Let it Snow!

❄Thirty❄

As she followed Daniel along the corridor and up the spiral staircase, Nora suddenly recalled her thoughts from the previous night.

What if Martin was the Count?

The way some people behaved around him and Daniel would confirm this theory easily-- everybody seemed to know and respect them. And there were other things as well.

For instance, how Martin was never too far from the castle, the way he seemed to be always busy, exceedingly busy with a job she did not see him doing, to open his own veterinary practice. The small army of elderly ladies rising to his support when he moved to this town out of the blue a few years ago, taking such an unusual step for a single father of a few months old baby. Maybe they had done it as much for him, as out of their friendship with the old Count who... who would have been Martin's father-- her grandmother had been the old man's close friend. It all fitted.

Nora unlocked the door at the top of the spiral staircase, her forehead creased with thought as she watched Daniel hopping in front of her towards the door of the flat. She couldn't see the reason why someone wouldn't have mentioned it so far, if it was true... But she only really met Clelia regularly, and Nora herself made her godmother understand that her private life was her own, and she would not appreciate her interfering. And Magdalena... Magdalena, who was married to Martin's close friend... Nora could still recall her friend's amused smile when she insisted that she would not go to the ball.

They must have understood, knowing Martin better than Nora did, that this was something he would want to tell her himself, or rather, from the little she knew about him, to guess, and accept it, or not, as a part of him which he could not change.

And Daniel... The boy might not consider it anything worth talking about unless someone would bring it up directly in front of him. She didn't think he would lie to her if she asked him now, but that felt like cheating.

Nora smiled to herself, thinking that two could play this game. She wasn't sure whether her suspicion was correct, but she didn't care either way. Whatever Martin was, changed nothing for her. She wouldn't ask anyone and see.

She unlocked the flat and pushed the door open for Daniel, picked up his jacket from the bench where he dropped it and hung it neatly next to her coat, then put their shoes out of the way. Daniel disappeared into his room after they washed their hands, and Nora made her way into the kitchen. Scanning the ingredients that the fridge and the freezer offered quickly, she put a menu together in her mind.

"How about fish fingers and chips, ready in half an hour?" she called in the direction of Daniel's room. That was the fastest warm lunch she could make from what she found. If they wanted to go ice skating, there was no time to waste.

"Perfect!" Daniel's reply reached her as her hand hovered over the oven's switch.

"I'll call you when it's ready!" she called back as she turned the oven on, laid a baking tray on the counter, grabbed a bag of salad from the fridge and spilled it into a large bowl thinking about a dressing while she turned around slowly, in search of a roll of baking paper. Just where could Martin keep it...?

She jumped, her hand fluttering to her heart, when her eyes landed on the wooden spiral staircase leading to the upper floor, finding Martin sitting on top, silent and motionless like a shadow, smiling down at her.

"I didn't mean to scare you, sorry," he muttered, rushing towards her and drawing her in a quick embrace before he cupped her face and kissed her gently, deeply, just like he had done in the morning.

Nora wished that he would never stop kissing her this way... Surprising herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him nearer even as she pushed herself closer to him, willing to erase any space, time, and thoughts standing between them... until she heard Daniel's approaching footsteps reaching her from the blurred edges of her consciousness and jumped quickly from the man she could not resist. He released her, his eyes full of silent questions she knew she would have to respond later. But she wasn't ready for Daniel seeing them this way.

As if she had asked him, Martin opened a drawer and passed her a roll of baking paper.

"Daddy!" Daniel called just then, spotting Martin in the kitchen, and ran into his open arms. "Will you eat with us?"

"I will, if Nora thinks there's enough food for all of us."

"Of course there is," she smiled at him, arranging the frozen food on the baking tray and pushing it into the oven, then turning back to dress the salad while Martin set the table.

"And I'll come to the lake with you too, I'm meeting Victoria there."

"Is she coming to have a look at that owl?" Daniel asked, sitting at the table and sipping his water while Nora tried not to listen.

It didn't concern her. She didn't care about Victoria, she didn't want to hear her name. She didn't mind that that woman would spend alone time with Martin, while she would stay with Daniel by the lake. Martin had just kissed her, there was no reason for this alien feeling creeping into her heart. It wasn't jealousy, of course, it couldn't be...

A deep sigh escaped her, attracting Martin's attention. Nora blushed and shook her head when his curious, questioning green orbs rested on her again. There were so many things they should talk about, seeing the direction their... acquaintance was taking. But not just yet.

It was too early for Nora to ask him some questions directly, everything was happening too fast, she didn't know Martin sufficiently to feel brave enough to talk openly about everything that passed through her mind. The last thing she wanted was to make a fool of herself.

When she forced herself to focus on the conversation between her two companions as she set the plates in front of them and returned with her own a moment later, what she heard only added to her confusion.

Eric and his Christmas stay with them was the subject. Nora closed her eyes briefly as she tried to school her thoughts into order before some of them could reflect on her face. She didn't wish to meet Eric in this stage of her life, but there was no way she would be able to avoid meeting him, hanging around Martin and Daniel this much since she had returned. She hadn't properly thought about Eric in years; only her return to this place brought the memories back so vividly. But her mind and... heart were so full of Martin lately that she didn't care about anyone else. She couldn't imagine how meeting Eric would feel now... Surely seeing her first love after all those years would be awkward, doubly so because he was the brother of the man she liked so much now...

She hadn't realised that she was staring unseeingly at Martin, her food getting cold, nor that he kept looking back at her, reading her mind through her eyes, until his hand closed around hers tentatively, pulling her out of her reverie.

He cocked his head to the side, and Nora could see her thoughts reflected in his eyes-- she was sure he knew that she had loved his brother once, knew more about it than she had thought.

Nora didn't want this long gone thing to stand between her and Martin now, she felt obliged to explain. She would have to find an occasion to talk to Martin about it, to assure him that meeting Eric now would change nothing for her. And she would ask him about Victoria too, Nora needed to know that he was as free and ready to let this feeling between them grow, as was she.