A Complicated Arrangement

Chapter 14

He bent his head and kissed my hand.

"How long Elizabeth? How long have you loved me? You should have told me." He gazed upon me lovingly.

"Oh Lionel, I have loved you from the moment you stepped foot on this land. I had seen you many times by the river with your horse. I wanted to meet you many times and talk to you, get to know you. But I was too shy. I have never courted a man before."

"When was this? I did not know that anyone saw me at the river."

"This was about 4weeks ago. We did not know you at that time."

He raised a brow. "We? Who is we?"

"Oh, Bella and I. We did not know who you was at the time."

"And because of Bella and my arrangement, you couldnt have told me anything?"

I nodded. "Yes. I couldnt tell you. You was arranged to be hers not mine. I couldnt have professed my love to you during that. But I still love you and I am glad that everytime worked out between us."

He pulled away from me violently. I almost fell from the sudden movement. Lionel seemed to be boiling with anger. He looked at me with so much rage that I whimpered before him.

"You disgusting wretch!" He spat.

"What?" I blinked. Why is he angry with me.

"You disgusting, selfish, conniving wretch! You caused this. You broke marriage before it even happened. I should have known! You and Bella are such close friends, of course she would have known, that is why she chased after you the day I arrived at her home. Of course, you never wanted us together so Bella tried to get us together instead."

He paced across the room angrily.

"It all makes sense now. She pushed me towards you hoping to get something to happen between us. Well let me tell you something, I love her and only her. You was so selfish to get what you want that you had her sacrifice her own marriage for you."

"You are wrong. She never loved you!" I sobbed. Seeing him seething in rage I gasped and turned to leave. The man looled like he was ready to kill me.

He ran infront of me and slammed the door shut. It was my only escape.

"Where are you going? You wanted me to come to you and now I have. Don't think that you can get away with this you wretch."

He grabbed my hand. "Let me tell you something, Bella felt something for me. She may habe tried shutting me out many times but before you came back she was beginning to accept me. Before the day of the tea party I managed to get a different look from her. All of the time, while she tried to brush me off, she looked annoyed. Then, I actually got her to smile and she gave me the same look that you gave me upon seeing me when you came up to this balcony"

"You what else I saw? Before coming here, I paid her a visit. I stood outside of her window like I used to do, the guards let me in since they knew who I was. I watched her cry in her room. She did not know that I was there, she did not know that I could have seen her hugging my letters. Tell me Elizabeth, why do you think that she was crying?" He spat.

I sobbed before him. Oh no, Bella loved him?

He shook me out of my thoughts. "Answer me woman! Why was she crying?"

"She, she was sad. She loved you." I said while hanging my head in shame.

"That is right! And she sacrificed herself, her love, for you. Imagine this, no matter how stupid I think it is, Bella did this selflessly thinking about you. And what did you do? You ran away out of jealousy. You wanted your best friend's lover. You did not once care about her or her future. You helped her get rid of me. I'm sure that you mever even asked her how she felt about me. You realized that she was willing to sacrifice her love and you just selfishly took advamtage of her helplessness. And you call yourself a friend?"

He threw my hand away.

"You disgust me. If you don't mend the pain you caused her, you will lose her forever. I am going to marry her, but only you can ensure that she remain happy for if you don't fix this sick twisted plan of yours and confess to her, I will make sure that you never step foot near her again"

He left.

I fell to the ground and cried. How could I let this happen? My Bella, I was ruining her life. I did this. He is right, I don't even deserve to be her friend anymore.

...
At present

I rode ahead of the group whilst leading the soldiers through the path to my home. We finally arrived after 2 days of travelling.