Chapter 43 - The Secret
706 Words
"No, dear, I'm not tired," Lucifer returned, continually, perceiving me immovable. Lilith essayed another method of showing her disrelish for her occupation. It changed to yawning until he mutters a "Lilith, I'm tired."
"Well, stop yawning and start talking," Lilith chides. That was worse: she fretted and sighed, and looked at her watch showing eight past two, and finally went to the chamber they shared, completely overdone with sleep: judging by Lilith's peevish, heavy look, and the constant rubbing she inflicted on her eyes. The following night she seemed more impatient still; and on the third from recovering my company, she complained of a headache, and left me. I thought her conduct odd; and having remained alone a long while, I resolved on going, and inquiring whether she was better, and asking her to come and lie on the sofa, instead of upstairs in the dark. No Lilith could I discover upstairs, and none below. The servants affirmed they had not seen her. I listened to Beelzebub's door; all was silence. I returned to my chamber, extinguished my candle, and seated myself in the window.
The moon shined brightly, and there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground, and I thought to myself that she could have decided to take a walk around the garden for some fresh air. I did notice a figure crawling around the park's inner fence, but it wasn't my young mistress: I recognized one of the grooms as it emerged into the light. He stayed for a long time, surveying the carriage road through the grounds; suddenly he dashed away, as if he had seen something, and reappeared moments later, leading Cerberus' and there she was, dismounted and strolling alongside it. The guy moved silently through the grass towards the stable with his charge. Cathy entered the drawing-room through the casement window and floated up to where I was waiting. She softly closed the door, took off her snowshoe, loosened her hat, and walked away, unconscious of my espionage, to lay aside her mantle, when I suddenly rose and revealed myself. The surprise petrified her an instant: she uttered an inarticulate exclamation and stood fixed.
"My dear Lilith. My pretty, pretty Queen," Lucifer began, too vividly impressed by her recent kindness to break into a scold, "Where have you been riding out at this hour? And why should you try to deceive me, by telling a tale? Where have you been? Speak!"
"To find your humbling daughter, where else?!" she stammered. "I didn't tell a tale. You made up a tale to stop yourself from feeling and knowing. All the things you don't allow yourself to have."
"And nowhere else? Her disappearance has been troublesome, I know." I cowered, knowing she was right.
"No, I know. That is why I don't force you to gallop to sunset with me." was the muttered reply.
"Oh, Lilith!" Lucifer cried, disheartened. "You know you have been doing wrong, or you wouldn't be driven to uttering an untruth to me. That does grieve me. I'd rather be three months ill than hear you frame a deliberate lie."
She sprang forward and bursting into tears, threw her arms around my neck. "Well darling, I'm so afraid of you being angry," she said. "Promise not to be angry, and you shall know the very truth. I hate to have to hide it, from you of all people."
We sat down in the window seat; I assured her I would not scold, whatever her secret might be, and I guessed it, of course; so she began.
"I've been to Earth for countless nights, Lucifer, and I've never missed going a day since you fell ill; except thrice before, and twice after you left your room. I have spent time with humans, undeniably disgusted with myself, but pushing through with the hopes I might find Santi."
"So that is your biggest secret? That you have been going to hell and back, bending all that we stand for, to try and find my daughter? He asks and Lilith patiently nods, awaiting his reaction.
"You are the most precious gem, I've had, Lilith. Know your heart is always pure and I will be here for you, for all of eternity."
- Writer
