Alfonso woke up early. He flipped his eyes and for a moment he was confused about where he had spent the night but soon all dawned back on him. Helena in his bedroom and his jealousy attack. He tamed his guilt quickly and swiftly got out of bed into his pajama sweaters and put on his loafers. It was a bit chilly when he got out of the guest room into the long corridors of his house but he did not seem to feel the sting of the cold, it was in fact what he needed that morning.
He ran down the stares to the servants' quarters. Knocking on Jordan's door he stood impatiently kicking on the carpet with his shoe. He knocked again but got no answer then decided on pushing the door open but the room was empty.
He dashed out of the room and ran out of the house to the barn where Jordan was feeding the horses with fresh hay and cold water he had taken from the well. The lad was in faded jeans and heavy brown boots, a heavy brown coat was strapped firmly around his torso. He looked gruff and huge. He was nothing like Alfonso who was always in formal wear except when he was in his black pajamas. Jordan frowned a bit at the intrusion but smiled as soon as he saw that it was Alfonso.
"Good morning Sir Diego. Snowball is expecting again, lovely news to start the day. It's a bit cold today, you'll swear it will not be hot mid afternoon if you did not know the place any better. Ya sleep well sir?" He said cheery brushing his hand over the mane of a chestnut horse. The horse nuzzled in the cowboy's arm but still focusing on eating the hay.
"I slept well I hope you did too. I want us to go to the creek to get clay before Helen wakes up." Alfonso said not forcing in the authority he just possessed. He always tried to sound in line with the situation but his businessman character always overpowered his informal side
"Okay. I see you are ready for the journey. Horse? Or you prefer we walk...I will get the buckets. And I am sorry my curiosity disputes ordinary mannerisms but...what does she want to do with the clay?"
"Sculpt. She wants to sculpt me, she's good at it." Jordan gave a slight nod and saddled the horse getting ready for the transportation of the clay to the house.
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"Helen...?" Alfonso called sticking his head into his room where Helena had spent the night. "Can I come in...?" His voice was low and dragging as if he was afraid of the way she would respond.
Helena got down from the bed and stood near it her head bowed as she waited for Alfonso to come in and state his purpose. Her hands were clutched in front of her in a submission gesture. She was already bathed, he could tell but she was still in her yesterday's clothing. She gave a slight movement with her head as a sign of greeting Alfonso but kept her eyes averted.
"Uhm...will you sculpt me? I got the clay already...."
"You mean... I...I can come out now?" He remembered that he might or might not have told her that he was never going to allow her out of the house again. He was stressed and most of the things said he honestly did not mean.
"Yes, you could have even come out yesterday. I was acting irrational and I am sorry... I just suspected the worst...between you and...and Dawson. I really do not care that he is at the other side of the fence...if you get me. Actually I am happy, not happy happy, that I am also in that situation but I mean I am fine and I appreciate who he is not that I envy it or anything," Helena did not help by interfering, she just listened as if the man talked sense when actually he was saying nothing.
"I appreciate who he is. We are married now so I have to support you, that is why I love what you and Dawson have, not that you have anything going on or that I love Dawson...I mean that you and Dawson are fine as friends and all...if you get what I'm saying...I think I should keep quiet." He said almost breathless from his ramble.
"I had that planned out better in my mind. I think I should have stuck up with saying, Helena I am sorry..." Alfonso said sincerely forcing Helena to nod.
"Okay...I will be downstairs soon."
"I will be having breakfast," Alfonso told her so that she knew where to find him.
"And medication." Helena added. Sir Diego then turned and left walking downstairs to go and have his breakfast. He did not have to wait for too long for Helena.
Helena walked in, in a different dress and her hair tied up. She was in a loose thin white dress and barefooted, all prepared for the sculpture. Alfonso looked up from his plate to meet her with his eyes, following her till she sat down in front of him. She pulled a bowl and dished some oatmeal for herself eating with him on the table.
The silence slowly became awkward but luckily breakfast ended sooner than it began. In a flash they were in the "studio" where clay was already mixed for Helena and a stool near a work table was set out perfectly.
"This is your work station..." Alfonso said ushering an awed Helena into the room. Her piano sat on the corner with a red and white Victorian majestic stool next to it. She looked at Alfonso and smiled shyly.
"I want one that looks like Adonis."
Helena was confused for a moment but quickly picked up the topic, "I don't know him. But you can tell me how he is."
"He was a youth lover of Aphrodite, some Greek mythology goddess. That's not necessary." He swept his hand in dismissal, "I'll just pause and you'll sculpt what you see. But...I want to be in a linen cloth. Can you do that?"
"Well I can do anything. The gathers may be a bi-"
"Excuse me..." Alphonso said running out the room his face pale and his eyes looking distance.
"Is all fine?" Helena asked moving a little towards him. Alfonso realised she had loosened up a bit after the hospital scene. She was no shy anymore, well at least most of the time. That pleased Alfonso when he realised that she knew he was not going to manhandle and force her to bed.
He nodded in response to her question and quickly dashed out of the room. His lungs were burning and his head was a bit dizzy. Staggering, he made it up the stairs and slipped into the nearest bathroom. He threw up into the sink the moment he got there, holding onto the sides of the basin until his knuckles were white and green veins exposed. He threw up some more feeling dead. Slowly he opened the tap, cleaned the sink and rinsed his mouth.
He turned around feeling his head heavy and his mouth filling with saliva forcing him to bolt back to the sink and throw up some more. That was why he had come to hate chemotherapy with a passion. He took out some mint and chewed before going back to Helena's "studio".
Helena was flipping a couple of pages waiting for him patiently while she sat on a chair near the table. The table was filled with pencils of assorted sizes and colours.
"Are you okay?" She asked her face shadowed with concern. She was calm but Alphonso could tell that she was panicking. She was rather talkative now than before probably because she was trying to hide her fear and act normal.
"I think I'm okay now," he lied and casually sat on the coach motioning that she begins with the sculpturing.
"Will you be able to stay longer? You don't look too well sir. I decided on drawing a three dimensional then sculpt later. I'll draw four of your sides then sculpt while you sleep. Is that not okay?" He nodded curtly.
Helena began with her art. She kept glancing at him and doing her work at the same time.....
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"Good morning,"
Helena looked up to find Alfonso standing on the doorway. He looked a bit brighter today and he looked less in pain.
"Good morning, sir Diego," she responded engrossed with shaping the shoulder blade on the sculpture. She batted her eyelashes at him and had a quick rundown of his body. She squinted her eyes and furrowed her forehead showing concern.
"Have you had breakfast?" Alfonso nodded which was a total lie. He had skipped breakfast because it made him nauseous and sick, nut he had taken his medication just fine today. Yesterday he had been sick the whole afternoon and his mouth had tasted like the gooey and sticky oatmeal he had had for breakfast but only way too bitter.
"What did you have?" She went on rather stern for the first time since she had come to the house. Alfonso could not even respond mainly because he had lied to her and because he had not even gone to the dinning room.
"I...I had oatmeal." She raised an eyebrow and continued working on the sculpture. She moulded and carved the edges slowly lowering to his torso. The clay was drying up making it difficult to mould the curves but she was managing just fine.
She had worked hard most of the night. All was done already except the clay linen covering his body.
"Why did you skip breakfast?" She edged dipping her hands in the water basin and systematically continuing with the fringes of the cloth covering his body on the sculpture.
"That is coming out just fine. I think we should wax it though...to avoid termites." He said then complimented, "This really looks good."
Helena looked up and met Alfonso's eyes but he averted his eyes to the wall then started studying the chandelier on the ceiling.
"Why did you skip breakfast?" She asked but continued smoothing the sculpture with her palms. She held one of the legs and ran her palms smoothly along it. Alfonso could not help but imagine how it could have felt if her hands were actually touching him and not the sculpture. He shook his head roughly to literally throw the thought off his mind.
"It makes me nauseous." He answered and she looked nonchalant doing her deep and smooth routine. She drew her fingers to the lips on the sculpture and smoothed removing small sand particles.
She rose from her chair and started blowing on the lips at the same time smoothing with her wet fingers. She continued blowing on them till a satisfied glint crossed her eyes.
Her hands started moving in sync as she got to the gathers and she knelt down in front of the sculpture and pulled a bucket of darker shade wet clay. She got on with adding a khaki dye on the fringes of the sculpture.
"Take a seat while I add the shades." Alfonso broke out of his trance and took a seat at the only couch in the room. He was fascinated but just doubted addition of the clay in the clay in her hands. The sculpture looked perfect to him as it was and he did not see the need to add any shades.
She dipped her fingers in the basin and traced them on the sculpture linen between the grooves. She ran them a few times before reaching for a paint brush to make the job easier.
"How long will it take till it shatters?" He asked then Helena answered nonchalantly, "Three days."
"Three days?" Alfonso blurted ridiculously.
"No..." she smiled, "I'm joking it's two years. We just have to wax it so that it lasts longer maybe almost a lifetime." He nodded in understanding and continued watching her in silence as she did her work with great skill.
He wanted to tell her that he wanted their children to see it but considering their relationship, his illness and his fertility condition he decided otherwise.
"What are you planning to do after....after the contract has been signed. I mean we will have to part or you will...?" She remained silent as she meditated about what he had asked. She stood up from her crouching position and washed her hands before moving back to adore her art.
He looked at it too and turned to look at him before bursting out, "I treat marriage with the respect it deserves. God made it for last so I'm planning to stay unless...unless you want to file the divorce. I have no choice in that. I made a vow and I do not break my vows. Etiquette school taught me loyalty and I like to live by it."
He respected her that moment. Looking at her deep green eyes And elegant body, graceful words and true wisdom, he realized he respected her very much. He respected every part of he, her judgements, her opinions,and the truth of her words. He had never in his life met someone who could commit herself into something she did not want just because of a vow.
"I...respect you and I suppose I will stay even after the contract... because I vowed." Her eyelids fell to her hands which she clutched in front of her then looked up at him with something he could not decipher in her eyes.
He smiled nervously and pulled the beanie on his head to cover his ears, "I apologize....for what I did, the day before yesterday?"
"Stress is a monster. If it attacks you psychologically then it results in inferiority complex thus irrational behaviour."
He looked at her as if she was a demigoddess and took in her wisdom and serenity then it dawned on him that the best people in life were not the half dressed women she met at St Peter's. It was actually the educated lasses in their homes appreciating honesty and chastity.
"But I'm not stressed." He lied mildly forcing her to turn to him.
"You're not eating, Sir Diego. You are planning on quitting your job and giving up the company. You think I will leave. That is stress enough to kill..." she sighed, "I'm done with the sculpture..."
Alfonso smiled at her, "You really are good with your hands. I mean you have talent." As if on cue Jordan entered with a bowl full of heated sugar syrup which served as just a coating before she sprayed pepper to keep the termites away.
"Do you want to go and watch Othello... tomorrow? At the theater...?" Alfonso asked nervously.
"Oh I do. So when?" She asked excitedly.
"Six?"
"Why yes I do. I will have to have cleaned here and the sculpture has to be out first. I read the book but my mother watched the film."
Alfonso smiled and he knew that was going to make him happy and it did make him happy all that day long. He loved that she was happy now and that was good.
The rest of the day was spent well with all the awkward and tension.
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Sorry my writing sucks but I try
This is my first serious work and I'm trying.
Please read for me coz I write for yoh