For Better Or Worse

Victoria sat
up, my shirt barely covering her at all.
“Ichabod, what in the world are you saying?”

I smiled at
her, perhaps foolishly, and said, “I am I love with you, Victoria.”

She moved
away from me, her face changing. “You cannot
possibly be in love with me, Ichabod Crane.
You hardly know anything about me.”

“I want to
learn everything about you…”

“…You’re
mad…”

“I am no such
thing. Victoria, even though you came
to me in the most dire of situations, my heart raced each time you walked
through my door…”

“Infatuation…”

“Perhaps at
first, but no longer.”

“And how is
it that things can change so suddenly?”

“Is it so
difficult to believe that a man can love you rather than cause you pain?”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> For some reason, I feared that I had crossed
some semblance of a line with that question.
She sat perfectly still, and perfectly silent. “Victoria, the life that you are living is not what you deserve.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> You should be sitting in a home with a smile
on your face, with your eyes alight…not crouched outside in the rain with fear
coursing through your veins. ve
ve
made you smile, that has to mean something.”

“Of course it
means something,” she said, her voice no more than a whisper.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “However, you believe you have rescued a ‘damsel
in distress’ and that your tale has a happy ending. There is no happy ending here, Ichabod.”style="mso-spacerun: yes">

“And why
not?”

“Are you
forgetting about the man that I am married to?
I shall be lucky if I live to see the sun set tomorrow.”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Tears fell from her eyes and I moved closer
to her, pulling her into my arms. She
tried to push me away, but I refused to let her go. “I cannot do this…”

“You will see
tomorrow. You will see every tomorrow,
I will make sure of it.”

“How?style="mso-spacerun: yes"> How can you make the horrid thing my life
has become vanish?” She looked into my
eyes and seemed suddenly desperate. “I
have not been able to get my life back, Hector has made sure of that.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> He was willing to kill my father rather than
let me go. I am not some helpless
woman, I am simply…” She had tried to
sound so sure of herself, but failed in the end.

“I swear that
I am not trying to make you feel weak.
I simply wish a better life for you, just as your father does.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> I wish to give you that life…”

“And had I not
made love to you?”

“I would
still wish to give you the life you deserve.”

“Again, I
stress that you do not know…”

I kissed her,
not allowing her to finish what I knew she wanted to say.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “You let me feast, now let me learn.”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> She reciprocated my kiss, her body
trembling.

“We could
both wind up dead.”

“I shall
think of something, I promise.”

Her body
began to come back to life, as did mine.
Her hands began to wander my chest as she asked, “Why risk your life for
a woman that you barely know?”

“I know all I
need to…for now.” I entered her body,
careful to keep my full weight off of her.
“Once I figure something out,” I whispered, “I want to know every detail
about you.”

Her head
tilted back and her eyes closed. Her
voice was breathy when she replied, “And I…you…”

I made love
to her, lavishing all I could upon her body.
I believe that both of us became lost in one another, neither wanting
the feelings we were creating to end…though, eventually, they did.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Our bodies too exhausted to move, I pulled
an afghan from the sofa and covered Victoria first, then myself.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> She fell asleep after muttering words that
haunted me through the night:

“I could love
you far too easily, Ichabod Crane.”

The words
that kept me awake were a blessing. As
my mind reeled at the thought of having Victoria’s heart, an idea struck
me. One that could let her escape a
life of misery and start anew with me.