Lady Unlike Any

14. Kiss

"Make me immortal with a kiss."― Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus and Other Plays

William was in a slump. The announcement of the new Liberal party President came right before the start of the second Parliament session. He stopped getting out of his estate, he should be preparing for the parliament but he resigned himself to spirits.

His family was worried about him. One or another member of his family visited him every day. They didn't try and engage him in conversation or force him to get better. Somehow, they understood he needed the time to mourn the loss of his dream.

He had slept through the afternoon and woke up to the bucket of water splashed on his face by his mother. After berating him for the entirety of dusk and like a child forcing him to shave and clean up his act, making him eat his lunch, William felt alive.

His mother sat him down like when he was a child, and explained to him, that there is not only one way to achieve one's dream. Being a party leader was simply one way to his dream and now he need to find another way. She was certain, that of all her children, he was the one who will always come out of any challenges that comes his way. He was grateful to his mother but the thought of the presidency couldn't be far from his mind.

His mother left soon after and he ordered to bring in more brandy to his room. He was sipping on his glass of spirits when his butler came in hastily stating someone was here to meet him and he shot up thinking it was his mother again and hastily tried shoving decanters below the chairs.

"What are you doing?" He stopped at the voice coming from his door.

Ah, his mother was right. He had lost it completely. He had reached his limit to hear her in his chamber and when he saw her standing inside his bed-chamber he was certain he had started hallucinating.

"My lord," His butler spoke up standing right behind her with a worried look.

Before he could speak up, she ordered him to bring whiskey to his chamber and made herself comfortable on the settee in front of him like it was her own bed-chamber. The emotions he has been suppressing with the liquor have started to bang on his heart's door to let out.

She was sitting here in front of him in her disguise that can hardly hide her lean figure, her red hair askew due to the hat that could hardly contain them, her face glittering with the beautiful freckles on display.

His heart was thumping so loudly he could hear it reverberating in his chamber.

His butler poured the whiskey for her and stood on the side.

"You can leave now. I am not going to compromise your lordship," She said smugly.

After William's signal, his butler left them both alone. They sat in the silence of the darkroom fire crackling in the hearth while they sipped on their drinks.

"I didn't expect to find you in such a state, my lord," She said facing him once again.

He straighten himself hoping she didn't catch him in the act of staring at her.

"This is definitely worse than I expected," She said when he didn't respond.

"What are you doing here, my lady?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned him right back, "Shouldn't you be introducing your bill for the inheritance for ladies in the parliament or announcing that your engagement to Lady Caldwell is off?"

William gulped the rest of the brandy.

"And why would I do any of it?" He asked calmly.

She looked at him with a disbelieving look that made him uncomfortable. He poured himself one more glass of brandy. He should not be drinking more, he was starting to lose control, but he wanted to run away a bit more. He was stretching it a bit far and when something is stretched beyond the limit it snaps.

Kathalina was worried and hurt at the state she found him in. Drinking away his sorrows was something she never expected of him. After looking for him at every ball and waiting for him to turn up at parliament when the second session started, he was still nowhere to be found. It was like he disappeared in thin air. She patiently waited for the news of breaking off his engagement after he found his fiance with another.

But now it seemed he was never going to break off his engagement. How could he think of spending his entire life with someone who was with someone else while engaged to him? Then again, wasn't she the same? Her father has announced her engagement and yet here she was in the chamber of another man.

Maybe all of us were the same, we can't have the one we desire and she desired William from the depths of her heart. She went insane when he was nowhere to be found. She wanted to see him, she wanted to feel his presence. She craved even the slightest touch, she wanted to feel their first kiss again.  

After William kissed Kathalina for the first time she was introduced to the world of magic and she fell in love with kissing him and she wanted to forever kiss him.

"When will you kiss me again?" William blanched at Kathalina's sudden words.

Her words were like a splash of bucketful water for he was wide awake. He stared at her wide-eyed.

He gulped at the serious look on her face, she was not teasing him. She was demanding a kiss from him. He blinked rapidly trying to come up with a response. 

He didn't say anything, sitting rigidly in his place afraid he might lose all his control any minute. He took deep breaths, calming himself. He needed to handle this carefully, she has been drinking spirits and he lost count of how much she had in her system.

"Don't you want to kiss me?" She asked her face softening. She looked like an angel asking him to sin.

"You do not understand what you are asking for," He grumbled.

"I understand. I am asking for a kiss," She said confidently.

"Do you understand the implication for asking a kiss from a man like this," He said on threadbare control.

"Are you going to name me as a wanton woman? Because as far as I know wanton woman is the one who goes on kissing every other man and I only want to kiss you," She said plainly.

His heart skipped a beat at her casual confession. She was unknown to the emotions running rampant inside him. He wanted to ask her what she meant when she said she only wanted to kiss him but knowing how whimsical she was, she must have said it without thinking and he rather not open the door that will bring discomfort to both of them or break his heart even more.

"So? What have you decided?" She asked once more, sipping on her whiskey.

"Go home, my lady," He said dismissing her, not looking at her. He walked up to his window, fist clenched, evening out his breath. The moon was so bright.

"What about my kiss?" She asked once more from behind him.

He wanted the earth to swallow him, the gentleman in him couldn't give her what she wants but the beast in him wanted to claim her completely.

"It is so surprising, you want to fight the world for the things no woman has asked of you and yet you deny my wish," She said pouting.

"Your wish is a kiss, correct?" He asked still watching the moon.

"Yes," She said excitedly.

"I can't stop at the kiss."

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