Hob
I wished I had waited. As soon as I left, as soon as I arrived, I wished I had waited, had said goodbye properly, to all of my family. It seemed, at the time, like a gesture of balance, not to wait, not to say goodbye to Beauty, but I would never see any of them again, and I wished I had not been so petty. They were right - with the railway coming the castle and all within it would be lost to their world. Any hope of coming or going would be lost and he would be left alone forever. Now we would be.
Well, it was done. I was standing just inside the gates, the castle was dark, no moonlight and the stars shone only on the glittering snow. I walked quickly up the long driveway and this time I knew what I was doing. The castle lit up, every crumbling candle and torch aflame at once, and the ruin faded away, the stones were clean, the doors smooth and whole, all trace of fire and destruction and all the years gone.
I would make it anew, but not if I was alone. He was not in the castle, I knew, so there was only one other place he might be. I skirted the lit edifice, looking up to see the beauty I had always known was there, had always seen. I thought to add to it, to make myself more a part of it, or possibly it more a part of myself. I fancied skirts of silk and a cloak of velvet and tiny jewels in my hair and the rose in my hand.
He was sat on the bench in the rose garden, still. As I walked towards him he did not look up; I couldn’t see him move at all, not even to breathe. There was a glint of snow on his hair. I ran towards him, dropping the illusions, flinging aside the rose. I was so afraid I had come too late.
I dropped to my knees in front of him and took his cold hands. He looked up at me, so slowly.
“Hob?”
“I thought you were… I thought…I thought you were - are you alright?”
“I was…thinking.”
“About what? You frightened me.”
“Hob? What are you doing here? You left-”
“I came back. I came back … to stay, this time. If you still want me to.”
“Only if you really mean it, to stay and never leave.”
“I do. Third time’s the charm, isn’t it?”
“No more charms,” he said fiercely, standing up, shedding snow and pulling me up with him. “Stay because you want to, for no other reason. Or go and don’t come back.”
“I’m here because I want to be,” I said. “There’s nowhere else I want to be.”
“Not at home, with your family, with your sisters?”
“I made my choice,” I said. Leave it alone. “Isn’t that enough?”
“More than. I didn’t think you would come back. I didn’t dare hope it. But you came. Why? Why do you want to stay with me? You have done everything for me. You have given me everything and I can give you nothing if you stay here. There is nothing for you. I have given you everything I have.”
“What, do you really think this is about what you have to offer me, or I you? Don’t be so stupid! If it is about give and take, then you and I are even, surely. There is only one thing that you have ever given to me that I have not returned to you,” I said angrily.
“What?”
I pulled my right hand free of his and then slapped him in the face as hard as I could. He rocked back. The marks of my fingers were clear on his face, as if he had a birthmark of his own. The palm of my hand stung; I noticed the marks from the rose had not yet healed.
