Of Fantasies And Realities (BOOK I)

Chapter 13....

Strange Encounters

The translucent light of the bright full moon shone down on him as he stepped out into the gardens. The air was cool and gentle and he got a whiff of the fragrance of different flowers it carried. Roses, lilies, hyacinths, chrysanthemums.

Heriq took in a deep breathe to fill his senses with the scent and exhaled loudly. "Get your wits together, you bloody bastard", Heriq scolded himself.

He didn't know what to do. She plagued his dreams and his thoughts, now she was plaguing his reality. He didn't care if she was a witch, a miscreant, or even a ghost. He just wanted to behold her beauty again. All he had to do now was wait for Stefan to gather as much information as he could. Either that or he could wait for her to bump into him again because he couldn't find her on his own. She had made perfect certainty of it.

Maybe, just maybe if I see her again, this obsession will come to an abrupt end..

I'll have a word with those traitorous sisters of mine, they should have an idea or two about where she is, or who she is, he thought.

He made his way back into the ballroom to find Lady Cordylea Armstrung so he could apologise for his hasty departure and the unacceptable behaviour he had put up but he ended up seeking out the trio of betrayers; a gold blonde in an aquamarine gown, a hazel curly-haired in a blue gown and a chestnut brown-haired in her favourite silver-coloured gowns because it was closest to white. She was never allowed to wear white gowns, reason been that white attires were reserved strictly and solely for weddings, so as black and grey were for funerals and mourning periods.

Such principles.

Spotting the Ladies at the buffet tables he last saw them, Heriq made his way towards them and found them still entertaining the two ladies whose backs were turned to him. One brown-haired in a colour he could not for the life of him remember its name, spotted a corset with white synthetic flowers that matched the style of the flowing gown she had one. She held a flute of champagne in as graceful a manner as a remarkable lady of the ton would. The other slightly taller and more slender one, was in a red ball gown with her hair pinned tightly and stuffed into a cap of wild red roses. It blended so much with her hair that one would think they were one and the same.  With her stiff and ramrod posture and the way she carried herself, he immediately knew that she was the most uncomfortable of the lot of them.

"Oh! And here goes the eldest brother", Sofie remarked dryly and rolled her eyes - a rather unladylike action for her status. She indicated in his direction as he drew nearer. The two ladies turned around with different smiles on their faces to greet him.

As soon as he saw her, he knew it was her. He knew it as clear as he was sure that day was day and night was night. With the emotions of apparent shock, surprise and fear that were evident on her beautiful face, he knew that she knew that he knew she had seen him before. Even though she concealed her hair perfectly well, he knew it was her. It immediately occurred to him that she'd donned the red crown of roses to confuse the ton.

But she couldn't confuse him.

His lady in white.

Or could it be his mind playing tricks on him again..

No..

It was her..

His mysterious lady..

She was still as magnificent as he'd last seen her, if not more. Up close, her beauty was beyond what words could describe. No author or ballad could manage to describe her accurately so in words. Heriq was going to drink in all of her features until he'd had a feel of her in his memory. Until he'd had a feel of the real her. Her strawberry tainted lips had formed a horizontal O shape as she couldn't manage to contain her surprise in real time.