"Because your face glows sometimes." Piper answered in almost a whisper; her voice cracked.
Glow? Belle thought with a frown on her face and her brows slightly creased together. 'How come I haven't noticed it?'
She asked, a little spaced out while trying to clarify her doubt, "Like a real angel? Is it bad?"
"Of course not," Piper was quick to answer. A genuine smile graced her lips as she stared at Belle. She said, "Nothing about you is bad, and you are the most perfect thing that ever happened to me," and Edward. She beamed.
Belle nodded, taking in her mother's words with teary eyes.
"I first noticed the glow twice when you were younger." She informed her daughter. Her hands shifted from her side to massage her temple, a sigh escaping her pale lips. "It was a beautiful sight." Yet troubling.
"Did you see it again after that?" Belle's eyes moved away from her mother's action to look directly at her face, where Piper's eyes were already settled on her.
Piper's face held an unreadable expression. "Yes," she confirmed.
The young woman swallowed a lump in her throat. Muttering, "When?"
Piper blinked once before answering Belle's curiosity, "Last night when you returned. It appeared to have lasted longer than usual as the glow was already there when you stepped in." She huffed a sigh and said, "Good thing you had your cloak on, and no one must have seen you.
Belle's shoulder slumped down, and her jaw dropped with a pale face, obviously shocked by the revelation.
'If it was there, does that mean the stranger saw it?' She thought with her brows raised in bewilderment and her hands feeling slightly clammy. 'He was going to come for them.' She feared.
She tried to play the scenes from last night's encounter in her head but got nothing out of it. No sudden change in the man's face to show if he had found out her secret.
And moreover, the stranger did not look like someone who would snitch on her.
A worried frown soiled the lady's face as she made out the swirls of emotion that crossed the girl's face. From one of surprise to a perplexed look.
"Belle, did someone see you last night?" Instead of giving her a disapproving look, her voice held concern.
Annabelle raised her face to look at her mother and slowly looked away at the same instant. She nodded her head.
Piper did not seem to be disappointed in Belle, but the same could not be said of Belle herself.
The guilt of something that had not happened yet but that she feared might really happen pricked her skin. Worry brimmed in her eyes and voice.
"What if he comes? Do you think he will, mama?" More than anything, she needed her mother's assurance. She dreaded that her action would put her family in danger.
"Oh dearie. We'll be fine." She tipped the girl's chin for her to look at her, and she wiped away the tears that had stained her rosy cheeks. "Tell me exactly what happened outside." She urged.
Belle gulped down her worry and narrated the tale.
The lady's eyebrow creased in concentration, and when Belle finished reiterating the event, her lips twitched slightly.
She smiled sweetly at her daughter, who now waited for her to say something. "You remember when I said that the world is just full of wicked people?"
Belle nodded, biting her bottom lip before adding, "And unkind ones."
"Mm. The truth is that there are also good and kind people out there. But there are only a few." Piper watched the girl, making sure she was listening.
Her smile dropped as she continued to explain, "And sometimes even the good ones turn bad. Just like a beautiful rose is not subjective to thorns that might prick our finger when we try to pick it,"
The girl's gaze shifted briefly from her mother to her finger, and she muttered, "I understand." Maybe he did see it and was kind enough to let it slide. But no one knows when his resolve will flicker, just like the fire in our lamps.
"But you don't have to worry about it. What you should do is take good care of yourself." When I'm gone. Her voice was tainted with pain, but she managed a smile for Belle.
The angel beamed, her smile making her look younger than her age. One could agree right now that she was still ten, whereas she was almost twenty.
Her delicate features were surely quite deceiving to the eyes. Over the years, her golden blonde hair had bloomed even more; it shone brighter as if she used some sort of oil to keep it that way.
With a smile still adorning her beautiful face, Belle opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the deep, throaty sound that violently escaped her mother's mouth.
Piper brought the handkerchief that lay on her dress-covered thigh to her mouth, still coughing.
COUGH…COUGH
"Mama, what's wrong?" Her once smiling face now held sadness as she stretched to touch her mother's face, but she was left dejected.
"COUGH…Belle don't come close. You might catch the disease."
"But you are sick."
"Belle, listen to your mother." Zachariah entered the room again. The warning was stern enough to keep the girl quiet; she watched her uncle hurry to her mother's side, helping her lie comfortably on the chair.
'How come he can get closer to her but not me?' The thought didn't linger long, as she was more worried for Piper.
"Should I go find the physician?" She asked anxiously while standing up from where she sat to head for the door.
In that very moment of her plight, she had forgotten that she didn't know where the physician lived or who he was. Most of her life had been spent inside the house with her mama and uncle.
"No, dear. Mama would be okay." Piper's weak voice tried to assure Belle, but the tears that followed suit after her words did nothing to sooth the younger woman's already fidgeting nerve. "You know what? Why don't you hold my hands? I'll feel better after that."
Her hands stretched out for Belle to take them, and she reluctantly moved her feet back to her mother's side. She sat down on the floor while holding Piper's hand.
The lady smiled up at Belle and said, "Always be happy, okay?" The girl could only nod in response as Piper kissed the back of her hand affectionately.
A few minutes passed, and exhaustion soon hit the duos. By the time Belle awoke again, it was late noon. She groggily rubbed her hands against her eyes; the pair of silver gray eyes fell on her mother's sleeping figure.
"Mother." She called quietly, and when she got no answer, Belle's hands shook the lady.
Piper's body was too cold for Belle to dismiss. "Mother! Mother!" she called louder this time, but still no response.
Raising the lady's hand, only for it to drop back to her side limply. "Noooooo!"