Isabelle
Alfred sent an invitation to Isabelle on the first warm day of the season. He handed it to Isabelle’s most trusted maid, and asked that it be delivered by hand.
Arrangements had been made all day long with various servants in the house. All day long there was scurrying and hurrying blurs of motion in every direction. No one in the household seemed to have a moments rest.
Isabelle was being rushed about by her maids, though they would not tell her why they were doing so.
The nannies were hurriedly getting Agatha through her breakfast, lessons, and bath before the afternoon.
By the time the Noon hour had approached Agatha was asleep in her bed for nap time. In Isabelle’s parlor evening gowns were being laid out for presentation. In the kitchen the staff began starting dinner preparations. All other staff that would be free or otherwise cleaning seemed to have vanished into thin air. Only Isabelle’s two favorite maids were in the dining area to serve lunch.
As she finished her main course, one took away the plate and the other set down the invitation.
Isabelle drew in a deep breath as she glanced at it.
“My Dearest Love, the soul for whom this heart beats, I dare not face you for I could not bear your rejection. All I ask is for your company at dinner tonight. It has been far too long since these eyes have seen your beauty and they ache for the sight of you. I will wait for you in the Garden after the sun has taken it’s leave. I will leave I pathway of light for you to follow, for I hope my Love for you to be a light in your time of darkness. Your Ever Adoring Husband, Alfred”
Isabelle looked at her guilty maids, who blushed and hung their heads.
She did take up his invitation though. The rest of the afternoon her maids primped and prodded, painted and adjusted her. By the time she stepped out of the doorway to the Garden she was a vision of beauty. Draped in a mauve print that hid the weight she could not seem to shake since Agatha’s birth. Her hair a nest of small tight curls, some falling loosely almost randomly. She wore a light dusting of makeup, a deep purple rose, though you could hardly tell past her healthy glow.
She glanced down at the stone pathway to the Garden and noticed small bowls of water placed along the edges. Inside these bowls floated three tiny, white, heart shaped candles. The path stretched out into the darkness and curved around til it disappeared.
As she turned the corner, the path narrowed. A series of hanging sheets blocked the view all around, she’d never seen anything like it before. It was as if someone had made a fabric maze and lit the pathway with tiny bowls of light.
Suddenly a slight breeze started, and the fabric began to sway in the wind. At once she could hear a melody she knew so well. Ndidi played somewhere near, his song floated on the air and called to her like a sirens song. The melody so sad and slow, he composed it himself while he was away with his Maestro. She had no idea he had returned. She quickened her steps til she reached the end of the maze, then stood in awe at what she saw.
An arabian tent full of large soft pillows and hand woven carpets laid out. Lamps filled with aromatic oils burned inside to light the tent. Agatha was dressed as an arabian princess and played with a large wooden camel out of a small caravan. Alfred stood and walked to Isabelle, he took her hand and kissed it.
“My Dearest Isabelle, you are my heart and we are your family. May we please forget the past and look forward to the future. I will make you happy, if you will just let me. I will love you til the ends of time and more if I am allowed. There is nothing more important to me than what I have now. There is nothing more I need, for we are already complete. You are the piece of the puzzle that refuses to fit, but on my life I swear to you, you are the only piece left to the puzzle and only you fit.”