Melinas Men

Chapter Seven.

Chapter Seven.

The next day went on with lots of side glances and watching between Jack and me. He watched me as I conversed with Eric, I wondered how that made him feel. I watched Jack go about his day assisting Eric or either of our staff. It was like a little game. Lucky, I had no work, the only work I had was accompanying Eric, but I was lacking with that. No one was surprised by this; I was never interested.

And no one really cared about that. This whole thing was twisted. Get married, then fall in love with each other. I wanted to fall in love with someone then want to marry them. Was that too much to ask? I had that once and look how that worked out. Maybe it wasn’t possible.

I thought about how life would’ve been different if my initial engagement had worked out. I wouldn’t have my mother on my back every second, my family would be proud of me. I’d be living freely in Hembridge. Was pointless to dream about that.

My daydreaming was interrupted by Georgia bringing me afternoon tea.

“How are you going miss?” She asked me.

I nodded, “yeah, alright.”

“You spend a lot of time on the verandah now, is there something more interesting to be watching now?” She gave me an evil smirk.

I laughed at her, “no comment.”

“You want tea or coffee?” She asked.

“Coffee please,” I looked beyond her.

She nodded then left me again.

Few minutes later she came back with a coffee and tea for herself, she placed them down on the table and sat on the other side.

I watched her expectantly. Georgia was my friend as well as staff and I knew her well, she was a hard worker. She never sat down and had a drink with me unless I asked her, or she had something to say.

“Want some advice?” She asked.

There it was, “sure.”

“Don’t let who you are get in the way of your happiness,” she began, “I haven’t seen you look at anyone like you look at Jackson since the late Sebastian.”

Her words hit hard with me, whenever anyone spoke of Sebastian they did, he wasn’t a topic of conversation for a long time, but he seemed to keep coming up as of late.

“I know it’s hard, but when you two get moments alone, forget who you are and the responsibility,” she smiled at me.

“How are you only two years older than me,” I was surprised by her wisdom. All the time.

She shrugged, “I don’t get a nice pretty screen over everything like you do.”

“That’s harsh,” I laughed.

“You know I mean nothing by it, it’s not your fault. I actually love my job, because of you.”

I smiled, I could sense the sincerity radiating from her, “thank you Georgia.”

That night after dinner I decided to not press my luck going to the pub, I had already gone too many nights in a row. I was bound to be noticed absent sooner or later. I propped myself up in the reading room with a book so I could be seen around the place at night. Making myself seem less suspicious the nights I would ‘be in my room.’

My dad was known for a late night read in the reading room so I knew he would see me.

“Hello dear,” he said on queue as I walked into the room.

“Hey dad,” I smiled, seating myself on the chaise lounge, “what you reading?”

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” he told me.

“Again?” I laughed. He was so predictable. It was either that or Moby.

“If something’s good, why change?” He chuckled then went back to his book.

We sat in silence while we both read and maybe within half an hour dad set his book down and looked to me.

“Don’t stay up too late, dear,” he said.

“Goodnight dad.”

He walked out of the room. I sat there, reading, for another ten minutes so it didn’t look suspicious before I left.

When I walked out of the room ready to head to my quarters, I saw Jack leaning against the wall, almost like he was waiting for me.

“What are you doing?” I spoke lightly.

“What do you think,” he smiled, “you weren’t at the pub tonight.”

“I can’t go every night and test my fate.”

We stood there, not saying anything.

“You keep popping up like a bad smell,” I told him, walking off towards my room. This was unknown territory for me, and it was overwhelming.

Jack grabbed onto my wrist and stopped me from walking away.

“What?” I wondered.

He slid his hand down from my wrist to my hand, holding onto it.

“Follow me,” he said, and started walking off towards the opposite direction.

“Someone might see us.” I hissed.

“Everyone’s asleep, don’t worry,” he said, dragging me to god knows where.

Maybe he was going to murder me.

We walked down hallways and hallways until we got to the back on the large house, then we took the stairs down to the servants’ headquarters.

“I can’t be down here,” I tried to pull back against him as we got to the stairs

“Yes, you can, don’t worry,” he smiled back at me, and it made me forget all my worries.

I remembered what Georgia said, ‘forget who you are and the responsibility.’

I stopped pulling back from Jack and he felt it, starting to go down the stairs. We went through the hall, past the bedrooms and the kitchen to the doors that lead outside.

There was a picnic table with bench seats. Two pints of beer were sitting on the table.

Jack sat down and pulled me down with him. We were sitting so close our legs were touching.

There were vines snaking up the pillars and in front of us was the green paddock, nothing else, and then the property line which was forest, above it a big full moon. It was beautiful.

“I brought the pub to you,” Jack said, with a half grin on his face. Only one side of his mouth pulled up to a smile and it was cheeky, but thoughtful.

“This is so nice,” I grabbed a beer and took a sip, it was cold down my throat and so refreshing.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I better, I’ll be killed if I’m found down here,” I laughed.

Although it was true.

“No one will know, the staff here are sneakier than you think, not just Georgia,” he declared

“I don’t doubt that,” I laughed.

It seemed I was always laughing with Jack. My abs would get a good workout.

We sat there and drank our drinks, talked, and laughed. It was refreshing to not have any worries. But as we got closer to the bottom of our glasses, I knew that meant the night would be over.

“You know, I don’t want to pressure you,” he said, knowing what I was thinking in a way.

“We can take this slow,” he told me.

I laughed, “you’ll be gone in a couple days.”

“And then we’ll be back in a week,” he stated.

“That’s right. We. You and Eric. And if I reject Eric, ironically because of you, then you’ll be gone. To never return,” the realisation made me sad.

Jack turned from me to watch the horizon.

“Bit of a pickle, isn’t it?” He said out of no where breaking the silence.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

After I stopped the laughter, I said something I wish I didn’t, “I better go.”

Jack swivelled in his seat to look at me again, “you know I haven’t kissed you.”

“You have twice,” I smiled, how could he not remember?

He shook his head, “no, no. You’ve kissed me twice.”

I furrowed my brow, “don’t deny you didn’t want to.”

“I did, I’m not denying that,” he leant closer to me, “but I want to be the one to kiss you.”

He pushed a strand of flyaway hair from my face and placed it behind my ear, then holding onto my neck he moved even closer to me and kissed me softly. His lips were full and plump against mine as he opened them, his tongue brushing against my lips like they once had before. I opened my mouth and gave him access. Pushing against him to deepen our kiss as we explored each other’s mouth. It was soft yet needy and filled with desire. I didn’t want to stop there, but I had to.

I leant my forehead against his, “I have to go,” I whispered.

“I know,” he quickly kissed me again, “I just needed that to get me through the night.”

We looked into each other’s eyes and his were dazzling in the moonlight. The moon gave shadows in his bright blue eyes adding so much depth, it was like the stars were in there themselves.

After a moment I finally composed myself and stood up. Jack walked me through the servants’ quarters and up the stairs. He held onto the handle of the door leading to the main house, but before opening it he pulled me into him for an embrace.

His chest against my head was strong and hard and his arms around me were comforting and safe. It lasted longer than a hug usually would then we finally let go.

“Goodnight princess,” he smiled as he opened the door and I walked through.