The Lady Knight

Chapter XXXV: Truths and Tears

The Lady Knight

Tess jumped, startled, as did I, to find a familiar, towering dark-haired man standing on the threshold. His expression was veiled, neutral, but his jaws were tightly set.

"Nick?" my forehead creased in concern at his solemn, and rather frightening demeanour.

The dark cloud of negativity that hung around him was rather disconcerting.

Tess glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. "Your Royal Highness," she curtsied, "please excuse me." With that, she glided out of my chamber with all speed, slamming the door shut behind her.

For a long while, he merely stood by the door, looking rather pale. His dark, grey eyes continued to observe me, as he remained utterly motionless with his masked expression.

Truth be told, he was starting to worry me. "Nick?"

He snapped out of his thoughts, startled, but he still seemed strangely shifty. "How...how are you now? You are - you are not cold anymore?" he cleared his throat, averting his gaze from me when he noticed me staring.

I smiled uncertainly, unable to decipher his emotions. "I am well, and I am not cold anymore, thank you."

He still refused to look up at me. "G-Good. I am - I am glad to hear that," he cleared his throat again, "I shall be off now - "

Before he could finish that, I had stridden towards him, and gently turned his face towards me by the chin. It was then that I discovered the battle in his eyes - the battle between his control and his tormented anxiety.

Tormented anxiety for me.

Something inside of me painfully lurched at that. "I am all right. Perfectly fine," I murmured again, cradling his face in my hands, as his grey eyes gazed into mine with a rare vulnerability.

He clutched my hands on his face with his, the last of his masks disintegrating. "God, woman, are you out of your mind?" he whispered, haunted, "why the hell did you come skating with us?"

I bit my lip, guilty. If he only knew of my insecurities that plagued me to the point of bewilderment.

"It was not one of my best decisions, I admit," I conceded.

"Why?" he demanded.

I decided to go with the easier reason. "My friends believed it was high time I faced my fears, and I agreed with them," I admitted sheepishly, "of all the times the ice could have cracked, it had to be the one time I decided to skate again." I released a hollow chuckle.

Before he could say anything further, I gently led him by the hand to a chair in front of the fire place and sat him down, before taking a seat beside him. He took deep breaths, the nightmare earlier still fresh within his eyes.

"Nick," I addressed him quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder, "it was an accident. Everything is all right now."

The word felt like poison in my mouth, after Tess's confession earlier.

He nodded, and hesitated for a brief moment, before he plunging on. "Julie, has this happened before? Is that why you are afraid of the ice?"

I truly went cold at that. For a long while, I could only stare at him, opening and closing my mouth like a dying fish.

"How do you know?" even that whisper felt painful, "do - do you remember what happened?"

He shook his head. "I merely guessed."

"Well, you guessed correctly, then," I stared into the flames, "I am afraid of the cold because this is the second time I fell into the ice. While Kat managed to survive against all odds this time round, the woman who fell in with me that day....was not so fortunate." My fists unconsciously clenched on my lap.