Love your Enemy (Ruby Rose fanfic)

SEVENTEEN (Iselen POV)

Innis,

I can feel my heart racing in my throat, I can't believe how close the pastor was to catch us kissing... What do you think he was doing in the middle of the forest all alone? Old pastor Kirk never left the village except to visit some farmers... I don't trust this newcomer... I think he's watching us. I don't understand why he suspects us, we're friends and neighbours after all, two girls who have grown together thanks to our parents' friendship, everybody is used to see us playing, walking around and buying ribbons in the market.

No one has noticed anything weird till now after two years of clandestine meetings in the forest... Maybe it's because of the way I looked at you last Saturday while our mothers talked to the dressmaker who came from the capital, or maybe the way you blushed when I talked to you, or maybe the way I smiled when your hand touched mine behind our skirts...

My love, I'm scared. I don't like pastor Edward and his sermons about sin and guilt and I think our letters have become dangerous. Your idea of writing them in English was brilliant since our servants and most of our relatives only speak Gaelic, but this new man could read them...

My father has told me he has to visit yours to talk about business tomorrow and I can go with him, we'll meet in the garden later and will plan a safer way to communicate. We must be very careful from now on.

I love you,

Lyall.

"Oh my God... Oh my God... Oh my God..." I jump from the couch and look around with my mouth wide open, the map room doesn't look like the office of a crazy savant anymore and documents and books are carefully placed in shelves, but I don't care about it right now. I'm freaking out! They were two girls! All those love letters full of hot passages describing intimate moments were written by a woman... Wait a minute, is Lyall a name for girls in Scotland? "Oh my God... What a mess they were into, poor girls... I bet it was complicated to be gay in the 17th century..." I mumble pensively.

Actually, I don't know, it was easier for women to hide their sexuality for what I've read, disguising it as friendship and living together as spinsters... But young girls of a good family used to get married... or they were sent to a convent, although that wouldn't be an option after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. I flop down on the couch again while the euphoria over my findings gives way to sadness, picturing Lyall hugging a pretty and blonde Innis, smiling happily, living in a country house far away from their families but together and in love till becoming two adorable old ladies... A single tear runs down my cheek while I put the letter back on the pile with the others: I know that never happened because Innis' tombstone in the cemetery tells other story...

"Damn it, this is so unfair..." I growl wiping my tears away and rubbing my face with my hands. I'm tired, I got up pretty early to train, to go to a tenant's farm with my administrator and later, I came here thinking that I could find the name of the count of Falkland who signed the document to buy the right of way through the Royal Road in 1577. Lyall's letters were on a table and the truth is that I felt attracted to them as if they were a magnet, despite they're so intimate I can't help reading them, fascinated by their love story. My Scottish Romeo and Juliet ended up being two Juliets which makes the letters even more valuable to me. "A Murray falling in love for a Lindsay..." I whisper touching the faded ribbon that ties them together. "I wish history could repeat itself."

I shake my head and decide not to dig deeper into that thought. Ruby Rose Murray is a complicated woman, free and independent, and dreaming of a long relationship with her will only lead to more suffering so I'd better live in the moment and enjoy her company while she allows me to do so. At least now I have a good excuse to visit her house again: I want to take another look at the family portraits and try to find out which one is Lyall, the girl holding a lute or the one who had a little bird. I grimace while leaning back on the couch, I admit my curiosity is kind of morbid but I can't help it... The moment we solve this problem with Williamson, I'll tell Ruby about the letters and ask her to search her archives too, let's see if we both manage to find out what happened to these poor girls. One thing is obvious, this happened before the "incident" that broke the friendship of our families up, otherwise these girls wouldn't have been able to grow up so close.