The Red Wing Mansion

The Pearl Wing Mansion : Chapter Eighteen

Pearly's POV

Dagger and I enjoy drinking Gregory and Walker's signature wine, as Isela serves a platter of fruit and cheese and we all catch my husband up on our lives in the present.

Isela explained all the fashion we've designed throughout time, Greg and Walker also share their exciting adventures, with women or with the business' ins and outs. I sit by Dagger and say naught.

I just keep my hand on his hand. He's panicked about us touching and so he put on a pair of leather gloves he found in my brother's belongings. So, my hand had only touched the leather. Now we finally make our way back to his master chamber.

Dagger is in a new suit I borrowed from Claudius' collection. I chose a darker reddish-brown, a colour my brother didn't like, but it looks good on Spellman.

My hand carefully presses under his elbow, curling around his arm. His eyes had changed colour from a human hazel, to a dark red tinted gaze. I thought it was the lateness of the night, and our drinking.

But no, Dagger and I didn't drink much, although I was drunk on him to be honest. His return had elated my spirits.

"You were quiet like a mouse with them," Dagger speaks under his breath with that deep curiosity he's always held, "Unlike you. Where has my Pearly disappeared to?"

This question is like a stab to the heart, "Dagger," I trail off, "I'm still myself."

"You're reserved and mellowed, quite the opposite of the Pearly I remember," Dagger always had a brutal honesty about him, his words his weapon. Whether spoken or written, back when we met, he'd be writing all day. He was a scribe and academic back then, with his feather and ink. I missed those memories. I was always riding horses and gallivanting around with his wolf hound at my heels.

We bonded over reading or the latest gossip around town.

Now all of that was stripped away and it's just him and I, our past inconsequential, "Have I upset you?" Dagger opens the door and moves in quickly as I slip my hand from his arm and follow behind him as we make our way to the bedroom.

Within, he unbuttons his own suit when usually he'd allow me to help. The first time I ever slipped the buttons from his coat back in the day, we had slept together afterwards, it was my first advance, letting him know I wanted him to have me like that. Dagger took me, and the journey never ended.

Now he's furiously stripping with his back to me, standing near the mirror, broodily glaring at himself.

He asked me a question and didn't even care that I had no answer. He's in his mind.

And Dagger's mind is different now. Cursed and haunted.

I should be patient, I shouldn't judge... "I'll run a bath for myself, we don't have to heat buckets of water over the fires anymore... so I don't need help from a maid. Maybe you can find a book to read in the meantime, to settle yourself," I speak from the open door of the connecting bathroom, but I haven't asked a question and Dagger is already fumbling in his pocket, looking for a handkerchief he always kept there.

He turns to a tallboy to search for one, pausing abruptly when he realises he's ignoring me.

I waited a minute, now he looks up to respond, a little guilty as he answers me, "Don't drown."

I almost smile, because Dagger used to always say that, and I always found it funny because he was so serious about it, and I found it adorable.

Back then he thought women were the much, much fairer sex, in ways the modern world forgot about. There were still notable differences but back when we met, I was like... treasure. Dagger made me feel like I was gold and he'd do anything to maintain my happiness.