I Followed Fires

XXX. Bash

Her hair was drenched in the dirty waters of the rainfall. Drops of water dripped from her dress and on to the floor of the bedchambers. Her face seemed pale and ill, and every part of her body shivered with every motion she took.

And yet she remains so beautiful, Bash thought.

He stood before her as she watched her changing her little brothers' clothes that were soaked in rain to dry ones. She then proceeded to lay them on a settee near the fireplace, to make sure they stay warm, he assumed. Thankfully, Theo and Cyril still remained fast asleep, and the chattering were begin to fade away. "Aren't you going to help me settle them in?" asked Adèle, looking evidently irritated by his negligent behavior. Bash soon snapped out of his daydreams, and helped her tuck Theo and Cyril under their blankets.

"Forgive me," Bash apologized for himself. "I should have done more to help you. I'm a fool,"

"I know you are. You need not to tell me that," Adèle smiled slyly as she poured warm milk into silver cups and laid them on a wooden table near the fireplace. Bash watched as she wringed her hair to remove the rainwater in her hair, as her dress was soaked wet. It was improper of him to watch her in such an intimate moment; it was as if he was watching a woman after a bath, but then again, Bash could not resist.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me?" Adèle said.  "You are engaged, Bash, and you are to marry in a few weeks, possibly. I'm not sure watching a woman drenched by the rain is the place you want to be right now."

He only smiled in response, and then sat at the edge of the settee where Theo and Cyril were left to slumber and escape into their world of dreams. His hand reached over to Theo's head and caressed his hair as he watched him sleep peacefully. Bash was someone who did not find himself capable of taking care of children, but Theo and Cyril were an exception. As he sat near the two brothers, he did not notice that Adèle had been watching from afar, with a smile on her face.

"You don't have to help them go to sleep, Bash. They already look quite dozed off," said Adèle.

"I don't mind," he replied. "It's better to be here than to risk myself going into the Blood Wood each day, isn't it?" He gave his trademark smirk, and then rose from his seat and paced towards Adèle.

"Perhaps I should go change, I look quite ridiculous in such drenched clothing, I must admit." Her cheeks flushed red.

Bash smiled at her once again, something she did not very much like, as it was his smiles that caused her blushes. He soon realized that she was smiling as well, but this smile quickly disappeared off his face and she picked up Theo and Cyril's soaked clothing that were laying on the floor. She coughed, signaling him to excuse himself from her bedchambers.

"Forgive me," Bash spoke. "I shall excuse myself from your bedchambers. Have a good evening, Adèle."  

By then, her cheeks were as red as roses.