Eve had learned to close her mouth when Michael expressed his views. He didn’t listen to her, anyway. It wasn’t worth trying to get him to understand her opinion.
“I am going hunting with some of the men, dearest. I trust you will not be bored while I am away.”
She would never be bored when he was gone. She did things he did not approve of, like read. He believed a woman had no place reading. She did not need to gain knowledge. She only needed to keep the castle in order and have children. But she couldn’t help the interest in history that she shared with her father. One could learn from the past.
He took her hand into his and bent his head to kiss it, but stopped short. Horror and repulsion widened his eyes and twisted his lips before he could hide it behind disdain. He quickly released her wrist.
Eve withdrew her hand covered by her sleeve and folded it against her body as he straightened and backed away. He bowed slightly before turning and walking down the hallway, his spine straight, his walk confident. She rubbed her hand. She was certain he didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, but she couldn’t help it. Men greeted him with respect, looked up to him with admiration. He had everything. He deserved better than her.
For a moment, she stood still as the old feelings of unease and inadequacy rose inside of her. She lowered her head and turned back to the tapestry. The colors would cheer her. Instead, all she saw was the knight falling from the horse.
Michael had ruined the beautiful tapestry for her.
But there was one place he could not touch and did not know about.
The cool air blew over Eve as she stood before the sun-kissed waters of the pond. Winter was coming. Even the mid-morning breeze had a bite to it. She pulled her cape closed around her shoulders. This was her favorite spot. She felt protected here. This was where he found her, tucked beneath the snow-covered branches of the tree behind her. After all this time, she still remembered one image from that night when she had been saved. She remembered the blue eyes that were haunted with concern for her safety. For her. She had survived that night because of her angel. The angel with the blue eyes.
They were blue eyes.
Eve grinned and turned from the pond. A small child with curly brown hair stood behind her. Eden. Her sister appeared to her as the child she remembered. Even as she grew into an adult, Eden never changed, suspended forever in time as the young girl. Eve came here often to visit her sister. It was the only place she appeared to her. As if… as if part of her was still here.
Eve also came here to remember those eyes. Her angel’s eyes. As time had passed, so had her memory of them. She couldn’t really recall if they were blue or brown. Perhaps she had been wrong all this time and the angel eyes were brown. Like Michael’s eyes. Maybe it had been Michael who had saved her.
Who else could it have been?
“I don’t know. It had to have been Michael.”
Then why do you come here?
“I come here to visit you!”
You come here to see if you can find the angel.
Eve shook her head. She no longer believed she had seen an angel.
Eden clucked her tongue.
“Father said it was probably a shooting star,” Eve said, looking at the grey sky.
Eden grimaced.What does Father know?
Eve looked at Eden with longing in her soul. Her father still blamed her for Eden’s death, for taking her into the cold that night.
It wasn’t your fault.
Eve didn’t want to talk about it. Not ever. She carried the guilt of her twin’s death heavily on her shoulders.
Fine.Eden sat down in the grass.Then tell me of Michael.
Eve shrugged her shoulders. She bent and picked up a fallen leaf. “What is there to tell?”
He didn’t like the tapestry.
Eve knew that Eden was with her always, even though she only saw her here. Eden knew everything she knew and there was no use hiding anything from her. “No. But it was beautiful.”
He doesn’t see beauty.
“He is a practical man. He will make a good husband.” She crumpled the fragile leaf in her hand.
