Let it Snow!

❄Twenty-Three❄

Nora tried hard not to think about Martin while she washed the dishes and tidied up once she was alone, but it wasn't easy.

It was even harder while she chose her clothes for the following day, knowing that she needed to get up early, then took a shower and got ready for bed.

It became impossible when she lay down and tried to focus on Jane Eyre's escape from her beloved Mr Rochester, after she found out, on their wedding day, about his first, crazy wife... Poor Jane's story was too difficult to follow to help her fall asleep, Nora decided, closing the book and reaching for her phone. She had just set the alarm when it vibrated in her hands, the screen coming back to life with Martin's message.

'I'm looking at your cottage from my window... Good night, Nora.'

The short text made her smile. It seemed that he knew how to make not thinking about himself so much harder for her. But why was he doing it?

'I can only see the forest from my bedroom. Good night.' She typed the words quickly, sent the message, then set the phone to sleep mode and pushed it under her pillow.

Martin was definitely making her new life complicated... And yet, a smile played on her lips as she fell asleep. He was such a... pleasant complication, an enigma to resolve...

Nora woke up before the alarm could ring in the morning. As she looked into the bathroom mirror, she found the same smile with which she had fallen asleep still on her lips, as if fixed there by magic. Shrugging at her reflection, she decided to ignore it, allowing it to become wider as she recalled the previous evening while she got dressed and ready for the day.

The streetlights went off the instant she reached the castle's drawbridge at half past seven-- it wasn't snowing, but the sky was threateningly dark-- and walked across the frozen wood into its middle.

She didn't wait five minutes, her eyes sliding over the ice-covered blueness filling the deep moat under her feet, before she heard a patter of light, running feet, and Daniel skidded to a stop at her side, eyes bright with the reflection of his huge smile, small arms grabbing at her coat for balance.

"Ooh... " she gasped, afraid for a moment that the unexpected impact would make her slip on the frosted wood until another set of arms, stronger and more confident, steadied them both a few seconds later.

"Do I need to walk to school with you two?" Martin asked, his voice laced with laughter, in lieu of a greeting, as he let go of them, a little reluctantly.

"I'll take care of her, Daddy," Daniel promised, all seriousness, grabbing Nora by the hand.

It took all Nora's self-control not to giggle.

"You heard. We'll be fine, I've got my knight for the day, thank you. I guess we'll see you here after school?" she said, looking at Martin for instructions.

As if he only recalled why he was there upon hearing her words, he grabbed a set of keys from his pocket and passed it to her.

"I won't be around until around five this afternoon, is that all right?" he asked, his fingers touching Nora's hand quite unnecessarily as he dropped the keys into her palm, sending a wave of pleasant heat through her, making her cheeks blossom with a blush.

She only nodded, not trusting her voice, and noticed with surprise that he had to clear his own voice before he said, "Daniel will show you where our flat is. There's food in the fridge, but if you prefer to eat out, here's some money, and we still need to talk about your sal..."

Nora groaned, starting to feel awkward. How was she supposed to discuss money with him?! "We'll eat in, I can always take Daniel to my place should we miss anything. And I'll take just as much as the girls before me, and let's not talk about it again, please. It makes me feel weird. You are my friends, right?"

"Thanks, Nora. I was really hoping to pick Daniel up after school with you..." Martin muttered but didn't get to finish his line as Daniel, already dragging Nora down the bridge, interrupted him, his voice a near-perfect imitation of his father's, "... but Victoria really needs my opinion on that horse."

"Daniel! Just think about your school, will you? And be nice to Nora, you promised, remember?" Martin reproved him, and Nora laughed, letting the boy tug her along the bridge.

"So... have a nice day you two," Martin said, pressing a kiss to Daniel's forehead, adding a smile for Nora, then heading towards the stables as the three of them reached the pavement and Nora and Daniel turned to walk down the hill, towards the town.

"You really are a little monkey sometimes, aren't you?" Nora said, looking at the small head covered with golden curls bobbing at her side, its owner's hand still closed tightly around hers. She liked this little man so much, he had entered her heart with a speed of lightning. But she needed to tell him, "I don't think your daddy has it easy, and he's trying hard to make you happy, you know that, right?"

Two serious green orbs found hers before he replied, and Nora noticed how they seemed to change colour-- they were never quite the same, just like Martin's. They were the shade of the frozen fir needles trembling in the wind above their heads as they entered the park.

"I love him, Nora," Daniel pledged, his eyes boring into hers. "I just don't like Victoria, and I think he should know that before it's too late. She wants to marry him."

His words, the simplicity with which he stated the fact, took Nora's breath away even though it wasn't entirely unexpected. Martin was an adult, an attractive man, a single father. Victoria was single, too. They shared a love of animals and apparently spent a lot of time together, their children attended the same class... It made perfect sense.

And yet she had been hoping it wasn't like that since Clelia had mentioned it. Why did she let Martin get so close that this, his private life, had to upset her now?!

"How can you know that, Daniel?" she muttered unhappily, not sure if she was trying to deny the truth for his, or rather her own sake. "Sometimes, adults do things that look... something else than what they really mean." She sighed; he was too young to understand.

However, his answer was clear and clever, "Lily saw them kiss. And she said Victoria wants to marry him. I don't want her to, Nora."

They walked in silence past the fountain and down the road leading towards the school, but Nora felt the green orbs filled with questions studying her face, while Daniel was choosing his next words, apparently.

When they stopped in front of the school building, he pulled her down by the lapels of her coat and pressed a kiss to her cheek as he saw his father do the previous night.

"I hope Daddy will marry you," he whispered in her ear then hopped off, across the school yard, without another glance in her direction, without giving her a possibility to explain to him how silly such an expectation was, that she and his father were just friends, and love didn't happen upon request.