The Samurai That I Loved

第19章

"Eliza-Chan. I know you can not." Shojiro reminded her with a steely gaze, although deep down his heart was acutely aching. He felt as if his morals and the inner, most private part of his soul were at battle with each other, fighting for dominance.

The forefront of his mind rang warning chimes of alarm that he must seize the foreign girl, while his heart practically shouted in deafening whispers above the chaos,

Look at her....look at how beautiful and courageous she is...so bold, vibrant, lush and utterly captivating.

He needed to capture her, yet he only wanted to kiss her. Feel those soft, rosy lips against his own, taste her essence and hear those adorable sighs like the night lost in time, that night which felt eons ago.

The wind scattered tendrils of her fiery hair over her pale face, the smooth but freckled skin, the sapphire eyes filled with equal flames, and that lovely, set mouth drawn in forbidding determination.

Always so strong-willed, so stubborn...so perfect.

"You think I won't? Then you're a bigger fool than I ever was." She answered back from her higher point up the mountain path. The boulders and trees that surrounded her gave ample protection, leaving the thought of coming towards her to be a tedious endeavor. However, he was up to task.

Leaving the horses at the cluster of thick trees venturing into the forest, Shojiro slowly ascended the steep slope that gave way to a rocky path and sporadic trees around the siding of the mountain. It was a sloping curve of a trail, rattled with boulders and dead leaves, pebbles and dirt.

He lifted his hands in a diplomatic gesture as he voiced in clear English,

"You are no fool, little Hana. You are untrained. You have no knowledge of what you try. You run head first into the world and believe only good will follow."

Eliza's face twisted into a deep scowl of resentment, but also something else. Her eyes revealed what no other part of her could: her intense regret and guilt.

He felt a pang of remorse at the sight as he kept his dark eyes focused completely on her for the rest of the world stopped mattering moments ago. Maybe even longer before that...

"You tricked me. I heard you and the other man last night, you mean to kill me!" Eliza nearly shrieked, the anguish spilling out of her and leaving her voice cracked and trembling.

He looked down to see her knuckles white in an iron grip around the bow. Her other hand was quivering with the arrow between her two slender fingers. The tip was pointed directly at his heart.

He lifted his eyes back to her beautiful, set face. Now that he was a bit closer, he could see her body practically shaking in palpable fear that surrounded her like a dark cloak.

The same guilt as before ignited within him even more knowing her countenance was entirely his doing, his fault. She had once trusted him, clung to him, cast him the most tender of smiles, delighted his ears with her enchanting singing and stories of her home.

Now she feared him. Hated him.

For some reason unbeknownst to him, that realization tore apart at his soul and heart more than anything else ever had. He did not feel like an honorable man doing his duty, rather a broken, lonely one looking up at the only thing that made sense to him. Happiness. Light. Her.

"I will not kill you. I will not let any harm come to you, Eliza-chan." The words came out low, husky and empathetically passionate as if he was silently pledging his life to her between each raw word of truth. Her eyes flashed with the same anguish he felt in his gut for a brief moment before she veered her head away on a heavy gasp of air.

This was it. The moment he had been waiting for. He could reach for her, take her. He couldn't move. If he reached for her now, it would not be to seize her.

Therefore he continued to gaze at her through his almond eyes, darkened by tumultuous feelings of sadness, desire, fascination, frustration and a deep, deep, unfathomable longing for something much more that he couldn't even put into words.

The only word that could possibly sum up his feelings was such a simple one...so utterly insignificant for the depths of them.

Her. Simply her. All that she was. Who she was. Eliza. Beautiful, fiery, sweet, sweet Eliza.

His body moved on its own, he couldn't fight the battle any longer. He needed to hold her, soothe her, tell her she was safe, tell her she was lovely beyond compare, tell her...

Her head snapped around, another gasp, the flicking bow string of the arrow being unleashed, a whizz of wind, then nothing but gravity knocking him backwards by the force of the arrow piercing through him.

"Oh!" She screamed as his back hit the ground of brush and leaves, "Shojiro-san! Oh Shojiro! Oh my goodness!"

Her innocent nature rushed back to her, he could tell by her voice breaking and catching right before she was suddenly over him, her blue eyes gleaming down into his own black ones.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to shoot you! Well I did, but I mean--Oh goodness!" She shrieked hysterically as her hands pressed horribly down upon his right shoulder blade in which the arrow was embedded. The force of her hands caused him to involuntarily cry out as thousands of stabbing needles of pain burned throughout his arm and chest.

Hearing his cry, Eliza screamed too in a frenzy of panic. Suddenly she realized what she was doing with a pang of awareness. This was not the man her heart longed for. Never!

He was the enemy!

Lunging back from him with a wild expression of shock on her face, she fell over and scrambled back on her elbows and feet before turning over and running back up the path as if hounds were chasing after her.

"I'm sorry!!! No...I'm not!!! Ugh!!!" She shrieked as she continued to run and run while the steep mountain path was now all she could see from over her shoulder. Not the samurai who invaded her heart...possibly bleeding out and dying.

A cry of despair tumbled out of her mouth as she squeezed her eyes closed tightly and continued running for her life. She couldn't think about him anymore. He was nothing but danger and an ill-fated end. The man harbored no care for her, so why why WHY did her heart have to be bombarded with images of him. Them. Together.

Him amongst the cherry blossoms, him holding her against him and touching her body in a way no man ever had, him rescuing her from a river and kissing her back to life, him being hers, being her best friend, her protector, her admiration and pride.

The tears fell down her face yet she kept running. There was no way back, only forward now. she had to let go. Her heart had to let go of the Samurai who had come to mean so much more to her than what she had ever bargained for.