Saved By A Knight

Chapter One *Nirvana’s POV* Dublin, Ireland. November 2022 I will be a married woman soon, I thought to myself giddily. I know Jamie is yet to propose, but I just have this feeling that he's about to. This night, hopefully. And thinking this night, I tried to put a rush to my dressing up. I put a finishing touch to my look by applying my matte red lipstick. I came out of the bathroom and moved towards the bed where my dinner gown lied looking beautiful. My stomach still goes all gooey when I look at the gown and remember it's a gift from Jamie. I had seen the gown online and added it to my cart to buy later because the price was a little bit outside my league. Even though Jamie is very rich, I don't like asking him for money, not because he won't give me (because he does. He spoils me rotten with his money), but I don't want him to think I'm with him because of his wealth. Becca, my beautiful friend of three years, who actually introduced me to the love of my life, told me when Jamie and I started dating that I would get over his wealth soon enough. But it's been over a year — fifteen months exactly! — since Jamie and I started dating, and I'm yet to get over how wealthy he is. I don't think I ever will. I mean, I come from a comfortable family and the highest amount we had was twenty thousand dollars, and that was way back before we lost my dad to cancer. Feeling the gloom coming on at the thought of my dad's death, I changed my line of thought. So, with my humble background, it's difficult to look at a dress of eight hundred dollars and buy it off the rack immediately. Before Jamie, I didn't even delude myself with window shopping online. I didn't shop at all, period. I only buy clothes or any accessories when I have a need for them. But then I got a new job that pays far above anything I ever imagined, and then I got a boyfriend that is always giving me new things. I was very surprised when Jamie took out the lilac shimmering dress from a shopping bag, and it ended up being the same dress I had saved in my cart. "A beautiful dress for my beautiful jewel," he had said. "I know you haven't seen much of me since we came to Dublin, so let me take you out this night to show my appreciation and for us to also spend a little time together before you head over to surprise your family for Thanksgiving next week. I just want you to myself this evening." He had finished, looking at me with that look in his eyes that make me think 'surely, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.' I had just known then and there that he was going to propose to me this night. My stomach started doing its happy dance again. I can't wait to show my engagement ring to my mum and Aunt, to finally prove them wrong. I've not seen them since I left home for Manhattan, and I hardly call or pick up my mum's calls. She is always asking when I'm coming back to Iowa —which is never! — and I just don't need her calling to make me feel guilty like I was doing something wrong aside from living my best life. But I missed her and my aunt, which is why I plan on going home to surprise them. I bet Becca knows about this proposal already as she's Jamie's personal assistant, and she helps Jamie with dinner reservations and whatnot, even when they are not in the same place. She's that reliable. I hope she picked somewhere homely for this dinner proposal though, I won't even mind a pizza joint. But wherever she picked, I'm sure it met up to Jamie taste. Nobody knew better how much Jamie liked his privacy. We've even managed to keep our relationship secret from those at work, which suits me better, because I won't like anyone thinking I get to be the one going with Jamie on major business trips with our foreign clients because I'm sleeping with the boss. I'm just very good at what I do. I didn't believe it at first, but Becca helped me see that, aside from being a good language translator, clients like having me in the room because I make them feel comfortable with the way I speak their language, as if I were a native. Becca has helped me a lot, which is why I still don't get why my family don't like her. Josie, my maternal Aunt, pretends to like her, but I can see through her pretense. My mom, on the other hand, doesn't hide her dislike. I get that they can't see why Becca and I are friends, seeing that we are total opposites of one another. But I believe that's where the beauty of our friendship lies. Becca is an outgoing person, and maybe it doesn't endear her much to my family that she has the beauty of a goddess, which she's not naive about. Becca is very materialistic, which makes her look superficial to most people that don't know her. She believes in using her beauty to get whatever she wants, which has been working for her a lot. Maybe she has hurt some men along the way by cheating on them (which I shouldn't have told my family), but I believe she has stopped that since we finished college. Anyway, Becca is a wonderful person, and it's fine that not everyone will understand her. If she hadn't had the bravery to pitch herself to Jamie Fletcher when she met him at her former workplace, she wouldn't have the job she has now, which means I won't also have the job I have now, and I would be back home still living with my mom while cleaning people's homes with Aunt Josie. Becca gave me the chance to be more. Enough of dwelling, Nirvana. I admonish myself. At least when I go home with an engagement ring on my finger, my mom will see that she was wrong about Becca and also about not trusting Jamie because he's so much older than me—which is just nine years! — I am twenty-three years old and not eighteen. I look at myself in the full-length mirror, and press my hands to my jumping stomach. I remove the robe I am putting on and look at my still flat stomach, smiling at my reflection in the mirror. I put on my dinner gown. The fabric felt like butter on my body. The dress is a full-length gown with puffy sleeves, and has a slit that shows my inner thigh. I just love the innocent look of it until I move and then it speaks otherwise. The neckline is studded with sapphires, so I don't have much use for jewelry aside from my earrings and wristwatch. Fastening the said wristwatch, I see that I still have close to an hour before Jamie is due to return from his lunch with our Dublin clients. I slip my feet into the stiletto silver sandals I had put by the bed earlier. I pick up my purse, check to make sure I have my phone, then I head downstairs. I will just pick a book from the library to occupy myself with until Jamie returns. Entering the library, I take out my phone to text him that I'm in the library when I hear his voice coming from the study room inside the library. Pleasantly surprised that he's back home already, I rush towards the study. I am about to open the door when I hear another voice. Becca? I frown. What's Becca doing in Dublin? I hope business is not about to interfere with our planned night. Aside from the upcoming proposal, I have something celebratory to tell Jamie, and it will be nice if he's not thinking of any business issues. He works so hard and he deserves this one-night break. "...she's pregnant, and her grandfather is angry with me for being so careless." I hear Jamie saying. Surprise that Jamie knows my little secret already. I almost miss the part where he says "grandfather." Confuse, because my grandfather is clearly not in the picture anymore—he was long gone even before I was born—I tell myself I must have misheard him. "The funny thing is, I didn't plan on getting her pregnant, if I had known there's a high chance of her dying due to being pregnant, I would have done it when we just got married and not wait all these years playing the doting husband…" He continues. Married? Dying? Husband? Surely, I must be hearing wrongly. I open the door just as Becca is saying "we will get through this Jillian, maybe one more year, and you will forget that Rayna Carpenter ever existed. And who knows, maybe the old man will die alongside his loving granddaughter." She laughs. "What?!" I didn't know I had spoken until they both turned to look at me from where they stood by the window.