Twilight Embrace (Completed)

Chapter 5

As the sun dipped behind the clouds, making way for the moon and the stars to take their turn in the night sky, she slowly stirred from a restless sleep.  In a couple of months it would be her 18th birthday and the gift she had longed for would soon be hers.  Her family ring, with the crest of her clan in gold, embossed on a band of glass. A gift she had longed to possess the moment she had learnt of its history and what it would mean to her life hereafter.

She marked off another night on her bedside calendar, threw back the covers, stretched out her limbs like a cat waking from its nap. Sitting on the side of the bed, she surveyed her comfortable room in the shadows of the moonlight. Unlike the rest of the family she had requested an old wooden four poster bed with a canopy of lilac silk. Her curtains were a deep purple velvet fabric that fell from ceiling to floor, covering not only the two very large windows but the wall in between.  A thick pile carpet in darkest ivory stretched from wall to wall. Her old wooden dressing table matched the four poster bed, large and heavily carved with a full length mirror in between the drawers.  This was her home, a comfortable safe haven, a castle filled with her family.

But she would swap it in a heartbeat for a life with him………

 ~~~

The evening sunset had been one of the most magnificent he had seen in a long time, or was he just looking through different eyes.  He felt strangely rested, relaxed, a feeling he could not quite comprehend.  He left the French doors wide open and a heavenly perfume drifted in on the evening breeze.  Unthinkingly he walked towards the window where the yellow rose stood in the crystal vase. He lifted it out of the vase and smelt it, breathing in its scent deeply. He felt a slight tingle on the end of his nose as the petals touched his skin.  Suddenly he realized the perfume he smelt in the evening breeze was the very same as that of his special yellow rose.  He put the rose back into the vase and walked outside onto the patio.

Breathing deeply he could almost taste the smell, it was so strong tonight.  He knew there weren’t any roses on this side of the lake. Well, none that he had seen, and decided that tomorrow he would go across the lake to the other side, and see if he could find the roses he could smell so distinctly at night. And possibly, just possibly, he might bump into her.  Maybe the rose came from her garden and she lived across the lake. With these thoughts running through his head he went upstairs for a shower, after which he opened up his computer and caught up with his emails.

After a couple of hours he came down stairs and settled himself down on his huge comfortable armchair and with his back to the open French doors and switched on the television to watch a film he had recorded.  Every time the wind blew in through the open doors the scent of the roses drifted in, teasing his senses.  He realized he was not concentrating on what he was watching and should probably go up to bed, but could not bring himself to move.  He snuggled even deeper into the soft fabric of the chair and dozed.

~~~

The sun’s rays set behind the mountains and the moon and stars glided into view. She drew back the curtains and opened her window to let in the night air to cool her room, breathing in the scent of every tree, flower and creature scurrying through the grass. The smell that caught her attention was that of the roses.  She had transplanted one of the wild rose bushes under her bedroom window and it had survived the ordeal. Its scent was as heavenly as the wild roses that grew on her side of the lake, in the shadows of the mountain.

Having fed before she went to sleep she was not hungry, so she slipped out of her bedroom window and headed off into the night towards the lake. Stopping at the roses, she picked a full blown rose and carried it down to the water’s edge, scattering the rose petals into the water. Dropping her sarong at the water’s edge she slipped into the water and glided effortlessly towards the rocky outcrop.

Climbing up onto the rocks she could see the cottage and that the doors were open.  Without another thought she slipped back into the water and swam across to his side of the lake.  Just as quietly as she had slipped into the water she stepped out at the other side and her footsteps carried her noiselessly across the path to the patio of his cottage.

She stood silently on the first step and in the still darkness of the night she listened, hearing only his gentle breathing against the hum of voices on the TV. She knew he was sleeping deeply and tiptoed across the patio, her footsteps as light and soundless as a kitten’s on a carpet.  She stopped just outside the French doors and listened, her ears tuned for the slightest movement or change in his breathing rhythm. She stood for what seemed an eternity, outside the doors, unable to enter.

Suddenly she heard him move, and she turned and disappeared back into the safety of the dark shadows.

He coughed, yawned, stretched and slowly woke up.  Looking around, he was not sure how long he had been asleep, or exactly when he had fallen asleep.  But he realized that it was now extremely hot and humid and there was no breeze coming in through the open doors.

He went and stood by the doors. Stepping out, he felt something wet under his foot.  Not being able to see properly in the dark, he bent down and felt it with his hand. Yes, it definitely was a wet patch. He frowned.  Had it rained while he was asleep? But if it had, the rain never came this far onto the patio.  If it was a leak of some sort it would still be there in the morning, so he would check it out when he woke up.

Closing the doors, he went through to the kitchen to get a cold drink and turned on the air conditioners.  He climbed the stairs two at a time and walking into his room, closed the windows, threw off his clothes and collapsed onto his bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

He seemed to be drifting on a sea of petals, yellow rose petals, the smell so friendly and familiar.  The petals fell constantly around him, from where he knew not. Occasionally a petal would touch his lips as soft as an angel’s kiss. And so he drifted in his dreams with feelings of such warmth and tenderness.