Delilah fidgeted her hands awkwardly as she followed him.
He put his hand on her lower back to guide her into an empty room.
Stepping a bit forward as to step away from his unwanted touch Delilah glared at him.
“Does she know?” She asks, scanning the beautiful, but now filthy empty bed chamber they were now in.
“Know what?” Simon asks as he leans against the castle wall beside him, suddenly feeling as if the weight of the world lay once again on his shoulders. Hoping the cold stone would cool his heating skin as he stared at the women who sat before him, drinking in her features as if he would never see her again. The sight of her felt like water to a parched man in the desert.
"Oh, about us you mean? About what happened in the mountains?"
He stumbled verbally, feeling like an idiot. As if he could forget such searing flames and shared passions.
"No. Not yet."
"Will you tell her?"
The woodswoman asked half fearfully, half hopefully.
"I honestly dont know."
He answered, hanging his head.
A brief silence passed between them before it was Simon's turn to ask a question.
"What are you doing in Aelford?"
Delilah rolled her eyes, as if annoyed with herself.
"I honestly dont know either."
She began.
"I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and my hands..."
She brought them up to stare at them.
"shook too much to cut down any more dammed trees. I was so worried for your safety Simon, worried about you lying broken and bleeding out on some battlefield somewhere..."
Her jaw clenched as she relieved that same fear. His chest tightened at the clear concern he read on her face.
"I had to come here. I couldn't seem to stop myself..." She trailed off. It was as best of an explanation as she could offer.
Unable to stop himself and the swirling conflicting emotions within, he quickly pulled her into his arms. Her fresh, woodsy scent enveloping him as he did, and his every ache and pain quickly faded from his body.
She struggled at first, but he didn't let her go.
"How I've missed you Delilah."
He began mumbling into her hair, repressed emotions bubbling to the surface and stinging his eyes.
"I'm so sorry I had to leave you. You deserve so much better."
In a moment, her own weakness won and she melted against him, her arms snaking under his shoulders to return the tight embrace.
"It is so unfair. While I am happy to see her again, you are such an incredible woman."
His words filled the hole in her heart and she felt warm again, ecstatic at his admittance, and ready to stand on her toes to kiss him.
"I hate that I must choose her over you."
Though he meant his words in earnest, and with no malice, they struck her harder than any fist could.
Repulsed she pulled back from him.
Nothing had changed. Despite his embrace, he was still choosing the queen over her.
Shaking her head, her dark brown hair falling into her eyes Delilah decides to ask another question. One that she already knew the answer too, but could not help but ask anyways.
Wanting nothing more than to touch her wild wisps of hair behind her ear Simon clenched his fists in frustration. Her midnight eyes glared at him to the point they almost seemed black.
Taking a deep breath and pulling her shoulders back despite the lump in her throat, Delilah stared into the eyes of the man that she loved without reservation. Even with his expensive royal clothes, and face slightly bruised, he was still her Simon regardless.
Only he truly was not only her Simon, and that was the problem.
This predicament was not one she expected herself to ever be in. She never yearned for marriage nor did she ever expect put herself in the position where she was weak before a man.
“Do you love her?”
She asks bluntly before she could lose the little strength she had left.
Her body still trembling from his touch.
“Yes.” Simon answers without missing a beat causing Delilah to intake a quick break.
Reaching out to grab Delilah's hands he continues,
“But I love you too. Don’t think that what we had meant nothing."
He growled in a clear frustration, hating himself and the entire predicament.
"I truly did intend on marrying you that day, you do understand that don’t you?” He continued.
Knowing she probably should pull away Delilah couldn’t find it within herself to do so. Instead she grasped Simon's hand as if her life depended on it, and in a sense it did. They could not go on like this, she could not go on like this. He had made his choice. She knew the next time she saw him things would be different. If there was a next time. There wasn’t supposed to even be a this time.
Delilah never quite believed in fate, but if something such as that did exist; it was cruel beyond belief.
Finally pulling away from Simon’s warm rough grasp and finding interest in the floor Delilah responds.
“I know that I was your choice when you thought she was gone. I understand that you do have a love for me.” Looking up she looks towards the man who broke her heart, Delilah gives him a weak smile as she continues.
"And as much as it pains me, I understand your circumstances."
Not quite knowing how to respond Simon instead speaks the first thing that came to his mind.
“Her brother is gone and she has no one. She loves me, and has promised me her hand when I asked of it before all this. What type of man am I if I am not one of my word? She and I loved each other long before this war complicated things. I have a duty to her.”
He was a good man, an honorable one, even when breaking her heart.
"You dont need to explain any further." She held up a hand.
"I said I understand."
Delilah wished to be anywhere but in Aelford at the moment.
She allowed her comment to have some time to settle within his head before she curtsied.
“I wish you the best My Lord” were her parting words as she made her way towards the door.
____________________
A/N: Happy Thursday guys.
Wish I could say my situation is improving, but alas, it is not.
Still no word on my unemployment, or when my job will open back up again.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Please dont forget to vote.
-QueenOfGeeks
YOU ARE READING
A Thorn In The Ice
Historical Fiction"I fully expected you to say that I was the sort of Prince whose story would involve going into cahoots with the dragon, rather than slaying it." Iolas smiled, but their was a level of seriousness to his statement. "That is where you are wrong, de...
