Dangerous Love

Chapter 14

The carriage had stopped, Stefan was the first one to climb out of it to help my mother and me. I laid my arm around his arm again and we walked along a street, all eyes on us. I looked at the ground, until Stefan nudged me a bit. I looked up and saw him looking at a group of people. I saw a group of some men talking to each other and immediately recognized Courfeyrac and Combeferre. A blonde man with a red jacket was standing right next to Combeferre. Tears started to fill my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I saw Combeferre looking up and recognizing me. His expression was softt and kind on the one hand, but I could feel him judging me on the other. I tried to smile slightly.

Enjolras looked up from a paper and nudged Combeferre's arm, not even slightly following his gaze. Enjolras seemd to have asked him a question, but Combeferre just shook his head in response.

My parents were standing by the road, guards on each side, their expressions emotionless. Stefan and I took place next to them, Enjolras and his friends were only a few people away on the other side of the road.

"Jonathan!", I heard my mother's voice. I turned my head and looked at Jonathan, who walked toward us. He kissed my mother's hand with a polite smile and came toward Stefan and me. "May I?", he asked without a smile and reached out his hand to take my arm. Stefan nodded with a few seconds of hesitation, also without a hint of a smile.

"Of course.", he said politely and let go of me. I laid my hands around Jonathan's arm without saying a word and without any intention of starting a conversation.

"I'm sorry about my reaction yesterday. I was overreacting, obviously. I was just... shocked, I hope you can forgive me.", Jonathan eventually whispered. I looked up at him, I saw in his face that he really was sorry.

"I do. Forgive you, I mean.", I said and smiled slightly.

"Thank you.", he said, now also smiling.

I started to look around, as the crowd got bigger and the streets seemed to flood. I looked at Enjolras, he was still not looking at me, I started to wonder, if he maybe already saw and chose to ignore me.

"I know, that you love him. And I wish, I could help you two."

Again I looked at Jonathan. "Really?" I couldn't really believe his words, not after what happened the day before.

He nodded smiling.

I just wanted to look back at Enjolras, when my mother suddenly interfered. "Melissa, my dear, why don't you and Jonathan have a little walk? It's gonna take a while until the carriage comes around."

I looked at Jonathan, who smiled at me. For a second I thought I saw him wink at me. "Alright.", I agreed out of sheer courtesy.

I wanted to ask him to join us, but I couldn't find Stefan anywhere, so I just accepted to spend some time alone with Jonathan. Good practice I guessed.

But then I noticed that Enjolras was nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't time yet, so where was he?