Wherever that may be

Arc II (2) - 1594

Eliza reads the same line of page two for the fourth time. She's usually a quick reader, but her mind is too far gone somewhere else to concentrate.

She's home again. After almost a year.

It smells like wooden, and lilacs, and dust because it hasn't been cleaned, and it makes her stomach turn. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right and Eliza's leg aches as if she had the bullet buried deep once again. She feels the pain, and hears the gunshots, and the screams, and the cries, and the prayers. Her hands start to shake as she holds the book in desperation. She needs to be strong. She needs to be strong.

Suddenly, as she begins to feel tears prickling in her eyes, a soft voice pulls her out of thoughts.

"Eliza?"

She looks at the doorway, trying to find the words to justify her trembling body, but the excuse dies in her throat at the sight of her nurse.

Staring at her with an expression of worry is the absolutely most gorgeous face she has ever seen in her life.

She knew that the shortest girl was pretty just by looking at her eyes, but now that the face mask is gone, Eliza is left to witness the rest of her features, all small, all fitting, all perfect.

The nurse, however, interprets Eliza's silence as a bad sign, so she rushes to her side, kneeling on the floor.

"Is there something wrong? Does it hurt too bad?"

Her voice is rushed, and Eliza knows that she should be muster something, anything to reassure her, but the soldier seems under a spell.

The curve of her nose, her soft cheeks, her plump mouth.

"Do you want me to take you back to the hospital?"

Eliza is brought back at the mention of the place she'd rather never come back to in her life.

"No, no, I'm just... I zoned off, sorry", she stutters, and Jenna looks at her with her features still tinted in worry.

"Really, really, just-"

"Does it hurt, though?" Jenna asks, and Eliza doesn't want to fully lie to those open eyes.

"Slightly".

Jenna nods.

"I will prepare you a bath and apply some herbs on your leg to ease the pain. Meanwhile, I will cook dinner, and- you do not have a maid, do you?"

Eliza purses her lips.

"Not really. That is why everything is... not clean. I'm sorry. I can hire one-"

Jenna denies quickly.

"No, no. I'll deal with it as you take your bath. I'll cook. We'll think about the castle tomorrow, okay?"

She smiles, and Eliza feels like smiling too.

"You really don't have to, Jenna".

"Nonsense, I'm here to work".

She stands up quickly and, almost as an impulse, reaches to squeeze Eliza's hand softly.

The tallest girl swallows.

Jenna's smile could light up the whole room by itself.

-

Jenna wakes up in the most comfortable bed she has slept in her entire life. She rolls over under three blankets. She only needs two, actually, with the beginning of a prosperous spring allowing the temperature to rise, but she's never had so many layers covering her sleeping body, so she'll take as many as she can.