Rose and the Thorn (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 44

Chapter 44
Patrick
I peered over Rose's face, taking in the sight. She really was something of beauty. Like she was a descendant from a goddess. She would be the goddess of beauty. I sighed feeling the need to capture the sight. So that I would remember this day forever. The sight forever.
I quietly climbed out of bed and pulled on my sweat pants. I took a piece of paper and pen from my desk and crouched down on Rose's side of the bed. I outlined the shape of her face, stretching her jawline. I curved the lines of her hair that fell in her face and her soft features. Nose, cheekbones and chin. Shading her shadow, I started her eyes. Her eyes would be my salient feature, making sure that people knew that behind the closed lids was the centre of beauty. Drawing her lips I had never given me so much pride that I knew how they felt, worked and kissed.
She groaned as I started her neck.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Shh, I'm almost done," I told her shading her soft features.
"I hope you got my good side."
"All sides are your good side."
She smiled at my compliant. I signed my name, pleased with my work.
"Okay finished," she sat up holding the blanket close to her body as she took the paper. Her eyes grew wide and her month dropped.
"Patrick, this is an amazing."
I shrugged blushing, "I wanted to make your eyes the salient image."
Rose gave me a blank look.
"Main focus."
Her face made an O, "I'm keeping this."
"It's yours."
"It's amazing, you're amazing."
I leaned up to kiss her. Cupping her hands over my cheeks, she looked into my eyes.
"How did I ever get so lucky?" she asked.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Could it be payment, for all the crap life has given us?" she asked.
"I've learnt that life doesn't work like that."

Chapter 46
Patrick
I sat in my office reading the last journal. His writing had become more hurried which meant he was nervous or stressed. Why was he so nervous?

I'm a fool. I'm a fool, I'm a fool. How could I be so reckless? Gambling is the devil's game and only a fool should play it. I am that fool.
How could I be so stupid? To gamble that much money, and loose it. We will be bankrupt in a month, do doubt about it. Patrick and the girls' money gone. The house and that history gone because of my stupidly.

I flipped a couple of papers

I'm losing my mind.

Page after page I read.

No way out

Can't be fixed

I'm a fool

Pages and pages I flicked through till one stopped my eye.

August 12th
I have found a solution. I have heard of a man that will lend me the money and has told me that I could pay him when I can. The dealt will be cleared.

I shook my head filling my heart pound. This couldn't be the end.
I flipped to a month before they died.

I am a fool. The man I borrowed money from wants it in a month. I can't even describe the threats he made. If I don't come up with the money, I'll have to sell the land to him. And then I will lose everything.

But he didn't sell any.
I flipped to the day he died.

It is now five o'clock and there has been no sign of them. I've ordered for all the doors to be shut and locked. Jenson has left me in my hour of need but I couldn't let him think that something was up. My decision not to sell will be decided in the next couple of hours. If it was good all bad.

That was his last entry.
My hands shook in anger as I realized what this meant. This was his fault. My sisters' blood is on his hands. He let me believe that for five years. Because of him, I've had to live through that horrible nightmare. The aloneness.
My hands held the side of the desk so hard that my knuckles went white. My jaw was tight and anger grew and grew. With as much force as possible, I flipped the table. The items flew everywhere as the crash was the only thing I could hear.
My mother's screams.
My sisters' cries.
The sight of my father's white body.
The taste of blood filled my mouth and I collapsed on the floor. Rose found me in a ball.
"It was his fault Rose," I cried shaking.
"Whose fault?"
I felt her soft hand on my cheek.
"Oh God Patrick, you're so hot."
"Their dead because of him. They all are. It was his fault."

Rose
I heard a knock on Patrick's door and turned to see Jenson in the doorway. He's been like this for hours. Mumbling it was his fault but was incapable of answering questions.
I sighed and left him. Jenson shut the door behind me as I stood with my fingers tapping my lips in the hallway. It broke my heart to see him like this.
"Has he improved?" Jenson asked.
I shook my head, "what could have sent him off?"
"I think he has just found out that his father caused that night."
I frowned, "how, his father died too?"
"Lord Gilbert had gambled away some money."
"How much?"
"Enough to send the estate bankrupt. He had borrowed money from a man and didn't read the fine print."
"And what, the guy sent hit men to kill his family, and him."
"Sadly there are people like that in this world."
"Do the police know this?" I asked.
Jenson shook his head.
"They should," I started for the stairs. Jenson took my arm stopping me.
"If I wanted the police to know I would have given the journal to them when I found out."
"What, why wasn't there an investigation on this five years ago?" I asked.
"There was, Patrick was the main suspect."
I frowned, "why hasn't Patrick told me this?"
"Because he was so depressed that he probably doesn't remember. I hired a councillor but Patrick barely noticed he was there. He was like the living dead that first year."
I felt pain all through my body as I thought of him like that. No wonder he kept the curtains closed. No wonder he never went into the village.
"Was the debt paid?" I asked,
"Yes, I had a lot of money saved and I payed it off."
I sighed feeling relieved. Patrick didn't need to relive that night.
"You will look after him," Jenson started heading for the stairs. My eyes grew wide.
"What? Jenson no you have to. You know how to," I said growing scared with the responsibility.
"I know I do, but it took me two years to get him just out of bed. You got him out of his room only over a month."