Considering the emotional weight of that island and house they sat in, Arabella believed there was more than lack of tact on his part whenever he’d voiced his concerns or ideas so clumsily.
"What do you an voluntarily?" he insisted.
"I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that," she shook her head.
"We just had this conversation," he started, "I’d like you to be comfortable enough to speak your mind, especially around ,"
"Would that be wise?"
"And why wouldn’t it be?" that entire ti, he never let go of her.
"Perhaps our ranks in society would have mattered less if I was a vampire, but I am not,"
"That matters very little to ," he said.
"I realize that," she marked a pause during which her fists clenched, "But our whole dynamic relied on the fact that you were seeking answers as to what made special, about the reasons the Mirari did not affect only to discover that you were curing from it all along. Our entire interactions were based on this foundation of doing my best to remain in line and you... Trying to figure my secret out and now, you’ve finally unraveled the truth. Things will be different,"
"Things can be just as we wish them to be," his arms bound her to him harder as though fearing she’d slip through his fingers if he didn’t hold on tightly enough.
"Not for soone like or... Ada,"
"Do you see Ada as an equal to you?" he asked.
"Of course, I do," her fists gripped the skirt of her gown with more strength, "I have nothing she doesn’t have or that she can’t accomplish,"
"You know, you were right about what you said a minute ago," Silas did sothing that froze her blood in their veins very montarily before llowing every muscle in her body. He, for the first ti, let out a hearty chuckle, "Although I never lied when I said I wanted to relieve you of any stress, I always said the wrong thing... And I kept making that mistake because I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand,"
Arabella had the inkling the answer already lay in her hands, but she asked regardless, "What couldn’t you understand?"
"Your close tie with Katherine and Ada that grew sturdier with each day that passed in such a short period of ti," with his thumb he stroked her covered arm and yet, she still managed to feel him through the thick layers of fabric that enveloped her, "I knew you were likeable and kind, but still couldn’t fathom this...,"
When he failed to find the word, Arabella finished his sentence for him, "Friendship?" she suggested.
"Nothing but family ties, pure camaraderie or rivalry ever tied to every single person I’d crossed paths with. Any connection with a deeper aning than courtesy with people other than my own parents was a riddle I never even thought would intrigue ,"
"Are you saying you’ve never had any friends? Not ever?" her pitch had risen a tad, but her voice remained ek.
"I am saying exactly that,"
"I... Don’t think I’ve ever had any real friends aside from my mother and brother before coming to Umbraria. At first, I’d considered the maids that worked for my father as friends, but I was quickly reminded of the disparity that would lead our lives down different paths. It was hard to accept, but and them belonged to different worlds no matter how strongly I refused to see it, and that was also how I understood that facts needn’t my approval,"
"No, they don’t, but the rules built on those sa facts can always be bent," one of his hands rose up to cast an unruly strand of her hair behind her ears.
The gentleness of his action convinced her to shut her eyes and have faith that everything will be just alright.
"But a level of flexibility would be required for bending,"
"That can be managed," he slowly nodded against her head, "Tell , you who lived a life sowhat similar to mine in that regard, what do you seek in a friend?"
"I never knew what it was, but I imdiately recognized it when I saw it... In Ada," she whispered her na, "She too was apprehensive around at first, but with her, I had sothing I didn’t have back in Lustris,"
"What was it?"
"Here I am truly her equal, even though I’ve had to say it countless tis until she understood it. She still calls Miss, but it has beco an inside joke more than a formality," the smile on her face was palpable through her voice alone.
"Do you like spending ti with her?" he asked.
"Yes, I do,"
"Do you trust her?" another question.
Again, she nodded, "Yes, I do,"
"Are you happy to see her face and her smile every day?"
"Of course," she chirped in a subdued squeak.
"Then I believe, I also recognized what you see in her,"
"Yes, she is wonderful,"
"I ant I recognized it in you," he corrected.
The faint gasp that had escaped her control at that mont told it all.
"I’d been wondering why I felt the need to seek you out through the manor, the need to see and hear you speak or laugh,"
Silas did not expect her to say a thing as her body had hardened once anew which he foresaw after uttering such words.
"It is not simply the mystery of your immunity to the Mirari that kept your image in my thoughts even if it may have started as that,"
Right then, the sa hand that tad her hair, rose again, only that ti it went around her throat first before caressing its way up to her jaws.
In her eyes, ti completely stopped, freezing every part of her body in place.
He wasn’t rough by any ans, all that the vampire wanted was to crane her neck and make her look him in the eyes.
To offer him that upside down glance he so longed for and desired.
"But... There is sothing else with you. It’s sothing I wanted to do for a good while now,"
Without breathing another word, he lifted himself up just enough to bend closer, over her face and lock his lips with hers.
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