The Spells of Paradise

Chapter 23: A Family Name

A knock sounded from the door and he looked up to see his mother standing there, the look of disapproval painted on her face.

"Your father is dying," she whispered, slowly walking in, "and you are going to miss his last moments on this earth to chase the skirts of a woman who left you here without a second thought?"

James sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, mother, but I have to go see her. I need to... Apologize."

"So send her a note!" His mother slapped a hand down on his desk. "Write to her, like a normal man! Do not chase her like a besotted fool. You are better than that, James! Your father and I raised you better than that!"

"A normal man would go after the woman he loves to apologize!" James shouted, standing to his feet. "That is what I am going to do, and you cannot stop me."

She scoffed and shook her head. "Where did I go wrong with you? Ever since Lucy returned, you've been acting as if the person you were before her arrival never existed. The James that I raised would not abandon family for a woman."

"Lucy is going to be my family," James replied. "I am going to propose to her, we are going to marry, and she will be family. I will be back here before father passes, everyone wins!"

"No," his mother shook his head, "because if you go after Lucy, and come back with her as your wife, I will never speak to you again, I will never look at you again, and I will never acknowledge you as my son. I doesn't matter if you return before your father dies. If you do this, you are dead to me."

With that, she turned and stormed out, leaving James standing there, stricken and rendered entirely speechless.

XXX

Belmoran Island

Lucy found herself in the same position again, dressing for dinner and making herself presentable. It was the same, dry routine she had observed the day before. The cycle here was forming anew, something that happened every time someone found themselves in a new situation. In Lanfore, when she was a child, she had a cycle. Then in London, when she was older, she had another. Here, now, in Belmoran, she was starting a new one, and that terrified her slightly. What if she performed the same routine over and over again day after day here, in this strange place, where she seemed to have more enemies than friends, until it became so terrifyingly familiar that she would never truly leave?

All these thoughts from the simplest of gestures. Lucy wondered if that was what her life had come to. So much anxiety, so much noise... So many threats and complications. She didn't know if she was capable of telling anyone the truth anymore, especially now that it had become a bargaining chip. Mrs. Beauchamp had found the one thing Lucy knew deep in her heart that she was willing to sacrifice the truth for: Ross.

Once again, Lucy wondered what it meant. What did it mean that she was on the cusp of coming forward with the truth just to see Ross again? Did it mean that her feelings for him exceeded further than what she had suspected, or felt before?

A dear friend, that was hilarious. Lucy knew she had felt the same for James, a man she had known since childhood. But her character wouldn't allow her to fall in love with the familiar, the safe. James was who he was, and he loved her, but was that her problem? He certainly made it so, and that was hardly her fault. Ross, on the other hand, made it just as clear how he felt, that he viewed her as more than a friend, but the difference went beyond the lack of familiarity. He made it clear as well that it was not her problem how he felt, unless she herself felt the same. For that, Lucy knew she couldn't stand to be denied his presence by omitting something as trivial as the truth from their friendship.