From the moment Eden had understood the true implication of this fateful day, a slaying headache had assailed Stephen's skull all abruptly and with every moment passing, it was overwhelming him all the more.
He had gotten rid of his coat and waistcoat and discarded them upon the chair nearby, as he had started pacing the room feverishly, biding some distraction from the gutting pain.
Eden was deep in sleep.
The letter that Mrs. Hopkins had handed him, he had placed it on her bedside table.
It was awful for him to be here, in this room. The only thing he longed to do was to lift Eden off that bed and leave this damned chamber right away. That cot with blood stain over it was only making it worse.
But he knew he couldn't disturb her now, in a state of mind where she astray of all material occurrences. She was holding on to him, he knew this without being told_ he had known it the moment she told him how others were so uncaring about her Maggie's life. Or death.
He walked to the rain-drenched window and leaning it, he pressed his forehead into the cold, misty glass, hoping to find some concession in the infernal throb of his head.
But nothing was helping.
Nothing could help.
His pain was not his own. It was Eden's. It was rooted in her heart, this ache and it was blooming in his head.
They were bonded. They had been, since the moment Stephen re-pledged his vows at the Cathedral.
.....With her beating heart, my life goes on.......
The wound embedded in her psyche was plaguing his health.
It was her misery that he was sharing...and would share, every moment after.
At this instant however, the killing throb grew so worse in him that he was certain he would pass out should he remain standing.
Walking over to the bed, he tugged and undid his silken bowtie, dispensing it to where his waistcoat now lay.
Carefully, he got onto the cot on which his Eden lay, his lean body adjusting swiftly as he sat down by her, his feet tucked up, his back against the headboard.
He closed his eyes shut, as the torment heightened within his skull, and then, he went blank.
Not asleep.
He fainted.
***
It might have been hours gone by.
It might have been days. Eras.
Centuries.
He was utterly lost, roused by the same clamped-down feeling in his heart and the heavy twinge in his head.
For a moment or two, even when his eyes were wide open, he could decipher nothing. Not even the kind of emptiness he was suffering.
Was it all black?
Was it all light?
He couldn't tell.
But then with a heavy gasp of dragged in breathe, his senses started to gain strength.
He was there, in that same accursed room.
He was leaning on the wall against her bed. He was in the same posture as he had been when he blacked out.
But there was a difference.
He tilted his head downward, taken by the weight upon his chest_ to find Eden's head resting on his heart.
Yes. It was her indeed.
She was clinging to him, her hand around his torso as he sat; she was semi upright too. He couldn't tell if she was asleep or awake. He was about to cup her face when he saw, in her other hand, lying on his body, was an unfolded piece of parchment.
A letter.
The letter_ Magpie's.
His breath hitched. The words of the letter were clear offerings to his gaze. He couldn't help thus, but read it.....
My dearest sister,
Eden,
By the time you would be holding this letter, I shall be too far from you. And yet, in this moment, you are near me. Here you rest, by me, your dark hair under my fingers. Although I will not wake you up anymore.
You do not deserve to see me like this.
It is raining right now, do you know?
It is raining hard, on this last night of my life when I wish there was moon. I wanted to see the moon once, before I pass away. And the stars.
This, Eden, is a goodbye, I am afraid.
Here I am going and there you shall remain. We both, alone, must divert our relevant paths now.
And I know I truly am dying, my dear. This is no presentiment. No intuition.
I can feel it crawling up my toes.
It's painful, Eden. So painful that it has benumbed my senses. My fingers give away now and then, as I write but I cannot stop. Minutes are flying by and time, I do not have. I dare not remove this quilt but I can feel the torrential pour with which my life is seeping out of me.
I wish I had not done what I did but alas, there is no going back. I must pay for my sins. And though there is so much to say, I am going blind, Eden, my vision is betraying me. Won't be long now that my breath shall betray me too.
Remember? Once you said, there was a fine line of difference between wanting and voracity. I suppose I crossed that line Eden. My wanting turned into voracity.
Here I am, dying famished. I am starving.
Forgive me, I know you will. I love you. I do. No one stands to me where you do.
Remember me, if you can, in the fireflies. Cherish me in the seasons. Drench with me in your rains. Stories of our, our adventures are many, aren't less, celebrate me in those. And though I shall not be filling your days and night from now on, someone else will....
Just, do not pity me, Eden. Do not cry over my grave. I won't be there.
I hope no sorrow of my absence remains.
Find happiness but keep my mention on your lips. I ask no more.
Here then, I shall be ending this.
Farewell my beloved. And as you remain, my dear Eden.
We will meet. Again.
Yours forever,
Maggie.
Eden's sob rattled through his chest reminding Stephen to release the long held breath.
His own eyes were moist somewhat even when he himself had been nowhere in the intimacy of this letter. His lips pressed in a grim line didn't hide the hurt that his green eyes so nudely betrayed.
His face was as pale as Eden's.
And yet, he had to stay strong. He had to keep himself together. He had to keep her together.
He had to bear the unbearable.
His arm circled around Eden's slim shoulder as the girl pressed her face harder into his chest. His shirt was half wet already, and still, he could feel warm tears being newly soaked into the fabric of his garb.
Eden lifted her one shaking finger and pointed jaggedly at a paragraph in the crumpled parchment.
"This girl...!!" Her hoarse voice was strange to hear as they were being spoken out from between her mincing teeth. "This girl!! Says she loves me the most in this world ...that..."
There was another loud sob. He pulled her harder into him. His grip around her tightened.
" Says that_ that_ 'No one stands to me where you do.' And couldn't she_ couldn't she live on for me?" Her voice shook, like her body.
His headache malignised even more.
"Liar!" Eden spat out, her fingers fisting around the wrinkled letter. "Such lies! I cannot but hate her."
"You do not." He couldn't keep himself from saying. "You cannot, Eden. Forgive her, that's what she asks for. Let her rest in peace."
"How can she?" Eden sobbed. "How can she rest in harmony when I die in discord every moment here...How? Liar! She had promised...Oh Maggie! You had promised!"
He tugged the letter off from between her limp fingers and gently folding it, he placed it away on the table. His aching head was making the world spin around.
"Sometimes, Eden..." He pressed a kiss on the top of her head. "...It is not in our power to keep all the promises we make."
Then why make such promises, Stephen; that you couldn't keep?
***
They both fell asleep then, long after her tears simply starved.
He struggled in his dream, his head having no mercy on him. She struggled in her veracity, her heart bleeding dire.
He held her. She held him.
He knew she was the one for him.
He wondered if she felt the same.....
___
They say it's all fair in love,
And it's all forgiven, in war.
They say time can heal all wounds,
But alas, who shall heal the scar....??
___
She walked uphill on the sloppy, mud-drenched path, slapdashing incautiously, not caring to avoid the puddles that would surely impair her gown.
A little pups ran on her heals. It's tiny legs contesting her persistent pace.
Eden. Pie.
But no Magpie.
The rain was steady. Slow.
The leaves on the tree were dripping drops, slowly, steadily.
Nothing was dry. It was all wet.
Earthworm frolicked on the soil, by the potholes. The crows croaked in distance and the echoes followed.
It was a wet afternoon.
But it had a finality in it. It had an unwaveringness in it.
It had a farewell in it.
___
He woke up with a start.
The desecrating emptiness in the room damaged his peace while he felt for Eden.
She was not there.
He sat up, abruptly, his head killing him in the motion. His unsteady eyes regarded the gloom-ridden chamber.
They landed on the bedside and a curse slipped out of his lips as he found his wife to be absent.
Hoping that she was somewhere in the manor itself, he threw his feet down on the sturdy floor. He stood up on his legs and a severe gist of weakness swiped across his form.
He swayed, frailly.
Pain had never had such an authority over him as it had today.
But then, it was not his own pain either. It was hers.
He was merely grieving her grief. Compensating her sorrow.
He left the room, concerned about her whereabouts, his legs directed him into the deeper arenas of the manor.
___
When they couldn't find Eden anywhere in Ashleyton, Lord Adelwood was livid.
He already looked pale enough to be ill himself and Eden's absence had completely discolored him out of all vestiges.
Carol and Bella couldn't understand what business he had, if Eden was not here. They understood that at times like these, Eden had to be looked after and taken care of and they were really nervous over her absence but still....
Why he?
Why was Master Adelwood so beside himself?
Then, it suddenly struck to Carol.
"Mrs. Hopkins! My lord!" She cried. "She might be_ Eden might be uphill. At Margaret's catacomb. You know she didn't wish to come away and_"
Before she could finish, Lord Adelwood's face filled her vision as he stood right infront of her now.
"Miss Carol." He addressed without letting her finish. "Lead me to there."
Carol did as she was bid and showed Lord Adelwood all the way to uphill, where the burial had happened just some hours ago.
However, the moment the burial area came into view, with Eden actually in it, Lord Adelwood dismissed Carol and asked her to leave straight for the manor.
___
If he had not known what she suffered himself, Stephen would have been furious at Eden for scaring him so.
But anger was not there in him anymore. Not for her.
Only love. Insensitive, insufferable love.
For her. All reserved for her.
And now, even when he was on the verge of collapsing down in the pain she was bequeathing him, he could only love her all the more.
There she sat, by the tomb, pulling at her hair right now, her nails bleeding, all ten of it, as if she had tried to dig the heap of earth in front of her.
As if she had just asked the earth to regurgitate whole, the life it had just swallowed away. Whole.
On her cheeks were dirt and blood streaks, stained in the conduct of wiping her tears that had now stopped completely.
Her gown was all mud.
On her lap rested the head of a little puppy, a strange color mix- fur which had, squeaking sadly, slowly, in intervals. Its ears were bent, making it look smaller and more pitiable.
It seemed familiar with Eden, this pup.
Stephen stood leaning against a tree, watching her watch what she had lost and letting her be.
It was for the best, he knew.
The more she suffered now, the better it would be afterwards.
And there, on that austere afternoon of the desolate uphill, as hopelessness tainted every corner of morbid hopes, as the last of the last sorrow unhappily drained away in the rain, as Eden sat as lifelessly by the grave as Maggie inside lay, the worst passed away.
In flat terms, life goes on.
Maggie fossilized in time, her memories became alive.
Eden had at last accepted what was inevitably established.
He was there, all the time, by her. Too far for her to see, but nearer than anyone in this world. Sharing with her a kinship that only a few dare to share with other few.
Later, when the mist started to envelop the valley, he sauntered toward Eden, to help her up on her feet.
She said nothing. He asked nothing.
Stephen picked up the puppy in his arms and the little thing, wet and dirty, simply fell asleep against his warmth.
He took them both down the valley, to the manor, as Eden held him for support.
She couldn't walk properly. She was tired.
It was there at the gate of Ashleyton, that she stopped short and asked him for a favor.
"What is it, Eden?" He asked, wiping a dry mud-streak off her cheek.
She took his hand and kissed his knuckle, then looked up into his eyes.
"Bring me that Penfield."
_______
Next chapter is going to be thoroughly fierce!!!