Till Death Do Us Part

Nicolæ stared at the closet door. He could hear her crying quietly and he resisted the urge to slam his own door shut. He changed into a pair of loose night pants and a plain white shirt.

He guessed he should be lucky. She was very beautiful, after all. His father had been right about that. Lord knows he didn’t pick her, though. Frankly, he didn’t want this whole marriage business anyway. But, again, his father was right; the marriage was necessary to continue building their colony.

From his bedroom window, Nicolæ had a distant view of the village. They had no idea what was going on and he wondered what they would do when they found out. There were no lies between his parents and the Elder Council but he knew – judging by Celfina’s response to everything – the Council does not share all of its business with the village people.

Celfina’s closet door opened and he turned his back on the window, shifting his mind to the present. She looked pretty in one of his mother’s old nightgowns. It was just a soft white but fitted her well nonetheless. She stood there awkwardly, avoiding his eyes, and wrapping an arm around herself again.

What is her deal? he thought and gestured to the bed.

“What side do you want to sleep on?” he asked, feeling nervous again.

“The left, please,” she said and he obliged by crossing to the other side.

He slipped under the covers and sighed with relief. It had been a long day leading to the late night wedding. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. Celfina climbed in very carefully; he could barely feel the mattress move. He opened an eye to watch her.

She was very thin bordering on too thin. She slipped under the covers slowly as if afraid she’d disturb him. An odd thought struck him and he waited until she was lying down, still picking some of the gold threads from her hair.

“Have you ever been around a man before?”

She stared at him and there was silence as the fire crackled and the crickets chirped.

“Why do you ask?”

He shrugged. “I am your husband. I have the right to know.”

She didn’t answer.

“Good night,” she whispered as she turned on her side.

--

When Nicolæ woke the next morning, Celfina was gone. He sat up and glanced out the window to receive a shock. It was surely near noon. He bolted out of bed and grabbed an outfit at random, hoping to avoid a lecture from his father.

As he trotted down the main hall stairs, he wondered where Celfina had gone off to. Before he could give it too much thought, though, his father called to him from the ground floor study.

“Sorry I woke so late,” Nicolæ breathed, closing the door behind him. Liam and Markus were sitting on the couch by the fire.

“I’m sure you had a busy night,” Liam said with a wink.

“How are things going?” Nicolæ asked his father, ignoring Liam.

“We’re making progress,” his father replied. He shifted some papers on his desk. “Your wedding definitely put us further down the path. How is she, by the way?”

Nicolæ shrugged. “She was gone when I woke up.”

His father turned to the door to make sure it was closed then sighed. “Listen, Nicolæ, there’s something you should know about Celfina.” Nicolæ sat in the chair directly across from his father, frowning at the serious look on his face. “After last night, I did some more digging about her. You never met her father, but Dimitri was a very wonderful man.”

“How did he die?”

“There’s gossip,” Markus said before his father could answer. “Some say it was an accident, some say it was murder.”

Nicolæ did a double take. “Murder?” he repeated.

His father nodded. “Dimitri held a very important chair on the Council. I had Markus go by and visit Celfina’s mother under the pretext that we wanted to extend our thanks.”

“And?” Nicolæ urged when his father stopped talking.

“Her mother wasn’t home,” Markus said, now frowning as well. “But her younger sister was. Apparently, three months after her father died, her mother started bringing in-”

There was a knock on the door and all four men jumped.

“Come in,” his father said quickly. “Ah, Elizabeth! To what do we owe this pleasure?”

“I can’t find Celfina,” she said, looking at Nicolæ. “The last person to see her was Vivienne.”

When Nicolæ didn’t move his father cleared his throat and glared pointedly at him. He sighed.

“I want to hear the rest of it later,” he said and stood, following his mother out the room. “Where’s Vivienne?”

His mother led him to a side room where one of the servants was standing, wringing her hands.

“Where was she when you saw her?” he asked.

“I thought she had gone into the greenhouse,” Vivienne breathed. “But when I went back there, she was gone. She was so sad, Master Nicolæ. She was crying but didn’t say anything when I asked if she was ok. You don’t think-”

Nicolæ shook his head and gave the girl a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“She wouldn’t do anything like that. Don’t worry, ok? I’ll find her.”

Vivienne still looked nervous but followed Elizabeth back to do her chores. Nicolæ sighed. Now he had to go hunt her down when he’d much rather be completing the next phase.

She wasn’t on the ground floor so he headed up the stairs. Thinking that maybe she had gone to their bedroom, he headed that way. With his mind on other matters, it took him a moment to realize music was coming down the hall from the piano room. He hesitated but the playing was so beautiful that he walked quietly toward the room.

There was something about the song that made him feel calmer than he had in the last week. It was slow and had a sort of uplifting sadness to it. He reached the room and peered around the door.

The furniture was all covered to prevent dust from getting on it but the sheet that had covered the piano was folded up neatly and put on one of the chairs. Sitting on the seat was Celfina. Her eyes were closed as she played and he saw she was crying.

“Where did you learn to play like that?” Celfina jumped so much that the lid over the piano keys slammed down and she cried out in pain. “I’m sorry!” he said, running over to help her. “Are you all right?”

Celfina checked her fingers. “Yes. Just startled more than anything else.” She looked up at him. “Did I disturb something?”

“No, not at all. No one could find you so we got a little worried.”

“I’m sorry. I was just walking down the hall and I saw the piano under the sheet and I-”

Nicolæ held up his hand to stop her. “You don’t have to explain. This is your house too, now.”

She nodded and looked back at her fingers. They were still red.

“Sorry again about your fingers,” he muttered.

She smiled. “Don’t worry about it, really.”

Nicolæ meant to walk away. He didn’t really want to stay any longer, he had work to do. But there was something about her smile. It was the first time he had seen anything but nerves and fear from her before. It seemed to light up the room. Their eyes met.

“I should go,” she whispered and hurried out of the room, leaving Nicolæ very confused behind with one hand still on the piano lid.