The King's Artist

Ch 46: To Sacrifice

Jasper's hand froze as he was about to take another sip of tea. He looked up at Adelaide and with a surprised but grateful expression, set his cup down. As Adelaide's eyes weld up with tears, Jasper felt his throat tighten and his own sight blur. He coughed to try and swallow the uprising of emotion, but a warmth and sadness had enveloped his chest and wouldn't dissipate.

"You're the closest thing I have to a father," Adelaide practically sobbed, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. "I may end up losing Henry in the future," she contined wiping her face excessively. "But I don't want to lose you too. I don't want to throw away our relationship just so I can go and live another life feeling like I'm pretending to be someone I'm not."

Adelaide's hiccups filled the room and unable to contain himself any longer, Jasper rose to his feet and crossed the distance between them in seconds. He enveloped her into a hug that threatened to consume her, shielded her entirely from everything around them. The embrace was tight and only inches away from being strangling, but Adelaide didn't push him away or complain. She simply wrapped her arms around him, squeezed, and cried into his shoulder, sobbing for what felt like a number of reasons.

Neither were entirely certain how long they held one another or when exactly Adelaide finished crying, but the remained in each other's for several moments afterwards, simply enjoying one another's warmth.

Unbeknownst to either of them, though, were the presences of Henry and Kayden just outside the door. Neither had intended to easedrop, but both had been looking for Adelaide when they had stumbeled onto Jasper's study. Now neither felt like they could face her and couldn't move that extra step to open the doors.

"You told Adelaide she had no future with me?" Kayden was caught offguard by Henry's sudden question. He turned to the other man unsure of how to respond. There was a hardness in Henry's face that was foreign and cold, and despite being taller and stronger and older than him, Kayden involuntary shivered.

"I merely told her the truth," Kayden retorted, a surpringly bite of anger lacing his tone. Henry's eyes widened at the reaction, before his gaze narrowed again.

"The matters of my relationship with Adelaide is none of your concern, Kayden. I would appreciate it if in the future you left yourself out of our personal affairs." Henry turned to leave. Kayden's irritation flared and his body instinctively moved. He lunged a hand out and gripped Henry firmly on the shoulder, spinning back to face him.

"You should've have given her false hope," Kayden barked in a constrained whisper. "You never should have encouraged her feelings or said that you felt the same way. You should have lied to her, pretended you didn't notice anything."

Henry's teeth gritted as he threw off Kayden's hand.

"Don't you think I would have done that if I could?" Henry spat back. "Do you think I enjoy knowing that I can't be with her? That I'm happy about having to marry someone else because of political reasons? If I could be with her, Kayden, I would, in a heartbeat. But I can't do that because my life isn't my own. It hasn't been for a long time."

"Then you should have told her to pick being Adelaide. Encouraged her to live as a girl. She would have listened to you, Henry." Kayden's breathing was hard as he forced the next words out. "Just because she can't be happy in the future with you doesn't mean that she couldn't have found happiness with someone else."

Henry's expression went mute.

"You mean someone like you?" He growled. Startled, Kayden took a step back. "You think I haven't noticed, Kayden, how you look at Adelaide? How you act around her?"

Kayden was unsure how to respond. His face had gone pale as his emotions receded and his temper died down, and the reality of what he had said and done began to sink in.

"You asked me why I encouraged her feelings, Kayden, why I developed a relationship with Adelaide while knowing that there wasn't a future for us," reiterated Henry, a sadness seeping into his voice. "It's because I knew we didn't have a future. That regardless of what I tried to say or do, I would have to let her go. That I would have break her heart.

"You think I don't already know how selfish I've been Kayden?" Henry exclaimed, slapping a hand over his chest. "I want to be with her, for however long I can be, no matter the cost to either her or I. And I feel terrible about that! But for just a little while loner, I want to enjoy hearing her laugh. I want to watch her smile and paint just one more day. I want to memorize every line of her face and be able to recall every moment that I've held her hand or kissed her lips. Even if it ends up destroying both of us, I'll know that I loved her with everything I had, and I'll be able to look back and know that for just a sliver of a second I was truly, authentically, entirely happy. This is the one thing, Kayden, that I am doing for myself. Not for the Lancasters or England or that god damn throne, but for me. I'm will to sacrifice anything else but the remaining time I have to love Adelaide."

Without another word, Henry stormed away leaving Kayden to stare down the dark hallway alone, lost in his own thoughts, engulfed by his emotions.

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Also, just wanted to share with you all that I've officially graduated from college! So expect more updates from me in the future! Love you all and thanks for the continued support