Red Gold - 22. Chapter 22 - Shocks and Weddings

By the time she had bathed and eaten Gabrielle felt better and she snuggled down into the soft warm bed thinking that maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe they would be bearable after all.

From the moment she opened her eyes the next morning she regretted that thought. After breakfast with a rabidly excited Queen Ferena and an icy and spiteful Serena she had endured an hour and a half with the dressmaker and was bleeding in a dozen places and dizzy from whirling before the queen and standing on a stool. The dress was enormous, stiff and dazzlingly bright being made of white silk completely encrusted with diamonds, crystals and silver thread and beads. It gave her a headache to look at it let alone wear it.

And then, just when she thought that she would be free the Queen and Princess had dragged her to the main office to talk about seating plans and flower arrangements. By lunchtime she had a throbbing headache and a vitriolic hatred of flowers, politics, Serena and most of the nobility in both countries who could not possibly be expected to sit next to… well just about anyone.

The Seline nobles had already begun to arrive and all of the guest rooms in the castle were full to capacity. It was practically impossible to find anywhere in the castle that was not stuffed with people, most of whom Gabrielle had never set eyes on before but all of whom acted as though they had known her all their lives and was her best friend.

It was with tremendous relief that she entered the secret garden to find that it was empty, or she had thought it so. As she approached her favourite place by the water she could see that there was someone sitting on the seat. She walked quietly in soft slippers and they had clearly not heard her approach. As she drew close she could see that it was Orien. He was staring out over the water with a look of such sadness in his eyes that it hurt her to see it. So lost in his thoughts was he that he was not aware of her until she was close enough to touch him on the shoulder.

He jumped and looked up, and expression of shock and also a strange kind of guilt on his face.

“Sou Shan, I am sorry, I did not hear your approach or I would have greeted you.”

“That’s alright. You were miles away. What were you thinking of?”

He frowned and turned away to stare out over the pool again. Foolishness Sou Shan, nothing more.”

“I think not, my dear Orien. Your eyes hold too much sadness for it to be just that. Can you not tell me what has caused you so much pain? I have seen it there in your eyes since the moment we met and I would take it from you if I could.”

Orien turned back to her and she was shocked by the torment that twisted him. Taking her hand he put it to his cheek and moaned. “Oh Sou Shan, dear sweet Sou Shan. I believe that you truly mean that. You have been so lost and so sad, torn away from the only home you have ever known and thrust into the middle of a situation that was not of your making or your desire. And yet you have been so kind. You have reached out to me and I believe that we have become friends.”

“Of course we are friends. I am very fond of you Orien. In two days I will be your wife and we will be happy, I promise that I will make you happy.”

“I believe that you will try, and so will I.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there. Can’t you tell me what it is that is eating away at you? There is something wrong, I know it and if I were to forget Serena would remind me of it every time I looked at her.”

“I have spoken to her about that. I am truly sorry that she is behaving like this. She is acting like a spoiled child. You will see when you come to know her in time that this is not who she is at all. My sister is headstrong and impulsive but once she becomes your friend she will be loyal and true and she will be as good a sister to you as she has been to me.”

“Why is she so angry with me?”

“Because we did not know of this arrangement any more than you did. I was not told until two months ago, when my parents began to prepare for the journey, the wedding and the war. Serena has a stronger sense of justice than of duty and she felt that it was unfair to expect that I should have to sacrifice myself for a stranger I had never met for the sake of a country that she had no care for.”

“Is that how you see it? A sacrifice?”

He looked horrified. “Oh no, Sou Shan, I am a fool. I should not have said that. I was only conveying what Serena felt, not I. I cannot lie and tell you that I was delighted about the situation at the start. It was a huge shock to me and I resisted at first. But I will be king one day and I must put duty first at all cost…. not that I am suggesting that I marry you just for duty….”

“Yes you are Orien. You marry me for duty and I you. We do not know each other well enough to marry for any other reason. I already value you as a friend, I see the worth in you and I know you are a good man, a good and beautiful man but….. I do not love you, not yet. Maybe one day I will, I hope so, I believe so but it is pointless for there to be anything but honesty between us so I cannot promise, no one can.”

“Sou Shan….” He dropped his head, the pain in his voice raw and deep. Gabrielle sat down on the seat next to him, looking out over the water, giving him time. At last he looked up and kissed her hand. “You are already dear to me. You are honest and direct. You are not like anyone else I have ever met. It is so refreshing to have a friend who is not caught up in the politics that surround me all the time, someone who can laugh at themselves and not take offence at the slightest thing. You are strong and brave and funny and beautiful and…. and that is why I can never tell you what ails my heart.

“I promise you that when you join your hand with mine in two days time I will have put aside my shadows and there will be nothing but pride in my heart. I will be everything to you that you deserve. This I swear.”

Gabrielle searched his eyes and saw what it had cost him to say those words. “But what about now Orien? We are friends you said and a friend does not allow a friend to suffer without offering aid.”

“Believe me Sou Shan, what ails me is of my own making and I will deal with it myself. I would not burden you with foolishness.”

“But you would burden me with doubt. I know that you are not being honest with me and it concerns me. If we are truly friends what could there be that you would keep from me. Your lips say that it is foolishness and your eyes say it is more; you say that you will deal with it and then it consumes you again. Are you ill? Is that it?”

“In a way I am sick, heartsick and a fool for it. Sou Shan, ask me no more. Trust me that I will deal with it and that by the time we wed it will be behind me and…….”

Inspiration struck and Gabrielle thought that it was she who was a fool. All this time she had thought that she was looking at her own pain reflected in his eyes, too caught up in what she was suffering to wonder why. “It is a woman isn’t it? You are in love with someone else.”

His eyes flew wide with horror. “Sou Shan, I…..”

Smiling Gabrielle reached out and touched his face. He was in so much pain and she could empathise with every part of it. “Hush. It’s alright. How could I have expected you to spend the whole of your life in waiting for me when I did not even know you and I….. I…. did not wait for you.”

He did not catch the edge in her voice, he was too caught up in his own suffering. “I swear to you that it is over, finished. I would not betray you, not for the world. I swore an oath to my father before I had ever met you and I will be true to that but now, now that I know you it is so much more, I would never hurt you Sou Shan, you are too… too…”

“Orien, listen to me.” He raised his eyes, bright with suppressed tears. “I know how you feel. I know what you are going through. There was…. there is someone…. someone that… that I love.”

His eyes went wide and for a moment he stared at her with a strange expression in his eyes. For an instant Gabrielle thought that she had offended him but then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly he began to laugh. Taking her face between his hands he kissed her, gently and sweetly then released her.

“What fools we are. Since the very first day we have been dancing around each other, nursing our pain like some kind of holy burden, so wrapped up in our own pain we could not see it in the other. I am so grateful to you Sou Shan… that you had the courage to speak and the wisdom not to judge. For that I am in your debt for eternity as I will never be able to repay you for the burden you have removed from me.”

“You are my friend Orien and I would not see a friend in trouble or in pain if there was anything I could do to relieve it. A friend does not do something for a friend with thought of payment or reward, only because they can. Now, tell me about her, is she very beautiful?”

“Only to me. No, that is not fair, I would not have you think that she is a fiend, she is not, but she is not beautiful in the sense that you and Serena are beautiful. She has red hair and freckles on her face. She is neither slender nor graceful but she is …… she is funny and wise and …. and she is…..”

“Who is she?”

“She is a very distant relation, too distant for that to be a barrier, and a childhood friend of Serena, that is why she is so angry with you. Felise would not have it so and she has tried many times to talk the anger out of her, as have I but Serna is headstrong and will make her own mind up. Don’t worry though, she will come round, once she gets to know you she will grow to love you.”

For a time they sat in silence frowning at the water, lost in their own thoughts. Orien held tight to her hand and Gabrielle did not try to pull away as the closeness was comforting and safe.

“I am remiss. I realise that it must be hard for you to hear these things from me practically on the eve of our wedding, and I have not even thought to seek to unburden you. Tell me about your love Sou Shan, tell me about the man who is lucky enough to hold your heart.”

“He is no one. He has told me this himself often enough. His name is Ca’el and he is the son of the head man of the village at the foot of the cliffs.”

Orien’s face darkened “I have heard of him.”

“You have?”

“The castle is afire with rumour. Already he is a legend. Is it right that you went to him yesterday?”

“You knew?”

“I knew that a friend from your home place came and you went with him to the village. I did not think anything of it. I did not make any other connection until now.”

He looked uncertain, his eyes dark. “Orien, I swear to you that there was nothing improper in my visit yesterday. Of course it is your choice whether to believe that or not. I will not try to deceive you in any way. Yes, I did go to see Cai. He has been my protector all my life. I have always been aware of him without knowing who he was or where he was from or why he was there. And then we met and the world was going crazy and he swept me off my feet. I knew nothing of this place, nothing of you and so I gave myself to him completely.

“And then, through stupidity and thoughtlessness I betrayed him. I didn’t mean to but I did and he was hurt, so badly that I thought he was going to die. That was when I found out about this place and we came back. Still I knew nothing of you and for two days I watched him fight, to keep us safe, to bring us home and to stay alive. He was brave and strong and more beautiful that I could bear, although, as you say of your Felise, he is not really that beautiful at all.

“And then we got to the village and his mother told me about you and the covenant that was made. Cai had been taken to the healers and I did not even get a chance to say goodbye. I swore to him that I would never leave him but I walked away without saying goodbye.”

“Sou Shan…..” Orien was horrified by the pain in her voice and mortified that he had allowed himself to doubt and to hurt her so badly.

“No, Orien, you need to understand, you deserve to understand. Yesterday Ben, my friend from home came to me and told me that Cai was dying. The healers had healed his body but he had asked for me so many times in the end they told him and he stopped wanting to live. I could not turn away from him Orien. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone, or maybe I should have told you then but for right or wrong all I could think of was Cai and I could not let him die.”

“Of course you couldn’t. I would have been disappointed in you if you had. And now, is he well now?”

“I don’t know. I spoke with him and made him promise but….. I don’t know.”

“I was lucky, Felise was strong for me. She was the one who comforted me, who made me face the truth and who walked away. She is stronger than me, as you are stronger than Ca’el. Oh Sou Shan, what will we do? I see your love shining in your eyes as mine burns like a knife in my heart. I am so confused. I would not hurt you for the world, I already value you too much as a friend, and I would not turn my back on my father and my duty but, in all honesty I don’t know how I can bear it.”

“You can bear it dear one, I will help you. You can speak freely to me of Felise and when we are married and settled in our own home perhaps she could come to us and she and I could be friends, maybe….. maybe…..” she broke off a wholly different idea occurring to her.

“You are funny Sou Shan, it seems like a perfect solution but it would not work. Felise is too proud to be a mistress to a married man……..”

“Wait, I have an idea.” She turned to him, her eyes shining with hope and excitement. “Why do we have to marry at all? You don’t want it; I don’t want it. Yes there was a covenant but if everyone agrees why can it not be changed?”

For a moment hope flared in Orien’s eyes but then it died and he shook his head. “It is all so clear to you because you have never been enmeshed in the politics of this world. There was a bargain, a covenant. It is binding on all parties. One war for one marriage.”

“But why? Why does it have to be that way? I understand that there has been a contract, and that it is a binding agreement but it is only binding on those who made it. I was not even born at the time surely we can choose to change the terms. Would our parents really force us into something that would make us both terribly unhappy just for the sake of politics that no one really wants anyway. There must be a way. Surely there must be a way.”

“I… I don’t know. I… I haven’t thought...” he looked up again the hope sparking again. “I will speak to my father… no, I will speak to Serena. She will speak to my mother and SHE will speak to my father. I will speak to the lawyers.”

“Orien.”

“Yes?”

“You father is the king of Seline, my father is the king of Moravia, they are the two most powerful men in this world. They make the laws Orien, they can do what they wish in this and that is the truth.”

“You are right, of course. I will speak to Serena and then I will speak to my father.”

“Orien.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t think for one moment that this means I care nothing for you. I do care for you. You will always be a friend to me, a dear friend and if it does not work out as we hope I will do everything in my power to be a good wife to you.”

“Dear, dear Sou Shan. You have been a better friend to me this day than you could ever know, in so many ways. The women of the court are neither so brave nor so bold, not so honest, or forthright, or understanding. If I had been set to marry any other woman in this world I would never have been able to confess my love for Felise. Only to you Sou Shan, only to you.” For the second time he took her face between his hands and kissed her. This time as well as sweetness there was a tenderness in the kiss that touched her more than any of his words.

And then he was gone and she was alone. It took a few moments before the import of what had happened hit her. She had been so concerned for Orien and relieving his pain that she had not fully thought what it would mean for her. Suddenly it hit her…. if this worked, if the kings were prepared to listen to Orien and to make a new covenant… then she would be free, she could be with Cai. Leaping to her feet she ran to find Rehanna.

For the rest of the day she was in an agony of suspense. Rehanna acted as scout and ranged the castle for news. From a half hour after their meeting in the garden Orien and the two kings were locked into the state office. Occasionally the call would come for someone else to join them, counsellors, historians, lawyers… but no one came out.

In the late afternoon Serena came to find her. For the first time there was warmth in her eyes and the first thing she did was embrace her.

“I apologise unreservedly Sou Shan. I thought that you were a foolish uncouth child who sought to gain power for yourself by leeching it from my brother. And the only reason I thought so was because I was filled with bitterness and spite on behalf of my friend. I never took the time to get to know you as my brother did and that is my loss. If I had then perhaps you would have confided in me earlier.”

“I can understand Serena. I would be glad to just start again. Maybe we can be friends.”

“Of course we can. Whatever happens. Whether they succeed in overturning the covenant or not, you tried. You tired to help Orien and I will love you for it forever.”

“With anyone else I would point out that forever is a long time bit with you I somehow think that it is not so very long after all.”

“I don’t really understand that but I believe that it was a compliment and so I thank you. And now I must speak with my mother and see if she can find a way of getting into the counsel chamber to find out what is going on.”

“If you find anything…”

“I will come straight here, of course I will.”