„Great fortunes are made by entering the bed of a beautiful woman”

  In the sweet-swinging of the horses’trotting, Eva seemed asleep, still resting her head on Brian’s shoulder who preferred to keep silent because he felt that this way, they can approach more than if they would have tried this by talking.

  Only when it was already night and the noise of the streets increased, Eva rose her head. At first, she looked through the window at the crowded streets, seeing people walking all around, happily smiling or just walking over with no purpose and this made her sigh. Then she looked in front of her, at the wall of the carriage, padded with black velvet. „Something happens?” Brian asked her.

  „Mmm. It’s too noisy outside there. I would have liked to take a walk on foot, but … let’s better go home.”

  Her words amazed Brian a lot because he couldn’t understand at what house Eva made reference: his, where they had spent most of their happy moments together, or at Ms. Huntington’s pension where Eva was living at that moment. „Home?” he asked, eventually, barely heard.

  „Mmm. Home. To Image," Eva answered, without watching him. „Before this, let's tell Ms. Huntington and others that we'll be missing for a few days."

  „Alright, but … why exactly Image?”

  Only at that moment, Eva dared to watch into Brian’s eyes, which were looking baffled. „Because everything started there and there must be ended.”

  Brian shivered. „To be ended,” rang in his ears and it seemed to him so strange, so frightening because it was what he was afraid of the most since he saw her again: that she’ll send him to hell and that he will not to have an earthly to take care of her and of their baby.

  „But, Eva… I think that it isn’t the perfect time for traveling. More in your condition. For God's Sake: you are in the seventh month of your pregnancy. A long journey can harm you both: you and the baby.”

  „But I feel worse being here, in this muggy place that I feel that asphyxiates me. And … I don’t know why, but I feel that seeing again my homeland I’ll lift up my head for what’s next because … I don’t know how to explain this, but I feel that isn’t over yet, my sufferance, I mean,” and she again looked down, feeling a great pressure in her heart.

  After seconds in a row to look like a struck pig at her, not knowing what to do, Brian finally made bold to take her hand, and, to his surprise, Eva didn’t retract her hand. More, she slowly squeezed it, giving the man certain confidence that not everything is over between them. „Let’s go, if you want!” he said and slowly knocked in the wall, announcing Bardain to stop the carriage.

  Bardain right away stopped the carriage, jumped off his place, and opened the door, bringing with him a small lantern. „We are going to Image,” Brian told him, imperiously, but the teamster didn’t look amazed as if he was expecting that order.

  „Of course, Mister Beneath!”

  „First, we’ll run over to Ms. Huntington. It’s necessary to tell her about our leaving, at dawn and also, it’s necessary for Eva to have some rest. We’ll go tomorrow, with the sun.”

  „But, Brian…” Eva tried to stand against his idea but, seeing confidence in the man’s eyes that he won’t give up, she sighed again and kept silent. Then, she breathed in the fresh air of the night and slowly shuddered, shivering that didn’t pass unnoticed by Brian, who made a sign to the teamster to close the door.

  Bardain listened to Brian’s order right away and hurried up to climb on the coach box and to spur the horses: „Ha, boys! Ha!” and the carriage hit the road, giving a jerk to Brian and Eva, but the trotting of the horses made the carriage steady, bringing inside of the carriage that sweet-swinging that Eva loved so much.

  „We could have gone today,” Eva whispered. „I feel that I choke here,” and she pulled the blanket on her lap.

  Brian said nothing, instead: he only took her hands into his, blowing warm air over them and that warm blowing made Eva wince because she remembered that they had many pleasant moments together, which she missed a lot and she felt nostalgic for them.

***

TEN MONTHS AGO

  Stirring out of Christine Bircham’s house to go to the theater, Eva marveled to see Brian waiting next to his carriage, in front of the house, but there was no sign of Albert or of their carriage around, even if she told him clearly enough that she won’t stay home that day and that he must prepare everything.

  „Did he forget it?” Eva wondered in a whisper and, to hide her slight abashment, she started to quickly pull her gloves, but no matter how much she wasn’t trying to seem calm she found it enough difficult and it was clearly seen in the slow shaking of her hands.

  „Good morning, Miss Stonebridge,” she suddenly heard Brian’s voice and when she looked in front, she saw him standing at two steps from her and, in mute amazement, she let fall a glove. Then, she hiccupped nictating, and that childish and innocent abashment didn’t pass unremarked by Brian, who seeing this, smiled.

  Still smiling, the man bent down and took the glove from off the ground. Then, he shook the glove and, taking the girl’s hand into his, he indented to pull it on. But he was amazed, feeling her hand so cold and he slowly squeezed it, trying to warm it up. „Are you cold?” he asked, but Eva only dumbly smiled: she couldn’t tell him that her hand was cold because she made her blood freeze, seeing him, having her heart in her throat while a cold sweat was running down her back and all this because he touched her. She would have liked to be only the coldness of the autumn, but she felt that she barely breathes when Brian took a step more toward her, still blowing warm air over her hand.

  She hiccupped once again, but this time it was because Brian approached his lips of the back of her hand and he kissed it, while his eyes were fixed on hers, trying to enter deeply in her soul and to understand what she was feeling, and what that sweet angel that was standing in front of him was thinking because even if he approached her, at first, to get revenge on Alfred Stonebridge, he felt that his feelings changed and that he feels more than a simple interest in her and it wasn’t at all something transient.

  „It’s better now,” Brian said when he felt that Eva’s hand had warmed a little bit. Eva blushed when he smiled at her and she right away looked elsewhere and her abashment made him feel also strange as if he was again a boy that dared, for the first time, to tell the girl he likes about his feelings.

  Suddenly, Eva retracted her hand and hiccupped once again, and stared like a dumb at the man, listening to him saying: „the third one is a lucky one.”

  „What exactly?” she murmured in amazement.

  „Our meeting: today is the third time we see each other. The first time was on your property, in Image. The second time was in Ms. Bircham’s office and … today is the third time.”

  „But … I don’t know why I have the feeling that none of the times was random,” and, for the first time, Eva smiled, confident in herself.

  „Let’s say you are right: at least for the last two times. The first one instead was for sure by good fortune. When I went to the lake, I never thought that I’ll meet an angel there, and … I didn’t even know that angels live next to the lake.”

  His words made Eva laugh out loudly, taking him by surprise. „Did I say something funny?”

  „Of course. I always thought that I am a character from a story, but I never dared to compare myself with an angel. Rather with an ugly duck.”

  „Who can become at any time a gorgeous swan,” Brian whispered and slyly winked at her. This made Eva keep silent, pleasantly surprised to hear those words, but she felt somehow strange to listen to those compliments because she really never thought that she was a true beauty. A man instead told her that she was pretty… the same man that was making her sweetly shiver each time she was seeing him, and he compared her now with a swan and this was really charming for her.

  „Mister Beneath… I don’t think that this comparison is right for… me,” Eva stammered and blushed again.

  „Why not? Only because you consider that you aren’t worthy to listen to such words doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. More than this: I’m absolutely sure that all the men in Image spotted your true beauty and are whispering about it, absolutely charmed, each time you are passing by.”

  „Not that I’m going too often to Image or I was going… when I was living there, but … I don’t know. I never paid attention to such things. I was too busy to… live my life. More than this: I don’t think that your words are totally true. I’m sure that you said this just to make me feel better.”

  „And this is absolutely wrong. Well, I agree that I used such words to impress you, but I never say things that I don’t consider to be true.”

  „Maybe… should we go?” Eva told him, abashed because she felt that if they continue standing in the same place she’ll scuttle in the house and she’ll lock herself for all day long between four walls, chewing the cud of those beautiful words told by him.

  „To go? Where?”

  „Let’s take a few steps around. I feel… that I lack air… standing in one place.”

  „Why not go for a walk on the lake? I feel that being next to the water you are absolutely happy and it’s something familiar too. Not for nothing, you compared yourself with the ugly duck,” Brian joked.

  Eva smiled: not at this she thought when she mentioned the ugly duck. But yet: Brian’s remark was true - she simply loved being next to the water as if, in another life, she’d been a river god or something. But she preferred to compare herself with the ugly duck than with a goddess because even if she was considered ugly, the duck had the freedom to float on the lake surface, admiring the nature and feeling deep inside her small being the huge pleasure of the water, touching her legs, flowing off her feathers, sometimes making her feel the coldness to the backbones, but yet it wasn’t a killing coldness, but one full of pleasant experiences.

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  „Miss Stonebridge? Eva?” Brian called her name when he saw her sunk in thoughts and his words made the young woman wince and watch him while her head was in a whirl. „May I call you, Eva, right?”

  „Aga,” she stammered and forced a smile.

  „Then, we’ve decided this: we are going to the lake,” and Brian gave her his arm to lead her to the carriage.

  Eva hesitated for a few seconds if to accept or not. Then, she looked around and saw Christine watching them insistently while standing in front of the window and this made Eva wince and stammer: „I think I should say no, Mister Beneath. I don’t think that Ms. Bircham will…,” but she kept silent, looking at him while feeling inside that a mistrust sneaked in and it was something she was always feeling since she entered Christine’s house because Ms. Bircham was telling her all the time that she doesn’t deserve much and that she must listen to what she’s demanding, unconditionally.

  „Don’t worry, Eva: Ms. Bircham knows about our walk. When I came this morning, the first thing I did was to ask for her permission.”

  „Why?” and Eva focused her glance on him, feeling, for the first time, that Brian was acting as if he was hiding something.

  Brian instead didn’t notice her glance focused on him because he was insistently looking at Christine who was keeping a tag on them, even if they agreed that she won’t try to intimidate Eva and nor to make her understand that Brian was approaching her for a reason. But Christine seemed that she doesn’t give a damn on their agreement and that she prefers to do things at her will.

  This made Brian frown and sketch a bitter smile while staring at her because he finally understood that she was playing dirty and that he must do the same: so, he decided at that moment to do everything he can to make Eva fall in love with him, first, then to take her out of that house.

  „Should we go?” Brian whispered and again gave her his arm, sweetly smiling at Eva, who was still hesitating, but after a few seconds, she accepted the man’s invitation and both headed toward the carriage.

  Christine, unpleasantly surprised with Eva’s decision, pulled the curtain and turned her back to the window, mumbling: „and yet, I thought that she’s just a stupid kid. It seems that she knows how the make men fall for her, like idiots.” After this, she entered her office, slamming the door.

  But her anger and her prejudice about Eva were just her inventions because she had been always a hypocrite who often compared people with herself: for her, all the women were floozie, who could quickly become someone’s mistresses if that was bringing them a good profit and all the men were weak and easy to manipulate if around them was a woman, enough smart and bold to use her beauty to make them take care of her. That’s why Christine was often heard saying: „great fortunes are made by entering the bed of a beautiful woman. The same happens in politics: if the woman that stays next to a man is smart then he will rule the country, but if she’s an idiot then it for sure will be a war. As my mother used to say: any woman can be the Helen of Troy.”

***

TEN MONTHS AGO. AT THE LAKE

  Even if it was already the middle of October, the nature around was still so alive, despite the yellow-reddish of the leaves, a sign that the harsh times of winter will come soon. Then, it was also felt the cold air coming from the lake and it was somehow wild, but still enough pleasant for a walk in the middle of the day when the autumn sun was in the sky, even if it was weakly warming the surroundings.

  Looking at his left, while walking by Eva’s side, in silence, for about half an hour already, Brian saw her sunk in thoughts, and only the fact that she was blinking, from time to time, betrayed her still being an alive person and not an illusion.

  „So beautiful,” Brian thought, watching her as charmed. „And … so similar to the other one,” and this made him deeply breathe in, looking this time in front of him and seeing „the other one” beautifully smiling at him.

  „Helen Walker!” Brian mumbled in his mind and cocked an eyebrow because he disliked remembering about the woman from his past, but still… memories were coming over him as if it was the seawater at inset and this was felt so intensely at that moment when he was walking by Eva’s side who was the perfect copy of her mother.

  Brian met Helen when he was only thirteen, only a few months before Baron tell him that he decided to remarry. That day, when Brian saw Helen, was also a beautiful autumn day, with a sun that was powerfully heating the lands and he decided to go for a ride to clear his mind because he was too tired of reading books.

  While Bardain was on the coach box, spurring the horses on the main street of London, Brian ran his eyes through the window and saw Helen, standing at the edge of the footwalk, smelling a small bouquet of chrysanths which she received from a gypsy.

  „Who’s she?” the boy wondered, completely charmed by the girl’s beauty because even if Helen was older than him, she still could charm the 13-years-old boy who stuck his nose on the window, staring at her while the carriage was hurrying away on the street.

  Then, he saw her at the theater when he went with Baron to see one of the famous comedies of the time „The Conscious Lovers” by Sir Richard Steele.

  He was standing next to his father who was discussing at that moment with a group of men about the problems of the businesses in which Baron Beneath was involved and he wasn’t seeing anything else around.

  But not the same happened to the boy. Being tired and bored to listen to their eternal conversation about business, Brian decided to look around and to see if there is something interesting to watch because each time, he was going with Baron to a social event he could notice the cattiness of the British society of those times, especially with the false coquetry of the women who were trying to make men pay attention to them and it was somehow similar to „selling” themselves at a good price.

  Brian instead knew that this falsehood wasn’t peculiar only to the British, but generally, for the High Society no matter the country where they were living. But even so, it was something „worthy” to watch, from time to time, because this way a smart child like Brian could have later made the difference about who’s honest and who’s not.

  However, that night he saw an angel: Helen Walker, who was descending the stairs from the second floor to the lobby and as he saw her, he remembered about the time he spotted her on the street. „The girl with the chrysanths,” the boy murmured and he took a few steps from his father toward Helen, scanning each of her movements, the details of her garment, and … enjoying her beauty.

  She was wearing an emerald color dress that night, with no jewelry even if at that dress she could choose a pair of earrings or bracelet. Helen preferred instead the simplicity: she just curled her hair and grabbed him in an untied bun and namely this look made her different from the other women who seemed to wear all the arsenal of their jewelry collection that they were always boasting in front of others, trying to be visible and to show how popular are they between men or how rich is the man next to them.

  Helen Walker instead was charming even without jewelry which would have shaded her natural beauty and when she got in the lobby, she glanced around, looking for someone and, catching the boy’s curious glance focused on her, Helen smiled at him, making him blush and even the top of his ears had the color of the ripe strawberry at that moment.

  When Baron touched the boy’s shoulder, resting his hand on it, Brian winced as if his father caught him doing something forbidden. „Father,” Brian murmured, but he was even more amazed to see his father looking charmed by the Helen as the boy was. „Who’s she, dad?”

  „Helen Walker! Lyre Walker’s younger daughter. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

  „Like a fairy and… for the first time I regret being that young,” Brian said and looked ashamed at the ground. Baron instead laughed, listening to his son’s words, and he friendly tapped his shoulder.

  „Don’t worry, my boy. When you’ll grow up you’ll see many other Helen Walker in your life. So, don’t be upset. You are still young. Just enjoy the beauty as you can because you never know when others can steal it from you.”

  Looking again at his father, Brian marveled, spotting that Baron looked somehow different at that moment: the sparkle of sadness which was always seen in his glance after his beloved wife’s death vanished somewhere and his glance was so alive then, but Brian had no way of knowing that in his father’s heart the seed of a new love sprouted and it was due to Helen Walker and her beauty, to whom he ultimately brought death

  But Brian had understood this much later. He was already about 20 when he remembered that night at the theater and he felt somehow guilty, often wondering if he wouldn’t watch so charmed at Helen Walker that night, maybe his father wouldn’t have fallen in love with her, in the end, and how their lives would have been if she wouldn’t show up ever in their lives?!

  However, Brian had no way of knowing that Baron knew about Helen a long time ago, but he never paid too much attention to her as he did after that night when the seed of his new love and perdition sprouted in his heart.

  „What are you thinking about, so intensely, mister Beneath?” Eva asked and, looking at her, Brian marveled to see curiosity in her eyes.

  „Just … memories,” Brian said, abashed.

  „Some pleasant ones?”

  „Mmm, you can say so. But you? You were also sunk in thoughts.”

  „Aaa, just what. Nothing important. I just remembered about… the ugly duck.”

  „Why? From what I know there’s no written story about this character. At least, not yet.”

  „And you are wrong,” Eva said with confidence and this made Brian stare at her in amazement. His abashed glance made Eva smile. „There’s no literary work, but there’s a real story. My story and… I hope someday it’ll be also a written story because it’s really worthy to read it.”

  „Why do you think so?”

  „Because it is that kind of story that makes your heart jerk while reading it. Then: it’s the image one sees in front of his eyes when he reads it - the spectacular change of a young woman who never considered herself being a beauty. Till she met a man who told her that she is and to believe those words because they are true.”

  „And you are talking now about yourself.”

  Eva stopped and, smiling, looked at Brian. „Of course. I don’t know any other girl who listened to such wonderful words told her by a man. Maybe… you know other stories?!”

  „Maybe … or maybe not. Who knows?! Life is unpredictable. As love is: it can show up by luck next to you and …” he headed toward Eva, who continued to watch him as charmed.

  Only one step from her, Brian stopped and mirrored his glance in hers, trying to enter deeply into her soul, but instead of fire, he saw innocence in her glance and… of course, the burning desire to know what love is. So, he decided to teach that child that was standing in front of them and considering him a God, what love is and, if possible, to show her everything he knew about love, passion, devotion, and…about the fire that two lovers feel while being together.

  He touched her face with both palms, taking her by surprise, but Eva didn’t look elsewhere than straight into his eyes. Then, her glance lowered on his lips and she found them alluring while listening to him whispering: „and… I want to find too, such love next to you, Eva if you allow this,” and, without waiting for her answer, he approached his lips of hers and kissed her: long, innocently as if he was trying not to scare her.

  But the kiss didn’t scare Eva but gravel her because she didn’t expect to be kissed. At least, not that fast, even if she dreamt about that kiss since she met Brian for the first time, a kiss she knew about only from books, but she never imagined that a kiss can be felt such intensely, so deeply, making her vibrate with each molecule of her body.

  Only when Brian held her to his chest, she felt like her heart madly beating, then she felt that her heart stopped, for a few seconds only, as her breath, then her heart started again to madly beat as if it was a bird that was struggling to set herself free of a cage.

  Brian’s lips slowly kissing hers, warming them with their touch, made her feel so pleasantly the thrill in her soul, but she had no idea what it can be because she hadn’t been ever that close of a man and for so long, same as she hadn’t been ever held into a man’s arms because Alfred never took his daughter into his arms and nor showed her what loved is. That’s why, how the poor child would have known how love feels and how to oppose it?

  Eva instead didn’t care about this or about that someone could see them because she was feeling at that moment so much warmth, at Brian’s chest, so loved and protected, how she had never been before and she fell this way into Brian’s trap, without struggling or wondering if she’ll suffer in the end.