Come Love A Stranger

Fifteen

“I am sorry,” he whispered, his voice achingly low and in pain, “I do not mean to lose my temper on you. I am so sorry, please forgive me, please forgive me, Mariah.”
“Hush,” Mariah placed a finger on his lips, “I can understand, you are in pain, my mother used to say that a pain shared is less painful.”
She saw him smile, his eyes still closed and he softly shook his head, “my pain cannot be shared, t’s a punishment I have to live with.”
“I don’t understand,” she said with a frown, “who would punish you like that?”
He opened his eyes and looked deeply into her beautiful green ones, he reached his hand and caressed her cheek with his knuckles, “Mariah,” he sighed, “there are so much you do not know.”
“Then tell me, please. I just realize that I know nothing about you, but it seems to me that you know everything about me.”
He chuckled and moved out of her touch, “not everything,” she frowned and he smiled, “you did not tell me what happened tonight, or why you were sad.”
“Oh,” she looked down at her feet, she thought she had succeeded in not saying that, how is she to tell him? She heaved a deep sigh and closed her eyes then looked up at him, “my father, he came back from the palace with good news for him, not me.”
“What is that?” he asked.
She sucked in a deep breath and let it out through the mouth, “the king…the king wants to marry me,” she closed her eyes to avoid the look in his eyes, “father said I would be going to the palace in a fortnight to be trained as a queen.” She felt a gentle caress on her cheek and opened her eyes to see him staring at her.
“What do you want? You do not want to marry the king?” he asked and she nodded, “why not? Every maiden your age would love the idea of being the queen.”
“I do not want that, perhaps I would have before but not anymore,” she rubbed her hand on her arm.
“Why?” he asked, tilting his head to his right, “what changed?”
Mariah closed her eyes, she heaved a deep breath, “I do not know, I just…don’t want to marry the king anymore.”
“Then the prince?”
She looked up at him to see him smiling, “no,” she replied and he laughed. His laughter sounded like music to her ears and she looked away to hide her blush, taking in their surrounding again and sighing at what has become of it. “What happened, why did the flowers all die?”
He didn’t say anything and she looked at him to discover he was looking at the dead flowers too, she waited for him to say something but he didn’t. “Did you do this?” she asked but he said nothing, “that thing I saw, is it your memory? What happened then, why were you in so much pain, who was that person?”
“Mariah,” he rasped and shook his head, “do not ask.”
“Why not, you just asked me about mine and I told you. This is what I’m saying, you get me to tell you everything, anything you want to know you seem to know a way to get it out of me, and I would tell you. But you will not tell me anything about you, you never did. I have known you for a while, I know it’s not been long but I feel like I have known you forever, I feel like I have known you all my life but I don’t even know your name. You wouldn’t tell me, when I ask you would say I should meet you the next day and I will but you still won’t tell me. No matter what I ask about you, you won’t say, why? Is it just me? Am I the only one feeling like this?” She placed her hand on her chest, “my heart, it tells me things, it pulls me to you and I don’t know why. Is it just happening to me? Are you not feeling the same? Why can I feel your pains and see your memory?”
“Enough, Mariah,” he said and turned his back on her, “that is enough,” he took a deep breath, “come, let me take you home.”
“You…you are chasing me away, because I asked questions?”
“Nay, because I am a man of my words, I promised I shall take you home and that I shall do,” he turned to her, “t’s late.”
Mariah wanted to say so many other things but she couldn’t, neither could she stop the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks. The night had started badly; somehow he had come and made it better only to ruin it again. She looked away from him just as the tears started pouring down her cheeks, she couldn’t help but wonder why all this was happening to her and why she was feeling like that because of him. She sniffled and cleared her throat, without looking at him, she said, “there was a man tonight. I do not know how he came in but he warned me against you, he said that I should stay away from you if I want to live.”
“Maybe you should listen to him,” he replied and she looked at him sharply, how could he say that? Why would he say that? So many things ran through her mind and he closed his eyes. “Mariah, I am no good for you. He is right; you should keep away from me.”
“How can I do that, you were the one that came to me tonight, I can’t even…”
“Perhaps,” he interrupted, “I am the one to stay away.”
“No,” she grabbed onto his hand immediately, “you are not leaving because I told you the king wants to marry me, right? That was why I did not want to tell you, I did not want you to stay away.” Normally, he would have smiled and caressed her cheek and she waited for him to do that, longed for him to but he didn’t, rather he turned his back on her.
“I shall take you home,” he said and started walking away.
Mariah stared at his back, tears cascaded down her cheeks and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. She sniffled and fought so hard not to sob. What is wrong with her, she hasn’t known him for long, why should she cry for him? Why should she cry just because he said he would stay away from her? He was still walking ahead and without looking back to know if she was following. Her heart bled by the thought and she tried to calm herself before following him.
As they walked through the forest silently, Mariah thought of so many things and it hurts her again that he didn’t even bother to take her back the way he brought her. Maybe he doesn’t even want to touch her anymore. She suddenly hit a wall and looked up to see that it was his back. She backed away immediately, thinking he would be angry because she touched him since he doesn’t want to touch her again.
“Ah, Mariah,” he groaned and turned then to look at her. She was prepared to apologize but the next thing he did shut her up. He pulled her into arms, burying his face at the crook of her neck and breathing in her scent. “Close your eyes,” he rasped. She wanted to question but his gentle voice got the best of her and immediately she closed her eyes, she felt the breeze enveloping her like it had done before and just like the first time; it disappeared as quickly as it came and when she opened her eyes, they were in her bedroom. He released her from his hug and picked her up; she kept his gaze, wondering what was going on as she wrapped her hands on his neck.
He walked straight to her bed and placed her on it gently, then grabbing her bedcovers, he covered her. All he did without breaking their eye contact. He leaned forward and kissed her softly on the forehead, and then he looked into her eyes, “sleep,” he said and she felt drowsiness washing over her that her eyelids were hard to keep open.
“No, tell me your name, please,” she begged sleepily.
She felt his breath on her neck and then she heard a whisper, “Alador,” and she fell deeply into the darkness.