Promises Unkept

Fantasy and Foreknowledge

Her lashes flickered slightly in Eden’s sleep as a soft disturbance of murmuring filled her lethargic ears. The voices were dull initially, with even duller echoes renouncing them, but with every moment slipping by, the conversation became clearer and somewhat more intelligible to her sluggish intellect.

She recognized the commotion.

It was Maggie whispering. And it was someone else.

A man.

A gentleman, if she judged by his eloquence.

“_...but I am not sorry, I confess, for attempting it.” She picked Maggie saying. “You see, Eden needed me. And for in that moment, I could think of nothing more dear to me than Eden herself, I went with her. I am sorry to upset you so but I am absolutely not sorry for what I did, even now.”

“So much for her!” Remarked the gentleman, in an unsuppressed surprise. “You make me envy Miss Henley, Magpie.”

Maggie giggled at that. At least that’s what the snickering sounded like, to Eden.

Her sore eyes were still shut and her body still throbbed. Eden lay as still as dead, in her place, under the blanket.

Hardly awake, but very much conscious.

“Now then, that’s a harsh thing to say. You must not spite her, dear sir.” Maggie stated after a pause. “I hold Eden in a very much different regard of love as I do hold you.”

“Say as a sister?” The man suggested.

It was kind of him to say that, Eden thought.

“Sister? Sister!” Maggie repeated in consideration. “Yes and no. Well there, don’t you smile sir! I will explain it to you. I shall. Eden to me is more than a sister. She has been my friend all this time, and she has heard into all my ranting, she has confided her secrets in me. She has been a sister too, guiding me at places where I was an utter fool and where I needed a superior judgment, she has judged for me superiorly. But utmost all this, I find in her a motherly shadow Mr. Penfield, which is so rare to find and so precious to possess. She loves me unconditionally. I cannot but love her back above all and everyone, in this world.”

“Above me too, Margaret?” was the subtle question posed, on the man’s behalf.

Full of passionate jealousy. Full of hot affection and cold yearning.

“Oh don’t!” Maggie entreated. “Don’t make me measure up my affections for two parallel horizons of the same sky. I love you and I love Eden, differently but one no less than the other. Is that not enough?”

“Well,” The man whispered, with a soft chuckle. “I ought to feel this selfish when it comes to your affections. I ought to feel that I should have been your only one.”

“And you are.” Maggie affirmed.

“Liar.” He returned, but with a laughter in his voice.

And the issue of rationing the love was resolved, then and there.

Eden sighed a relief.

And that was when other, more pressing things started to goad her thoughts.

So, for one, Maggie was in an engagement with Mr. Robert Penfield, the very man who had kissed Maggie on the very day of their first encounter. On whom Maggie had spilled a big jar of jam.

Second in, Maggie loved him as much as she loved her which, considering her own experience, was very much.

And thirdly, he was here, in their room, with her lying on the bed asleep and Maggie chatting to him…..