Isabella's Choice (The Choice Series, Book 1)

Chapter 16

The music began. They bowed. He held her arms. She held her gaze away from him. He moved forward. She purposefully moved backward. He smirked. She couldn't see that. He moved another step forward, neglecting the rules of the dance. She despised his barbaric act, neglecting the rules of being a lady, she gave his right foot a merciless step (pretending to be careless, of course). He groaned. She smiled. He saw that. She stopped.

"Miss Marchwood," Horton started quietly, "you see, it's a party held by Earl Lockwood. I'm quite sure as honourable as a man he is, Countess Philipson and Baroness Hoffsten must be in the guest list."

"Aunt Fiona and Aunt Helena! Good gracious!" Isabella gasped at Horton's mention of her most fearing aunts in the world! The two elder sisters of her mama! The most horrible, the most old-fashioned, the straightest, the most ardent lovers of gossip!

"Perhaps they are looking at you, and perhaps they see your rude behaviour, and perhaps they report it back to Lady Marchwood, and perhaps -"

Isabella immediately grabbed his hand, a bit too ferociously, and dragged him back to the dance. It was too sudden and too violent a treatment. However, Horton felt neither offended nor disrespected, but delightfully pleased.

"Miss Marchwood, how do you find Milton's Paradise Lost?"

"Interesting, casting a hero who is destined to fail. A tragedy. But I haven't known whether it remains to be a tragedy by the end. I'm still in the middle of the work." Isabella casually looked at Horton and continued, "Don't you find it ironic? Something that is as terrible as the fall of humanity is romanticised into a long piece of epic poem."

"Life is too harsh. I don't find any harm in romanticising misfortune." Horton smiled and led her to the next step.

"If God loves Lucifer, he should have not created him," commented Isabella faintly, "Because God should have known of his rebellion and to create him is destined to put him in an eternal fall. He knows he has to cast him to hell and he's never to return. Isn't that terrible? So, it's better for Lucifer to never come to life. Non existence is much better than existence in hell."

Horton laughed politely, "I don't expect to have such a serious discussion in a ball. However, I may find myself holding a different opinion. I believe it's because of love that God created Lucifer."

Beautiful music was in the background and the lights were glimmering bright. Isabella shimmered with the reflection of curiosity and light from all the shiny crystal chandeliers.

Looking at her eyes, he read her impatience and, with a satisfied smile, he said, "You are only standing from an imaginary perspective of God. You consider what you should do if you were God. But you never are, and you never will be. God creates because of love and his love causes all creations to come to exist. Satan falls. But God's intention was to create Lucifer, the morning star, not Satan, the fallen star."

Isabella deeply thought about his words and found that he seemed too nice to be a murderer. How could any murderer be so calm and gentle when talking about God, without a single shiver of discomfort and guilt?

However, she believed her stories and she believed her fantasy. Horton must be the evil vampire who stole away many innocent lives. At this point, to think that she was in the arms of a bloodthirsty villain whose hands may hold her gently today and slaughter her throat the other day was a terrible idea. She was alarmed and realised that she was in danger!

"Miss Marchwood, are you feeling unwell? Your face is becoming quite pale." Horton looked at her eyes intently. His hands never let go of her shoulder and waist.

"No, no, not at all," she shook away the troubling thoughts and asked, "What about you? What do you think of the work of Miss Northcliff? You need to return the book, you do know that, right?"