You Have My Heart, Lady Illea (A Lady Illea Novel)

Chapter Ten

   Four days and Will had been avoiding me. Or I was avoiding him, either way we hadn't seen each other. I wanted to see him, desperately, but a part of me said he needed to be alone for a while. I walked down the palace halls with the pen and pad I had to start walking around with. Cecilia had her arm hooked through mine and we walked in silence.

"You must feel awful." She offered after the silence started gratting her nerves. "I feel awful too."

Why I wrote on my notepad.

Cecilia sighed heavily. "I wish I didn't have to see you this way. I miss the sound of your voice."

    Cecilia offered me a weak smile and I offered her a big one back. Scribbling down on my notepad I wrote back to her.

I'll be better soon.

"I know. I just wish you better now."

   We continued on in silence for a while until she spoke again.

"What did happen that night." I looked at her. "You never speak of it."

   Ignoring the irony of the situation I scribbled down my response in curly script.

Thomas kissed me and I pushed him away. Constance and Beverly saw and must have called the guards. 

Immediately Cecilia's lovely face turned sour. "I'm glad Beverly is gone. I'm just waiting for the moment they kick Constance to the curb."

I looked down.

"And to think that Thomas got away with not even a scratch!"

    I had heard about that. He was pardoned for some unknown reason. No one has seen him since that night and I suspect he jumped on his private jet straight to Europe for some time on the low. It didn't matter to me anymore. I didn't want to see him again for as long as I lived.

"Have you spoken to the king and queen yet?" she asked me.

I shook my head.

"Rumor has it they want to speak with you." Cecilia shrugged indifferently. "I guess we shall see."

   In the few seconds it took me to look down at my notepad I was able to catch a glance at the hallway ahead of me and the spot it intersected with another. And in those few seconds I caught a glance of Will walking down that very hallway. 

    Without thinking I dropped Cecilia's hand and ran towards him. I dropped my pen and notepad in the process and I wish I could yell his name but I couldn't. He must have heard me running because he turned around precisely at the moment I threw my arms around him. Clearly, he remembered the other night and what happened when he touched my back, so he settled for squeezing my arms.

   I pulled away from him and motioned crazily with my hands then pointed to my throat then tried mouthing words to him but it didn't work. I couldn't speak. 

I couldn't explain anything.

Will just laughed and retrieved my pen and paper from the floor. "It's alright I spoke to the doctor." he handed it to me. "I suppose you'll need this."

I smiled at him.

"Ahem." Cecilia cleared her throat and she looked back and forth between us. Suddenly her gaze fell on Will and I saw an expression on her face I didn't quite associate with Cecilia. "Remember what we talked about?" she said. She glanced at me then studied Will. "Don't forget."

"I won't." Will replied quickly, but quietly. "I'll see you at dinner."

    Cecilia looked like she wished she could have said more but instead she glanced at him one last time then left, as if she were savoring the look of his face. I scribbled something on my notepd but Will rested his hand on mine immediately.

"It's nothing."

Doesn't seem like it, I wrote hastily.

"I swear. It's just something we talked about. You needn't worry."

You sound cryptic.

He sighed at my handwriting. "It's still you my darling. Don't let anything or for that matter anyone change that for you."

   It didn't take me very long to realize it. If Ora had not been with Will all those times he disappeared then where had he gone off? And of all the girls Cecilia was the one that went missing at such mysterious times. And why was it that they acted like they didn't know each other sometimes?

    The only times I've ever seen them together was that time I caught them in the halls. I stepped back and the wind got knocked out of my lungs. I had been so stupid. Why didn't I guess this sooner.

She's in love with you, I wrote weakly.

Will pressed his lips together. "She does."

And you love her. it was a mortifying realization. Here I was ready to throw away my entire life for a damn job I didn't want and he was off flirting.

"Alessa-"

I love how you don't deny it! I scribbled hastily. 

   I threw the notepad at him and stomped off, glad he didn't follow me. It was something else I hid under my belt to throw in his face later.