"She gives me the attitide." Colin's curt voice cut through the heavy silence, as he handed Raquel another empty basket.
She knew this was going to happen but she had been avoiding it for days. His eyes seem to be heavy with the unspoken words that visibly weighed down his heart. Her usually composed husband seem to lack a little bit of composure in his demeanour when he had taken lifted the basket off the ground and taken them downstairs yesterday.
Old age? No. He wasn't that old yet.
The action or perhaps, omission, as it would be more fitting here, had been something so slight.
Too slight that anyone that had not been married to him for more than ten years would not notice.
"What?"
"The Bride." He said with the same sharpness and leveled tone that he had called her Mistress and the ones before her.
Colin had, a long time ago, done what she couldn't. He had mastered the act of detachment. She knew she should too, that she should be strong for her husband, that she should mind her business as he would always tell her to but she was not Colin.
She was not strong like him, she didn't know how to put her heart under lock and key like him, she didn't know how to tell herself not to feel like him, she wasn't trained to be that way.
She didn't have it in her to be that way.
"I have caught her giving me the stink eye. The Bride stares at me like she has an intent to kill." His hands were quick to take the baskets that had been stacked together, away from her when he caught a glimpse of her shaky fingers under the flickering candle light that was saving the room from the darkness.
It might be brighter outside but this room didn't have a window to give them access to such luxury such as daylight.
The baskets were empty. They had made good sales yesterday. In fact, Raquel was sure that her mistress would soon need helping hands to meet the demands with an equal supply. Not higher, never higher, Colin said higher was bad did business. She would also be needing more fabric and clothing materials. They were only piling up the baskets in their room in order to take it up to the Bride and collect any more that she had made.
Raquel feared that her Mistress was overworking herself. If she didn't take a break soon. She would fall ill. It would hurt her greatly if she fell ill on a cause that she believed she was fighting.
"What did you tell her?"
There it was. The question she had been avoiding.
Raquel wiped away invisible sweat from her forehead, she could feel the little wrinkles on the skin beneath and she wished she hadn't remembered what had popped into her mind at the feel of the folding skin against the back of her hand.
She had been much younger when she got here.
Colin too.
He had looked more vibrant, hopeful and full of life. So much energy. Anyone who met her husband now wouldn't know who he really was, what he used to be.
How time flies.
Now he had become nothing but a shadow of himself and she had succumb to something even worse.
There was something within the walls of this Castle, something the sucked out life right out of a person.
Maybe it was the mysteries that the walls held, or the ghost of all the brides that had lost their lives within it. Raquel couldn't tell.
Her hope was just that her Mistress fate would be different.
If she were to tell her husband what she thought about the Chosing Ritual, he would call her crazy, he would take her down to any Physician, seeing that Lady Kestra was gone, he would fall on his knees and beg them to help heal his crazy wife.
She worn him down, tired his spirit, her presence in his life ripped constantly at his soul.
She could see it.
He was tired.
"Raquel." His hand skimmed over her face, hard like leather, she could feel the sharpness of the cuts that had healed a long time ago but left behind a mark, against her cheek. Even as he stared down at her, she could see the fear in his eyes, as he watched her with his stony gaze to see if he would heva to throw her over his shoulder and rush her down a Physician in fear of losing his wife.
He was already on the verge of losing his daughter, seeing her like this everyday must be too much for even the strongest man she knew to handle.
Colin was that man. He was the strongest man she knew.
This was too much for him.
She wondered what question was going through his mind.
She was certain though that he would be wondering if she was taking her herbs.
"I told her about our daughter." Her voice was quiet and she placed her hand over his, answering his unasked question. "I am alright. I took my herbs as instructed."
"Told her what exactly?" He dismissed her reply, as if it made no sense to him but she knew it did. The way his tensed shoulders relaxed a little have that away.
She had studied him like a book, she knew him in and out. There were many things about Colin that only she would ever be able to understand. She and her daughter, if she had been here too.
"I told her what you told me to tell them anytine they asked."
She hardly finished her statement, before he pulled her into an embrace, one side of her face pressed against his chest while his hand moved up her hair to pack it in a bun.
"We are doing it for her. You understand, right?"
His voice was quiet against the walls.
These four walls had housed them for more than ten years. At first they had put up things on the wall in expection of their daughter, her little paintings here and there, but soon enough, the paintings that had given them so much hope, served as a constant reminder of sorrow.
They still remained on the walls because none of them had the courage to take them down.
Takin them down meant a lost of hope.
It meant they had given up on ever getting their daughter back and they would rather die than believe that.
At least, for Colin.
Raquel felt her hope dwindling and the only person that kept her hanging on, was her husband. He was the only sure thing in her life. Even she wasn't sure of herself.
She was crazy. She knew it.
But she was hopeful, for Colin. Her hppefullness kept Colin's sanity and she would like that if she couldn't make things better at least she wouldn't destroy it.
The paintings on the wall were now brown from dust, eat at the sides by rats, the strength of the paper now weak that it was barely holding itself together.
Even if they had decided not to take it off, time would. Time had a way of getting rid of things in a way that couldn't be questioned.
Despite everything, despite the pain, the tears, the sleepless nights, her slowly slipping away of her sanity, as she fell into depression of accepting her daughter was dead, a small part of her still wanted to believe otherwise. Believing that she was having hope this for Colin, instead of herself as she subconsciously was, it gave her the strength to keep going.
"I do."
Colin took in a deep sigh of relief, letting her go.
"I will press your back tonight, tell you a story while I do it. You look tired. The massage should ease you to good sleep."
Raquel gave him an instinctive wide smile.
Colin's hands were magical and the thought of a message made her absolutely happy. She would definitely sleep different.
The clock on the wall chimed as he pressed a kiss on her left cheek, and with a mumbled "see you later", she left the room to go to the Bride.
His gaze lingered on the door, his face expressionless. Raquel was his world, that part of it that was till standing. He was strong for her, she have him a reason. He knew that if she was ever taken away from him, he would crumble.
He closed his hands shut, till he was sure she was gone, before he pulled his hand over his face, and tears came pouring down his eyes.
The frustration was starting to get to him, the guilt. His faith and hope that used to burn bright was starting to flicker like a candle light.
He was sure that they would have their daughter back.
He was only tired, that was all.
He sighed.
Whipping away his tears. He didn't have the luxury of having time to cry. He had other things to get to, to ensure a good world for his little girl when they finally reunite.
All he and Raquel needed was a little more patience.
A little more of that and their world would be whole again.