The Dying Rose (Completed)

Chapter 33: Reason to Hope

A week passed like slugs crawling across dry soil in the heat of summer.

Needless to say, it was painfully slow, even with the delirium I lived in as my body fought the fever and infection that had left me so sick I could barely walk.

I was still holding out the slightest sliver of hope that Galien was coming for me. Staying out of sight made that horribly difficult. There was nothing I could do; I was afraid that if I revealed to my father I was alive, and so badly injured, the shock could hurt him. I was continually stuck in the barn, unable to venture out, and with very little company. It meant I had to rest, and recover, but it also meant I was trapped in my thoughts, waiting. Petronille would sneak to see me in between her chores. Lucas kept bringing me letters from Rixenda, letters that I read over and over, clinging to their advice to wait. She told me how the King had come into the village, and taken his daughter, and his court, to a castle, because he had also brought a young man with him. This young man was King Galien, restored to his throne after a long illness. She thought it was curious, and she wanted to know what had happened.

I was just glad they had come up with a quick cover story.

I began to grow restless, pacing back and forth across the cramped, contained space of the barn. The smell of the fresh hay and rotting manure had become far too familiar for my taste. Having spent a week trapped there, drifting in and out of consciousness, my thoughts were slowly gnawing away at me by now. No matter how many times a day updates came from both Lucas and Petronille, I still worried over my father and Rixenda. Galien never ceased crossing my mind, either. Why hadn't he come for me? He should have been here by now. Had something bad happened? Was he hurting still, from the transformation? Were there complications, because of my lack of social status? Had he changed his mind?

An hour before sunset, Petronille snuck a plate of food out to me for dinner. She curled up in the straw beside me, her knees pulled to her chest. Petronille hadn't had much time to sit and talk to me, for while she was gone with me her chores had piled up, both here, and in helping Oriabelle. When I finished eating, she laid her head over on my shoulder. Her flame colored hair caught the last brilliance of the sunlight, and I leaned my cheek against the top of her head.

"Ara?" she whispered.

"Hmmm?"

"What exactly... Did – did it work?" she asked, quietly, stammering.

"Yes," I breathed out.

"Then, then, why- where- what is going on?"

I gave a short, caustic laugh as I sat up, and looked at her. "That, my dear Petronille is a very good question. He said he would come for me."

"Well, if he said he will, then I'm sure he will. After all, you broke the curse, so not only does he love you, and you him, but he owes you... everything."

"Petronille, please, don't say it like that. You can't understand yet, because you haven't been in love, yet, have you?" I asked.

She shook her head no.

"I didn't think so. If you had, you'd understand that when you love someone, you don't want to owe them anything, and you don't want them to owe you. If you owe each other, then you can never be sure of what it is you have," I explained.

She sat silently for a minute, before she nodded a little. "I understand, I think. From what all you've told me, and Rixie, because we of course talked about it, he does love you. Don't worry, he'll come," she whispered, as she laid her head back on my shoulder. "How do you feel?"

I pushed her back upright, and began to unbraid her twisted spirals of hair. "A bit better. Nowhere near as weak." As I brushed my fingers through her hair, making sure to carefully twist the hair out, so that the curls didn't knot, we watched the sun slowly fade into the horizon. It was relaxing, and something that I had done so many times in the past that it felt natural, like part of a life I had forgotten.