Broken Soldier ~ Assassin's Creed 4

Chapter Forty Five

My birthday rocked around again. I spent hours getting ready, a sullen mood still hanging over me due to the events which occurred between Martin and I. Nonetheless, I was going to try to enjoy myself. I was ready to see my family again. And, just as I did every year, I hoped to see Edward. I sent him an invitation to each of my birthday parties, in the hopes he might actually have been able to go to at least one. Tonight was my last chance of seeing him ever again. I was leaving Bristol and moving to London, closer to where I lived as a young child. Bristol held too many awful memories, and I needed to find out more about my late father.

Mother sat beside me as I combed my hair. It reached my hips in loose curls, while hers reached her middle back in tight curls. I had always loved her hair. I was going to miss her. She always knew how to cheer me up. And, today, when she saw a frown on my face, she took my comb from my hand and brushed my hair gently while humming a tune.

"Mother?" She nodded, still humming. "Do you miss anyone?" I did. I missed Edward. And Freda. I even missed Martin a little bit, even though I could have killed him if he came near me ever again.

"Of course I do."

"Who?" She sighed, dropping the comb into her lap.

"My mother and father. My grandparents. Marcus." Her eyes locked with mine. "I miss him so much, your father. Marcus was a good man." I nodded. She pulled something from her sleeve - a little hair pin with a gold leaf on it. "Here." She brushed a few locks of my hair back and pinned them behind my ear with the leaf pin. I smiled at my reflection in the vanity table mirror. "Have you decided which dress you will be wearing?"

"Yes. It is behind the paper screen." She got up to look at the dress.

"My, my. Wherever did you get this dress?"

"I bought it to wear to a friend's wedding, but I never went. I figured I should finally wear it."

"And the shoes?"

"I was hoping you would help with that." I faced her with a smile. We were the same shoe size, and she had impeccable taste when it came to shoes, so I trusted her to find me a matching pair. Mother grinned back at me.

"Certainly. I will be back in a few minutes once you have changed." She clicked out of the room on her heels, already dressed for the ball. I watched the train of her crimson dress trail out of the door before picking myself up and sighing.

I dressed behind the screen and emerged to see mother sitting on my bed, book in hand, with a pair of green heels set beside her on the floor.

"Now, I know that they don't match the dress exactly, but they should still look lovely." I sat beside her to pull them on. "I found one of your books from when you were younger."

"You did?"

"Yes. This one is about a young farm boy called Edmund." She shot me a sideways glance and I stiffened. "Based on Edward?"

"Yes... That would be my way of expressing a childhood crush, no doubt."