Promises Unkept

The girl he hated.

She had first seen him in the portrait his father had personally accosted her two weeks in the past and back then, Eden had found his smile positively endearing.

His jade, raconteur eyes were bright_ and a fine depiction too. He was tall, his posture proud but not conceited. He was strikingly good-looking and from what her maid told her, he was a wealthy man. That was what made Eden doubt throughout the ordeal if it was or not just another poor hilarity played on her bruised empathy.

When her uncle first told him of this man, he was thoroughly drunk. She barely heard him over his slur of spirit and stale breath.

He repeated the same account the next morning, sober now and she could only frown at the utter rubbish he was blabbering. She was certain excess of glugging had got his sanity off all marks.

It was the next day that the posh carriage stopped at her doorstep_ and the elegant old man knocked at _ on all earth_ her door, she became vigilant.

She nearly laughed when the proposition was placed in front of her and it was a shock because Eden never laughed.

How come this be?

Despite her uncle's vile hisses and dreadful glares, Eden asked Lord Adelwood if all this understanding had some intention lying underneath. She stood nowhere when weighed against the man in the portrait, not even remotely. Not even in her own wildest fantasies.

To think being his wife... was simply unthinkable.

"Your world doesn't convene ours." She had whispered mildly. Angrily. "With all due respect, do not fool me into believing the implausible, my lord."

"My son, Stephen_" Lord Adelwood interrupted. "He will let you know when it is time. For now, you may have my words about this congregation. Yours and Stephen's union is just as natural as any other harmony in this world. Neither is he any high, nor you a bit low. To love and respect, that would be his promises. And yours."

Eden bowed her head and listened. Never believed, but she heard it all out.

That evening, her uncle came home inebriated as much as he could be and something about Eden's quiet, deep in thought attitude got him suddenly all put out.

He grabbed her arm unyieldingly and shook her in a rude frantic fashion.

""You...you girl, always a millstone around my neck, weren't you...always a skin to be shed off...you..!! Look now, what I 'av done for you and be thangful. That rich bastard..eh, Adl'ood, him..yes. That man is to take you away now. Now, at last. I get to lose that ugly head of yours. Bah! Damned witch. Get lost, or else...!!"

Then, he had thrown at her the ceramic plate from the table because she didn't look 'thankful enough' to him. That plate had hit her on her forehead , she almost collapsed at the sudden agony but fortunately, the purple bruise was imbued in the corner of her forehead and was quite easy to cover by her hair.

***

Today, Eden believed.

She at last believed that for some unknown, unfathomable reason, the deities had blessed her with this man.

When she had stepped down the aisle, she had been unfeeling. Indifferent, as if it was not her life morphing in extremes. But then, she saw him.

Her steps faltered the moment his eyes met hers.

A plodding, profound sadness erupted in her heart. She had been here in her dreams.

On this aisle, she had fantasized herself so many times before. But on the altar, waiting for her with his deepest, most alluring smile_ it had always been Jonathan.

Her best friend. Her first, very first love.

He should have been there. However, like all things good, Jonathan too had left Eden not long ago and here she stood. Alone, walking up to a stranger. To a life that was as unfamiliar to her as darkness is to sun.

Her focus shifted and at length, she noticed the burning green gaze studying her from afar.

Her fingers around the roses shriveled. He was more beautiful than she had realized.

He was alluring and so not for her. So beyond her dreams and reality.

He averted her eyes instantly and at that moment, without even knowing it, Eden had placed all her faith for better days in him.

In that moment, Eden saw the kindest man in the world standing on the decorated dais, waiting for her and she couldn't thank her stars enough.

She couldn't thank him enough.