Chapter 85 - Warm Comfort
"I will check on Rose. I want us three to sleep together in my room," Anna told Debby as she walked to the door of Rose\'s workroom.
"Hey, I guess she might have to work late into the night, let\'s go," Debby said pulling Anna to her room.
"She really needs to know when it\'s time for her to rest and work," Anna said trying to pull her hand from Debby\'s grip.
"She knows and this is a really busy period for her. She has to work for your mum, she has to prepare a design for her teacher and she has to help Eric prepare for the competition. She is busy. She will rest when she gets tired," Debby tried to persuade her friend.
"Oh sure," Anna said nodding thoughtfully. "She might lose her concentration if we disturb her, right?"
"Yes, I am feeling really sleepy.. I will go back home tomorrow to bring some of my things over. I will have to disturb you for a while."
"Hey, what are friends for?" Anna threw her hand on her friend\'s shoulder.
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"Are you okay?" Liam asked when Rose stopped crying but remained still against his chest.
He received no answer. He moved her head gently from his chest to look at her face. Her eyes were closed peacefully despite the tears that stained her face. He smiled and shook his head.
She had to trust him so much that she was willing to got to sleep in his arms in the manner she did. He have watched over her for a while now but this was the first time he saw her cry the way she did.
He moved her gently careful not to disturb her peaceful rest and carried her in his arms like the bride he always wished she will be to him. She felt so light in his arms that he blamed himself for not taking good care of her.
Rose snuggled into his embrace without hesitation as she continued sleeping. This was a very good feeling she did not want it to end. She wanted to keep sleeping in these arms.
It reminded her of the peaceful death she got to enjoy despite the torture she had to endure that lead to her death. This scent was the same. The arms were the same.
He did not want to leave her the way she was. He covered her carefully in the comforter and sat down beside her holding her hand in his which she tightly held as soon as she felt his touch.
This was the reason he was willing to do anything to remain by her side, she made him feel important and useful. She gave him a purpose to keep living.
***
Rose opened her eyes to the bright morning light but closed it immediately when the brightness felt too bright for her to keep them open.
She felt a shadow fall on her eyes which made her open her eyes immediately. A big palm was doing a good job of blocking most of the light from her eyes.
She looked past the hand to see Liam smiling at her in a manner that made her heart flutter in a shocking way. She sat up immediately looking at him with a supposedly angry frown.
She sniffed, every where smelt like him but this was her room. What was he doing looking so comfortable in her room. She thought she could make him uneasy in her territory but it seems she was wrong.
"Did you sleep well? It took a lot of effort to keep your sister away from disturbing your rest. It\'s ten o\'clock, I have a meeting to attend in two hours, I will leave now," he narrated with a smile she found to look very attractive in the bright morning light.
"I . . . Thank you for yesterday," she told him avoiding his gaze as she bit on her lower lip. The comfort he gave her last night was one she never got to experience since the death of her mother. It was beautiful.
"You are welcome," he accepted her appreciation with a smile as he took a lot of effort to hold back from saying some long speech. She made him want to tell her all about himself.
He had bottled up all his thoughts and she came to him like a little hole in his locked up world and he was willing to let all his emotions and thoughts gush out but ensuring to keep him weakness far from her. She was weak already and she did not need a new burden added.
"Bye," he said as he walked to her living area.
She thought he was going to leave through the balcony as usual but today he went out of the door. She wanted to stop him but she knew he had more than enough means to cover up his track.
She exhaled with a frown. She really wanted him to stay for a while. She pouted her lower lip and got down from the bed. She sighed when her feet sank into the soft rug and remembered how warm and soft but hard his chest felt when she cried last night.
She wanted to depend on somebody. It\'s funny how her thoughts changed overnight because of the support he gave her and her late mother. Her mother has someone who believes in her innocence perhaps she should trust her journey to vengeance into his care.
"Too soon, Rose, too soon," she warned herself as she walked into the bathroom to wash up.
She must have felt too tired to have fallen as sleep despite how close she was to deadline for her design submission. She might have to miss school for some days.
The cloth she was designing needed care to give it the ten point she wanted to have. She had to submit the design to the person her mum will send to pick it up in two days.
She groaned and went to her workroom after cleaning up and wearing a fresh new cloth of simple jean shorts and a t-shirt, to make her more comfortable while working.
She barely sat down to begin her work fully when Anna opened the door and walked into the room looking more comfortable than she was in her workroom.
"Gosh! How long will it take you to sew those things to the dress?" Anna asked baffled as she stared at the stones her sister was sewing carefully one after the other on the fabric of the gown.
"I don\'t know but I should finish before tomorrow if I work all day. I have less than quarter of it to complete. It is not going to be an easy task but it\'s interesting. I have to sew them all to form that pattern," Rose said pointing at the sketch on the board at one end of her room.
"Wow, the gown is gorgeous. Where did you hide it yesterday?" Anna asked frowning. "It will definitely cause a fever. As soon as mum has it, people will fight to own this dress."
"I want this piece to have only three of it. I want the queen to wear one of it," Rose said closing her eyes and exhaled. Her mother was the inspiration behind it.
"I heard the queen has her personal designer," Anna said shaking her head as she got closer but she did not touch the dress scared that she might mess it up.
"Yes she does," Rose murmured. She will never want the present queen to wear this dress. "I can\'t make any decisions about this cloth as soon as it gets to mum. I was only joking when I said I want the queen to wear it."
No, she was not joking but the Queen she made the dress for was dead. She was dead, forgotten and misspoken of.
The present Queen\'s designer? That was her aim. She wanted to use that to get close to queen. It might be a very little opening but as a woman who was never confident that she belonged where she was, the queen respected and adored her designers to give her the best so she could be better than most people at least in one thing.
"Wow," Debby said opening her mouth wide as soon as she saw the dress when she walked into the room. She pulled out her phone but Anna stopped her.
"What are you trying to do Debby?"