Love & Misunderstanding

Chapter Twelve - Helene's POV

My life had been filled with almost nothing but pure misery for the past month. I now dreaded social events more than ever, due to the constant presence of Matthew Caldwell. Simply being in the same building as him made me excruciatingly uncomfortable. He would stare at me as if he were watching my every movement. It was creepy to say the least. I felt like a lone deer being stalked by a hungry predator, just waiting for him to pounce.

Despite this, I could not say that everything had been horrible. Surprisingly enough, there had been of occasions for me to speak with Jonathan. Of course our conversations were quite brief and inconspicuous; however, by now I had come to regard him as someone that I could fully trust. He had proven to me that he was not planning to tell Matthew the things I had told him, earning my deep respect as well as my gratitude.

"Helene, do you think I could borrow that dark green dress of yours?" Louise asked, as I sat by my window, reading a book. "Are you even listening to me?"

"It is hard not to listen to you, Louise," I teased. "Besides, why would you want to borrow my dress? You have plenty of beautiful dresses of your own."

"That is true, but James likes the colour green and I do not have a decent green dress in my entire wardrobe! It is crucial that I find one before the ball next week!" she exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and placed my book on the edge of the window sill. "All right, I was planning on wearing my purple dress anyway."

She eagerly rushed over to my closet, and grabbing the green dress, began to spin around, squealing with delight as if I had just given her a diamond necklace. I clamped my hands over my ears as her squealing became rather high pitched. Fortunately for my poor eardrums, she soon stopped as she tossed the dress aside and rushed over to the window, nearly knocking me out of my chair.

"Who is that Adonis?" she asked, her eyes widening with awe.

Nudging her over a bit so that I could see as well, I found that there was a man dismounting from his horse in front of our house. He was indeed handsome with his warm, chocolate-coloured eyes and sun-tinted brown hair. His skin was wonderfully tanned, quite the opposite of mine, from what I assumed to be the result of spending many long hours outside. He looked so very masculine with his chiselled chin and muscular build. All things considered, I had to agree with Louise on this. He could have been Adonis from Greek Mythology.

"That must be Mr. Johnson." I said, shaking myself out of the state of awe that I too had been struck by.

"Who?"

"The man who is going to be living with us for a while," I explained.

"Forget about James. I want Mr. Johnson!" she swooned.

I groaned. The man had not even been here for more than a minute, and already Louise had decided that he would be hers. She could be terribly selfish at times. Whenever she saw something that she wanted, she expected it to be hers without question. Although, I had to admit that this was certainly a change, considering the fact that she usually hated rugged looking men. "Louise, you have not even met him yet!" I protested.

"How do you know him?" she asked.

"He is a distant relative of Charlotte's who's in town for business reasons. He needed a place to stay and we were recommended."

"In that case, you can keep your green dress. I will be wearing my yellow one," she declared.

I was just about to try and talk some sense into her, when I heard my mother call me from downstairs. Without delay, Louise grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the room and down the stairs. Sure enough, standing in front of the door with his suitcase, was the man we had spied on only a few moments earlier.