The Bride of the Immortal by Auriane Bell Page A

away from getting his well-earned rest. For now the shower would have to be enough to keep him going. When Adrijan finally managed to convince his body to get up from the chair he felt like an old man and he walked past Vivian just as slowly as one. Even so, he was already half way through the door when his brother decided to speak to him in a quiet tone. His words hit him like the lash of a whip.
    “It wasn’t your fault, Adrijan. It was her decision.”
    Adrijan didn’t answer. In fact he was glad to leave the room.
     

 
    The first day in her new home had gone by in the blink of an eye. Resting on a bed made of clouds and wrapped into warm down blankets that were certainly lighter than a sea of feathers and softer than her favourite shawl, she had soon given in to the soothing words of the young woman who tended to her and ceased to request to see Adrijan. The illness had caused her to sleep through most of the day but the few times she had startled up from her sleep, she had found herself looking into the face of a handsome stranger.
    It was this face that was the first thing to come to her mind when Mairin awoke the following day and started to realise that her perception had been influenced by the fever. Considering the state she had been in the day before, she couldn’t rule out that she had made up the person altogether but even so she was almost certain that the peculiar blue-grey eyes and the short blond hair belonged to one of the men who had rescued her from the ‘metal mule’ – if there had been a ‘metal mule’.
    Mairin sighed.
    Carefully testing her strength she slowly sat up in bed and lifted her hand to her forehead, wishing the illness hadn’t caused her memory to be this hazy. At least she had been able to recover from the worst part and letting her gaze drift she couldn’t deny that she wasn’t back at Sunflower Garden.
    Even though she wasn’t resting on clouds, it would have been wrong to describe her surroundings as anything else than heavenly. The bed she had been sleeping in seemed to be appropriate even for a queen and had to equal a royal bed in comfort as well as in size. The most noteworthy fact about it though was its uncommon round shape. About a third of it was surrounded by a solid back rest that reached its highest point in the middle and contained the head end. That part of the bed was covered with various pillows and the way they were spread showed Mairin just how fitful her sleep had to have been.
    Unable to stop admiring the small wonders in front of her eyes, Mairin let her hand wander over one of the blankets that were – like the cushions – encased by cream-coloured cotton flannel bed sheets with a subtle lilac pattern.
    Mairin felt that she had spent enough time resting and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, allowing her feet touch the soft velour carpet floor. The sudden discovery that her silken pyjama had been replaced by a light, almost transparent nightgown, brought back memories of the servant girl, washing off her sweat and changing her clothes. Mairin could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. She was sincerely hoping that the stranger, whose smile was still haunting her mind, hadn’t been present to witness the whole process.
    When she got up from the bed the fine nightdress unfolded like a wave, and in its full length, reached down to the ground. It was noticeably colder now that Mairin had left behind the warmth of her down blankets yet the temperature wasn’t below of what was appropriate for a bedroom.
    The bed was the centre of an also circular room standing on a platform. With her curiosity aroused, Mairin made a few steps towards the pair of thick curtains that were closest to the foot of the bed and reached almost from one side of the grand room to the other. Mairin slowly started turning around her own axis. Altogether there were five more pairs of curtains, three to the right of the bed, two on its left. Where the third pair of curtains was