Elinora the Great

12.

AN The conclusion to the story...wherein our Sleeping Beauty finally awakes...

I slept for four days, the few moments conscious lost in an abyss of memory. Later, I would be told that it was the Queen who stayed by my side, nursing me back to health.

When Oslo found me 'fully alive' he accused me of feigning sickness to get Elinora's attention, and teased me quite successfully on the fact that Elinora and I had now 'shared a bed.'

I refused to speak to him after that.

I remained bedridden for another ten days, all in which Elinora had brought her work to my suite and ensured that my wellbeing was catered for. At my request, she would lay beside me at night and we would tell each other stories from our childhood. When I woke in the mornings, Elinora would have already left for Court, and those few hours we spent apart felt...empty without her steady presence beside me.

One morning, I awoke before the dawn, and felt Elinora gazing down at me, midnight hair out of the tight updo that she always kept it in, with a searching look on her face.

I immediately felt my cheeks heat and swallowed to allow my dry throat to speak. "Do I have something on my face?"

A small frown, one that I'd come to attribute as her thinking face from hours of watching her work. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Shield me from the arrow?"

Tell her. This is your chance. Perhaps your only chance.

But what if she doesn't return my feelings?

And then a quote from one of my favourite novelists rang through my mind. Love is all a gamble. And for the first time, you may win by losing.

I sighed, in equal parts anticipation and exasperation. "Really, for someone so smart, you can be very blind."

I soldiered on before I lost my courage.

"I love you, Elinora Deveraux. 'Tis as simple as that."

She froze.

I took advantage of her silence and stumbled on. "I have been in love with you since I first saw you-nay, that would be incorrect. I have felt drawn towards you since our first meeting. And it is in these months that we have spent together that I know for certain that I am absolutely, irrevocably in love with you."

Emotions warred on that inhumanly beautiful face. I caught a flash of horror, before I was shut out and the Queen rose in full force. Elinora scrambled away from me, rising out of the bed.

"You cannot be in love with me. You do not know me. Know the things I have done."

Stumbling, I followed behind her, grasping her elbow before she could escape. "I know more than you give me credit for. I know that you have no favourite colour as you find beauty in all things. I know that sparrows are you favourite bird. Just like the way I know that the ghosts from your youth are what causes you to push everyone away. That for some reason, you believe that no one will love you. Because that's incorrect, as I do."

Elinora's entire posture went as rigid as marble. Silence filled the room, interrupted only by the ticking of a grandfather clock. When she finally turned to face me, confusion, fear and a dim but present sparkle of hope entered her expression. And that gentleness. I recognised it now. Oslo, after all, had been right.

"Oh, Henry. I love you too."

I do not know who moved first, her or me. All I knew was that one second we were more than three feet apart, and the next, Elinora was in my arms, and our lips were connected. It was a hard thing, as if we were catching up on all the lost time, filled with a desperation that came from nearly losing each other, with a familiarity, as if we'd been doing this for our whole lives.

Perfect. Oblivion. 

AN    A massive, massive thank you to all of you for following Elinora, Henry and I (jeez, I feel like I am third-wheeling just typing this) through this turbulent journey. This is the first novella(esque) story I have completed, and sharing this with you has been wonderful. And who knows? Maybe the ever-so-mysterious Elinora and her ever-so-loving husband will make an appearance here and there again ;-)

With love, Eiles