Chapter 10.
Anna had waited upon her husband in their stone abode from the moment she heard news of his departure to war. She felt much guilt for her actions. Avoiding the man in efforts to make him suffer. It was not until darkness fell that she saw a figure come limping through the southern entrance of Rhoma’s ruined fencing, upon the granite walkway which she patrolled.
Still struggling to breathe, the warlord hobbled in agony towards the small structure, the very sight of him threw her into a state of deepest regret. After a moment’s hesitance she rushed down the stone path and pulled a large arm over her tiny shoulders to assist his movement. The male said nothing. Together they lurched into their stone abode and through to the resting chamber, there Anna let him down upon the bed and made haste out of the room.
Some moments later she returned with a burnt clay bowl, she rest it down on the floor beside their bed. Slowly she soaked some fresh linen and softly bathed his wounds, when they were clean she made effort to bind the worst of them. He flinched as Anna enveloped the ruptured scar on his forehead with the soft cloth. It had caused his eye to bruise grossly. She covered each area of skin that still wept blood, and as the warrior began to calm he stared into Anna’s large dark eyes, lost for some time in their beauty.
It was almost arousing for her to see her husband in such a state, seething with testosterone whilst falling at her knees like a lost puppy. He raised a hand and gently held her jaw line in silence, stroking her left cheek with his thumb. She did not resist his touch though did not once look into his eyes for the time she spent tending his wounds.
He lightly forced her chin to face his and leaned towards her to kiss her lips, yet as he came close she turned sharply away. Sighing quietly his gaze fell away from hers and he stared at the grey of his chamber lifelessly. Anna was quiet herself, cold, she walked around the bed and lay upon it expecting her husband to leave or sleep.
“My parents asked after you today,” the man spoke softly, hesitant between his words. They were met only by silence. “I told them you were busy. My mother took great pleasure in speaking of you.” Her husband did not know it but as he spoke the eyes of the astounding beauty laying by his side began to well with tears. Only the licking of the burning flames prevented absolute silence entombing each sentence he uttered in the barrens of his mind. “I’m sorry I can’t give you what you want most in life, when I first laid eyes upon you it too was what I wanted more than anything.” He sighed quietly again before turning to look at his unmoved wife. “My love?” He reached back to touch her arm though she prevented him.
“Don’t” she whimpered, the tears now rolled uncontrollably from her great hazel spheres, delved into a new depth of guilt.
The two did not speak another word. Anna continued to weep for some time in silence before she passed to sleep. Her husband remained awake for much time. He felt torment inside that far exceeded the pains of his physical wounds for he now truly felt the loss of his wife’s love towards him.
Although she did not consciously experience it, sometime in the midst of her slumber she felt a slight disturbance, the feeling of some soft warmth pressing lightly against her forehead. Before the disturbance unsettled her it was gone. She would not remember that touch of her husband upon her, one she had once lived for, and one that she now despised above all others.
The Echoes of Solon Page 17