Let it Snow!

❄Thirty-Three❄

"Have fun, and I'll see you tomorrow," Nora told Martin as they stopped in front of an arched, wooden door minutes later.

They were in a part of the castle she did not recall from her previous visits-- it seemed to be another tower kept away from the tourists for the owner's private use.

Martin's eyebrows knitted in confusion as he looked down at her, and she remembered that she had only explained her plan to Daniel. "I won't stay for the entire lesson. Daniel said that it lasts a couple of hours, and I need to leave earlier than that."

She was ready to tell him how she meant to spend her free afternoon should he ask, but he didn't. He simply nodded, kissed her on her forehead, and said, "Be careful if you drive, and call me if you need anything."

Then Martin pushed the door open and they walked through into a large room-- the Armoury, Nora decided, seeing how it was furnished-- filled with children of different ages, all dressed in white like Martin and Daniel. They were running around, playing, while a handful of parents sat on narrow marble benches lining the walls, observing them and chatting.

Nora looked towards the adults as she sat on the closest empty bench, and smiled at a woman who waved at her-- she recognised her as a mother of one of the kids who frequented Clelia's reading group. Then she let her eyes stroll around the room.

It was high-ceilinged and circular, with white walls and floor tiles made of pink and black marble just like the benches, a few thin and elegant decorative columns, and a narrow balcony set high above the room, along a row of small windows. A number of torches burned in wrought iron sconces on the walls, lit to give the place atmosphere rather than light-- it was bright enough due the the fire burning in the huge fireplace situated opposite the door, and the high windows placed all around the chamber's circumference. Ancient looking cold arms of all sorts and pieces of armour decorated the walls, but Nora didn't have much time to study them as her attention was called back to the little fencers who started to gather around Martin the moment they noticed his presence.

She recognised Lily immediately; the girl's red pony tail flew behind her as she jumped into Martin's arms, giggling. The sight made Nora look towards the seated parents, fearing to find Victoria there. But there was only Natalia the au-pair a few seats away, lost to the world as she typed furiously on her phone. Feeling relieved, Nora looked back at the children and recognised Magdalena's son, the boy she had met in her friend's shop, an instant before all the small faces were hidden by masks which Martin told them to put on as he handed out their swords.

No, not swords, Nora corrected herself. She had read enough about fencing to know that these were either foils or sabres; she would have to watch them for a while to be sure. But she was relieved to see that the blades were made of plastic, all except Martin's and two other boys' whom she believed to be at least sixteen, old and skilled enough to not hurt each other.

Then, without another apparent order from Martin, the fencers formed a large semi-circle made of couples of similar height and build, causing Nora to lose all trace of Daniel. They sprang into surprisingly synchronised motion, slower, but just as light and graceful as professionals, while Martin put his own mask on and made his way among them, pausing by each couple in turn to correct their moves or positions.

From the way the steel blades of the two oldest boys arched as their blunt tips touched each other's opponent, Nora was soon convinced that they were foils. She observed the lesson, riveted by Martin's elegance and proficiency when he sent one of the oldest boys to supervise his little students while he practiced with the other, much longer than she had planned-- she only realised that the lesson was nearly over when the first exhausted kids started to take their masks off and sit along the wall, waiting for the others to finish. Nora sneaked out of the Armoury quickly then, not wanting Martin to change his plans for the rest of the afternoon just because she was still there.

She wouldn't be able to find her way back to Martin's flat alone from this tower, she realised as she walked out, she hadn't been paying enough attention on their way there. But seeing a small open door to her left, she made for it, guessing that it was the way the children and their parents used to access the Armoury. Sure enough, after descending a wide, well-lit spiral staircase, she found herself in front of another unlocked door and then in the first courtyard, opposite the Entry Hall.

Walking across the courtyard, Nora looked behind, back towards the tower she had walked out of, then to the other, standing close by, where Martin lived. She let her eyes slip to the door she used to reach his flat, then to the glass door of the hotel, flooding the courtyard with bright light, banishing the night under the walls and into distant corners. She was beginning to see how the castle was built, and the towers connected, but it would take her months, surely, to learn her way around. The ancient building felt like a labyrinth. Luckily, the guides only took the visitors into certain parts, and Nora hoped that she would be able to memorise the tour route fast, should she get the job.

Reminding herself that it was getting late, she turned her back on the courtyard, rushed through the Entry Hall, and across the drawbridge, meeting only a handful of hotel guests.

"Hurry up, it's freezing!" a woman said to her companion as Nora walked past them, making her shiver.

It was freezing, and it was starting to snow again, she noticed as a snowflake landed on her forehead, melting on touch, making her recall Martin's last kiss. Nora closed her eyes, letting the moments she had spent with him that afternoon play against her eyelids. They were getting closer, it seemed, she mused, a smile playing on her lips.

A piece of ice hidden under the fresh layer of snow, making her slip and nearly fall, woke her up from her daydream efficiently. You should better stop imagining things and hurry to the town before the roads become impracticable for Albert, she thought, forcing her mind to abandon Martin and think about the fast approaching Christmas. What was she going to buy for everyone?!

As she drove carefully towards the town, made her way around shops which stressed her out with their Christmas decorations as she tried to come up with presents ideas, then bought a load of groceries, she let her mind stroll freely to Martin.

At last, more than two hours later, as she reached the pleasant, silent loneliness of her home, exhausted by the walk up the meadow with her shopping, but even more by the time spent in the crowded shops, she realised that her thoughts kept stumbling over one memory-- the moment when Lily jumped into Martin's arms.

It hadn't looked like a huge thing initially, but now, after she had had enough time to mull it over, it looked important. The girl's apparent affection for Martin and Daniel made Nora feel like an intruder. She didn't belong into Lily's universe, where the girl had probably known Martin ever since she could remember, and most likely saw him as a father figure... The girl perceived the close friendship between Martin and her mother in her own way, and Nora felt that if this... thing between her and Martin should grow, it would shatter the girl's illusion.

As she let herself in, she could feel the last vestiges of her good mood brought on by the first presents she had managed to find vanish. But the text from Martin which he sent her while she unloaded the bags, brought a smile back to her lips as she typed her reply to his, 'Please let me know that you returned home safely.' It seemed that he really cared about her, she mused as she walked towards the living room window from where she could see the castle, realising that he had probably noticed the light coming on.

And she cared about him too, Nora admitted to herself as she placed her palm against the cool glass. She missed him now. Just why didn't she stay at the lesson and spend the evening with him and Daniel, she wondered, trying to keep all her anxious thoughts and worries at bay.

Everything would sort itself out somehow, she decided finally, sighing deeply.