The Peaks

Chapter 1

Diana wiped the beads of sweat residing on her forehead with a folded handkerchief for the umpteenth time, passing a side glance to the man next to her. He sat stiffly yet ever so relaxed with a novel in his grip and legs crossed, one over another. The jolts of- what she begrudgingly noted as- the nineteen-century carriage did nothing to sway his stance. He had not yet as much as pretended to appear cordial or put in words to make a conversation that regarded her more than a simple "yes," "no," and "we'll make a stop here."

He was silently straining her for her acts of bravery; she knew it well.

Pushing the curtains aside, she peered out the window, awe and dread tightening in her chest. The sight of the skyscraping mountains and even taller trees uprooting on their slope was breathtaking and equally terrifying. The more her eyes wandered across the landscape, the more intrigued Diana found herseld with the remarkable sight before her. Snow-capped peaks that seemed to blend so well with the low descent of the white cloud that the mere distinguishing point of the two was hard to find, the low cut valleys and the gushing water flowing through them, the perfect grey of a chilly evening, and the constant sound of life echoing through air. It alltogether presented a picturesque mix to nature's excellency. Heights and peaks weren't something that usually stood out in the list of extraordinary sights for Diana, as her eyes were accustomed, more than anything, to the undulating folds of Earth ever since she was thirteen, but back where she lived in her small uphill home with her father, the ranges weren't so tall.

The horror, however, came to her in jolts of sharp shivers as her line of gaze drifted to the narrow road they were travelling on. It was an incapacious route cut in the mountain which left it open and completely un-guarded on one side. She could hear small pebbles roll under the carriage and slip down the path to what appeared as the core of the Earth.

It only asked for one hurdle big enough to wobble its wheels, and then there won't be much of a difference between her and those rocks, thought Diana.

It sure was yet another testament to bear, apart from the four-hour-long silent treatment she was subjected to.

Sir Royce could have very well arranged for a military car to do the service, yet he chose the local transport over the proposed idea with a curt explanation that "the road is quite narrow for the assigned vehicles, and unless an emergency, it is merely putting men's life at risk."

Even more torturous than the oath of silence her husband seemingly undertook was the gusting hot air that emanated from the outlet vents of the portable heater fixed in the side walls of the carriage. With the handkerchief still scrunched in her hands, she dabbed at her cheeks that now mimicked the tint of her rosy lips, and regarded him again with just a flicker of her eyes, careful not to make a visible shift in her posture that would attract more attention than she needed at the moment, for it would most likely ice her determination to make another attempt to talk.

"It's getting terribly hot in here... would you mind if I opened up the window for a bit?"

"Suit yourself," came a crisp reply in the same formal tone and a poorly veiled disregard of her existence.

Diana let her gaze linger a second longer on his form; still unfazed and entirely too engrossed in whatever book grasped in his hands.

The chilled wind came as a contrast to the suffocating environment inside, and it did just the right magic to bring out a smile on her face from the depth of her heart- the first real one after the frightful night that had sealed her fate forever. It blew the loose strands of her dark wavy hair across her neck, tingling the softness of her skin. It was also the first nice thing that happened to her in the span of the last forty-eight hours, and perhaps, as she had guessed, the last one too. The sinking realization of pleasure as little as this being snatched away from her made her appreciate it even more earnestly with her eyes shut tight and the same smile stretching the corners of her lips a notch higher than before.

Unaware yet, she was a sight so breathtakingly beautiful that even against the stoned conviction of Sir Royce's lack of interest in her, he couldn't help but deviate his gaze from the suddenly uninteresting lines of the book to steal a glimpse of her, not once but twice. Diana was a beauty; a beauty so well reputed and appreciated in her town- most of all by Royce himself- yet as the events shall unfold through the seal of destiny, this beauty would soon be reduced to a mere jilting rose within the confines of the walls of his world; her beast.

He had not let her mind be at peace for more than a mere minute. How could he when he was sat right opposite to her in the cramping space of the carriage? How could he when he was partly to blame for the broken pieces of her dreams that had swept somewhere in the deep recess of her heart, along with other buried feelings of hurt, betrayal, fear, and most of all, loneliness- Eerie loneliness- that awaited her at her new destination, she was sure of it. It would just be the two of them, and from the likes of it, Royce was hardly intent on making his presence be felt or her's be of any value.

Just the thought was enough to rectify the lines of her lips back to a straight one and dim the glow that radiated ever so easily when she was back at her home with her loving father and a beautiful, quiet hill life.