Pomegranate Seeds ➸ Alistair

ii

The following week felt to be something of a bad dream to Eloise, one from which she would never awake. No one besides Henry seemed to have noticed just how miserable she had become.

"I wish there was something I could do," he told her the afternoon after she had found out the news. He didn't bring it up again, but what more was there for him to say? Words were fruitless. There was truly nothing he, or any of them, could do.

"Baron Winslough will be arriving a week from today," Eloise's father informed her Monday at breakfast. Her appetite left her.

If it weren't for the fear of disgracing her family, Eloise would have considered acting without propriety to chase him away; no baron wanted a mannerless wife. But she cared too much for her family and the future of her siblings to do such a thing.

Sleep often evaded her, and one night, rather than spend hours tossing and turning, she shed her nightdress and donned trousers and a shirt she had nicked from Henry. She couldn't imagine what her mother would say if she was found in men's clothing, but Eloise couldn't find it within herself to care.

She slipped out the window, years of climbing trees helping her clamor down from the second story of the building without injury. Eloise realized too late that she had forgotten her shoes, but she wasn't about to scale back up for something so trivial, so she went barefoot, enjoying the cool ground beneath her feet.

Instead of entering the trees, Eloise padded into the wide field beside her home and laid down in the tall grass to look at the stars. It was easier to relax outside, with the rustling of the grass and the warm breeze caressing her face.

"This is how young ladies disappear, you know." Eloise started violently, shooting up into a sitting position. Alistair was watching her from several yards away, brow quirked. "But I suppose it is as nice a night for stargazing as any."

Eloise hadn't seen Alistair in many years; not since she was fourteen, which was five years ago by now. How things had changed since then. "Hello, Alistair," she greeted.

He smiled and took this as an invitation to take a seat beside her. "You have grown quite a bit since I last saw you."

"Time tends to do that," Eloise said. He was as unchanged as he always was, though his eyes, illuminated by the near-full moon, were a darker shade of red than she remembered.

"Yes, it does," he agreed. "What has you out here in the middle of the night?"

"You wouldn't believe I just came out to see the stars?"

He let slip a low laugh. "Perhaps I would, if I wasn't so good at detecting lies."

"Couldn't sleep," she settled on as her answer.

"So you come lay in a field?" He arched an eyebrow. "What truly bothers you?"

The ease in which he read her was unsettling, but she found herself telling him the truth regardless. "I am engaged."

He stilled. "Engaged? You are to marry the man you love, isn't that a happy occasion?"

"I do not love him. How can I love a man I have never met? He is a baron. My father arranged everything." She laid back down on the grass, finding it easier to look to the stars rather than into his piercing eyes.

"You have no choice?" he asked, sounding angry on her behalf. Strange how he seemed to care more for her happiness than any of her own family.

"None, if I do not risk shaming my family. That is something I could never do to them," she said.

He laid back in the grass too, and their shoulders brushed. "I am sorry."

"I can only hope that he dies far before me." Eloise wasn't entirely sure why she admitted this, but it made him laugh again, low and pleasing.

"Not a bad thing to hope for one who takes away your choices in life," he said. "Is he much older than you?"

"The same age as my father," she said.

"Then you have a fairly high chance of your wish coming true."

Her lips curled up in a smile. "You shouldn't encourage me to say such things. Imagine what Mother and Father would do if I said that to them."

"Perhaps I shouldn't, but I will never prevent you from speaking your mind," he said. "When are you supposed to marry?"

"Three weeks from now. He comes to visit next week. It's then that I will meet him for the first time, find out what sort of man he is."

"I have never found his types to be particularly honorable," Alistair said. "My father was an aristocrat in his day. He planned to make me the new king."

"What happened?" Eloise asked.

"He met a gruesome end," he said.

It took very little for Eloise to connect the dots. "By a gruesome end, you mean-"

"Yes, and though I did not mean to kill him, I am not sorry for it. He sold the lives of my mother and sisters to make me what I am." Alistair's tone was bitter.

"Do not blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault," Eloise said, wishing to comfort him.

"With time, you will find that is much easier said than done."

"You should be kinder to yourself, Alistair," she said, eyes trained on the moon. "I find you are not nearly as bad as you believe yourself to be."

"If there is only one person on earth who believes that to be so, I am glad it is you."

A blush bloomed in Eloise's cheeks, and unseen by her, Alistair smiled. They lapsed into silence, simply staring up at the stars, close enough to one another that Eloise could feel the cold that emanated off his skin.

It felt like all too soon when he spoke.

"You should return to your bedroom, attempt to rest," Alistair said, propping himself up on an elbow. "Perhaps an answer to your problem will come to you in the morning."

She looked up at him, an unfamiliar feeling fluttering in her chest, and sighed softly. "I doubt it, but I will go."

They stood, and Alistair offered Eloise his arm. "Allow me to walk you back."

"Thank you," she said softly, slipping her arm through his. "I exited through my window."

"Of course you did," he said, tone fond.

It was a short walk back to her home; she had not gone far. She looked to her window, still open, the curtains fluttering in the warm breeze. "So this is where we part."

"What kind of gentleman would that make me, leaving you to climb up yourself?" He pinned her with his eyes. "Trust me?"

"Of course," she said, remembering the first time he had asked her that same question. She was only fourteen at the time, enamored by the man who had spoken to her like an equal.

"Good." He seemed pleased by her answer, and wrapping an arm securely around her waist, sprung easily up and through her window. She stumbled when they landed and his grip tightened, steadying her and drawing her so close that their chests pressed together.

There was some tender, inscrutable emotion in his eyes, something Eloise wasn't certain she was meant to see. Her body seemed to hum wherever it met his; she had never been so aware of him.

"When will I see you again?" It was a selfish thing, wanting to see him again before her life was no longer hers, but she knew he never stayed.

"When do you want to see me again?" His breath fanned across her face.

"Tomorrow," she blurted, once again feeling heat rise to her face. "Or not, I-"

"Tomorrow," he agreed, cool nose brushing her forehead.

Her voice came out as a whisper. "Okay."

The last thing she felt before he left were his lips, pressed against her forehead in a gentle kiss.

~~❀~~

Alistair has returned! I love his interactions with Eloise. It only gets cuter from here. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think!