Nell finds Arran
31st October 1102
The coals smouldered hotly in the stove casting a warm glow over the sleeping figure. The blankets lay in a tangled knot, wound partially around his foot where they had been kicked. Now his body shivered as the sweat that plastered his unruly hair to his feverish, flushed face dried on his clammy skin. His limbs were thrown out at awkward angles so that he lay like puppet with the strings removed.
He whimpered in his sleep, his boyish face contorting into a grimace of pain, the firelight illuminating the momentary flicker of grief. His mouth was open wide, his breath coming in pants, chest rising and falling unevenly.
The door swung open, bringing with it a gust of chill air that made the dying coals seethe with hot red light. A slow-moving figure shuffled across the wooden floor, tattered shoes scuffing the floor. When she reached the pitiful figure sprawled on the mat it paused for a moment.
Then bending down she reached a scrawny, pallid arm towards him. Her fingers were stretched wide, hanging in the air above his body as though suspended by strings.
Suddenly she plunged forward with a wounded cry, as though the invisible ties suspending her had been cut.
She pressed her pale face against the warmth of his chest, feeling it rising and falling beneath her frigid cheek. His heart thumped rapidly, the sound echoing in her ears.
“Nell”, beneath her Arran squirmed in his sleep, his hands desperately clutching at her.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close with a relieved sigh. He had not forgotten her. Though it had been almost a year since her death he still muttered her name in his sleep. Her dead heart gave a final beat at the thought, imagining him stumbling his way through the grief-stricken days and shivering alone through the nights.
She put her mouth to his hot, pink ear.
“Forget me my love”, she breathed, “Find happiness once more”.
He mumbled something in his sleep, drawing her closer, stroking her arm with his warm hands.
“You will see me again one day”
And she would see him again, one day when he was old and grey. But that would be many years from now and she did not wish on him such pain as this. She would see him again on the other side. But for now they had until midnight. She would not come again.
What a sweet chapter. Now he should go find “happiness”. Cough*Igrayne*Cough.
I knew the creepy would follow. Very awesome. I’m really curious as to what it is about Mhalwae that seems to bring back ‘ghosts’ of the dead. It seems everyone here has something or should I say, someone, to haunt them. It’s always interesting finding out who and why.
It was sweet, but in a creepy way. Let us hope this means Arran will move on and not be scarred like a certain other someone who had a brush with the dead…
Ah! I was certain something terrible was about to happen to the poor lad… I forgot it was Halloween! I couldn’t understand why we were getting the “ghost’s” POV and especially why it seemed kind. It really WAS Nell! And she wants him to be happy! That’s so tragically sweet.
Will he wake? Will he remember? I hope he remembers, even if he only thinks it was a dream. I’m not sure Arran’s the one most hesitant about falling in love right now (compared to Igrayne I mean) but it would be good if he truly felt free and didn’t have any guilt over it. I can’t wait! It would be so amazing if it was Kelgar and Nell who brought them together in the end.
Excellent work. It’s always so challenging writing the bitter sweet, but you pulled it off very well
So she did really love him… was it an arranged marriage? Igrayne’s point of view kind of implied it, but maybe she didn’t have all the facts?
Nasty cough you’ve got there Karen
You definitely picked it Mao
.
I’m going to have to see how this whole Igrayne/Arran thing pans out. I have ideas but nothing is set in stone. Things are definitely a bit complicated with the lack of available bachelors thing. It is nice that both Kelgar and Nell are lending a helping hand
.
Thanks Van
And for clarity, it wasn’t an arranged marriage she really did love him. I was trying to think back over what she might have said that implied it and I realised it was this line probably from Igrayne has a visitor:
“How they had made fun of Nell, poor sweet Nell when she had told them she was to marry him”. But then she does go on to say:
“How funny they had found it when Nell did not get pregnant year after year, how they had teased her and made her weep. Oh poor dear Nelly, they had cried, you should have chosen a man with a better name”.
I envisage Nell to have hung out with the cool peasant kids but then realised how special Arrran was. I haven’t thought much about Nell or Arran’s family but these guys were certainly in some of the poorest families so there wasn’t really the issue of arranged marriages since they had nothing to offer.