Let it Snow!

❄️Forty❄️

"I wish... you'd talk to Victoria," Nora said shyly once their desserts were brought, and Martin took her hand in his again. She couldn't help herself, she knew that if she didn't tell him this now, she never would, and it would stay on her mind forever, casting shadows over them, creating new skeletons to hide.

"What about?" His eyebrows drew together in confusion. "We're friends, nothing more, whatever people may think."

Nora sighed. "I don't care what people think or say. And I believe you. But I'm afraid that she doesn't see it as you do. And there's Lily, too. I can see how the little one is attached to you and Daniel. There are ties among the four of you, which make me feel like... an intruder, like I don't belong..." She shrugged.
"Ask Daniel what his Little Prince says about creating ties... 'To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.'" Nora cited. "I can't explain it better."

"I understand," he said, bringing her hand to his lips. "Lily feels like a daughter to me..."

Nora nodded as he trailed off; she knew the feeling perfectly, she felt the same way about Daniel. That was the reason why she behaved carefully around Martin whenever the boy was present, she didn't want to give him false hopes of something while she wasn't sure it would happen. She didn't want Martin to stop meeting Victoria, let alone Lily, she simply wanted him to clear the relationship between them and put a full stop to their unattainable hopes, even though he wasn't directly responsible for them.

"All right," Martin added. "You'll talk to Eric, and I'll talk to Victoria. Before the ball. Will you come with me to the Christmas masked ball on the twenty-sixth?"

"I... I'm not much for these things..." Nora muttered, taken aback by the sudden change of the subject. "But if we went together, what would be the point of the masks? You'd know who I was even before the ball started. Where's the fun in that?"

He chuckled. "I'd recognise you in the middle of a crowded Great Hall, among other twenty ladies dressed exactly like you."

Nora smiled at him mischievously; the ball was starting to sound almost like fun. "I don't promise anything, but should I come, I'll come alone, and I want you to find me among your guests, my lord."

He laughed and opened his mouth to reply even as Nora's phone rang, startling her. Her phone never rang, not this time of the night.

"I better pick up," she said, glancing at Martin apologetically before she pulled the phone from her handbag, not recognising the number flashing on the screen.

He nodded, his own phone vibrating with a notification claiming his attention momentarily.

"Hello?" Nora said, voice laced with curiosity.

As the caller assaulted her with a stream of information she neither asked for nor cared about, Nora recognised the voice of one of her two stepsisters.

"Anastasia, slow down," she said, then listened for a while again. "That's perfect. I wasn't coming to Mother's anyway. Well, have fun and Happy Christmas."

She removed the phone from her ear, switching it off before dropping it into her bag. The only person she wanted to communicate with sat in front of her, eyeing her attentively; she didn't need the phone.

"That was Anastasia, my stepsister. Do you remember her? She and Ella used to come here too, before Dad..."

He nodded. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes. She simply called me to let me know that I'm not expected at home for Christmas, not that I meant to visit. She and Ella and their families are taking Mother to Canary Islands for a couple of weeks. They'll be back on the eighth of January."