Love Is Won

Part Four

The sharpness of a sudden barrage of rain slamming against the window woke Ilse with a start. She rolled away from her older sister, who lay on her side, curled into her, still immersed in her idyllic slumber, and pushed the covers off her bare legs. She crossed the room and drew away the curtains, leaning on her elbows to watch the storm take hold.

Ilse was an incredibly pretty girl of nine years old. She stood at an average height, with shoulder length blonde hair and the most piercing blue eyes. Her features heavily emulated those of her sister and, in turn, her mother and her grandfather. Comments about their unbelievable resemblance had become a bit too familiar as the years passed, though she always had the intelligence and manners to smile politely when they arose.

She stood high on her tiptoes, drowned in her forever favourite choice of sleepwear: a band t-shirt belonging to her father, and gazed out at the lake, knowing that her wishes to swim were to be refuted many times during this visit.

Ilse turned back to her sister with a soft sigh and, as she had been feeling under the weather, decided against waking her. Instead, she pulled their bedroom door open and stepped out onto the landing, taking another look at Adah before leaving her to slumber.

Their grandmother had crafted their bedroom with the greatest of love. She was careful to ensure that she created something that could change and grow with them, just as it had with her own two daughters before them. Therefore, she kept the basis of her design simple to accommodate these changes. Among the photographs of family, their snowy white walls were decorated with vintage framed posters of the covers of the girls' most beloved novels, which all resided on the bookcase opposite the foot of their bed. A large section of the wooden flooring was covered in a hand crafted patchwork rug, encompassing the earthen qualities of the forest around them. A small, pine wardrobe was located to the right side of the bed, and a matching dresser was central under the window sill on the left. Without a mirror in sight, wind chimes hung in the window, behind the coral curtains and above the artificial flowers in a simple vase below. It was the perfect little space that both Adah and Ilse adored.

Ilse noted that her grandmother's door was still closed. She decided against enquiring as to whether the rain had disturbed her too, due to her reluctance to intrude on her time with the man she was irrevocably enchanted by.

Both girls liked Danny very much, and, because of their present circumstances at home, they were starting to see a lot more of him. They knew their grandmother loved him deeply, this fact was confirmed on the many occasions they walked into a room and discovered them to be so very close to one another. They were not used to seeing Jessica so consistently happy, so seeing her freshly in love was completely alien to them.

Though she always had the most affectionate of smiles for them, the girls would often notice a trace of sadness in her being, as if her façade of happiness would lift as soon as they turned away from her. This only deepened with her separation from Sam, but Danny had brought her back to life. They now caught her singing as she cooked, smiling at nothing and no one in particular, she seemed revitalised and glowed with the most luminous joy. They loved Danny for the person he was and the kindness he showed them, but more so because of the person their grandmother had become because of him.

Ilse wandered downstairs where she was greeted by the rambunctiously sweet Poodle. He circled her as she walked, panting and whining for attention, wagging his tail as she giggled at his excitement. The dog was large but had loved Ilse and her sister since they were small, and regardless, Ilse had no fear. She knelt on the kitchen floor and allowed him to swarm her, licking her face and nuzzling her chest, rolling onto his back for tummy rubs and crouching low, ready to play.

Ilse stood and retrieved a tennis balls from the inside of a hiking boot on the shoe rack by the back door. Jack yelped with delight when he realised what was coming and followed her eagerly out of the back door, into the rain. She stood under the shelter, on the top step of the porch, and raised her right arm high above her head.