Chapter Four

Love At Last

'DING, DONG, DONG' the little center town clock chimed as it read almost midnight.

Calostire and I were reading together in the candlelight of the square when Calostire noticed the time and that I was starting to fall asleep on his shoulder.

"Rose…it's getting late and you look tired, maybe you should head home?" I nodded although I didn't want to go, he was so warm. But then I thought of father.

"Yes, father will be worried if I don't get home soon."

He asked if I would like him to walk me home, but I said it was fine. Then a question popped in my head.

"Calostire if you don't mind me asking where you do live?"

I could feel him tense up (since I was leaning on his shoulder) at the question but he answered the question anyway.

"My home is on the outside of the village."

I already knew he didn't like the question so I didn't pursue to find a more specific answer. But apparently Calostire finding it funny asked me the same question. "Rose where do you live?"

I smiled and pointed to the small house on the hill.

"It may not be much but its home."

I got up and kissed him on the cheek and started to walk but he grabbed me and retuned the kiss

"Good bye Rose"

He said as he walked away. I smiled.

"Goodbye…Calostire"

Days went on like this. Calostire and I would meet up, read, or do other things like go to the lake or go for walks around the village. I never felt so happy in my life. But the only thing keeping me down was father's sickness. He still won't allow me to take him to the doctor or get him medicine, and the cough was getting worse. If this kept on I didn't know what I was going to do. I talked to Calostire about it and he suggested taking him to the doctor. I laughed telling him that father refused to go near a doctor for fear of missing inventing time. He laughed as well.

Today Calostire and I went to the hill top that looked over the village. Calostire was acting a bit strange. He was shaking sometimes or he would shudder even though there was no breeze. I asked him what was wrong, but he said it was nothing but thanked me for caring. Whenever he thanked me or complimented me I always blushed. He would laugh when I did this, finding it amusing at my reactions to his compliments. His laughter made me happy, so I laughed too. At the end of the day we went separate ways, but not before a good bye kiss.

But for some reason, the kiss that we shared today was different.

Calostire held me after we shared the kiss and whispered in my ear,

"Rose, no matter what I'm always here for you. Do you understand? I would never do anything to harm you." Calostire hugged me tighter, almost as if he was fearing that he would never see me again.

I was confused, why was he saying all of this? "Of course I understand Calostire, I trust you with my life…"

Calostire gave me one more quick hug, before we bid our goodnights again.

Something was wrong.

On the way home I noticed that the lights were not on, which was odd because the lights never came off due to the fact that father was always inventing. As I got to the front door of our house I noticed that Philippe our horse was gone, and that the house was empty. I heard a voice calling my name from behind. I turned around only to find Lofu, Gaston's little follower, coming towards me.

When he reached me he was out of breath and gasping for air.

"Rose huff your father huff ran into the huff woods."

I was very confused, why would father go into the woods.

"Lofu, father never goes in the woods, he's always said that it was full of dangers, so why would he go?"

By now he gained his composer and said,

"While your father was working on some project, the thing exploded…as always…, scaring your one horse. We could hear it all the way back to the village, but anyway, your horse was so frightened that it ran straight into the woods. All of us guys came out of the barn to see what was wrong when we saw the old man yelling and running into the woods. I went looking for you to warn you sooner because I figured you should probably know, but I couldn't find you."

I was extremely worried now. Snow was starting to fall now and it continued at this rate a blizzard would start.

"Thank you Lofu, please go get Gaston. I know that he is not happy with me, but tell him it would mean the world to me if he helped me. He knows these woods better than anyone."

He nodded, "Good idea"

With that Lofu ran off to the village smirking, everything was going according to plan.