𝐸𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 || 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑊𝐻𝐼𝑇𝐸 𝑄𝑈𝐸𝐸𝑁

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐿𝑉𝐼

~One Heart, One Love~

The plates of dinner having being cleared away long ago, the children tucked safe and sleeping in their beds, Eleanor was left alone in her chambers. She had ordered Anais and Marie to leave her when they came to help her ready for bed, telling them firmly that she would do it herself.

Despite the hesitant looks they gave her, and one another, they had curtsied silently before slipping away to their own chambers and Eleanor had slowly removed her gown, rubbing the heavy green silk between her fingers as she lay it out on the end of the bed.

She had struggled with the laces at first, so used she had become to being dressed and undressed by others and had found herself cursing the cumbersome buttons that closed her sleeves but had at last managed to undo them, silently thanking the Lord as she did so.

She then headed to her dressing table, lighting the candles that sat awaiting her upon the dark oak surface before she sat down on the stool padded with red velvet. Locking eyes with herself, she slowly removed the golden pins from her copper locks, letting the silver silken thread that bound her hair float freely to the ground as strands of fiery red fell over her shoulders.

As she placed each pin down on the cold wood she found herself gazing at her reflection. With her hair loose around her face and her fine gown discarded she seemed to herself almost like a child again.

Her shoulders slumped and she could see her younger self staring back at her. Her lower lip trembled slightly as she recalled the child she had once been. How her only concerns in life had been how to achieve the golden hair of her sisters and the long dreamt of ownership of her own green gown.

What would that child think if she could see her now, she wondered. Would little Leena have been afraid of children of four and three?

She strongly doubted it.

The girl that had hidden behind the oak tree would have put her best foot forward, would have sulked for around half an hour before stepping into her sunny disposition once more.

'Why can I not do that now?' Eleanor questioned irritably as she began to pull an ivory comb through her hair, her young self fading back into mere memory once more.

The soft click of the door closing made her gaze finally tear from herself as she caught Richard entering their chambers in his undershirt and breeches. She kept her eyes firmly on him as he padded over to her, gently taking the comb from her hand before he began to brush her hair himself, a look of concentration settling on his face.

After he had counted to one hundred in his head, the number Marie had instructed him to diligently brush till, he placed the comb down and reached down to take Eleanor's hand.