soft interactions ( accepting. )[ chin ] for your muse to gently grab my muses chin.
Elizabeth couldn’t look at him when she heard her husband walk into the parlor. She dropped her head, letting brown hair mask the tears silently rolling down her hollowed cheeks. She felt so far –– SO DISTANT from her once-adoring husband. Had she seen him at all in the past fortnight? Had he uttered more than two words to her in passing that very day? That was the difference between them. Mr. Darcy had the privilege of escaping, if only for hours at a time, from their misfortune. He immersed himself in work, making sure every aspect of the estate was properly functioning. He could turn his back from her and FORGET for a moment that their baby –– the one that only they knew had existed within her –– would never be born.
He could distract himself for days on end, but Elizabeth had no such ability. Her very being reminded her of their loss –– the yearning and LOVE OF A MOTHER she felt, still pining for a baby that never came to term. And, perhaps, that is life’s CRUELEST irony: The greatest love and joys one can experience only cause pain –– only cause GRIEF.
Tears fell on the pages of an open book long forgotten in her lap. Darcy’s soft fingertips at her chin, tilting her face towards him, was not enough to fully capture Elizabeth’s attention –– She hadn’t the faintest idea of what expression lined her features; she felt NOTHING. Blinking back moisture from her eyes, they locked with Darcy’s. WORRY? CONCERN? REGRET? She couldn’t read the lines etched into his skin, nor did she particularly want to.
Eyes drop back down to the worn pages, fingers flipping the page with a BROKEN sigh. “I wasn’t expecting to see you before dinner. You’ve been coming home so late, recently ––”