Chapter Seventeen: Blood Moon by Rosaline Saul
MAGGIE MEANT TO be brave, but that was before she saw them together.
She feigned a headache and exaggerated it so that she could avoid being downstairs, but there was a dull ache in her head just the same.
Her bedroom door opened suddenly, and she watched in shock as Joseph kicked the door shut behind him.
“What are you doing here?” She asked too loudly.
“I am being a good employer,” he said coldly. “Looking after the health of one of my employees who would rather hide behind a minor illness than confront life.”
Anger flooded Maggie. “That is not fair. I have had my fair share of confrontation since we met.”
He looked resentful. “You wanted to see me earlier. What did you want?”
“To formerly give you my notice.” Her heart was hammering in her chest. “To let you know I was leaving.”
“You are wasting your time; I shall not accept your notice.”
“My job here is finished. You have no reason to keep me employed.”
“Do not speak to me of reasons.” His eyes blazed at her. “I wish for you to remain.”
“You wish!” She threw the words at him. “And what about my wishes? What if I cannot stand living under the same roof as you?”
“Lie all you want; it will make no difference.” His mouth twisted ominously. “The look on your face tells me you have shared my sleepless nights and until you share my bed, I doubt I will ever sleep again. These last weeks have been the longest in my life as I have longed to be with you.”
She asked mockingly, “How many women do you want in your bed?”
“I need only one.” He took a step toward her.
“Do not come near me and do not say these things. You are mean, Joseph. Mean! I wish I had never set eyes on you.” Her voice broke and she sobbed. “Just go away. Please, go away. Go back to where you belong and leave me in peace.”
“Peace.” He laughed harshly. “I doubt I will ever know peace again, and unlike you, I will stretch this moment into eternity.” His voice was low and resentful. “If you hate the sight of me so much, close your eyes and I will go away.”
She closed her eyes and he did disappear from her view.
Holding her breath, she felt his sudden nearness, then the touch of his lips on her hair, her forehead, and her closed eyelids.
“Goodbye,” he whispered.
Then there was nothing and she knew she was alone and lonelier than she had ever been in her entire life.
She should not be feeling like this. He was not worth it. He was going into a marriage of convenience with no intentions of being faithful. She should hate him. She wanted to hate him, but she could not and for this she despised herself.
Her unshed tears were turning her feigned headache into a real one.
She needed to get away from this house.
Away from him.
Hurriedly she packed her suitcase and when she was finished, she stood at the bedroom door and glanced across the room with a bittersweet emotion. She was sad to leave because when she left, she would also leave behind any hope she might have had. Even though she knew his memory would haunt her until her dying day, she wanted to remember every moment, every look, every unspoken word.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was expecting to see everyone gathered in the hall, but they were still behind the closed doors of the dining room. The laughter and excitement coming from the other side of those doors caused her stomach to spasm painfully.
Her suitcase weighed her down as she crossed the hall to the massive timber front door. The servant standing to the side of the entrance pulled the door open for her. He had a quizzical look on his face when he looked down at the suitcase hanging from her arm, but he did not utter a word.
She walked out into the cold night air and heard the door shut behind her. The sound was so final it tore her apart. Even though she fought them back, tears started flowing down her cheeks. She could not keep them back anymore.
Slowly she walked down the stairs transferring the heavy suitcase from her one hand to the other. There was no need to rush. They would only notice she was gone in the morning.
She did not even hear him behind her, until he asked her softly, “Are you really just going to... Leave me. Just like that?”
Maggie turned around to face him. She tried her best to hold it back, but her body jerked as a sob escaped her lips.
“Maggie.” He reached for her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Softly he asked, “Can you really be the only one in the world who does not know how much I love you?”
She stared at him in shock. “Is this a ploy to keep me here? To only have me as your mistress?”
He looked confused. “Why would I want to keep you as only my mistress?”
“Because you are going to marry Beatrice. She said she was ready to marry you.”
He laughed amused. “You thought it was my intention to marry Beatrice? What gave you that idea?”
She realised she was under the wrong impression. She had to endure so much heartbreak, based on an assumption supported by what Beatrice told her when they first met. “All this time, I thought she was talking about you.”
“Beatrice has been engaged to Mark for the past couple of hours. I have always intended for her to marry Mark, even though she thought she loved James. Mark has loved her for years, all that was needed was for Beatrice to realise she could be happy with Mark. And now she has.” He frowned briefly. “I thought you knew. I thought she told you?”
“She did, but from the beginning, I had it all wrong.”
Maggie transferred the suitcase from her one hand to the other. “Why employ me then? If not to convince Beatrice to marry you?”
He bent down and pried the handle of the suitcase from her clenched fingers. He lifted his hand and a servant came running down the stairs, taking the suitcase from him, returning it back to the manor.
Maggie did not have a chance to protest.
He said, “Because you were the one, I always wanted. I could have courted you without you living in the manor, but I wanted to see you every morning and I wanted your beautiful face to be the last face I saw each night. I could not bear to be separated from you, even for a moment.” He smiled tenderly. “When I saw you that first day with Beatrice, I thought here she is at last. Then I assumed you were helping Beatrice run away and I felt sick with disappointment.” He took a step closer to her, running his hands down her arms. Taking both her hands in his, he continued, “This whole time I have berated myself for not being able to keep my hands off you and I thought you were rejecting me because of your past experience, and you only saw me as someone who wanted to take advantage of you, when all I wanted was for you to feel safe.”
Maggie swallowed. “I am so sorry for accusing you falsely. How can I expect you to ever forgive me?”
His smile teased her. “But you already know I do.” He stepped even closer to her and looked at her amused. “Will you be my wife, so we can end this endless torment you have me in.” He watched her face intently.
Maggie was still too embarrassed to meet his gaze. She whispered, “Yes, I do want to marry you.” She added bravely, “All this time, I have wished I was the one you wanted to be married to.”
“Come I want to show you something,” he said softly.
He held her hand as she followed him around the outside of the manor toward the old church.
He seemed nervous as she waited for him to unlock the door and then he led her into the darkened interior to the back of the building where she saw tables full of alchemical apparatus.
“I want you to always feel safe, and for me to achieve this goal, I need to share an aspect of my work with you.” He looked worried. “I am scared you will want to leave me if I share my secret, but you must know.” He drew in a deep breath. “I have worked day and night to formulate an elixir, and I have found the fountain of youth. I have tested it, and a new vitality runs through my veins. I feel stronger and more powerful and I want you to drink the elixir as well. I want us to be together forever, Maggie.”
She looked up into his eyes and he returned her gaze with adoration.
He leant forward and kissed her. His mouth caressing hers with sensuous pleasure. “Do you want to be with me forever?” He asked her while keeping his lips close to hers. His whispered breath against her lips made her tremble.
“Yes... Forever.” She held her trembling fingers out to him.
Joseph held her hand for a moment, looking at it, then pressed her hand against his lips.
When he raised his head, she saw his face for an instant, fierce, and urgent, before he pulled her roughly closer to him. He held her hard against him and she could hear his heartbeat in his chest, hammering like her own.
His hands went to her shoulders and eased her away from him gently so that she was looking up at his face.
“I want you, Maggie,” he said. He swallowed, then cleared his throat. “Will you… Will you drink the elixir right now?”
“Yes,” she croaked.
He turned away from her and fumbled with a tiny bottle filled with a red liquid. “Once you have drunk the liquid in this bottle, you will be young forever, frozen in time. You will experience a terrible thirst, but I have learned how to master the need and I will teach you how. My love for you, I know will only grow stronger and stronger, and from the day I met you, I knew you were the one I wanted to spend my eternity with… After drinking the elixir, you will experience a severe sensitivity to sunlight, but Mark and I have already started working on an elixir to solve this minor issue. It is a small price to pay to live forever.”
She nodded once, and took the bottle from him, throwing her head back she let the thick, syrupy liquid slide down her throat.
The candlelight reflected off the many tiny bottles on the tables in the dark church building. It cast a red shadow on the walls that looked a lot like blood dripping down from the roof.
This is the end and we hope you enjoyed reading this story!
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