Past and Present - A Modern Day Romance of North & South

CHAPTER FIVE - UNDERCURRENTS OF ARDOUR

The moment she started to walk away, having thrown him one final oblique glance of arctic disapproval, something buried deep within him snapped and he found himself impulsively thrusting his hand towards her, ensnaring the top of her arm in loose restraint. Shocked by his actions she gave a start and almost sent the glasses she was holding crashing to the floor. Lost in her eyes as they turned to ensnare him, he hardly even noticed. The tender softness of her bare skin felt strangely sensual beneath his slackened fingers, the impact of this first physical contact between them taking his breath away as exquisite frissons of sensation rippled like wildfire along every nerve-ending in his body. He could hardly believe his reaction to her, the feelings that just simply touching her could engender.

He had expected a tirade, a sharp command demanding that he release her arm; and yet, in that instant, he found himself staring into a pair of large, bewildered eyes as they slowly, demurely, met his. He could feel the air between them spark with an almost tangible energy and for one breathless second he was aware of some stunned echo of recognition passing between them before it was suddenly gone and reality came crashing back, bringing with it the familiar antagonism that seemed to dog every attempt he made at conversation with her. Reluctantly he set her arm at liberty before she had the chance to demand that he do so, a ragged sigh passing his lips.

“I wasn’t trying to offend you,” he told her, assuming once more some degree of self-possession. His mouth hardened. “And I wish that you would stop assuming that it is my sole intention to do so every time we meet, because I can assure you that it isn’t.” He found himself searching her eyes, plunging deeply into their depths. Try as he might, he couldn’t read what she was thinking or whether she even believed what he said. His voice dropped lower to a murmur that only she could hear. “I’m not quite the villain you would have me painted, Margaret.”

She regarded him with cool indifference, seeming determined to petulantly cling to her preconceived ideas of him like a lifeline. She appeared so resolved to dislike him that he wondered why he even persisted in trying to make any kind of reparation. It was as though he were knocking his head against a barrier he had no hope of ever felling and yet he found that he couldn’t just throw up his hands in defeat. He was already lost. She was already inside him, her image always there in his mind, having managed, somehow, someway, to touch his very soul which had lain so cloistered and impervious for so long. Now he heard its plangent call for absolution and he knew instinctively that he would not rest until he got it.

“I am pretty certain that our paths will continue to cross from time to time,” he went on, keeping his tone even, despite the feelings she stirred so potently within him. “Could we at least try to be civil to each other?”

Her eyes seemed to challenge him, to beg the question of whether he was really capable, after the moods she had seen him in, of achieving such harmony.

“How about a truce?” he proposed, as though she had spoken her doubts aloud. He could certainly hear them ringing in his own ears. “Although it probably amounts to the same thing.”

“Why does it matter whether we get on or not?” she asked finally, appearing utterly perplexed by his resolution to smooth matters between them. “We have nothing in common with each other.”

“Perhaps with a little effort we might find some common ground,” he suggested, watching her carefully, studying her reaction for any flickering nuance in her expression. 

Instead of the conciliatory look he'd hoped for, however, she threw him a dubious glance that did little to inspire him. “I can’t imagine what that might be,” she said.

Her resistance was like an insurmountable wall between them, one he knew he had to somehow raze if they were to go forward. It was as though she wanted to dislike him. Yet he wouldn’t let her force him into defeat. He was too determined.