Love at Dawn

7.An Unguarded Reunion

"What? Me? Marry Raphael?" Edith exclaimed, but quickly realised that such a cry was obviously impolite, trying to calm down.

"How could you not have noticed the way my brother looks at you every time? He loves you no less than I do!"

"But I've never thought about it... I've always regarded Raphael as a brother."

"I understand. You might think that Raphael is not worthy of you, given our family's inglorious past. But now that the privileges have been abolished, and he has also turned over a new leaf, hasn't he?"

Edith hesitated, shaking her head and yet then nodding.

"Think of the carefree childhood we spent together! At that time, I had just lost the ability to walk, spending my whole days cooped up indoors, reading until I turned pale and my eyes grew blurry. It was the governess who insisted on pushing me outside to get some sun. That afternoon, I met you for the first time. Do you still remember?

"I was born without a mother, and science was the only light in my life; until I saw you playing in the fields! I felt like you were my stand-in, running and jumping for me, a poor cripple. I loved sitting at the garden gate all afternoon watching you play. Later, Brother joined us, he helped you pick fruit from the high branches and secretly cleaned his clothes himself to avoid being scolded by our stern father... What a merry time had the three of us in those days!

"Think about it, we become one happy family! It's not impossible, right?"

Charlene's tone was very touching as she held her best friend's hand, genuinely waiting for her reply.

"Oh, my dearest Charlene! My most loyal friend!" Edith exclaimed, her emotions running high. She was always an easily moved person, and her friend's words had stirred up her memories of the childhood like a sweet dream.

"When those boys tried to bully me, it was you who stood up for me and got me out of trouble. You were like an angel in my heart back then!"

"I only used the privilege of a noble lady." The wheelchair-bound girl sighed, "It's a pity that I've never run or jumped together with you. I didn't even have the strength to stand up and teach them a lesson for you."

"But all the children had to listen to you. You were the queen of us all," Edith said.

"But they could never know, I listened to you," Charlene added.

The two blossoming girls giggled heartily, their hands clasped together.

The serious atmosphere just now had vanished without a trace.

Asking herself, Edith didn't quite like the remnants of Raphael Saint-Clemont's old-fashioned aristocratic mannerisms. However, as she had mentioned before, she didn't harbour any stereotyped hostility against the aristocratic class.

Thus, she felt no burden in socializing with her two friends or imagining marrying into their family. Despite being aristocrats, they were good people first and foremost, and her old friends.

Edith thought to herself that she didn't dislike Charlene's brother either. Perhaps, when the revolutionary situation became less tense, she would pity him and give him happiness.

With this resolve, the girl planned to bring up the possibility of this engagement with her family that very night.

However, upon returning home and seeing the figure from her dreams, all these thoughts were pushed out of her mind.

"Come sit down, Edith. Brother is honoured to have invited Citizen Quenet to dinner tonight," Margot called out to her younger sister.

"Let me formally introduce: the outstanding patriot Citizen Andre Quenet, member of our section's military committee and the star of the Jacobin Club," Philippe said with fervent enthusiasm, gazing at the handsome and talented peer beside him.

The maiden languished at the blonde youth with her staring eyes. Completely unguarded, she encountered this familiar face up close once again for the first time.

It couldn't be said that this was a figure she had been pining for day and night - too much passion had occupied her mind over the years, indeed she scarcely recalled his exact features and build.

The former mentor of hers had become more of a symbol, a phantom of thought, occasionally surfacing abruptly in dreams, leaving her wistful upon waking.

At the very first sight of her, a touch of stunned look flashed through Andre's eyes.

"Do you remember me, Citizeness Travis?" he spoke with a meaningful inflection, "We were quite acquainted when you were little."

His attitude struck Edith as both amusing and infuriating.

"How could I ever forget you?" she retorted sarcastically, hastily taking a seat at the table, making a deliberate clatter as she pulled out her chair.

Philippe held forth on the latest news of the revolution throughout the meal, clearly brightened up by Quenet's presence.

Edith felt the gaze of the man across from her burning deep into her being, igniting a flame that lodged in her throat and scorched her entire body.

"I can't eat anymore," Edith flung down her fork, rose suddenly from the table, walking towards the balcony.

"Edith!" Philippe and Margot's voices sounded simultaneously from behind her, one chastising, the other tinged with concern.