Scarlet Rose

Chapter 40

29th of June 1925 (Monday)

Monday morning. Two days passed since.

Two days that could have very well be spent in a far off land. Somewhere where everything was covered by floating veils of fog. Where she could see no landscape but just lines and forms. Where the people who went by were more like shadows, and she could hear their words as if they existed already in the ether. Because she just heard them without seeing any lips moving. But she couldn't really catch everything. Only words here and there. It made brows raised, she could see their baffled stares. So she made up the rest. The missed words. Trying to disguise her awkward predicament.

She had landed herself in dreamland.

Where only a few things dominated. In her case, it was the silver moonlight she saw last inside his eyes before he... She had lost count how many times she had touched her lips over those two days. Part of her had stayed on the front steps of her house and the rest of her continued as normal. Whatever normal was under those circumstances.

She hadn't seen him since. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. However that wasn't completely true as the invitation for the Hamlet premiere found her when she had entered her house upon her return on Sunday evening from the hospital. Who ever brought it, had thrown it through the letter box and it lay there on the floor. It stared back to her, that cream coloured envelope with her name in calligraphy at the front.

For Miss Rose C. White

It was handwritten, by him? Perhaps. Most likely. Given that the initial of her real name was included. The kiss belonged to Candy, not Rose. He was making it clear for her to see. For the time he was there, all the while what he was trying to do was to pull her, Candy, out from the past, and into the presence. Not to have her substitute, Rose, but her. It bothered her a little if she gave it more thought. She had come to love her life in London, Christian had made her love herself as Rose. She was unsure whether she wanted to give space to Candy in her life.

She had tried her damnest to keep herself occupied for those two days. And her affection towards Christian grew ten fold. She used her feelings she had for him to hold herself afloat in a sea of guilt and contradiction.

He hadn't complained for the extended time she spent with him - especially when Archie came to see him, out of courtesy. Nor had he minded her fussing, her doe eyes and her lovey-dovey ways. It had been a nice distraction for him too and he loved having her around. The worry whether MacDonald's men would show up was getting further away, though he had been itching to leave that hospital room.

The only cloud had been a slight persistent fever he had raised on Sunday evening. It could be due to having practically all London's art world parade from his room during the day. So much so, the head of the hospital had to put his foot down and actually remind everyone that this was a hospital.

For precaution, Dr. Hart decided to keep Christian one more day and discharge him on Tuesday, should the fever recede on Monday, today that is. Christian hadn't liked the news. It had almost felt like punishment given the tone on the doctor's voice when he told him that perhaps he should have taken it easy rather than having his room full of people laughing and chattering as if they were at any old pub.

Rose had agreed with Dr. Hart, although she had been grateful too for all the distraction she got. The fever she worried about, but till she had left him late on Sunday evening once patient visitation hours were over, it hadn't increased, so she too was putting tiredness more than anything else as the cause. Having been left the two of them at last in the room, her goodnight kiss had been extra fervent and had sparked desire inside Christian's eyes.