Permission to Love

Chapter Nine

"I can't believe you pulled something like that at Elizabeth Gerald's cotillion!" Alexander's laughing becomes contagious as he sits on the floor across from Kathryn with a drink in hand. 

She laughs along with him and takes yet another sip of her wine while nodding. "Hacking the audio system was just the first scheme Madeline and I concocted that night, you should have seen the cake shaped like a woman of - well, lets just say; less than modest attire." She says with a sly grin before lifting the glass to her lips once again.

Alexander can't help but burst out laughing at the sound of one of New York's wealthiest families having their daughters cotillion turn into a zoo at the hands of Kathryn Lexington. "So, I take it ruining high society parties is your favorite pastime?"

She lifts her first finger that was griping at the glass of wine and points it at him with a drunken but determined expression. "Correction; not ruining, simply improving on what would have otherwise been the most boring party of that young girl's life."

Alexander chuckles once again and nods his head in agreement. "But of course." He smiles and lowers his glass while looking back at her with a small smile. "Is there anything else I should know about you, Mrs. Weston?"

She sighs and stares down at her glass of deep red wine for a moment. "Unfortunately, no." She looks back up at him as her look of sadness returns despite Alexander's attempts to take her mind off of the current situation. "Besides attending high society parties and wearing the latest fashions from around the world, my life has been nothing short of controlled by my parents and lonely beyond belief. Without Maddy and Jamie I'm not sure I would have survived so long."

He lowers his eyes to the glass in his hand at the sound of his name. "So, how old is he? James or...Jamie?" Alexander asks curiously before lifting the glass of wine to his lips and taking another sip while the previous sips of wine are evident in his sluggish exterior. 

"Jamie." Kathryn says confidently before answering his question. "Nineteen. He's planning on traveling the world, he wants to see everything and he wants - wanted to take me with him." She says a bit slurred as the last bit of wine swirls around the bottom of her glass while she holds it unsteadily in her left hand as she sits on the floor of the hotel room beside Alexander.

"Why didn't you go?"

She glances over at him with a slightly agitated expression. "You need parental permission in order to travel the world when you're only seventeen, Xander."

"Well, you're married now."

"To someone who is of drinking age," she interrupts. "Thanks again for breaking the law, by the way." She says with a smirk before lifting her glass and drinking the last bit of wine.

"What's stopping you from running now?"

She stares back at him blankly a moment. "The assurance that I have somewhere to run to."

"He knows you didn't mean what you said." Alexander says confidently after being informed of that day in the woods just moments earlier.

She stares down at her empty glass for a moment before turning to him with sad eyes. "Then why did he let me go through with it? Why didn't he stop the wedding?" She asks helplessly before turning back to the television that is flashing brightly in the dimly lit room. The news broadcaster on the television moves onto local news bulletins that can barely be heard by Alexander or Kathryn due to the volume settings but one name causes Kathryn's head to shoot up and her stomach to flip. The sight of his picture plastered across the evening news is a sight she knows she won't soon forget. She quickly reaches for the remote on the table in front of her and increases the volume but suddenly wishes she hadn't as heartbreaking news floods her ears. 

"Breaking news tonight; it seems that a large gun fight broke out in north Manhattan as two opposing gangs became terribly violent late last night which ended in one tragic death. We have just been given the name of the boy who was brutally shot but died a hero. James Andrews, who was just barely nineteen, bravely defended a local officer who was called onto the scene last night. We are told that while officers tried to break up the fight last night, shots continued being fired and this brave young man found himself on the opposite side of this fight when he voluntarily took the bullet that was meant for Officer Stanton of the New York police department. The young hero died early this morning."