Chapter 25

Soon they left the busy street and reached a rural area. Ashton slanted up the small hill fast. He had anticipated that this was the only path which the market street led to, so he had his horse waiting for him uphill. Soon he caught up her again from up above. She was easier to spy on than the other target.

Ava arrived at home in the lunch hour as usual. Today was passing like any other day, but she knew today she would change her life some other way. She was on a crossroad. She had come to a point that she decided she couldn't live like this anymore, but she hadn't made up her mind yet. She finished her daily chores, took a quick bath and changed her clothes. Soon after everything had done, she stepped out of the house and walked along the lane, into the grassland spread downhill.

She drifted aimlessly through the meadow. All she needed was time for herself, without noise or interruption. Time to contemplate her choices. Time to tune into her real inner values.

She stopped in the midst of the field, took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, embracing the quietness surrounded her. In this silence, she would listen to the voice inside, deep within her soul. And she would hear its answer.

Standing amongst the tall yellowing grass with the wind blew through her hair, she gazed thoughtfully at the distance. Bathed in the mid-afternoon sunlight, her fair complexion was shimmering in soft golden rays.

Watching her from a distance under the safety of the shadow, Ashton felt a sudden, unexpected urge. If he had pencil and paper in hand, he would sketch at once. Or even more. If he had paintbrush and canvas, he would paint right now.

It wasn't the physical beauty, though he wouldn't deny that it was breathtaking too. It was beyond that. What moved him and what made this moment worth capturing was its amazing sense of solitude. The glory of being alone. And how the whole mood of her self-absorption blended perfectly with the scenery around her.

He squeezed his fingers unintentionally, resisting the temptation to absorb into the glorious sense and the crazy idea to imprint the sight on his memory and paint it later.

He was an artist. He had the gift to recognize beauty even when nobody else could see it. He once painted the wrinkles on an old servant's hands. It wasn't just a string of ugly lines and folds in human skin. The years of lifetime devotion were showing in every wrinkle, in a pair of hands that had worked selflessly for his family, giving more than what was required.

He always knew at once when he found it. Beauty was comforting, inspiring, enlightening the spirit and infinitely healing, even when it was fleeting and intangible. Beauty never failed to move him.

A sudden awareness alarmed him, bringing him speedily to his senses. A woman of her sort had no beauty within. His sense of beauty had been so blunt it could be deceived by an illusion. He tore his gaze away, suddenly felt tempted to walk away from the whole espionage thing at once.

He thought about the dull, monotonous task he had to do everyday, the piling-up documents on his large mahogany desk in his comfortable, quiet study. He would have made the most of the day sitting and burying himself in those heaps of paper, rather than stalking this wench all day like some obsessed secret admirer.

But he was halfway toward completing his job. He had stalked her almost all day and there were only several hours left. What he had been waiting for could have come in the last hour. Moving his gaze to her again, he decided to stay.

*****

Later in the afternoon, Ava was standing in front of the mirror. She brushed her hair quickly before wearing her cloak. After checking her look once again in the mirror, she took a little pouch and put it into her pocket. Now she was ready to go.

"You're going to see him?" Polly whispered from her bedroom doorway. Her voice sounded low-pitched and deep.

"I will get the things packed, so we could go as soon as you come back."

"I'm not going to see him, Polly."

"What?! So where do you want to go?"

Polly returned to her normal voice.

"I'm going to see the fortune teller."

"My God!" Polly exclaimed loudly.

"You're getting insanely superstitious like all the silly people in this town! What are you thinking? Instead of wasting your time listening to all the Gypsy nonsense, you better go seeing Magnus and take his offer."

"I'll never take his offer."

Polly stared at her with disbelief.

"Good God! What makes you so unreasonably stubborn?!!! He loves you and you love him, will you say it otherwise?"

"Life has taught me not to expect too much from a man." Ava tied the string in front of her cloak.

"His passion for me was very strong before, perhaps it still is now, but I don't know if it would last for the years to come. What if he gets tired of me after a few years, or even less? It would leave me broken, Polly. Much more than now."

"I trust he is not a man like that. He will take care of you for the rest of your life. Like your father to your mother."

"I trusted he would be brave to fight his family for me, I trusted he would be willing to sacrifice everything and runaway with me, but he didn't. I won't risk everything I have hoping that he would do the same in return."

"You... you're impossible!" Polly waved her hand in desperation.

"You're the most difficult person I ever knew, you're the worst!"

*****

From above the hill, Ashton saw his target moving out of the house into the street. Peering from a relatively fair distance, he could see she was wearing a cloak as if she was going somewhere far from home.

Where was she supposed to go at this hour? When the birds were flying back to their nests and people were walking home before the dark stole the last vestiges of daylight. The shops and taverns, practically all public places must have been closed within minutes. In a little town like this, there was nowhere to go at this hour. The nighttime was definitely not the time to go out of one's house. Except... for a clandestine meeting. His blue eyes gleaming brilliantly in the black of the night. Finally, this long, tormenting, aggravating hours of waiting would not go futile.

Ava walked quickly passing a number of tiny cottages before reaching a long, quiet trail with meadow by its sides. The path sloped up to a hilltop. There was a solitary wooden cottage stood in the shadow of the trees. She had arrived there.

It wasn't difficult to find the fortune teller's house. Most of the villagers knew her. The Gypsy woman was famous not only for her accurate prophecy but her effective medicine as well. People said her prophecy never failed and her medicine could heal the worst and most terrible injuries. She had stopped several times to ask the direction and everyone she met talking enthusiastically about the Gypsy woman's exceptional gift to get a glimpse of one's future.

As she got near to the rustic cottage, her pace slowed down. Doubt and fear crept in her mind. But she had gone this far, and she really wanted to get a clue. She forced her feet to move until she finally reached the front door. She stood still, making some time to get herself together. She was just raising her hand to knock when a voice came from inside the house.

"Come in, lass. I've been expecting you."

Her heart pounded fast in a peculiar feeling, she pushed the handle and the door opened in a creaking sound. Ava caught her breath, bracing herself to look inside. Unlike the mysterious and scary facade, the inside of the house was bright and quite warm. Nora was sitting behind her desk, the woman smiled at her.

"I know the first time I saw you, we will meet again."

Ava glanced around and surprised to see the house of the fortune teller was not like what she used to think. It was like another country house with a set of simple and shabby furniture, a worn-out carpet and some vintage wall decorations. A cupboard full of pots and jars stood on the corner. Seemed like they were the famous healing potions and medicine.

"There's no crystal ball if you're looking for it." The woman startled her out of her observation. Ava turned to the Gypsy woman and smiled back. "I guess you know why I am here now."

"Come and sit, young lady."

Ava approached a chair in front of the woman's desk and sat. The fortune teller gazed upon her in silence.

"You are a woman who knows your worth even when the whole world denies it. That's why all the universe will conspire to help you achieve what you want..."

The curious sensation filled her again.

"Does that mean someday I'll get married?"

"Sure."

Ashton watched the creepy house stood alone in the hilltop beneath the darkened shadow. It looked more like a ghost house than a love nest, but it would be suitable for a forbidden affair. Finally his mission had come to an end, he just had to take the last step to finish it. He would caught the pair in the act and send the wench to her father and her betrothed at once.

He loped across the trail and reached the house in split second. He slipped to the side of the house and flattened his back to the wooden wall next to the window. He stood still, listening in silence. He barely heard anything from inside the house. He turned and tried to peek from the window, but a floral curtain blocked his view. Ashton looked around in thorough observation. This cottage was built of wood planks, there must be some little gaps in some places. Finally he saw a little beam of light from a small gap between the planks. He pressed his body against the wall and peered through the hole.

Ava stared at Madam Nora, feeling completely puzzled. Though her dramatic, hyperbolic words had her spellbound and greatly amused at first, the longer she listened to it, the more she realized it didn't give her any clue or a concrete direction about what she was going to do.

"You are an enchantress. It's your blessing and your curse. The man your heart most desires cannot escape. He may deny you, he may try to flee but your charm will bind him tighter than any chain. The helpless soul cannot go far."