Chapter 12.3 from the Irish Fiction Novel: We Come Back: Vol. 1
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A Familiar Face

In my dream, I was running with Jack

through a wood, laughing. He had paint spots on his chest. We came upon a cottage, a woodland cottage, cheery and bright. Partially filled paint buckets stood under an easel near a table with a palette and brushes on it and a stump. We kissed and made our way passionately inside the cottage. Everything seemed so familiar, as we made our way to the bed in the corner of the room. It was a small cottage, but a welcoming one at that. I could see, as Jack climbed on top of me that a painting hung above the fireplace. Though I was emphatically distracted by Jack in my dream, I couldn’t stop looking at the painting. Inside the corner was painted a red hummingbird. It was so familiar, as if I had seen the same bird before.

Just as I lost myself heatedly in Jack’s embrace,

I woke up to the sun peaking in through the window. I couldn’t help but smile, feeling as if the weight that had been so heavy on my chest the night before had now vanished into thin air. ‘I can get through anything with him. I am strong enough to fight on my own, and maybe win, but with him, I know I will win, because I am complete, and that is all I have ever sought to be’ I thought to myself.

I looked around my room,

seeing the fireplace was now lit, and tea had been set out. Soon, my entourage of females, including my mother, Trix, Leonie and her maid, would arrive to begin dressing me for my wedding. Now as I drank my tea, I felt excitement at the thought of Trix and Aubrey, and Leonie and Kasson being as happy and whole together as I would be with Jack. I hadn’t thought much about where we’d live, if Farenton would ever be a part of our lives again, or what our next moves would be, but I knew it couldn’t possibly be any more difficult than anything else I’d already experienced, and that was on my side.

This morning, the entire city was buzzing

with excitement. Like a racing heartbeat, bodies flowed from area to area, taking loads of decorations out to Swan Lake. The lost season was getting married, and it was a once in a lifetime occurrence, as residents from realms all over knew. So many wedding invitations had gone out, that the city had not known such a flux of arriving visitors since Queen Leonie’s coronation.

The fast paced knocks on the door, like a bell,

triggered the opening of the event, the beginning of my wedding day. After the girls finished dressing, and decorating me, they each presented me with a wedding gift. Leonie had made for me, a glowing silver water hair comb, which contained within its walls, a nebula. She placed it gently in my hair with love. My mother also placed a veil, the same veil she was married to my father in, on my head. Trix kissed my cheek, while she slipped me a small package, and whispered, “Don’t open it until you are on your way to your honeymoon.” I slipped it inside the folds of my corseted chest.

“Well, will I do?”

I stood in front of a mirror twirling in front of them.

“You are beautiful, my dear,” my mother smiled at me.

“I wonder, how is Jack holding up, does anyone know?” I looked around hopeful.

“You haven’t seen him have you? You never!” Leonie asked suspiciously.

“No! Of course not, not since day before yesterday. I swear it!”

“Well then, I did, and for your information, he’s fine,” she smiled at me, stating it in a “matter-of-fact” sort of way.

Just as I went to argue with her presumptions, my Papa requested entry into the room.

“Come in Papa!” I called.

He came in swiftly, and stopped

abruptly upon seeing me. He gaped, and went to speak, but found he only choked, so like a man who keeps his emotions to himself, he simply smiled, and kissed my cheek approvingly.

“The carriage is waiting Grace, if you care to take Trix, and Queen Leonie,” he bowed, “to Swan Lake. We will follow in the carriage behind you.”

He reached out his arm for me to take, “Are you ready?”

I turned to each lovely face surrounding me, and thanked them with all my heart for their kindness. I bit my lip, inwardly pulled my boot straps up, and took his arm. The steps I took getting to the carriage were long, but the ride in the carriage was the longest I had ever taken. Thankfully, Starling led the carriage swiftly. I had been so happy to see him, and him to see me. Starling and I had more emotional transference between us than we had between any others.

The closer we got to Swan Lake,

the colder the temperature in the carriage became, and I started to understand why there had been warm blankets waiting on the seats. When I picked one up to put across my lap, a tissue wrapped package and note fell to the floorboards. It had caught on the way down, and was ripped slightly, revealing its contents. It was a book titled We Come Back: The Tales of the Lost Season. I had never seen it before then, and read the note curiously. It read:
Dear Jack and Astraea,
I am so very happy for the both of you, and I wanted to insure that you received my wedding present. I hope you’ll read it on your honeymoon, as it is really rather romantically informative, though the author was a bit bias.
I look forward to the future work we do together.
With kind regards,
Beathan Hamish Mackintosh

I found myself smiling,

as I placed the book and the note back on the seat for future reading. So Beathan was closer to Jack than I knew, clearly, he intended to stay involved in our lives, and if I couldn’t forgive him for his actions at Farenton, well than I was being very cowardly, and that was the last perception of myself I would ever choose to have. I pulled the blanket up higher. Winter had arrived just for my wedding it seemed. It felt as if everything was now moving in slow motion, as if the very air I breathed was slowing down. We were close now.

Papa spoke to me about Jack,

and what he had relayed to him over the past few days. It seemed Jack was holding up better than I. He expressed to Papa that keeping himself busy with preparations had helped keep his need to see me at bay, but that the wedding couldn’t come soon enough for him.

Jack didn’t doubt his ability to protect

or care for me, he didn’t doubt his love or mine, but he did find it hard to be without me, now that he remembered how much he loved me. He wasn’t sure if he could keep life from separating us again, because he knew how strong-minded we were, and therefore knew that, that could be quite an imperfection in a relationship. In his heart he knew he would love me forever, and forgive me of all mistakes, and something inside him told him I would do the same. What he hadn’t told Jon was that he remembered calling out for Raven, though he now couldn’t seem to remember why or who she was.

He felt bothered because he thought maybe he loved Raven, whoever she was, and he wasn’t sure if it was right to love two women, while he was about to marry one of them.

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'A Familiar Face'