There was much he needed to do, but his back ached and burned from the bullet wound that had only just begun to regain sensation. To be honest, he had forgotten about the bullet wounds, as they had turned numb and almost nonexistent in his back, until after he began accepting that his family would be complete again and that his wife was truly back. Once the numbness faded, the pain came with it.
He dusted the snow off his body and moved to carry the firewood into the living space to get the heating stoves working so the cottage would be warm before bedtime. But to pass into the house, he had to walk through the kitchen door where his wife was standing. When she saw him approach, she jumped back, as though the simple thought of being close to him frightened her.
Rohan, though displeased by her reaction, didn’t say anything or let it get to him as he walked past her, while she kept her face firmly averted.
"Mama, are we going to be living here from now on?" Angel’s excited voice broke through, and she looked down at him, trying not to glance at the man who made her uneasy and caused her to wonder what their married life had been like until now. Was it happy? If it had been, why hadn’t he been with her when she woke up last night? And why had his father been the first one she met in their room?
If she had been so sick that they thought she would die, wasn’t a good husband supposed to stay by his wife’s bedside and take care of her through treatment? Those were the questions that had swirled around her mind and made her even more avoidant of the man, as she felt there was something missing, something that wasn’t adding up, about their marriage.
How had she even come to marry such an intimidating man and lived with him for two years?
Belle shook off the thoughts to answer her son.
"I guess so. Haven’t we lived here all along?" she asked, not actually knowing where they had been living before. She had woken up to find herself here. And it felt home enough, though she noticed that none of their belongings were in the rooms yet, no clothes except the ones her husband’s father had given her, and the few ones Rohan had brought with them for the children. The kitchen cabinets and floors looked dusty for a home that had supposedly been lived in for two years.
She had only been sick for a week, her father-in-law had said, so the kitchen and house shouldn’t hold this much dust.
"No, Mama. We didn’t live here when you still remembered us. We lived in the big castle far away, but I guess this is our new place. Enny and the babies will also come here tomorrow and stay here."
Belle’s head swirled with questions, but mostly it began to hurt whenever she tried to think too much.
"Who is Enny?" she asked, curious and touching a hand to her temple.
"Enny is Uncle Rav’s wife, like Mama is Papa’s wife. You don’t remember them either," Angel said with a sigh when his mother looked confused.
"Don’t push her to remember things yet, Max. She will meet Evenly when she comes to live here," Rohan’s voice said from behind as he stacked the firewood in the heating stove in the living room as there was no fireplace.
While they talked and Belle absorbed the information, she heard footsteps approaching from behind after Rohan started the fire in the stove, which instantly began to warm the house. She quickly moved aside to let him pass.
Rohan stood beside them, wanting to be included in the topic of their discussion, but he might as well have been a wall for all the attention he got. His son looked too excited by his mother; he didn’t include his father in the conversation, and eventually Rohan no longer tried to talk.



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