章節 4: 4 Breakfast With a Demon
Alissa woke with a start. She had dreamed of him again. That little boy with the strawberry blond hair and grey eyes. They had played in the garden as young children until a man had come for the boy. Lijah. Elijah. The same name as the man she now lived with but completely opposite personalities. Lijah was carefree and happy. Smiling through the days. He would get yelled at by his mother and still smile through it. How crazy it is to have such different people with the same name. Yet, she thought, how nice to be reminded of the last time I was in control of my life.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Come in." Alissa's voice rang out. Rosita entered the room.
"I've come to take you on a tour of your new home. Please come with me."
"Oh, of course."
Alissa clambered out of bed knocking her hand against one of the bed posts causing a scream to hubble out without consent.
"Oh, goodness, you'll need to be more careful. What happened, anyway?"
"Nothing important. I'll be alright. Let's go."
Alyssa held her hand against her stomach as she followed Alissa out of the room.
"To the right of your room is the lord's bedroom and to the left is the hallway leading to the dining room. We'll go that way, first so you can have breakfast."
Rosita and Alissa talked about trivial things on the way to breakfast. As they walked in the dining room Alissa caught her breath at the sight waiting for her.
Elijah sat at the head of the table, wearing navy blue silk pajamas that clung to his figure as he looked down at the newspaper. His hooded eyes sweeping the words as his lower lashes brushed against his cheeks. His hair was unkempt and flopped lazily over his face. He drew a hand up and waved it to the side. His eyes glanced up and stopped, taking in her appearance. A lazy half smile flashed across his face for just a moment. Just long enough for Alissa to catch it. Enough to bring her back to her dream.
She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she remembered she hadn't walked to bed last night.
"Good morning, your majesty." Alissa walked over to where he sat and took a seat to his left.
His answer was a grunt.
"I'll be back with breakfast."
"Thank you so much, Rosita. Hopefully, you'll get a raise now that you have to take care of both of us. What do you think, your majesty?"
Elijah glanced over to Alissa, anger penetrating his stare once again.
"Touchy, touchy."
Rosita hid a smile as she ducked into the kitchen.
"So, I seemed to have walked myself to my bed in my sleep. Were you aware?"
"If you don't stop talking, I'll eat breakfast in my study. Alone."
Alissa grumbled quietly but sat back in her chair, silent. She laid her hand on the table as she waited for food.
"What have you done?"
Alissa looked at him quizzically. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"It's swollen and bruised now! What did you do?"
"Oh, I forgot it was injured when I woke up and accidentally swung it into the bed post. I'll be fine. I'll put ice on it later. Don't worry. I've had worse."
A dark look came across her face as she looked down at her legs. 'I've had worse' she thought silently.
Elijah abruptly left the dining room, returning a moment later with a red bag full of ice. He placed it on her hand slowly and retrieved her medicine given from the doctor last night.
"I'll call Thomas after breakfast to check on when the brace is coming."
"You don't need to do that. Really. It looks worse than it is."
"Is a thank you too much for you?" He growled at her angrily. Obviously someone is not a morning person.
"Thank you, Lijah."
Elijah looked away, mumbled something to himself and left the dining room.
Rosita emerged with the food, a beautiful assortment of waffles, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and eggs. She placed two plates down and began to serve.
"I don't think he'll be eating in here today. I may have scared him off. I'm sorry."
"You are not a mind reader, dear. If he wants to eat somewhere else he'll have to tell me himself."
Elijah emerged with roll of cloth in his hand. "Bind her hand until her brace gets here." He sat down in his seat and began to eat.
"Yes, my lord."
"So why do you get to call him 'my lord' and I'm stuck with 'your majesty'?" Alissa asked Rosita curiously.
"I can't say I know, my lady." Rosita darted a look to Elijah. "I suppose he thinks himself a king now that he has a personal maid."
"Rosita, leave."
"I haven't wrapped-"
"I'll do it. Now go."
"Yes, my lord."
As Rosita left Elijah continued the process of wrapping Alissa's hand.
"You don't have to call me that."
"But-"
"Call me Lijah."
Elijah's head was down, studying what he was doing but Alissa could see the blush creeping around his ears. The demon blushed. At a ridiculous nickname.
Alissa smiled down at the man. "Very well, Lijah."
"Take your medicine."
"It makes me drowsy. I want to finish breakfast and finish the tour, first."
"Take your medicine. I'll have her give you a tour when you've woken."
"Alright." Alissa took the pill as asked and finished her breakfast.
"Is the study locked?"
"Yes, why?"
"I think I left the book I was reading last night."
"I have work to do in there. You can read while I work if you can be silent."
"Oh, alright. Better to be silent with company than to be silent by myself, I suppose."
They walked down the hall, Alissa behind Elijah, to the doors of the study. Elijah took out a key and unlocked the doors. A man stood to the side of the doors.
"Samuel, I'll be staying in today. I have a package coming, please bring it up when it is here. Tell Rosita I'll need a small table, a blanket, and some tea brought to the study."
"Yes, my lord."
Alissa wandered over to the chair and sat, picking up the fairy tale book that still lay there.
"Of all the book I have you choose the one for children."
"It's nostalgic and makes me remember a happier time. If it's so childish, why do you have it?"
"Perhaps for the same reason."
"You were happy once? Did you smile?"
"That's none of your concern."
Rosita emerged with another man behind her. "The items you asked for, my lord."
"Set them down. No one enters unless its Samuel with the package. Understood?"
"Yes, my lord."
The man set the table by the fireplace chair and Rosita set the tea on the desk and the blanket on Alissa's chair.
"Good day, my lord." Rosita closed the doors behind her.
Alissa spread the blanket over her legs and opened the book to continue reading as she absent mindedly sipper her tea. Just then, a phone rang.
"What?" His voice sounded irritated with the anger back once again.
"How long?" She could see his jaw clench and a fist form in the hand that wasn't holding the phone. "That's why you don't make the decisions." A pause as whoever was on the other line spoke. "I'll deal with it. Just keep this information to yourself."
He hung up abruptly and tossed his phone onto the desk.
"Go to your room."
"I'm quite comfortable here. Who was that? They seemed to have pissed you off."
The aura of tangible darkness had returned with a vengeance. His ocean eyes turned to ice as he stared at her with murder on his face.
"Leave. Now!"
Alissa scampered up, fear welling up in her chest and tears burning in her throat. She grabbed the book and hurried out of the room.
"Yes, your majesty." She said as she closed the door behind her.
Alissa rushed to her room and closed the door. Throwing the book on the dresser and herself on the bed she still held back the burning ache in her throat.
I won't cry over a demon, she told herself.
She walked over to the balcony and looked out over the expanse of green and blue dotted with splashes of color. How she wished she could have some sort of control over what happens to her. But that hasn't happened in years.
She closed her eyes as the sun beat down on her face. She could see that little boy on the backs of eyelids. His face red from playing in the heat of that summer. The one season in her life she was able to smile without it being sarcastic or just to irritate someone who told her where to go and what to do.
She longed for that version of herself to be able to come back. How sweet it was to run through the trees behind that house. The woman who told her stories. The woman whose face she couldn't even picture anymore. What a beautiful summer that had been.
She wondered what those people were doing now. Were they still the same carefree people? Did they ever think about her as she did them?
Sighing she opened her eyes to a sight she never thought she would see in the demon lair.
A child playing in the gardens near the water fountain. She had auburn hair that shone in the sun. Tiny ringlets wisped in the light wind. What a wonderful thing to see. The little girl looked up just then and saw Alissa pondering on the balcony.
"Hi!" she waved, tiny fingers curled around a bushel of flowers.
Alissa smiled and waved back "Hello!"
Rosita came around to the little girl, most likely checking on who she's talking to, and saw Alissa.
"Alissa! Do want to join us?"
"I'd love to! Be right down!" she called out to them.
Alissa grinned and ran to the dresser to get dressed in something other than the pajamas she had put on after her bath yesterday. Excited to be out in the gardens she rushed into some jeans and a nice summer blouse, being careful of her hand as she dressed, and rushed out the door. Once in the hallway, she rushed to the stairs and went down to the foyer and out the door.
"Where are you going?" A dark voice growled to her.
"Outside." She said calmly, not turning to meet the blue eyes that probably still held more anger than they should be able to. She left through the door before he could respond. He wasn't the only one who could give no consideration to others and she would show him.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票