It was the 17th of September. Theodore had been holed up in his office nearly all day. Emily had taken a liking to running the estate almost as if she was his wife, and in a sense, she was more – she was his mate.
She enjoyed listening to the cook whine about the workload being too much, and yet he was adamant about not getting someone else to help him out, aside from his daughter.
She loved small chit chat with Cecilia who still worked at the estate. She even came to appreciate Mrs Steam’s strict work ethics. And she’d have to admit that there was so much she didn’t know about running an estate, she’d have long since failed at the mission had it not been for the old live-in housekeeper.
“I wonder what her secret is,” she heard a girl whisper in a way that indicated she wanted to be heard. “Snagging the elusive owner of the estate… just wow!”
Usually, Emily ignored such petty remarks, but on that day, she didn’t feel like being indulgent.
“Don’t you have a job to do?” She iced out.
The girl had the decency to blush at that, but she pulled her act together quickly enough, and then retorted, “Don’t you? You used to be one of us.”
“Well, I’m no more, it would seem,” Emily told her in a saccharine tone and flashed her a fake smile.
“Yeah, seems to me like you’re just a great lay,” she muttered under her breath.
Emily heard every last word. And she saw red.
“Do you not need the job anymore?” She iced out, feeling simmering anger rage through her.
The girl paled at once. “You wouldn’t dare…”
“Says who?” She retorted cynically. “Want to try me?”
“What’s going on here?” Mrs Steams, who had just arrived, asked in her usual haughty tone.
The girl’s paleness increased if that was possible.
“Nothing,” she was quick to stammer.
Emily was about to speak up when she received a phone call from none other than Theodore who was working from the office. She wondered why he was calling her though when he was just a few feet away.
“Something the matter?” They both asked as soon as she picked up the call.
She turned on her heels and left the impudent girl trying to explain the situation to the housekeeper.
“What’s going on, dorogaya?” He then asked. “I could feel your anger through our mate bond.”
“Nothing of importance,” she told him softly, having regained her calm.
“Are you sure?” He insisted.
“Positive,” she assured him.
“Okay,” he conceded. “I took 5 from the meeting just because I wanted to check up on you.”
“I’m okay, really,” she told him softly.
“Glad you are,” was his sweet response. And it wasn’t long before he hung up.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Emily was near the master bedroom, about to open the door, when Theodore did for her as per usual.
She had brought their lunch.
When she entered the room, something was off about her beloved mate. His face was made of stone. He didn’t sport the smile he usually kept for her. He didn’t try to tease her… nothing.
“What’s wrong?” She asked softly as she put the tray on the bed.
“Maybe we ought to eat first,” he suggested.
“I’d like to hear what’s bothering you and maybe help you first,” she protested.
“And I’d like to have enough energy to say what I have to say.”
“Okay, fine,” she conceded on a sigh.
He was seriously worrying her.
They ate in silence. And boy that silence was suffocating.
And what was more annoying was that she couldn’t feel anything coming from him. He could feel her emotions and read her like an open book, and yet the same didn’t apply to her. She had no clue what was roaming his mind. She had no idea what was bothering him.
“Are you breaking up with me?” She blurted out suddenly, feeling as if she was one second away from crying.
“What?” He exclaimed, astonished. “No! I can’t break up with you. Not only do I love you and cannot even bring myself to picture life without you, but you’re also my mate, dorogaya. What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know,” she said, eyes downcast. “I just assumed the worst, you know.”
“Surely, there are worse things that could happen to you than us getting separated,” he tried to bring her spirits up.
But she only glared at him in response, “Just because I have trouble voicing out my feelings doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I do, deeply so…” she trailed off as tears stung her eyes. “I am just not confident enough to say the words.”
“Dorogaya…”
“Let me finish,” she instructed and he went quiet at once. “I am just so scared that this love story of ours will fade away as soon as I say the words, much like a dream fades away as soon as we come to our senses. I am so in love you with, it’s absurd. And yes, us growing apart is the worst things that could happen to me.”
Theodore raised his hand almost timidly, “Permission to speak?”
She just giggled at his antics in spite of her tears.
“I have waited with bated breath for this confession of yours, dorogaya,” he confessed sweetly, “so much that I don’t know what to say right now.”
“Say that you won’t leave me,” she all but implored him.
“I would never,” he vowed.
“Now that that’s settled, I’d like to know what’s bothering you so much. You had me worried.”
His face went from open to grim in a moment. He grimaced and said in a tired tone, “We have been summoned.”
“Summoned?” She echoed after him.
“Yes, my parents have heard of the whole Ivan Sidorov fiasco,” he said matter-of-factly. “I bet that is not all they have heard of too…”
“Oh, so I’ll be meeting your parents?” She asked, feeling excited and nervous all of a sudden.
“Yes,” he nodded earnestly.
“How much time do we have before we leave?” She then asked.
“We leave tomorrow,” he said on a sigh.
“Don’t be so dejected,” she tried to reassure him, even though she didn’t know what kind of journey she was going to embark on, even though she didn’t know whether they’d welcome her with open arms or not. “It’ll be okay.”
“I sure hope so, dorogaya.”
His words weren’t the most reassuring. Nevertheless, Emily had hope.