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sɪx 𝑉𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒
❦
Maria blushed, hearing her name echo around the church from the front of it. From his lips the name that she had always hated sounded beautiful, like that of an angel. It had been her grandmother's name, her aunt's and her cousin's too. Maria felt her name was common, sounding like any other word of a normal language. But the name that came to her ears, her name, didn't sound like anything she had ever been called before.
She knew it was wrong to think such a thing, even as innocent as it was. Her brother would have her head as readily as the man she thought about, and yet she couldn't seem to help it. Her ears strained to listen for her name as easily as her eyes had searched for the speaker on Christmas Eve. Maria knew she couldn't stop to show her face to the person who searched for her, but that didn't stop her from looking.
She wondered why he was here, how he had weaselled himself out and away from his family. Perhaps it was different for him than it was for her: maybe he didn't need his brother's permission to leave and go to church. She could see that as being the reality. Though she hadn't heard anything about what had happened on Christmas Day, she knew it couldn't have been good. And so she felt uneasy at the fact that Arthur Shelby had come to church, looking for her, alone.
She lifted herself from the narrow line of the pew, shifting her wait to the side as she slipped easily from behind the stone pillar she had placed herself behind. Sitting closer to the back doors than she ever had before had been a blessing that day, as she stood, what she believed to be unnoticed. But as she tugged at the large handle of the wooden doors, she felt a rough hand encase her wrist, pulling her back gently.
Maria held her breath, already knowing who was behind. Arthur breathed out a harsh breath as his eyes landed on the face that he had thought to be his own guardian angel. He didn't believe that she was real, that the radiant woman who had appeared over him, face only slightly shielded from view, had talked to him out of her own free and saintly will. What he had believed, was that she was a figment of his imagination, a manifestation of what he needed. But if Arthur Shelby knew anything about Maria, it was that she had the most beautiful name that he had ever heard.
"Maria?" He let the name glide from between his parted lips.
As she didn't reply, he wanted to say it again. To let the sweet sound fall from his mouth over and over again, as he knew he would never get tired of it.
Maria wanted to turn away, to extinguish the bright light of hope that shone around him like a beacon. She wanted to shake her head and act as if she had no idea who he spoke of. But she didn't. Instead, she was nodding, letting her eyes flutter delicately to land on the look of relief that spread across his rugged face.
