Snow and the Wishing Well (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 55

Chapter 55
Sarah
Justin and Aaron had left to check on other farms on the estate, and Gina had to go in to town for a Woman's Ledges meeting. She did ask me to come, but I made the perfect excuse that I was still sore from three days ago. Surprisingly, she accepted the answer.
The truth was, I was scared. Locksley Manner was so isolated from the village below it. The only knowledge that there was a village down the road from the grand gates of the Manner were the view from the gallery and when Justin or his parents mentioned it. 
Another thing was that, the less people that knew I was here, the better. If people saw a strange, pale girl with jet-black hair, walking with the Lady of Locksly Manner, the news would get out. And then somehow reach the ears of the people of Seven Hills and Willow Tree Abby.
I sat in the library, surrounded by natural light. I had been here long enough to know that this room was where everything happened. At least one family member would be in here at one point in the day. Justin reading another Ornithology book, Aaron going through paper work that he didn't want to do in his office and Gina reading just a simple novel.
I looked around at the number of bookcases that line the walls, with two lounges that sat across from each other and a little desk with a chair by the window. My eyes followed the lines of the shelves and noticed one shelf that was different than the others. It didn't hold novels or education books. Were they photo albums?
I smiled feeling excited all of a sudden. I picked up the photo album that sat on end the shelf then moved back to the lounge. Biting my lip, I opened to the first photo.
It was a baby photo, black and white, of a baby lying peacefully in a crib. In cursive writing underneath, said

Aaron's first sleep in Lockley Manner.

I smiled wondering if Justin had seen these. He must have, seeing that they were his father's baby photos. But as I thought, I realized that I hadn't seen my own parents' baby photos let alone knew if they had any.
Two more photo albums later, I came to Aaron's and Gina's wedding album. The photos were beautiful. From what I could tell, the wedding had been held in one of the paddocks of Locksley Manner. I guess the dress was beautiful. But it was the sixties. There was a photo where Gina and Aaron sat on the grass, staring into each other's eyes. Even through a photo, I could see the spark in their eyes. I found myself wondering if Justin and I had that.
I shut the album and moved to another. 
It was Justin's.
It didn't start out with a baby photo like Gina's and Aaron's. Even though I knew that there was no chance of a baby photo, I was sad because I wouldn't see one. It started off with a family photo. It didn't seem like a celebration like Christmas or a birthday. Just a simple, quick get together, like there had been a panic before the photo was taken. Like it was just that simple moment that they had to capture. I wondered what the moment could have been. But still, they seemed like a perfect family.
There were a few school photos and birthday photos that I peered at for what seemed like hours but could have been only a few minutes. In all the photos, he still had the floppy brown hair that was always in his face. It was like he never got it cut which made me smile.
As I turned the page to a year three photo, the door open and the sweet sound of Justin's voice flooded in.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked coming towards me.
"Looking at baby photos, well not really. I'm guessing they started when you were five."
Justin nodded as he picked up my legs and sat on the lounge beside me, then placed my legs on his lap. I shifted closer to him and turned my body so that we were shoulder to shoulder.
"You know, you have the same hair style throughout your school years," I told him.
He nodded, proudly, "See that was my plan, I made sure that I got a haircut at the start of the year, so that when school photos came around, my hair would be long."
I smiled finding this funny.
"Did your parents ever figure it out?"
He shrugged, "I got away with it, so if they did they didn't care."
I half laughed, shaking my head.
"What?" he asked.
When I was still speechless, he asked again, "What?"
"Just you. You're so funny and weird, I love it," I rambled.
Before I could even truly process it, his lips were on mine. Even though we had kissed millions of time, I still felt a tingle every time his lip eased in to separate mine. I let go of the photo album and shifted closer to him. He did the same. We jumped and slipt apart at a crush. My mind was hazy from the kiss that I didn't realize what it was till I saw the upside down photo album on the floor. I immediately felt rude.
"I'm so sorry," I said leaning over to pick it up.
"Its fine Sarah, it's –," he stopped and frowned.
I followed his gaze as he pick up a photo from the floor. From where I sat, I couldn't see the photo, but I could read the writing on the back.

Justin's and Sarah-Snow's first meeting at Willow Tree Abby.

"I don't remember this," Justin stated turning the photo so he could read what it said on the back. I could now clearly see the five year-old Justin staring down at a baby in a beautiful white bassinet. My bassinet that sat in the attic of Willow Tree Abby. I could clearly see the snowflakes that patterned the lace and the embroidery of Sarah-Snow on the side. Evidence that I truly was Sarah-Snow.
"Oh," he said too stunned to say anything. That's when I realized. He already knew my full name.
"It's me," I stated, still waiting for the shock to appear on his face. But it didn't.
"But you already knew that."


Justin
"How long have you known?" She asked me.
I was too stunned to speak. When I had read the name on the back, I knew it was her. But by her saying that it was just confirmed it.
I sighed, "Yesterday. Ma and I were talking and she called you Sarah-Snow."
She nodded, accepted my answer. It was only then that it donned on that she had lied to me.
"So when I asked for your real name, you still couldn't bring yourself to say it," I said feeling a tiny fire in the pit of my stomach. It wasn't big enough to hurt anyone but with the right ignition, I fear it would burn the whole place down.
"I only found out last week," she said half yelling, putting out my fire, "when your Ma and I went for a walk in the garden. She mention a friend of hers that had died. When I had asked who it was, she said Siana White, which is -."
"Which was your mother," I finished.
I realised she had said the same thing yesterday.
"She said that we had met, do you..."
"I don't remember it," I said shaking my head, "that year, I went to heaps of estates, they all kind of rolled into one."
She nodded accepted my answer.
"But why hadn't I been there more often," I said, mainly to myself, "If our mothers had been friends then -."
"My mother died Justin," she stated simply, "five years after that photo had been taken, she died. Then another two years on top of that, my father remarried. I doubt your mother would have kept in contact."
She wasn't trying to be harsh, just growing more and more frustrated. I couldn't blame her.  
When she said, "can you just hold me," it felt like the most simplest request. I pulled her in my arms, letting her lay on my lap. My fingers ran through her hair, trying to calm her a little.
"I thought my life got messed up when I moved to London and started sleeping with men for money," she groaned.
I smiled, finding it strange how easily she said that sentence. I tried to ignore my turning stomach.
"Now I don't even know my own name."
My fingers lined the edge of her jaw, thinking of what to say.
"I feel like I'm fading away. Already, two of me have died. I don't want another one of me to die as well."
That's what made me react.
"Well, you seem pretty alive to me. And when I hold your hand," I said taking her hand in mine, "you will always be alive."
She smiled and I felt like I had made her feel better. Even if it was just for a little while, she felt alive.