The Broken Daylily

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Twin

"I like what you have done to the house," Thomas suddenly said. Madilyn startled and her head shot to the door. She had not heard it open, yet Thomas was there. She had been reading a book on her bed – a habit she never wanted to let go of. Her parents had said twas improper, but they had banished her, so mayhap she could make her own rules.

Thomas walked inside her bedchamber and closed the door behind him. He took a seat on a coach that was placed near the window.

"I would like to do the same in Lindenberg," she told him. And change all the furniture – especially that in the dining room, she thought. She closed the book and looked at him.

He seemed quite uncomfortable, and she feared he might finally voice his question. He had to know, tis true. But he did not want a child. He had hated her for carrying his child, yet now she had to tell him he ought to expect two.

He had merely looked at her for almost two months now, never voicing the question that was clearly in his eyes. She wondered why he had never asked, but she also liked not having to tell him. But she knew that within these last two months, she would have to tell him. Otherwise he will know the moment she would give birth. And she could understand it if he would be angry at her then.

"I told the servants not to interrupt me," she told him as nonchalantly as possible, "but mayhap I should have told you as well."

He leaned with his elbows on his knees and shook his head. "I knew. But I ignored your request."

"Why?" She tried to sound indifferent, like she was not hiding something and like she was not afraid to tell him.

His head lifted up and his eyes met hers. "We need to talk."

She closed the book and laid it beside her on the bed. "About what?"

"You know about what," he said, staring into her eyes. He suddenly looked more comfortable, like he was not afraid to ask what he was about to ask. Madilyn hoped she looked equally as confident, but she doubted it.

"And you do not," she confirmed his suspicion, "for I have not told you."

"Is that why you are avoiding me?"

She slowly nodded her head. "Are you angry with me?"

"Angry?" He seemed to think about it for a while. "I am not angry that you avoid me. And I am also not angry because you are keeping something from me. But I am starting to worry about what you are keeping from me."

So he worried about her words but not about her wellbeing. Should she be surprised?

When she did not say anything, he stood up and walked to the bed, where he sat down on. "What is the matter? I thought things were going well between us."

She gave him a mocking laughter. "Well? We are husband and wife, yet we do not even behave like friends."

"Then let us," he told her, his voice raising slightly. His eyes bore into hers, and his hands moved to take hers. But they remained hanging above them. Both looked at their hands, and she wondered what he would do. He pulled them back, and she was quite disappointed.

"You dare not even touch me," she told him, her voice breaking as she was close to crying. "So do not tell me we can be friends."

"Is that what you want?" he asked, not able to hide the anger that was building up inside him. "That I touch you?"

"Among others, yes."

He suddenly did what she never expected he would do. He took her head in his hands and pulled his closer. Then he pressed his lips on hers and ignited a sudden fire in her body.