Unspoken Love

Chapter 3 - American Visitors

Elena: You've been awfully quite since yesterday, Lady Dimitrescu, is there anything you'd like to share with me to lessen your burden, perhaps?

The caring voice nudged Alcina from her deep thoughts. A cold shiver run up her spine. The emotions that she tried to keep in for a long time were now discomposing her from within, destroying her well-maintained inner peace.

Lady: It only gets worse from here...My heart feels heavy, Elena.

She held Elena's hand and pressed her forehead against it. Elena comforted her, knowing what she was going through. The countess was not a woman to show weakness so easily, but years and years of being silent and the pent-up of dreadful experiences was getting to her now. First, her betrothal to her beloved then an unexpected separation and finally her parents departure from the world and the piling up of responsibilities upon her. Her world had experienced a darkness that concealed the constellation of shining stars needed to guide her heart.

This feeling she had was not new to her...in this case, falling for a man who she had been quarrelling all her life, then coming to know he was wronged by her own father, none of it seemed to make sense to her, everything was contradictory to the laws of her own heart.

In her personal history, she had been betrothed to a nobleman in the past, he wanted to move out of Romania and start a new life in England, while Alcina's heart was not ready to leave her hometown which she dearly loved. They were in love with each other only the circumstances didn't allow for them to become one. The man was not ready to give up his wishes and ended up losing Alcina. He left the country to move to England, where he would go on to inherit his rightful property and handle family affairs as the only heir of the household. They never saw each other again after the fall out. Alcina was left heartbroken, her first love had abandoned her, so selfishly. She cursed him until she forgot about his very existence. It wasn't easy as the feeling intensified over the years then gradually suppressed under the layers of dutifulness.

She thought back to that time when she was utterly helpless and compared it with her present, of course it was nowhere to be the same noble man nor were her circumstances were as desperate as before. She was a mature woman now and her heart was in her control or so she thought--she could decide very well what she desired in life or not, in a quiet and commanding manner. She had mastered her emotional metabolism as time demanded for it.

Karl Heisenberg, was not only a completely different species of man but a rough one at that. He was not prim and proper as what a lady would prefer in her man; as a companion who she could take with her on her official visits or even to a fancy ball, meeting the royals of other houses. He was different and she admired him for that--Love? It was too early and unnatural for a woman to fall for a man who she seems impossible to love, at the very least based on her sixth sense. Men however tend to fall for a woman easily because of her beauty and good standing. Alcina epitomized all that and she knew if Karl had fallen for her, which she was sure of, then it must be for the same reason as any other man.

The American visitors had arrived later in the afternoon, her best friend's nieces; Bela, Cassandra and Daniela, all teenagers, more than excited to visit the castle, the three girls rushed through the castle door and embraced Alcina, she smiled and clasped them, returning the sweet gesture. The girls were enraptured to meet the countess of the castle and were completely captivated by Alcina's incomparable beauty and couldn't stop praising her. They were equally mesmerized by the castle's history and architecture.
A special lunch had been prepared for them, showcasing Romania's mouth- watering delicacies; Mamaliga with sarmala for the main course and kurtoskalacs for the dessert. Some modern items like greasy cheese burgers were also presented to make the guests feel right at home.
The whole bunch was eating and busy chatting away when all of a sudden, Karl walked in the dining room--quite unexpectedly. Everyone looked at him in shock and confusion, specially since the girls were unaware of his identity. Alcina particularly looked at him as she saw a ghost of some sort.