I hope all of my readers and new readers enjoy this chapter just as much as you have the rest of my novel. I am sorry about all the mistakes and spelling errors, but it cannot be helped when you are writing like I do or when you are me. (I am terrible at spelling).
Chapter 20: Some Dreams Come True
EMALIA'S POV.
I wake up and my mind is in a haze. I try to sit up, but I can't seem to be able to. "Charles......" I trail off, not even certain what I had been about to say to him anyway.
"Yes, Emalia what is it? Is something wrong? Are you feeling pain?" He is so considerate of me especially right now considering my comdition.
I shake my head, "No, Charles, I am not in pain and I am just having trouble sitting up. I really feel like I need to, but I can't do it on my own. It has been a few days siccne I started recovering, but it seems to be taking a lifetime for me to get better. I still can't even sit up on my own. It is very frustrating and more than a little annoying. I have to have you wait on me every second of the day, even at night."
"Don't think like that, Emalia. I am not here just because i have to be, trust me if I wanted to leave, I would have left, without another thought or word, but I want to be here just as much as I have to be here, maybe even a little more. You are not forcing me to be here, Emalia, this is my choice. I am chosing to be here, for you."
"Okay," is all I say as I slump down in my bed.
"Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast? Soup maybe?"
"That sounds nice, thank you Charles. I would love some soup right now. I am starting to get hungry."
"Well, you would be hungry after sleeping for ten hours and only having a bowl of soup to eat before sleeping. It's a wonder how you didn't starve to death while you slept. I will be right back with some more home made soup."
"Thank you, Charles. Come here I want to give you a kiss." He leans down and I place a soft, tired kiss on his cheek.
"I am sure that you will start to feel better soon, Emalia. I will make sure that you get more fresh air and you will need to have a bath today. I think you have been having a lot of bad dreams lately because you wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. I will also need to change your sheets again. these ones are dirty after two nights and a day of you sleeping in them."
"Okay, I will be here when you get back. Oh, would you mind getting me my books from down in your office? I left them there that night, the night before I got sick and they are still there, they are on the sofa."
"I will get you whatever you want because you are sick."
"Thank you, Charles. You do so much for me, you almost do too much for me."
"Now that, is a total lie and even you know it. I haven't hardly done enough for you. I will be back."I nod my head as I watch him leave the room. I have watched him walk through my bedroom door so many times in the last couple of days and I miss being able to walk through it myself. I wish I could go outside. See the sun, feel it's rays on my skin. Feel the cool breeze and smell the fresh air.
I close my eyes, while I wait for Charles to come back with my soup. I must have dozed off because I can hear Charles's soothig voce beckoning me out of sleep, out of dark, peaceful sleep.
"I am sorry for waking you, you did look so peaceful and you look dead tired, but you have to eat something. It is the only way that you will get better. Here, Emalia, I am going to help you sit up so that I can feed you soup." I nod my head and I can feel his warm arms envelope me, just like they do every time i need his help lately.
He places a pillow behind my back and it helps to keep me upright. I try my best not to fall forward tor to the side. I am so weak and I feel so useless. "Cahrles, can I please try feeding myself this time? I really want to try, I feel like I can't do anything for myself anymore. I almost need you to help my breath because I can't do it myself. I don't feel any better, but I want to try and feed myself, please."
He nods hid head, "Okay, Emalia, I agree, you should be trying to do things for yourself, little things. Things that aren't very hard for you to do, especially in your condition."
"Ummm.... Charles?"
"Yes, Emalia?"
"I have been wondering this since Doc left a couple of days ago. What did he say? And did he tell you what you need to do to keep me healthy and getting better?"
"Yes he did, Emalia and after your bath today, I will take you bandages off and put some more of that medecine on it and recover it. I was told that I needed to do that every couple of days."
"Oh, okay, I see, thank you Charles."
"Please, Emalia, it is my pleasure to do all of this for you in your time of bad health. I am more than happy to do it. I want to take care of you as best as I can and I want to do it better than anyone ever could. You can stop thanking me. I only want to hear you thanking me again after you are all better and healthy again. That is the only time you can thank me again after right now. Is that understood?"
"Yes," I grumble at him. "Fine, no more thank yous until I am better."
"Good, now eat up, you will need this and then we will go and get you into a bath."
"I am not a child, Charles, just uncapable at the moment." I say, picking up my spoon as he holds my bowl. I fill the spoon and place it into my mouth. I close my lips around the spoon and remove the spoon from my mouth. I swallow the liquid soup and analize how I am feeling now after feeding myself ro the first time in three days.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"In a way yes, but in a way no. I feel better about being able to do something for myself on my own, but I am also not feeling as healthy as I wish I was. I still feel bad and my stomach is turning and I feel like I am going to be sick. Let's just go to the bathroom and take my bath so that you can change the bandages and put more medacine on the cut."
"Okay, I think that would be a really good idea. You are looking worse and worse with every passing minute. I actually think that I should take off the bandage when you get into the bath and clean it again. I hope it isn't getting worse."
"I hope it's not too."
He swings the blankets off of me and swings me up into his strong arms. He carries me to the bathroom swiftly, but gently. "You feel skinnier than I remember you to be. Are you sure you aren't feeling extremely sick, Emalia? You are very thin. When you are better, you will need to pick up your appetite."
"Okay, I agree, I feel very weak and very small right now. I wish I could just be better and be healthy again. If only it could work that way." Charles quickly slips my night dress off my body and takes the bandage off. The cut still looks green and dirty.
"Okay, the medecine doesn't seem to have cleaned it. I will need to do that in your bath. it mmight hurt, but I need you to stay strong, it needs to be cleaned, Emalia."
"Okay, Charles, I trust you."
"Okay," He picks me up and plaes me in the bath full of soap. He grabs a cloth and starts washing my cut and the skin around it. I clench my jaw to kee from crying out at the pain of having him rub at it with the cloth, but i know that if I do, it will only cause him more pain.I don't want to cause hi many more pain than I already have. Now it is my turn to endure some pain for once, my turn to be strong.
"Rub as hard as you need to to get it clean, Charles," I manage to choke out between my clenched teeth. "Just get it clean, I can endure any type of pain I have to in order to get my cut clean." I can feel him start to rub harder and it takes all of my willpower not to hurt him in some way to get him to stop. I grip my hands together as tightly as I possibly can to keep from crying and shouting at him from the pain.
After a few seconds of him painfully scrubbing at my cut he stops. He breaths what sounds like a sigh of relief and I look up into his eyes. He smiles down at me and I wonder why he would be smiling at me like that if he just finished causing me so much pain.
"It is clean, Emalia, it is completely clean, look, you can actually see the cut now. It isn't green at all." I look down and see what he was talking about. I can see how wide the cut is and how deep it is. I can see right into it and there is no green at all in or around my cut. I sigh in relief as well and smile up at him.
"Can the rest of me be cleaned now too?" I ask, trying not to sound impatient, but really wanting to get out of the water.
"Your bath is done now, Emalia. You only needed a bath to clean the cut. the rest of you is clean enough and Doc gave me enough supplies to change your bandages three times if need be. Come, Emalia, I know you are tired from your bath and even though you tried to cover it up, I know how hard it was on you to have me clean your cut."
He picks me up out of the water and into his arms. He sets me down and wraps a towel around me and takes a second towel and picks me back up into his arms again. He takes me out of the room and back to my bedroom. He sets me on the bed and goes to work drying off my body and drying my hair.
"Here, a clean night dress for you to put on after I get your cut fixed up." He walks to the desk in my room and picks up a container with some weird clear, almost white cream inside and a stack of bandages to put on the cut after the medicine. He walks back over to where I am sitting on my bed. He opens the container and dips his fingers into it. He dabs a little onto ansd into my cut, it stings a little, but not as much as it hurt when Doc had put it on my cut. Maybe it was because my cut was dirty.
"Did that hurt, Emalia? I'm sorry, I will try and hurryso that you don't hurt more than you have to."
"No, Cahrles, don't rush, it's better to do it slow and right then to do it fast and wrong. I don't want to waste good medicine for no reason at all. I'm fine, I promise. After the amount of pain I went through when you were cleaning my cut, this is nothing. I will survive it, that I can promise."
"Okay," He concentrates on my cut and the medicine.
When he is finally done, he seperates the bandages and palces them on my cut and wraps them in a cloth to keep them on my cut. I look up at him as he concentrate on dressing my bandages. He looks up at me when he has finished and smiles.
"You look much healthier now, Emalia. How do you feel now?"
"I feel better, thank you for asking, Charles. I really want to go for a walk, but I am sort of tired. Maybe I will sleep a little bit now and after I wake up and eat, then we can go for a walk."
"That sounds very promising, Emalia. I like the sound of that, more then I porbably should." I laugh at that and his smile widens. "I haven't heard you laugh in days, Emalia. You have no idea how happy I am that you are feeling better. I hope that you become healthy aagain soon. I have so much that I still want to do with you and experience with you."
"I would love to fullfil all of those requests and reams, Charles, every last one."
"What are a few of your dreams, Emalia?" He looks at me curiously, he generally wants to know what I want in my life.
"I have always wanted to have a big traditional wedding. A wedding so big that the whoel town is invited and they all want to be there, but I myself a my new husband don't stay the entire time. We have pople look after the party for us while we go and spend some time alone, just the two of us. Not in the bedroom, but just alone, somewhere peaceful where we can talk and spend time together for a littlw while before we have to return to the party for our final seperating and then our coming together as man and wife on our wedding night."
"That is a very big wish, Emalia, but I am sure that I can make most of it happen, I sure will do my very best."
"I also dream that whn I do finally come together with my new husband, that it wouldn't hurt the way that I have heard other women talking about. That it would feel good for me as well as my husband. That he wouldn't just be taking me, but he would be giving to me. Giving something up as wellas I am giving something up. That I am not the only one giving something up for him and that I am not the only one giving myself up. That he also, gives himself up for me as I am giving myself up for him."
"That sounds just the way that I would want it, Emalia. I will tell you this, I know you do not wish to learn about all the women I have been with and I will not tell you about them, but I will tell you this. I have never been with a woman that I did not care about in some way. Every woman that I have been with, I have thought she was beautiful. You though, Emalia, yuo are unlike any woman in the whole of the world. You are more beautiful, the most beautiful and I want to treat you even better than I did those other women."
I blush at his confession and at his words and his compliments. "Charles, you are too kind with your words. I have always dreamed of my husband being somewhat like you. Happy and not contriolling, not needing to be in control of me, but to trust me with my own self."
"Well, I believe that a woman deserves rights as well as a man does. She is human after all, is she not? She is just like a man, but the fact being that she is just a little different, just a woman. Emalia, we will change the world with all of this talk. If we ever get married or have children, we should talk to them and teach them about this. Tell them not to treat girls differently becuase women do not need to be controlled to be kept out of trouble. The only time that women get into trouble is because of their husbands or because they are not being treated fairly."
"You are the only man that is most like the man of my dreams, Charles. If I am to marry any man, I want it to be you." He smiles widely and it shows his cute little dimple. I sit reach out and kiss his cheeks where his dimple appears and it disappears. "Will you allow me to sleep now, Charles?"
"I will let you sleep as long as you need to. I will go downstairs and have something to eat and then I will be back up here sitting next to you while you sleep. I promise."
"Here is no need for that, Charles. I am perfectly fine to sleep on my own now."
"I will stay anyway and when you wake up, if you are feeling well enough for it. We can go on that walk that you wanted to go on. I think it would be good for you to get outside and breath the fresh air and see the sky from out there rather than in here." He gestures out the window and then back inside the room. "Sleep well my dear, Emalia." He places a kiss on my forehead and then leaves the room, allowing me to sleep.
I close my eyes and feel myself letting go of reality and fading into a dream. I start feeling less and less pain and more and more freedom, like I am no longer sick, but healthy, healthier then I have ever been. I am abloe to kiss Charles again and hug him close for more than a few minutes at a time. A place where I can't possibly make him sick. I feel myself relax completely into the dream and then my mind goes black.
CHARLES'S POV.
I walk out of Emalia's bedroom and close the door softly behind me. I start my way down the hall to the stairs and then down the stairs, heading to the dining room. I find my thoughts drifting to Emalia, even though Isaw her, but a few mere minutes ago. She is so beautiful, even when she is sick, she glows. She has such inner and outer beauty, no other maiden could ever compare. Any man in the world would be crazy, insane, not to fall in love with her at sight. Every man that has set eyes upon her that isn't family, certainly would fall into a trance of her beauty and her kindness.
She is sweet and gentle in many ways. She has her own opinions, she would make any man fall to his knees before her without needing to be of royal blood. She already has be halfway there, I am practically begging to kneel before her, as though it is an honor to do so, just to be in her presence.
Once I make it down to the dining room, I sit at the head of the table in my seat. I think about how I will do it, about how I will bring the question about, the one question that is of the utmost importance to me right now, the most needing of my attention. I must figure out how I will ask Emalai and I must think about how she will react to it. I do not wish to scare her, although, that is most likely what will end up happening. I just want to be able to make her happy, I want to be the only man able to make her happy. I want to be able to stand up at parties and tell everyone that my wife does her own decision making and she only consults my opinion on it. That she is strong enough to stand on her own feet without my help, that she doesn't need me to decide things for her.
This woman, Emalia, she drives me half insane and the other half, she keeps in her grasp, keeping me half sane. She is the only one that can keep my sanity and insanity at a perfect balance. It may tip at times, but that is only with added stress and worry about her and her safety. I have kept her safe for this long and I have protected her honor and her family name so far, besides tellign the Doc all about it. That was the biggest mistakes i have made in my entire life and I hope it stays the biggest. Because the biggest mistake aside from that one, would be letting Emalia go and I have promised myself that I cannot do that. She is in too deep with me, she will one day become my bride and she will be a willing one. I will ask for her hand and she will answer for herself. There is no need to influence her decision.
Rosie walks into the room and she looks surprised to see me, as I have been in Emalia's room the past few days keeping up her health. "Oh, Charles," she gasps, lookign down at the platter in her hands, "I was just about to bring you up some breakfast. I thought you would still be up there nerturing her."
"She doesn't need me right now, she is sleeping. She has had her bath and her cut has been cleaned well and I redressed it for her. Now she is sleeping."
"I see, would you like company for breakfast then, Charles? I would actually like to talk with you about something, if you don't mind."
"No, Rosie, not at all, please sit. Enjoy this lovely meal with me." we both start eating and I wait until we are both almost finished to ask. "Rosie, what was it you wanted to talk with me about?"
"Oh, Deary, I am not sure how to say this, but...... I have met a man, actually I met him quite some time ago, but his family refuses to have me as family. We are in love and they see it as a threat. We have wanted for so long to run away and get married and live together and have a family, but I have been working for you and I don't want to abandon you, I don't want you to feel like that's what I am doing. I would like to go and get married to him though, I would like to live my life now, if that is alright with you. I don't mean to sound like it's terrible here, when really it is anything but, but I think my time here is nearly up. I have not even begun to repay my debt to you, but I would like to be able to leave from your employment."
"Rosie, I had no idea that you had someone in your life, that is why I have always let you stay here. I didn't know if you would have anywhere to go if I sent you off. If you wish to go, just tell me when and I will let Emalia know and we can say goodbye and farewell to you and this mysterious man that has captured your heart. I am planning on asking Emalia to marry me so I was wondering if you and your man would care to come to it. I know all about her dream wedding and I wish to give her as much of it as possible. I would also like your help in planning it, but you are welcome to leave my employment if you wish. I really don't need the help anymore, not as long as Emalia is here. We do these things together, we make meals, we clean them up. We will be fine here without you, Rosie. I just want you to know that if you ever need a place, my door is always open to you and your man."
"Thank you, Charles, Emalia is right, you are such a generous man. I have always known that and I love it about you. I am so grateful for all the years you have procided me a home and love and food. I would love to keep working for you if I wasn't in love with such an amazig man already, but I am." She hugs me cloe to her. "I have always thought of you as a son, Charles a son that I wish I had and hope to have one day. I hope that my son is the type of man that you are. Caring and kind, loving, generous and as handsome as you are."
I can feel a slight blush creep up on my cheeks at her compliments to my character. "Thank you, Rosie. Is breakfast good? Are you enjoying it?"
She nods her head, "Oh yes, Charles, my cooking is fantastic ain't it? I could live off of this stuff forever. I am an amazing cook, you have to admit."
"I do, your cooking is out of this town, out of this world. No one has ever tasted such good cooking before."
"You are too sweet, Charles. Hurry and finish up your breakfast and go up to tend to Emalia. I will take care of these." She starts picking up the dishes and the platter and clearing away and spilt food from the table. "She needs you especially right now, go to her, Charles, do not make a fool out of her or you. She loves you, I see it every time she looks at you. I also know that you love her too. Don't let her get away that easily."
I chuckle at that, "I won't Rosie, I promise. She will be around for a long time to come." I walk out of the room and make my way to my office to get Emalia's books from the sofa in my lounge. I pick up the books and look at the covers and the titles. Romance, she likes romance novels, so did my sister. She must be wantig to make use of the books in her room. I remember my sister reading this one, The Duke's Daughter, that must be where Emalia found it, on the bookcase in her room.
I make my way up the stairs and to Emalia's room. I knock on the door softly and don't hear a sound on the other side. I open the door, assuming that she must still be sleeping. I find Emalia sitting up in her bed and looking around the room. Her eyes come to settle on me and a smile spreds it's way across her lips.
"Hi," she greets me, "I missed you." My heart warms at that comment, at the thought of her missing me and wanting me there.
"I missed you too," I tell her back truthfully. "How did you sleep?"
"It was okay, I would have slept more, but my body wanted me to wake up. It did take me away from a nice dream though."
"What was the dream about?" I ask in wonder. Was she dreaming about me? Was it good? Was it bad? I hope it wasn't bad, but I do hope that it was about me.
"I was dreaming about you and kissing you again and how much I love the way that it feels." She has a dreamy look in her eyes, like she is dreaming her dream all over again.
"I would love to kiss you too, Emalia." I walk over to her bed and sit down next to her. I gentle grab her face in my hands and pull her face closer to mine. So close in fact, that our lips are almost touching, but not quite. She move in all the way, pressing her lips to mine. I can feel slight tingles where her lips meet ine. Her lips are soft and plush. I never want to stop kissing them. I could just stay rigfht here, kissing her until I died and I would be more than happy with that.
She is the first one to pull away from the kiss. "I'm sorry," I hear her sweet voice say. There is a little sadness in it. "I couldn't go any longer without breathing. It is getting earier, but I am still not the strongest right now."
I cradle her face in my hands, "Emalia, do not be sorry about that. If you are unable, then you are unable. I am not mad at you. I am simply happy that I was able to kiss you. Your lips on mine it's like magic, Emalia, of the best and most real kind. I completely understand," I smile at her and kiss both of her cheeks and then plant a quick kiss on her lips. Just enough to have a little taste.
"I will take care of you, I swear to it. I really like you, Emalia. I am not sure about love, but I do know that I like you."
"I like you too, Charles. And that's all I have ever wanted is someone who cares to take care of me. It is obvious to me that you care and you are the only man I would let take care of me during any state where I am unable to do so for myself." She smiles at me and the smile reaches her ears it's so big. "I have always dreamed about wanting a man like you in my life, maybe dreams really do come true, Charles."
"Well if they do, then I wish to have you because you have always been the girl in my dreams, Emalia. Strong, strong-willed, beautiful, lady-like, but not to be fooled, clever as well and a woman that doesn't need to be controlled."
A blush creeps up on her cheeks, turning them a cute light pink color. One that makes me want to kiss them. Her blush deepens and spreads down her neck, making me want to kiss there as well. "Oh, Charles," she giggles, "you are such a flirtatious man. It is hard to keep a blush off my face when you flirt so openly with me, even here where we are alone."
"Well, that's just fine because, Emalia, I love it when you blush. It makes you look wanting and wanted. It makes you look splendorous. Simply stunnning as always, but somehow you look wilder."
"Oh, Charles," her blush gets even deeper and spreads down over her chest. "What things to say."
"Do you want to rest now, Emalia? Or would you rather do something else?"
"I'm not sure, Cahrles, I feel up to doing something else, but I am also tired at the same time. I am feeling better though."
"That is fantastic news, Emalia, I think we should celebrate!"
"Ummm... Charles? Don't you think we should celebrate once I'm better and fully healthy again?"
He looks at me, his mouth hanging wide open at my suggestion that we wait to celebrate. "We can celebrate now and then. Why can't we do both? You must admit, it isn't a bad idea."
"No, you're wrong, Charles, it's an awful idea," I say teasing him.
"Oh, Emalia, killing a man's dreams are you? Well then, I will just have to find myself new dreams. I do know, however, there is one dream you can't take away from me."
"And what dreams would that be, Charles?"
"I can't tell you, sorry, Emalia."
"Wait, What! What do you mean you can't tell me!? You have to tell me because you already brought it up!" She starts to freak out and I chuckle at her reaction to my holding back of this information.
"But, Emalia, if I told you..... I would have to kill you." Is my clever statement back to her.
"Oh, come on, Charles." She whines. "You have to tell me and no, I don't mean I am going to let you kill me after. Tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone. I mean, who is there even for me to tell, I know nobody."
"But it doesn't work that way, Emalia. I can't tell you at all because it's you who isn't supposed to know just yet. It is a surprise. A big surprise and I know that once I come out with the surprise, you will really enjoy it. Don't make me ruin it by telling you now."
She grumbles about it for a few seconds then, "Fine!" She blurts out, seeming angry with me, but I know it's an act to try and get me to tell her. Well, Emalia, I am not cracking, I can't.
"I promise, Emalia, that when the time comes to tell you, it will make all of your wildest and biggest dreams come true. Just think about that, think about it that way while you wait for the right time to come." She nods her head.
I open my arms out to her and she gets up off her bed and walks into my waiting embrace. I wrap my arms around her and hold her close to me. All I ever want to do is protect her. She hasn't had that in a long time. She hasn't had that since her parents died, not really. Sure she has had maids and ladies caring for her, but only on the outside. Maybe she did make friends with one or two of them, but that doesn't change the fact that they couldn't protect her the way that a man can, the way that I can. She seems to be feeling stronger that before. Maybe she would like to go and spend some more time outside in the fresh air and under the summer sky.
Emalia sure picked the best time to write the letter to me and to come and stay in my home. Summer is the best time of year for my land. It makes my land look it's very best, plus the work that Emalia has done to make my land look more homey and family friendly. "Would you like to have a picnic outsode with me for lunch, Emalia?"
"I would love to, Charles. You seem to always know exactly what I need before I even know myself. I think you are getting to know me too well, maybe it's dangerous for me to be living with you now." She fakes a panicked look and then looks up and me and laughs. "You expression is hilarious, Charles. Do it again, please do it again." She almost falls out of my arms with all her laughing.
"Oh, Emalia, you certainly are wild, but I wouldn't want you any other way. I am glad that you are feeling so much better." I smile and can't help, but chuckle at all of her crazy laughing. "Come on, Princess Laughs-a-lot. Let's go pack that picnic."
Hey all of you!!!! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter too!!!!!! We are nearing the end, but it won't be for a few chapters still, okay more than a few chapters, like 7 chapters.
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