Betrothed To Death

Chapter 23

I stood at the front door, watching the carriage take the children off to their first day of school. Ilirra had been anxious to go, squirming in my grasp when I held her too long. To her this was just another challenge to overcome. Dimitri had been less certain. He had gripped my skirt at the sight of the carriage, hesitant to pull away from me. I held him as long as I could; assuring him that he would be fine. His dark red eyes had shifted between his father, the carriage and me.

"Mother," he began. "I do not want to go."

"You'll be fine, baby," I said, swallowing back my tears. Orcus knelt before Dimitri and took him in his arms. His large hand came up and ran gently through black hair, pulling it back from our sons ruby eyes.

"You will be fine, my son," he said. "It will not be as frightening as you anticipate and in a few hours you will be back home. You must be brave and strong for your mother, because she will miss you very much." Dimitri nodded his head and, with a parting hug to his father, moved towards the carriage.

Now I stood on the porch, watching the road even though I could no longer see the coach. Orcus came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Astoria," he began.

"Has it been four hours yet?" I asked, anxiously.

"It has not even been four minutes," he replied. "Come inside." I looked over at him.

"Where has the time gone?" I asked. "It seems like only yesterday they were little babies."

"I know, my dearest," he said.

"Now they're going off to school and growing up and...they won't be my babies for long," I said. "And what about us? We haven't gotten any closer. We still don't love each other." Orcus looked at a loss for a moment, unsure of what to say to comfort me. I sat down on the bench on the porch.

"My dear, I never said we would love each other," he began. "I promised we would try. We may never love each other in a romantic sense. We may simply remain close friends."

"I don't want to be 'close friends'!" I cried. "I want to be your wife!"

"And so you are," he replied.

"I want you to love me like a husband is supposed to love his wife," I protested.

"Astoria," he tried. "You view me as no other has before and in doing so hold me to an expectation I am unsure I can reach."

"Because you don't try!" I argued. Orcus knelt before me, taking my hands and kissing the backs of them.

"I do," he said. "But I tread on ground I am unfamiliar with."

"Don't I make you happy?" I asked, upset. "Don't I comfort you? Don't I give you what no other woman has?"

"You do," he said. "And if I were to love anyone in such a way, it would surely be you."

"That's little comfort," I said. Orcus moved up, looping my arms over his head. He nuzzled under my chin.

"I am open to suggestions," he said. I thought for a moment.

"Why don't we really go to France," I proposed. "The city of love."

"If that is your wish," he said.

"Well, it would be nice to take a real vacation," I pointed out.

"Indeed," he agreed. "I shall make the arrangements." I smiled and pressed my forehead to his, gazing into his black eyes.

We made our trip to France a few months later. Orcus had reserved a very nice hotel for us that had a connecting room that the children slept in. I stood on the balcony of the room, looking out at the landscape. I could see the Eifel tower in the distance.