FOREVER KNIGHTS: #4 Battling Black Roses

Grier Library, Meadowbrook, Grier Country

DERAGAN

Their last tutor of the day, Ms. Moore, was particularly vicious. So, Nora opted to ride in Mera’s carriage with a plan to meet Anna at the University Library. The three girls set on ducking the tutelage for the last hour.

“Tea and sweet cream…” Mera sighed blissfully in anticipation as her coachman pulled the vehicle up to the wide dual doors. A groomsman rushed out to help them down.

“I could use one.”

“Worthington?” Mera’s head whipped.

“He was everywhere today.” Nora grumbled.

“I saw. And casting you long looks. How charming...” She oozed venom.

Nora scoffed.

“Let me get it.” Meralee coerced, pulling a handful of coin from a purse tied to her skirt.

Anna arrived. Finally. Climbing from her coach, her wide hat barely slipping through the opening. A lavender coin purse dangled from her wrist. The precise shade of her widely ruffled gown and brimmed hat.

“Oh my God!” She snagged a rickety wooden chair, swinging a fan before her face. “Evading Ms. Moore’s tutelage was harder than usual, today.” She covertly whispered. “She’s watching me.”

“Ooh.” Mera pursed her lips mockingly at the intrigue.

“I don’t know how! I’m amazed she can see atall with those spectacles.” Anna grumbled.

“It is, indeed, hard to imagine why a woman as attractive as she, is a spinster…” Mera commented dryly.

Nora choked on her tea.

Ms. Moore’s hooked beak nose overhung a lip that barely concealed yellowed teeth.

Glancing above Mera’s head, Anna gave an exaggerated huff. “Why must we sit where the other Nora can stare at me so patronizingly?” She gestured upward.

Both followed her gaze to the painting above the heavy oak bookcase opposite them. Dominating the bleak corner, its vivid colors brought the couple eerily to life. Detailed eyes made the viewer feel as if they were followed by the haunting gazes. Nora’s resemblance to the lady in the portrait was an ongoing joke between the trio.

“There are so many similarities.” Meralee shuddered.

Anna chirped. “Look at all her glorious hair. Piled everywhere and with plenty to spare streaming down her dress.” Oddly becoming around the slender face. Wisping tresses dangled over one shoulder to emphasize the cleavage the gown surrendered. Haunting bluish-purple eyes stared back at them.

“Eyes just like yours.” Mera stared.

“You mean identical.” Anna arched a brow.

“There is a resemblance.” Nora admitted. “Even I must acknowledge that. But look in her eyes. She is fearless.”

A proud tilt lifted the woman’s chin, added a dangerous shine to her gaze. Her lover held her fiercely against him. His arm wrapping her back possessively. Forehead pressed to her temple. Lips a hairsbreadth from kissing the smooth line of her cheek. His visible blue eye stared at her as if he saw nothing else. Glistening black hair, and proud stature combining with square features to make him undeniably handsome.

“Look how he looks at her.” Nora added, awestruck.

“Can you imagine that?” Anna sighed in rapture. “She has to be his mistress! Men never look at their wives like that.”

“It’s captivating enough.” Meralee averted her attention to the table of assorted teas. Rising to examine them further. The other girls in tow.

“Have you heard the story, Mera?” Anna asked excitedly about the painting. “The professor told us about them. How they were lovingly etched by a friend of the couple the night she died. There’s intricate details like the perfect pink of her fingernails and the shadows of her red satin dress. It is a highly sophisticated portrait for so early in the 1700s.”

“Anna!” Nora proclaimed. “I am impressed!”

“I do pay attention…” Anna shifted in her seat. “When it’s interesting…And that,” she pointed “is the most beautiful, haunting thing.”

“I always thought one Nora staring at me in solid judgement was quite enough.” Mera puckered. Tone facetious.

“You can never have enough.” Nora returned.

“Is that why you sit with your back to it?” Anna asked Mera.

“I do not.” Meralee collected the cup she’d ordered from the server and walked away. Pointedly avoiding the painting.

“You have!” Nora agreed. “You’re doing it now!”

“Purely incidental.”

“Nothing with you is incidental.” Anna said suspiciously.

“I wish I was like her.” Nora sent a final glance back at the portrait.

“Oh my God!” Anna proclaimed. “There he is!” She pointed toward the large window dominating the wall next to them, artwork forgotten.

Glancing both ways, a tall, slim man stepped onto the cobbled road and jogged toward the library. Green overcoat swinging. At the last minute he veered right and headed down the block.

“I met him a sennight ago.” Nora murmured.