Heart's Content

Part Sixty-Three

{'The Lord of Burleigh' by Edmund Blair Leighton from Wikimedia Commons}

(Author's Note: This part is meager, I know. I realized that I needed to omit any sort of buffer between the last part and this one if I hoped to post anything because I was stumped and the primary reason for that is because I am planning on restructuring the story as it is now. A friend of mine who was reading was impatient with how long it took for Genevieve and Lisette to get together, and the majority of their time spent together is in the first half of the book, so I thought it would be a good idea to place some of the scenes in Seldoné as memories in this part of the book, things that Lisette or Genevieve remember as they struggle to move on. If you have any thoughts on this, please! I would be more than happy to hear them! I just don't want this story to be tedious to read, I want you all to enjoy what you are reading and feel what the characters are feeling, that is my primary goal. That's why I struggle sometimes with my writing because that is very important to me, to place the reader in the scene.)

There were only days left until the end of the month and though he had wanted to broach the topic of the renewal of their engagement many times during his visits with Lisette, he had been given few chances to do so. If Lisette wasn't busy tending to Adelaide's education and entertainment, her countenance alone told him that she would not speak of the topic which was forefront in his mind and that any attempt to do so would likely bring a close to their society until she felt that he had been efficiently thwarted in any future attempts at addressing something which she had no intention of considering further.

As she had become accustomed, Lisette once again escorted Adelaide to Bernadette's home. The little girl had become quite fond of the walk and even seemed to remember the path, though she was always careful not to walk too far ahead of Lisette and typically didn't release her hand though she was always in the lead. Visiting the Landry's was a common occurrence but it hadn't been something that had occurred on a day-to-day basis before Nathaniel's daily visits had begun. Lisette didn't like the idea of his constantly calling on her at the manor, especially after Lenora's return and after she had obtained Bernadette's permission, she thought it best to invite him to regularly attend her at the Landry's home on the hill.

Bernadette was not unaware of the relationship between Lisette and Nathaniel, Lisette had seen fit to expose Nathaniel for what she knew him to be, not so much to tarnish his name in the eyes of the elderly woman, but to keep her from being blinded by the facade that he was known to put forth. She needed an ally against him, not someone who would disbelieve anything she would say of his intentions, though she doubted Bernadette would believe Lisette to be false against someone who was a stranger to her and she was correct to doubt it because the moment Nathaniel decided to ask to speak with Lisette alone, Bernadette was hesitant to allow him the opportunity.

Lisette was of course hesitant as well because she knew exactly what it meant and it wasn't a conversation she had been eager to have, in fact she had hoped to avoid it all together and that Nathaniel would actually be true to his word for once and only have even said that they were engaged as a ruse and not as something he hoped to return to reality. She knew that her hope was too good to be true, but she had hoped it nonetheless and when Bernadette glanced at her hesitantly, with Kitke's hand in one of hers and Adelaide's in the other after they had spent a day playing in a nearby field and identifying and picking wildflowers, Lisette sighed inwardly, understanding that the conversation she had hoped not to have could no longer be hindered. She gave Bernadette a weak smile and a slight nod of her head to which Bernadette reluctantly nodded and led the children back to her small home.

The island's typically sweltering climate was temperate which made it much more comfortable to be out in the sun. The wind blew gently and carried with it the various exotic scents that always filled the island but the most prominent at the moment was that of the surrounding fields where Lisette and Nathaniel stood, the long grass and flowers growing up to their knees and the figures of Bernadette, Adelaide, and Kitke slowly fading in the distance. Lisette and Nathaniel stood uncomfortably in silence for several moments, the tautness in Lisette's chest growing tighter with each passing moment as she irritably awaited Nathaniel's first words, knowing that they would address the lie of their engagement whatever they may be.