CHAPTER TWO
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CENTURIES OF LOVE
╭┈──── ◌ೄ◌ྀ ˊˎ NIGHT FELL OVER THE VILLAGE and Audrey took a deep breath before stepping out into the darkness, closing the back door gently behind her. She had been glad when Elijah got drunk that evening, at any other point, she would not have enjoyed such a thing, but it meant that he was now passed out, and would be until sunrise. She took small steps at first, almost like one wrong move would gain someone’s attention, but after there was no call for her name, no banging open of a house door, she started to run. She ran free as if she were actually free.
The air hit her face like a whip, but she only laughed as she emerged into the back fields to the woods, the grass tickling at her legs. Daisies sprang up from the ground, their white and yellow shape so defined in the shadows, making the girl only stop to pluck one and stick it behind her ear, brushing her hair back slightly. She could hear the cheers and twinkles of musical instruments from inside the woods, just hiding behind the trees and bushes, the lanterns shining from deeper within.
The celebration was in full swing and Audrey smiled to herself. She had one night left of freedom and this was where it began. Getting quite drunk in a forest, surrounded by others who were quite as drunk as her, dancing and living life as she believed it should be lived. And so, she stepped forward once more, only to be stopped by a familiar, cocky voice.
“So naughty,” Constance called across the field, skirt behind her as she ran over, the infamous smile of superiority on her face. Audrey groaned, but not out of irritation at the other girl, out of irritation of herself. She had been the one to say it; her freedom came entwined with Constance. “I never expected to find you out here, Goode.”
“Good Lord…” Audrey muttered under her breath.
Constance smirked, putting a hand around her ear. “Sorry, what was that? Blasphemy?”
“Did you not hear me earlier, Constance?” Audrey sighed, turning to stare at her with one eyebrow raised. “I said, leave me be.”
“Oh, no… I heard you,” Constance nodded, starting to circle her in the field, hands behind her back to show herself off as some innocent girl. Audrey only frowned, knowing better. “Loud and clear. I just chose to not listen.”
“And why is that exactly?”
“Well, Audrey, to be quite frank,” the red-head dipped her head to her shoes, stopping in the grass in front of the other girl. “I miss hanging out with you.”
The blonde’s shoulders slumped under her cloak, eyes switching to the ground when Constance looked up to try and meet them. Audrey clenched her jaw, unable to say anything when she felt the exact same. “Constance, I–”
“Please, don’t say anything,” Constance stopped her, stepping closer. “I do not wish to hear that you don’t miss me, after all it was you who left… That’s not why I followed you.”
“You followed me?” Audrey raised her eyebrows in surprise, finally meeting the other girl’s eyes.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Constance groaned, rolling her head back along with her eyes. “I only wanted to see you again. Because, if I know you – and I do – you came out here for one last night of freedom, right?” Audrey stayed silent, biting down on the inside of her cheek. “But Goodwin Orwell seems like a nice name, I think.”
“You heard about that?” Audrey winced, not liking to think about it.
“I… did,” Constance nodded, an unperceivable expression on her face as she looked the blonde up and down. “Are you really going to get married?”
“Not by choice,” Audrey complained, crossing her own arms with frustration. “I do not have a say in this, Constance. I wish I didn’t have to go along with it, but Elijah…” She swallowed and stopped abruptly, Constance looked at her knowingly.
“I know, Audrey,” the red-head said, guilt in her voice. “I am sorry.”
“For what? It is not like you are forcing me into marriage.”
“Not for that,” Constance rolled her eyes lightly, taking one of Audrey’s hands in her own. “I am sorry for not helping you before. I could see you were in pain… the bruises…” She shook her head, and frowned. “I should have done something.”
“What could you have done?” Audrey questioned, not expecting this from the other girl. She looked down at her hand holding Constance’s, something fluttering in her stomach, catching her off guard. “It wasn’t– It wasn’t your fault. I became distant, I know that. I’m really just getting what I deser–”
“Don’t,” the red-head stopped her sternly, squeezing the blonde’s hand. “Don’t ever say that. You do not deserve any such thing. It wasn’t your fault either, and what I said earlier– It wasn’t fair. Not to you.”
“That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter,” Audrey reassured her. “Right now… I want to have one night away from it all. All of it.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Constance asked, the smirk back on her lips, Audrey’s stomach back to flipping and fluttering. “Is freedom not your only wish anymore?”
“Of course it is,” Audrey smiled back, cocking her head. “It’s all I wish for.”
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Audrey had managed to nick two berries from Lizzie, pocketing them before rushing back through the trees, back to where Constance had been waiting. To avoid Abigail catching her sister somewhere she had promised not to be, Audrey had chosen to go into the celebrations and now they laid back in the furthest corner of the daisy field, side by side.
“I don’t feel anything,” Audrey whispered into the night, air clouding from her breath as she held her hands over her face, trailing them through the stars above. “Do you feel anything?”
“I don’t know,” Constance spoke back, voice dreamy and otherworldly. It sounded as if she was laying some distance away, but Audrey could feel the girl’s breath on her neck. “Does that star look like it's winking to you?”
“Which star?”
“That one.” She pointed above her.
Audrey rolled her eyes. “That does not help.”
“Oh well,” Constance sighed, dropping her hand back down, laying it across her stomach, feeling utterly relaxed. “It’s stopped now, anyway. I believe it saw me staring back.”
Audrey chuckled to herself, rolling her head towards Constance. “I think it’s starting.”
“You might just be right,” Constance laughed along with her, meeting her eyes in the dark night, seeing the stars reflecting in her pupils. “How long does it last?”
“However long we like, I hope,” Audrey breathed out, before her eyes trailed over Constance’s face, counting every freckle, every eyelash. This could be the last time she really saw her for a long time. “You have forty-three freckles. Did you know that?”
Constance furrowed her eyebrows, a smile reaching her lips, somewhat confused. “I did not.”
“Well, you do,” Audrey stated, looking back up at the stars, apathetic. “I like them.”
“My freckles?”
“Not just them,” she shook her head, licking her lips, nervously. “I like everything about you.”
Constance stayed silent for a moment, and it caused Audrey’s breathing to pick up. The fluttery feeling that had been contained in her gut spread out over her body, something not uncommon when Audrey was around the other girl. She had felt it ever since they had met, but she kept it down because it was wrong. Wrong to feel that way about another girl. Yet, now, there was nothing less to risk.
“Why?” Constance finally spoke, Audrey turning her head to look at her again.
“Why do I like everything about you?” she questioned, confused.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because you don’t hide how you’re truly feeling,” Audrey said, knowing exactly what she would say. She had been thinking about this answer for a while, and she had promised Constance she would answer every question she ever asked her. She didn’t know why she had agreed with it, but it felt like Constance deserved to know everything. “Because you are so strong, and ready to fight for what is right. Your confidence is– is infectious. Your smile, it is like a thousand suns burning together, brighter than anything else in the far away universe. You, Constance Berman, are why I like everything about you.”
The silence came back again, and this time Audrey thought she had really done something terrible, but the berries didn’t let her care. The berries let her calm down immediately.
Constance breathed outwards, a cloud of mist floating up into the sky before disintegrating. “You’re wrong.”
“How so?”
“I do hide how I truly feel, Audrey.”
Audrey stared into the side of Constance’s face, and the red-head rolled her head to look back into her eyes, a sad smile, unlike the other kind of smiles the girl held, appeared on her lips.
“Why?” Audrey asked. “What could be so terrible that you… have to hide it?”
“I don’t believe what I feel is terrible,” Constance frowned. “I don’t believe that what I feel should be hidden away, but society is stuck in its ways, and so I play along.”
“Well, tell me,” Audrey suggested, giving her an expectant look. “I’m not society, am I?”
“You are a part of it,” the red-head said, swallowing thickly. “And you may be the cause of it.”
Audrey’s eyebrows raised, the confusion growing. “What have I done?”
“You have done nothing.”
“Then how did I cause these not-terrible, hide-worthy feelings?”
Constance sat up abruptly, Audrey leaning up on her elbows, watching her with concern. Obviously, what she was asking was hard to answer, but she couldn’t tell why. Constance had never once had trouble telling Audrey what she thought, or felt before.
“I never thought you would be so oblivious.”
Audrey frowned. “Excuse me?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Constance chuckled to herself, her hair falling in front of her face. The berry was still in her system, but somehow, she felt more in control than she ever had before. “You, Audrey Goode, are the cause of most of my feelings. Not-terrible, hide-worthy, or joyful alike.”
“I don’t under–” Audrey tried to speak, but Constance turned to her quickly, shaking her head.
“I don’t expect you to. At least… not yet,” Constance told her, moving herself to kneel beside Audrey and she took another deep breath. “I like everything about you, too, Audrey.”
“Thank you…?” Audrey smiled, happily, but Constance shook her head again.
“No, you shouldn’t thank me,” she said, upset with herself. “I like you more than I should. More than is expected of… two girls. And I have tried to not feel it, tried to push it away. You gave me that chance these last couple of years, keeping yourself in that house, away from me. But still, those feelings would not… leave. I couldn’t stop them.”
Audrey’s heart stopped, only for a split second, and she pushed herself up to the same height as Constance. Her throat was dry and she looked down at her lap, knowing the red-head’s eyes were still on her.
“You have to believe me, Audrey,” Constance trembled, the tears shining in her eyes, the stars reflecting still, but shimmering through the glaze. “I do not believe these feelings are terrible, or…” She swallowed. “Sinful. I only feel as if you will not return them, and that… that scares me. Because I do not think I can live a life where you hate me, or do not wish to be seen with me.”
Audrey looked up to her eyes, and slowly raised a hand to her face, Constance flinching back with the worst thought in mind. The blonde’s breath caught in her throat, stopping her hand, and then Constance pushed her head back to its original position, allowing Audrey to brush away the tears running down her cheek. “I do not hate you, Constance. I could never hate you.”
“But you do not return my feelings?” the red-head frowned to herself, and Audrey held her hand around the girl’s face, shaking her head.
“Do not assume such things,” Audrey smiled softly, and Constance’s eyebrows raised in shock. “You were right to call me oblivious, but that does not mean I can’t understand with some help. You just helped me, and now I see clearly. I could never live my life without you either, I believe I knew that before. I have wished upon star after star for freedom, and every time that seems possible, you are there with it. Entwined like… fate. Maybe fate is true and it can become a reality, if you try hard enough.”
Constance shuffled her way forward, ignoring the grass staining her skirt, only focusing that her eyes were staring into Audrey’s, unable to pull away. “You are quite the idiot to think fate is real.”
“Whatever you say, Constance.”
The red-head smirked before her eyes flitted down to Audrey’s lips, taking a half-second to think before taking her chance. She pressed her lips to Audrey’s, Audrey’s hand holding her face and pulling it closer, their hearts beating loudly in their chests. Constance placed her hand on the other girl’s neck, thumb tracing her jawline, making Audrey let out a hum, Constance feeling elated.
To say that the feeling shared that night had been down to the berries wouldn’t be completely incorrect, but it would not be right either. Both girls, having hidden their true feelings for so long, had finally been pushed to the edge together, both fates entwined. The two girls kissed under the witness of God, the Devil, and whoever else looked from above or below, not minding as they were together in a way they never thought they could be. Sin was subjective, love was objective. What they were doing was possibly sin, but it definitely sprung from love.
A love that would be reflected through centuries to come.