The Secret World of Ophelia Fontaine

Part Ten - A truth for a truth

In spite of her warring emotions, Ophelia could not help but laugh at Darien's attempt to rationalize what he had learned thus far. Being compared to a comic book character was, in some sense, flattering. Having been a lonely child, she had read her fare share of comics and was moderately familiar with the persona's to whom he was associating them with.

"How strange of you to draw from a fictional world laid out in colorful strips," Aurelie giggled. "Though I am not too fond of graphic novels, I can see where a man of the two dimensional world could find justification in such a comparison."

Darien tilted his head, his brow furrowed, as he looked Ophelia for a translation. This gave her more cause to laugh aloud, bending forward beneath weight of her mirth. As if the truth of the matter at hand were not impossible enough. The conversation taking place in the here and now was utterly ridiculous. And Aurelie's eloquent commentary had caused the most priceless of expression's to etch upon Darien's face.

"She has lived a sheltered life full of a more...elite education than your and I," Ophelia tried to explain. But try as she may, her amusement and vague announcement did nothing to alleviate his perplexity.

Just then, a young man with bright red hair and freckled skin came into the room baring a tray of refreshments for one. His step faltered when he saw that Aurelie was not alone. He nodded to Lady Fae in greeting, having met her several times before, but he could only stare at the dark brooding man standing just to his right.

"Mr. St. Clare, I would like you to meet Eremon Gallagher," Aurelie said by way of introduction. "He has been charged with my care by his father. I presume you met the former downstairs?"

Both men nodded in greeting. Eremon put the tray down on a night stand beside the bed and proceeded to resume his duties. He did not say a word to anyone in the room as he pulled out a pillow and blanket from a linen closet in the far corner of room. He brought the items to Aurelie's bedside, but hesitated, nervously eyeing her two guests.

"It's all right, Eremon," the young blonde coaxed with a sweet smile. "We are among friends."

He hesitated for a half second more before removing her blanket so as to replace it. It was then that Darien and Ophelia saw the extent of her father's fury. Her calves and feet, visible past the hem of her assumedly borrowed night gown, displayed a multitude of bruises in several degrees of discoloration. Ugly hues of purple, yellow, and black all made the cruel reality of her suffering too pronounced, and that is only what they could see. But her face remained untouched, which would seem miraculous if it did not bring to light an even crueler truth.

"He was always careful to not leave marks where others would notice. Thoughtful, was it not?" Aurelie answered with a sad smile.

If she did not know Aurelie as well as she did, Ophelia would have thought the girl was reading her mind.  But she knew that her friend required the touch of another to jumpstart her precognition. She bit back the threat of tears, forcing back the guilt that settled upon her like pile of stones meant to vanquish a witch.

"And how exactly are you mixed up in this?" Darien asked, his jaw twitching with inner frustration. "No offense, Aurelie, but what does any of this have to do with Miss Frumpy and me!"

Any answer that Ophelia may have provided remained unspoken as the dawning if his words froze her into silence. Aurelie's slender hands shot up to cover her mouth, but a muffled giggle betrayed her inappropriate amusement. Eremon swiftly shrouded the girl's lower body with a clean blanket.

"Miss Frumpy?" Ophelia bit out incredulously. "Miss Frumpy!"

"You must admit, Fae, that your appearance outside the walls of the Copper Station is very...frumpy," her frail friend pointed out amongst giggles that were no longer being hidden. "Such an efficient word, detective."

Darien shrugged his shoulders dismissively, keeping his intent gaze on Lady Fae. She stared back at him as if her were the plague, her hands clenched tight. Within moments she had gathered her composure and blanked her expression to a mask of impartiality.  

The Eremon tenderly tucked the fresh blanket around the petite blonde's damaged legs, his fingers softly brushing against the back of her right hand inconspicuously. Darien arched a quizzical brow, but few were hardly aware of its meaning. The unease within the room was shattered when the boisterous Mr. Gallagher charged into the room in his loud and warm manner.

"So? How do you find yer wee friend? Right in the world, she is! I canna see how she puts up with the likes of us Gallagher's, but she does, this wee young one!" He laughed at his one comment as if he had told a joke with some amount of hilarity to it, and yet Aurelie was the only one to join in with a giggle of her own.

Her red headed caretaker rolled his eyes and went back to straightening up around the room. His father went to his young charge's bedside and patted her head with no small degree of familiarity. The old Irish man's gaze flitted around to each occupant of the room.

"Have yee told them the news yet, lass?" he asked, his tone a bit uncertain as his glance flitted in Ophelia's direction.

The fragile blonde shook her head, her brown gaze darting between Eremon and Ophelia. A deep seated wariness constricted within her belly, leaving her feeling a bit ill. There was a secret floating about, and no one was prepared to reveal its contents. She had the suspicion that they all feared how she would react.

"Out with it then," she prompted, challenging at least one in the room to be open and honest with her. They were all friends after all, were they not?

Aurelie lifted her chin and looked past Mr. Gallagher to face her dear friend. "Eremon and I...well, we are to be...that is...."

"They are in love, Miss Fontaine, that is evident enough," Darien interjected when Aurelie failed to follow through with her statement.

Eremon ceased tidying the nightstand to stand straight and tall beside his beloved. Both Gallagher men flanked the bed protectively. Each held their breath for a response. Neither dared to speak first.

A woman of many guises, possessing a talent that stretched far beyond the realms of reason, could not hide behind her firmly placed mask when it felt as if everything she had set out to do was no longer applicable. She had set out to save this woman from a monster of a man, to secure a friendship that made her believe that she was not alone in this universe, and yet all she had done was deliver her into the arms of another man and into an era that would eventually severe their link to one another.

She should be happy for her friend, but she could find no cause for joy. The only person to understand her, the only friend that shared her kind of loneliness. She was leaving her behind to explore a love with a man she hardly knew. An all too familiar sensation of watery heat warmed her eyes, disallowing her to blink as she stared disbelievingly at her friend, otherwise her torment would be known to all that watched her. Everyone in the room was watching her.

She rushed from the room in a mad dash, knocking into Darien as she made her way to the nearest escape route. Ophelia raced down the stairs, ignoring Theo when he stood and called out her name. She made her way through the front entrance and onto the clustered streets outside. She searched the face of each passerby. What was it that she suspected to find in their grim little faces? Someone as lost and miserable as she?

Someone who repair her broken heart?