As soon as I heard the door opened, I straightened myself and turned around to smile at my visibly rattled maids. "What's all the fuss for?" I asked.
"What?" Marie asked, panting and confused. "We heard you screamed, Lady Isa."
"Oh, I did? No, I didn't." I walked towards my dresser and grabbed something small that I could play with my hands. "Must be someone in the castle." I cleared my throat. I will not let another embarrassment befell me or I would not be able to walk as proudly in front of these three.
I mentally closed my eyes. Please, let this one slide, ladies. Please, let this one slide.
"But we're sure that it came this wa—"
"What's wrong?" a huge stature suddenly loomed behind Viola and Marie, shadowing the two completely. "Is something the matter, Isa? I heard you scream." Leon weaved his way through the three ladies and held me at arm's length. His eyes wandered throughout my body, and I looked past him and saw Viola had this 'See, we told you' look in her eyes.
"I'm fine..." I placed a hand on one of Leon's arms and pushed it down. "There was a…" I looked to the side and a sudden thought, a perfect lady-like reason for all these to stop, popped in my mind. "…bug! There was a bug. Yes, yes. I didn't know it was there and it got too close to me. It was flying all over." My hands did grand gestures.
"I see." Leon's eyes wandered past me, "It is almost summer after all. I didn't know you were afraid of bugs."
I flashed an apologetic smile and said, "It's a lady's thing," between a forced smile, all the while thinking, 'Please leave me alone with my maids and why in the Heavens are you even doing here in broad daylight!'
"Well then, I still have some things to look into. I'll have to leave you with Jane and your maids." Leon said it so authoritatively and it was probably the most attractive sounding command I've heard since I got here.
*****
"Are you sure you're alright, Lady Isa?" Marie still couldn't get over what happened. She kept on asking me about it while she brushed my hair.
"I'm fine," I simply answered, averting my eyes away from the mirror. How could I tell them that I screamed because I was thinking of consummating my marriage with their master and then stopping halfway because I thought of another man?
After brushing my hair, and while my ladies were deciding on what I should wear for today, I walked barefooted to the balcony. The feel of the rough stone floor tickled my sole and as I was wriggling my toes, my body leaning over the railing, I heard faint male voices talking followed by a couple of ladies giggling. I didn't want to mind them until I heard the same rugged voice that I thought already left this castle ages ago. My eyes quickly shot to where I thought I heard them but there's no one in my line of sight. I even leaned over the railing a bit more, still nothing.
"Leon's still here?" I perked up. I grabbed the fabrics of my nightgown and rushed to where my slippers was, leaving Marie and Viola speechless, wondering what has gotten into me.
There's no time to change. He might leave if I don't hurry. I have to apologize to him for what happened earlier in the wee hours of the night when I lost myself.
"Lady Isa?" I glanced at the door and came across Jane carrying a tray of assorted biscuits and cakes. "Where are you going? What's the hurry?"
"No time, Jane. I have to go down." I slid one foot, then another.
"Wh-what?" Jane circled and quickly handed the tray to a maid following her. "Lady Isa, wait!" she called, her hand waving at me and I just could not not look back. "The seamstress you called is arriving soon."
"Seamstress?" I repeated, brows furrowed, unsure if I should stay to hear the rest or not, but an excitement different from knowing Leon was still around boiled deep inside me.
A seamstress is coming! I haven't met with one since I came here and back in Vlona I always had one at a snap of my finger.
"Yes. Viola told me you asked her to call for one." I stopped. My hands fell on my sides. I did asked her that on my second day here but I already forgot about it since it took long to come.
"But..." I flinched, remembering why I was standing on the hallway outside of our room wearing only a nightgown and a pair of slippers. "I can't right now. I have to go talk to Leon."
"Master Leon?"
Yes, Jane, yes! Who else is named Leon in this castle?, was what I wanted to tell her.
"I have to talk to him before he leaves again. How do I look? Do I look okay?" I was almost out of breath. When I didn't hear an answer from Jane, my eyes darted to Marie. "Well?"
"Y-you look beautiful as always, my lady."
"Thanks, Marie." After flashing a small smile at Marie, I excused myself and darted past the three ladies. I was already at the door, my hand on the handle when I heard the head housekeeper said,
"Master Leon has cleared his scheduled for today and is expecting you to have breakfast with him. Didn't he told you?"
-----
If only Jane told me sooner instead of talking about the seamstress and about Leon's plan of staying in the castle, I wouldn't have stressed myself and went on with my morning with a bit more grace... a bit more dignity.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"Pre-wedding butterflies," I shrugged my shoulders, flashed a faint smile and stabbed a few pieces of greens from my salad plate.
"I see." There was an awkward silence between us and I tried so hard--so very hard--to continue the conversation but the things that happened between us and how I mentally betrayed him by thinking and comparing him to another man whilst he kissed and whispered onto my skin as I was straddling him flashed in my mind like a lightning bolt hitting the same tree again and again--and yes, the damn tree is me. Burned to the crisp. Every time I remember it, I just want to turn into ashes and blown by the wind to who knows where as long as it's far from here.
"How..."
"How..." We said in unison and someone behind us giggled, and another hushed the one who did.
I wanted to glance at who that was because I've been here for days but the only giggling that I've heard so far are my maid's and Jane.
Come to think of it, the moment I came down, the servants have been smiling extra wide at me, giving me teasing looks. Even Viola and Marie were extra attentive to my make up and my hair. Jane's the same as always, but I bet she's never fazed of anything since she knows everything that's happening here.
"You go first," I said, pointing the fork at him.
"It's not polite to point your eating utensils at someone."
'Oh heavens, where are my manners?' was what I wanted to say followed by some eye rolls, but an argument about something as trivial as using a fork to point at someone was the least of the things I want right now.
"I'll take a mental note of that. Thank you for pointing it out, Leon." I placed the fork where it formerly was leaned back, both hands over the other on my thigh.
"So, what was it that you wanted to tell me?"
My husband-to-be shifted on his seat before he cleared his throat and sat straight. Simply looking the other way, he cleared his throat the second time and said in almost a whisper, "Did you sleep well?"
I almost gagged and spat out my food. Is he serious right now? Did i just hear him asked me if I slept well after that turmoil he placed me into?
"How about you, did you sleep well?" I made it a point to look at him, but he averted my eyes and only kept on stabbing meats and other things on the table, completely ignoring me. When I had enough of his little acts, I abruptly stood up and grabbed his hand from across the table. "I asked you something, my dear husband-to-be." I said, smilling between gritted teeth, but I stopped and my fingers just opened themselves up to release him.
He's smiling.
Not a smile-smile with upturned lips, or teeth showing. A subtle smile: curling of the corner of his lips and his eyes mellowed, shifting here and there, trying to avoid mine. I swallowed some air and slowly sat down.
He's got to be kidding me, I told myself.
"I wasn't able to." He simply said and I couldn't accept that answer alone so I asked why, to which he replied, "The sheets felt a little uncomfortable." I stared long and hard at him.
'The sheets or the fabric of your pants?' was what I wanted to ask, but I was too dumbfounded. If the positions were reversed, and he did to me what I did to him last night, I won't be even sitting here in front of him eating, let alone blushing like a boy going through puberty.
Is he right in the head?
"How about you?" He repeated the question.
"Same…" I answered in almost a whisper because what else should I say?
"I heard that the seamstress arrived?" I nodded in response. "I'd like to see you get fitted for your wedding dress." I nodded the second time. I was cutting myself a piece of vegetable when he told me that. "I can come with, right?" I nodded the third time, bringing a small cut of vegetable in my mouth. It was only after I swallowed the said vegetable that my brain was able to pick up the pace from where it stopped working earlier and internalize what had just been said.
"You're coming for what?" my head tilted in confusion.
"For your fitting. With the seamstress."