INTRODUCTION.
oo. the taste of the pages.
most eligible. tewkesbury.
@arsolaire ' enola holmes
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NATALIA WAS A MATCHMAKER. It was her solemn duty to put people together, pierce their hearts with arrows to infect them with the compelling plague of love, but despite her unmatched ability to twine knots that have been lost, she had been the most ineligible lady. What happens if her own next task in line plays her next, and possibly involves her in a dangerous case?
What if her own arrows pierce her heart, but instead of love, it was poison?
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❝One of your proudest works yet, Talia?❞ Narcissa stood next to her sister who has not uttered a word ever since. Their attention was shared and focused on the boy who happily held the brightest young Holmes in his arms.
"Do not chastise me, Cissa." Natalia held back the sound that threatened to come out of her mouth. She swallowed her spit and bit her tongue, blinking in the hopes of putting her tears back where they came from. She had never shed tears for a man, not now, not ever. However, it was the thought of them and so many more that made her look away, mumbling, "I had been a fool to myself."
The girl walked away. It was what she did best after all. Talia raised her hand to let her sleeves touch her forehead, wiping the beads of sweat that had formed under the glaring sun. She never thought she'd be the one to play her own game. She knew the rules, but how could she? How could she still fail?
"Natalia."
That voice. She knew that voice. She heard it saying words that pierced through the walls of her beating chest before. It hurt — more than anyone could ever have hurt her. It was shameful to compare, but it was one of her most apparent thoughts that his words had cut her deeper than the sword that tore through her dress that made her bloody. She stopped and shut her eyes, "Forgotten something, Lord Tewkesbury?"
"Face me, Natalia."
She hated when he demanded things from her, but could she refuse now? What face could she possibly show now? One red and puffy? One weak and heartbroken? Heartbroken? She was not. It was her own game. How could she fail in her own game?
"Look at me," he ordered again, but his voice was softer now, almost pleading. "Please?"
She could not resist. The girl swiftly turned around with a stone cold demeanour, yet seconds away from breaking apart in front of the boy who she deemed herself strong and invincible to.
"To hurt me again, I suppose?" Natalia questioned.
"How can I love you?" It was his turn to ask, but could he have possibly used gentler words to say it? It already hurt, and the query did not only make it harder for her to restrain herself from letting a tear fall, but it had been a salt in the bloody wound.
Could it be worse?
"I cannot reciprocate it, Natalia."
That had been the end of her. She was truly the most ineligible, wasn't she?
〔 AUTHOR'S NOTE. You have chosen a book to cry to. A fair warning to my dearest readers, for what is ahead won't be purely blissful and sweet as the other books that showed mercy. 〕