Lucas cupped Grace's cheek and gave her another gentle, long kiss. Never moving away from her he whispered:
"I should take you home."
Grace let out a shaky breath as her fingers caressed the nape of his neck and played with his hair.
"I AM home", she whispered and her heart swelled with love as she saw Lucas' eyes softening and he descended another soft, warm kiss on her lips. Warmth pooled deeply inside Grace's body and as they reluctantly broke the kiss, she whispered "But, you're right. I should go."
Lucas' thumb caressed her cheek as he locked his eyes with hers before gently kissing her forehead and murmuring quietly:
"Come on", he sat up and helped her to sit up too.
Both of them got up from the sofa and went toward the doors of the library, their fingers reaching for each other's hand at the same moment. Grace looked up at Lucas and smiled.
—--
Lillian slammed the phone down, letting out a frustrated, angry groan, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Argh, that woman is driving me INSANE!", she stormed back toward the living room, mimicking "Don't worry about that, Lillian. I will find the most exquisite wedding dress for our darling Grace. The designers will be thrilled to make a perfect dress for my son's bride and there is no such material or lace here in Canada", she angrily picked up the small pillows from the sofa and kicked the dust out of them "I will order it from France", Lillian slammed the pillow a few times, grumbling "Well, my sister is not getting married in France! And I am going to be the one who will buy her wedding dress!!", she threw the pillow down at the sofa and plopped down in anger, letting out another frustrated groan as she put her face in her hands "What am I going to DO?!"
The sound of the keys in the doors snapped Lillian out of her mood and she quickly schooled her facial expression into a calm one and getting up, she started to pick up the toys from the floor.
She looked up as Grace came in the living room and smiled.
"Hey, Gracie", she greeted her.
Grace came toward her sister with a big smile on her face and hugged her. Lillian hugged her back, feeling the anger slowly leaving her.
I will deal with that later.
"What are you doing?", asked Grace "Let me help you", she picked up a plush giraffe from the floor but Lillian snatched it away from her with a smile.
"Don't worry about that. Tell me how was your day?", she asked and her smile grew as she saw her sister's face practically glowing from happiness.
God bless you, Lucas, for making my sister so happy.
Grace smiled happily.
"Oh, Lillian, it was perfect!", she took a deep breath in "HE is perfect. We went skating…well, he skated, I tried, but after falling too many times, I gave up!"
Lillian's face turned serious.
"You're not hurt, are you?", she asked in concern.
Grace shook her head.
"No, no, I'm fine. Truly. He made sure of that", Grace smiled "Then I took him to the flea market to meet Mister John. He bought a whole box of records, Lillian!"
Lillian shook her head as she slightly snorted.
"The two of you will need a separate room just for the records you both have", she quipped, making Grace laugh.
"I guess we will! But, you should see him talking with Mister John, Lillian. He was so nice, natural, kind and interested in what Mister John was telling him. He never makes a difference between people due to their class or status", she picked up three marbles from the floor "And speaking of room for records, he asked me to help with redecorations. We're meeting an interior designer on Thursday".
Lillian smiled warmly.
"I am so happy for you, Gracie. You deserve the best and Lucas Bouchard is most certainly that for you", she said and pulled her sister in a hug. As they let go of each other Lillian asked "Now, how about you two check the invitations responses on Friday? And then we can see with Gustave is he okay with food tasting this weekend."
Grace nodded, practically jumping on the spot from excitement as she grabbed her sister's hands.
"And we can go look for my wedding dress at Monday!", she hugged her sister and held her tightly, missing the fallen facial expression on Lillian's face "All I ever wanted was for my big sister to help me choose my wedding dress. We don't have a wedding dress from our Mum so you choosing it with me is like she is here too."
Lillian swallowed hard and quickly put on a smile as Grace pulled away and started to flutter around discarding the collected toys in the box and talking about what kind of dress would she love to find.
Lillian felt anger and desperation rising once again in her lungs.
Helen Bouchard, I am going to strangle you.
—--
Helen Bouchard smiled politely at the people she was talking with. It was a long day and she loathed the fact that she had to travel with all the wedding preparations going on, but she never ran away from the responsibilities her job held. Hence, here she was, in Hamilton, signing a contract with one publishing house for the next five years.
Wanting to relax, she accepted her new business partners' invitation to attend the opening of the art gallery. Her train back home was bound to leave tomorrow morning and she was eager to get back to the wedding preparations.
Grace Thatcher admired a painting on the wall and squeezed her eyes a bit to be able to read the author's name at the bottom left corner. Her daughter Elizabeth stood despondently at her side after whining at home to go with her.
All of a sudden Grace noticed a change in Elizabeth's posture and she looked up to see a strange glint in her daughter's eyes as she looked across the art gallery.
"Elizabeth?", Grace carefully called.
Elizabeth straightened her shoulders and said:
"I am going to greet her."
Grace slightly creased her eyebrows.
"Who?", she turned around to look at the direction her daughter was looking at when she heard her speak:
"Helen Bouchard", and with those words Elizabeth started to walk toward a small group of people.
Grace gasped quietly in shock as she tried to stop her daughter.
"Elizabeth, no!", she hissed quietly, finally managing to grab her daughter's arm, trying to pull her back, but to no avail.
Unbeknownst to what was happening a few steps behind her, Helen was discussing a particular painting on the wall with her new business partners when she heard a voice right behind her.
"Mrs. Bouchard."
Helen froze.
No.
It cannot be her…
Helen politely smiled at the group of people she was standing with, excusing herself before she schooled her facial expression into a calm, icily cold one and turned around.
"Yes?"
Elizabeth smiled haughtily.
"I am surprised to see you here, in my hometown", she said.
Helen raised one eyebrow.
"I am working, Mrs. Thornton", she gave a young woman in front of her a cold glare before adding "Not that it is any of your business".
She could see Elizabeth's eyes flame with offense and Helen's lips curled up a bit in satisfaction.
Her eyes moved to the woman who stood next to Elizabeth and who, by the looks of it, was embarrassed beyond words.
Helen slightly nodded at her as she introduced herself:
"Helen Bouchard."
Elizabeth's Mother swallowed hard as she nodded back.
"Grace Thatcher", she replied.
Helen's smile grew just a little bit more.
"You have such a lovely name, Mrs. Thatcher", she said kindly.
So, this is her Mother.
In her peripheral vision Helen noticed how Elizabeth bristled at her compliment to her Mother's name.
Grace slightly smiled.
"Thank you. I am sorry, I…", she quickly tried to apologize on her daughter's behalf, but Elizabeth was having none of it.
"Why are you apologizing for, Mother?", hissed Elizabeth and glanced back from her Mother to Helen "There is no reason why we shouldn't be civil to each other and at least say hello".
Helen glared at the pathetic woman in front of her.
"No reason? Well, I suppose we could also have a cup of tea together", she suggested, her chin raising up slowly.
Elizabeth nodded.
"That would be nice", she replied.
Helen's eyes turned icily cold as she stared at the eyes of the woman who nearly broke her beloved son down.
She inched closer to Elizabeth, just one small step and said, her voice icily cold:
"I would rather drink cyanide."
Elizabeth gasped in shock and tried to say something while her Mother tugged at the crook of her arm in warning.
Helen teeth gritted behind her closed lips and she shook from trying hard not to slap Elizabeth right there and then.
Instead, she inched even closer to Elizabeth's face and spoke in a warning, icily cold tone of voice:
"Some day, your son will fall in love. And the woman will hurt him badly. And when you see and feel the pain your son is going through, you will know how feeling horrible and broken is. How hard it is when you see your child suffering and you cannot do anything to ease his pain. And you will remember what you did and you'll know it's YOUR fault your son was hurt - because you nearly broke my son down", Helen shivered from suppressed anger "And you will never have peace."
And with those words she turned around and apologizing to her business partners, she quickly left the art gallery.
Leaving Elizabeth completely stunned, offended and furious.
—--
Carson looked up as Lillian entered the car, his eyebrows slightly creasing at the look on her face.
Two weeks ago he asked her if she could help him look for a place of his own. With the wedding approaching, he wanted to move out from the mansion as soon as possible. He didn't want to bother Lucas with that, the man has done so much for him already. But, not knowing Capitol City at all he needed someone to help.
And Lillian was the perfect, logical choice. She lived in Capitol City for quite some time now. Plus, the two of them being maid of honour and best man at Grace's and Lucas' wedding meant that they had to take care about quite a few things together.
And so, today they were suppose to go and pick up the wedding rings and Lillian informed him that she had found two possible new homes for him to see.
They greeted each other and Carson drove away, but sensed something was off. Lillian was unusually quiet and was plucking at her purse with suppressed anger.
He turned left on the corner and decided to give it a go.
"You know, if you keep on doing that, pretty soon your purse will be ruined", he quickly glanced at Lillian to see her fingers freezing on the purse. He turned back to the road in front of him as he drove toward the jewelry store "Is everything alright, Lillian?"
Lillian leaned heavily on her seat and huffed in frustration.
"She is driving me nuts!", she grumbled.
Carson's eyebrows creased in confusion.
"Who?", he asked as he kept on driving.
Lillian slightly kicked her purse as she replied:
"Lucas' Mother!"
Carson quickly glanced at her.
"Helen? What did she do?"
Lillian exhaled a breath as she started to pick on her nails.
"She insists on buying Grace some expensive wedding dress! And while I appreciate that she cares for Gracie that much and I know she just wants to surprise her and make her happy, this is just something…", she kicked her foot slightly against the car in frustration "It is just something I wanted to do for Grace by myself. We missed out on so many things while we were apart", she huffed out a breath "Why can't she just go and annoy Lucas on his choice of suit?!"
Carson slightly smiled.
"Well, first of all, that's the bridegroom's and best man's job", he grew serious and asked as he parked the car in front the jewelry store "And second of all, did you say any of this to Helen?"
Lillian was silent for a moment then shook her head.
"I don't want to create problems for Grace. She will only feel torn between the two of us and Lucas would be furious at his Mother and he might try to fight with her", she despondently slammed her palms on her lap and looked down, mumbling "Maybe I should just back off", and with those words she left the car.
Carson slowly turned off the engine and left the car, silently pondering everything that Lillian said in his mind.