Change Your Mind

|Two

Her skin is cold with the chill of the mid morning air and it trembles against the pad of his thumb as he wipes away a smudge of dirt from her cheek

Her breathing hasn't settled enough for it yet but, by the way she glances over at him from behind the rim of her tea, he can tell it's only a matter of time before he'll have to say something

minutes go by before he decides on it,  before he can find his voice somewhere in the back of his throat

"Get dressed" he says finally, after mulling the thought in his head, "we can't stay here much longer" choosing to speak before she has a chance to ask something he'd rather not answer

The demand settles uncomfortably around them and in her dark eyes he sees something like defiance, a spark that echoes of that morning in the market square, when he'd gone head to head with some girl he'd marry only for the sake of revenge

But had she been only just some girl? Even then, hadn't his hands trembled with the inclination to touch?

I don't trust you

It seems a far away memory now

You shouldn't have-- he wants to tell her

you shouldn't have given yourself to me

She stands nonetheless and, perhaps too tired for modesty she dresses there, hiking up her slip far enough to step into the wedding dress that had watched everything unfold from a puddle by the mattress

If he were a better man he might have offered to pull the sheet around her or turn his back--he's not though, and so he doesn't, letting his eyes roam freely over the smooth skin that disappears too soon under the tulle and silky fabric of her gown

"Come" he calls, almost as an afterthought, doing his best to gather things away as they'd been. He's in the middle of taking inventory of their belongings by the time her voice rings clearly through the stillness of the cabin

"I won't come" she says, locking her jaw tight and holding his gaze

"not until you tell me what's going on"