Until Forever (Complete)

Chapter Thirty Eight

The crackling sound of wood set ablaze by angry, red flames, was the only sound Elizabeth's mind seemed capable of focusing on. She watched the smoke carry into the chimney as the heat produced by the fire kept her tense body warm. Her shoulders were stiff from sitting for so long and her chest almost seemed ready to burst with the speedy pounding of her heart. Her vision was clear and devoid of tears, yet, her eye balls bombarded her mind with pain.

One week.

An entire week of waiting, wishing, hoping. One week of longing to wake up and find that the entire nightmare of being married to Frederick, of finding out that she had married the wrong person, of watching Bailey take the fall for her mistakes and of watching him being dragged out of the castle and thrown into a carriage, never to be seen again, was nothing but that; a nightmare. She wanted to wake up and find her life the same way it had been only a few months back.

Instead, she was constantly faced with the reality that she longed so much to be a dream. Her life was ruined! Not only had she made the mistake of marrying Frederick, not only had Bailey been arrested and charged for the murder of Lord Wellington, but Frederick had publicly disgraced her and her entire family. He had divorced her publicly and had accused her of bedding his servant. He had voiced his suspicion of the fact that she might have even had a hand in killing his grandfather, but was uninterested in pressing charges against her.

For the first time in Elizabeth's life, she felt the burden of being shunned by society. No longer were her parents reverenced in public, no longer were they invited to social gatherings, no longer could she show her face in a shop in town. She hadn't been allowed out of the estate by Ethan since Frederick officially divorced her, but she had heard the soft whispers of the crowd as she walked into the court house. Everything her parents had suffered to build, had come tumbling down like a stack of cards. To make matters worse, Gretchen had been confined to the bed in order to save her life and the life of the baby.

And it was all Elizabeth's fault.

“Your mother...”

She heard the voice behind her and made to turn around. A soft wince escaped her lips as a sharp pain raced through her leg muscles. Tears immediately stung her eyes and she knew it had nothing to do with the pain. She reached down and rubbed her knees, frustrated.

“Your mother and I used to sit here every evening.” She heard Ethan's voice from the doorway where she sat on a sofa with its back to him. “When we were certain you were asleep. I looked forward to our time together.”

A loud sigh escaped Ethan's lips. Elizabeth's back stiffened further as she heard his footsteps approaching. She didn't want him to notice how terrible she must appear.

“I confessed to loving your mother in this room.” He finished, taking the seat that sat opposite from her.

“Juliet?” She said, forcing herself to sound more confident than she felt.

He shook his head, his eyes observing her. “I bought this castle because Juliet requested me to. I met Juliet on a farm, my father's property.”

Elizabeth nodded, feeling silly. She should have guessed he meant Gretchen when he referred to her mother. She stretched her legs in an attempt to flex her aching muscles.

A part of Elizabeth wanted to know more about Juliet; something that went beyond her abandonment of Elizabeth and her desertion of Ethan. She wanted to know the physical attributes of her mother; what the color of her eyes were, did she have a pretty smile, was she tall or short? What were her parents like? What was her childhood like? Who was Elaine? But she knew her father wouldn't be inclined to answering those questions. From the little Elizabeth had managed to gather about Juliet, she had lived her life causing damages.