out loud.
The house was more intimating from the outside than in. With its two stories and unfamiliar stone walls it had felt cold and uninviting to her. But the inside, lit as it is now by warm candle light, doesn't seem so bad. She can by no way reconcile this as her home quite yet, but she finds that it is no longer so imposing or alien as it had been in her mind.
She follows Gunther as we walks in front and slightly ahead, giving her a quick tour and pointing out a few things to her. The kitchen which she barely gets a glance at as they walk by, the sitting room which is neat if a bit empty. Most of the house is like this, there are things here and there and the most basic furniture, its a bit lifeless and she finds it hard to imagine herself in such an empty place. For it is not just devoid of material things, but it is also without all the people at castle that make her feel at home.
Here, all she has is a cow.
Well, of course, Gunther is here as well.
He has not stopped to look at her once, just a bit of offset commentary on what is where that drifts back to her as he walks through the house. Gesturing at times towards something specific, but that is all, she doesn't even catch all his words.
They walk up the stairs and her heart begins to pound as they ascend. She tries to keep her breathing slow and just focus on moving her feet. But her concentration is set and she doesn't even glance at the other rooms when he points them out. She doesn't see them and they don't register in her conscious memory. She just watches Gunther's back, he moves resolutely and still doesn't look back. It is difficult to discern any emotions from him, of course backs are hardly the most expressive of body parts. Finally they reach the place, the master bedroom.
This time he stops and holds the door open letting her lead the way. She stands before the threshold for a second, not looking at his face although she can feel his own gaze on her once again, then just walks inside before she can think about it for too long. She had already agonized about this moment enough. She had purposely kept her mind away from it this day but she had known it was coming for a very long time. All the long nights when sleep wouldn't come it was impossible to ward the thoughts away.
After the announcement of their marriage it had plagued her vividly and constantly. To the point where she had forbade herself to consider their upcoming nuptials during the day, distracting herself by any other means. Yet in those moments before sleep could be found, as night and quiet settled around her with only the distant calls of animals in the forest, her mind found the usual dwelling place.
The curious thing for her was the way in which, as the days passed, the thoughts changed in unexpected ways. At first it had been disgust and the injustice of the matter coupled with a healthy dose incredulity that the wedding would ever come to pass. Then within days and weeks it turned into a bit of grudging resignation that it indeed was where her life was headed. That is when the thoughts began their more peculiar nature, after admitting to herself in the cold of the night, alone in her bed, that she would soon find that bed occupied by more than just her own body.
It was in those moments that she let herself think of what she would never divulge to anyone else. What if she wouldn't be as miserable as she assumed? What if instead of stifling she found comfort in heat of someone's presence in the night? She would let herself think that things would be okay and drift off into sleep among those strangely hollow yet oddly pleasant thoughts; as she had but a few weeks before fallen asleep to fits of unrest at the thought of such situations.
Come morning it would all seem like delusions, but she had found a way to sleep and cope with the upcoming unpleasantness. She took refuge in riding Dragon more consistently than ever before and doing as much as she could outside the castle. For in it, she was always met with things she would rather not encounter, such as talk for the wedding feast or her mother chasing her down for another fitting of the terribly uncomfortable wedding dress that had been commissioned, and chastising her any time she was present for meals on how much she ate. Worse of all was of course, running into Gunther which had at first been awkward and quickly became torture when they found they didn't much know how to act normally around each other anymore, it was as if they were walking on eggshells, something that didn't mesh well with either one of them. And when he began asking her about a house for them. She had run away from him, childish she knew, but that first question was absolutely dazing; she needed to be away and think. After that she had held her ground and refuted him sternly. She simply wanted nothing to do with it, not while it was in her power to avoid it. After a few more tries he stopped altogether.
As the big and awful event approached, they hardly even spoke, not even to insult one another. They would still spar occasionally, usually under orders by Sir Theodore, and all their rivalry might have lost its flare if not for the fact that neither of them was quite willing to lose. And as the day drew ever near their fights filled with more determination, lasted longer, and ended with more bruises than usual. It got to the point where it almost began to feel normal and the insults flew freely once again. It was just at this time, that when the night came and she once again began to ponder her future, that she wondered just what it would actually be like to be intimate with Gunther Breech.
The thought had occurred to her a couple times before and she had always shut it down as quickly as it came. This time however she let herself wonder, just what their wedding night might bring. She didn't know more than the basics of what it meant to be with a man, so her imagination could only carry her so far. Yet it still seemed unreal that she could give herself over to him in such a manner. But she would, it would happen because it was the way you consummated a marriage and her marriage was, as much as she tried to deny it to herself at times, a sure thing. Her king had asked and so she would comply.
That night she had dreamt of Gunther. He came so close she could smell his skin and feel his breath on her neck and right when he would kiss her... She woke up. She spent the next few days bewildered by her dream and staring at him far too often, noting details that she had not actively noticed before like the muscles in his arms and chest or the fact that his hair seemed to always be in place and hardly ever strayed out of its slicked back position onto his face even when he was exerting himself. He was handsome, it was something she had known, it wasn't exactly a secret with the way some women looked at him; she was only just beginning to see it herself.
She began to be actually curious of what it might be to actually have his mouth with hers or his warm skin against her, and find that it might indeed be pleasant after all. In the morning light this all seemed inaccurate and shameful even to herself. Now the big day has finally come about, and she has indeed kissed him, and now she finds herself in the dark of night, with those thoughts and in his presence.
She doesn't take in much of the room in her agitated state, it is as lightly decorated as the rest of the house. A fire, already lit, cracks lightly and warmly across the room at well placed fireplace, she is only very dimly aware of it. Her eye is drawn immediately to the large bed that dominates the space. Simple, with its clean linens and pillows, it truly is nothing special. Yet it draws her attention like some kind of magnetic monster pulling her slowly into its grasp.
"It surely is not the same as the castle, but what do you think?" Gunther's voice breaks her away from whatever strange force had come over her. She looks over at him his waiting expression as he stands near a small vanity table, leaning on one of the chairs it hosts.
"It's very... nice," She replies lamely, finding any other answer to be either inaccurate or inadequate.
He looks slightly disappointed as if he expected a better reaction but just answers with a simple "Good." Then it is quiet once more, the awkwardness palpable as Jane just stands in the middle of the room unsure of what to do and Gunther fidgets with cuff of his sleeve. Well at least the feeling is
mutual.
"Its warm tonight." Jane says when the quiet becomes too much to bare.
"Yes." Gunther replies, seemingly eager to say something even if he has nothing to say. His fingers, which had been absently playing with the fastenings of his coat, now begin to actively undo them instead. He finishes and removes it tossing it unceremoniously onto the bed. "I've been dying to take this of all day."
"You think you have it bad?" Jane says, the words just pouring out of her mouth in another attempt to fill the silence that was once again encroaching on them. She lets out a large huff of air looking down at hateful thing that she is wearing. "This thing hardly let me eat, or move." He makes a peculiar face his brows lifted in surprise, she was never much for complaining and this was at least the second time today, to him at least. "Or even breath." She adds thoughtfully pulling a small piece away from her body in a vain attempt as it snaps back into place a moment later.
"Why don't you take it off then?" His voice is quiet, but nonetheless his words startle her and she looks up feeling slightly appalled, heat rising to her face. He isn't looking her way, instead he has taken a seat in one of the chairs in front of the vanity and propped his foot on the other, all his concentration seemingly focused on the removal of his bootlaces.
Jane stares at him as he removes his left boot, tosses it aside, and proceeds to do the same with the other, annoyed that he can get that reaction out of her and then act so nonchalant. "If only it were that easy." She says, crossing her arms while attempting to simmer down the beating of her heart. She turns her back to him. "But this thing is a death trap in more ways than one." She takes a quick breath remembering her mantra from this morning when they where fitting her into the dress it, seems it will come in handy now that she is to get out of it.
She glances over one shoulder at him sweeping her hair to one shoulder. The laces that bind her dress together down the length of her back facing him, she has definitely caught his attention, his eyes snapping to her dark and unreadable. She raises her eyebrows expectantly and has some difficulty keeping the smug smile back when the color slowly rises to his face; not so nonchalant now.
He moves his eyes away from her, clearing his his throat when he gets up. She turns forward again staring at the curtains that adorn the window and not really seeing them at all. She is still holding her hair over her shoulder as his steps get closer, a strange sort of anticipation notched in her middle; directly below her sternum.
His hands begin to move at her back staring with the buttons at the base of her neck. His fingers grazing her neck lightly, its maddening and she is struck suddenly by how weird this situation is.
Gunther Breech is helping her out of her dress.
She cuts the thought there, pursuing it no further. After all, if this strikes as strange than she can only imagine how the rest of the night might feel. Her heart is beating a great and powerful melody in her chest that seems to change in tempo as he carefully and deftly picks the laces lower and lower. Then it is like a great sigh of relieve when they are completely down and she can take, finally, a full breath. She stands there for moment very aware of his presence behind her, his breath sweeps across the back of her neck and the bit of exposed skin at her back.
She turns around to face him. He is so close and there a great warmth coming from him, now that her back is towards the window she can feel a cool breeze against her skin where his breath skimmed not seconds before and a shiver goes down her back as she looks up into the gray storm of his eyes, the color of thunderclouds, and just as full of electricity. Its like she is being drawn closer to him on a reel. She is reminded of their kiss earlier, at the altar. The way he had taken her face in his hands, his eyes so clear and bright as her kissed her with a pressure and more emotion than she had expected. It had taken her breath away for several reasons. They are so close at this moment she can taste his breath on her lips...
"You must be hungry." She opens her eyes when he speaks, not realizing they had fallen shut. She blinks several times feeling like someone has taken her suddenly out of a trance by pouring cold water over her heated skin. "You mentioned you didn't really get to eat because of the dress." He backs away from her looking everywhere around the room but where she is currently standing, she still quite unsure about what just happened.. "I'll go... get you something." He says vaguely and is suddenly out the door.
I want to thank you guys dearly for the reviews.
Lily, I loved the cow as well! I remember when I first realized that was what the present was it felt like just the right thing. Thanks for sweet words! I'm sorry that I'm late with the update but I hope that you have enjoyed it.
Kyra4, OMG your review made me laugh very loudly. Thanks again for your thoughts.
daisy321, I love knowing your take on this and hope you keep enjoying this fic.
I would love to know your thoughts and impressions on this chapter please click that button and make them known!
I wanna thank you all , the reviewers, the readers and the perusers alike!
I hope you have enjoyed and continue to do so. I wont make any promises this week on the exact date when I shall upload again but it shall be soon!