Chapter 4 : Allow yourself to feel

"What time is he picking you up? Oh this is so exciting!" Gezelle squealed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think Jillian is taking YOU out for an afternoon of romance." Richard commented as he watched his wife lay out several dresses for Guinevere to choose from.

It had already been three years since the day Jillian had confessed his feelings for Guinevere, and in those three years, they'd been seeing a lot of each other. Their courtship had also brought their two families even closer together.

While Jillian was head over heels in love, Guinevere had made sure to keep her feelings at bay. True, she had agreed to their courtship, but there's no rule that said she had to love him to do it right?

"I think you should wear this scarlet dress, it compliments your skin and it's an auspicious color."

Gezelle held the scarlet dress in front of her daughter and grinned. "It represents fertility and good fortune."

[yeah cause I'm definitely going for the lucky baby maker look]

"I appreciate the help mother but I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself." Guinevere responded as she took the dress and placed it back on the chair.

It was insane how her mother always went of her way to buy her daughter hundreds of brightly colored dresses that she never wore. You'd think that after all this time, her mother would have come to accept Guinevere's choice of clothing.

"But you can't go see Jillian wearing that." Gezelle spoke, a look of dismay painting her face

[again.. what the hell is wrong with my clothes?!]

"I've gone out with Jillian many times mother and he's never complained about how I dress."

"But today is different.." Gezelle tried to explain. "Try to look nice today, for me."

"No thank you."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Well this is just perfect, that's probably Jillian outside and here you are still wearing these atrocious clothes."

Richard sized up his daughter from her head to her toes and nodded. "I think you look just fine princess."

"Don't indulge her Richard." Gezelle scolded as she headed towards the door.

"Don't mind your mother." Richard whispered to his daughter. "Besides, how were you going to carry your dagger in a fluffy dress? Gotta protect yourself you know."

Guinevere gave her father a thankful smile. She wasn't sure if it was because she reminded him of the son he never had, or it was because he loved her just the way she was, but her father had always supported her strange antics.

Having been through many hardships in many lifetimes, Guinevere knew better than to do away with her survival skills. Being a snobby, pretty damsel in distress would only get her killed quicker.

She needed to be able to keep herself alive without anyone's help, she was going to live long enough to find out why she had been cursed to forever be trapped in this vicious cycle of death and rebirth.

"Guine.."

The blue eyed girl turned around and came face to face with Jillian Foreman. Over the years, Jillian had become quite the looker indeed, with his deep heavily lidded brown bedroom eyes, his white slightly fanged side smile, his permanently scruffy dark hair and his very tall, very toned body.

Among his five brothers, Jillian was without a doubt the most attractive.

"Hello JillIan."

"Mr Strongbow sir." Jillian greeted the man with a bow.

"Good to see you son, how is your father?"

"He's well, he sends his greetings." The boy responded.

"Thank you."

Jillian then turned to Guinevere and smiled at her, no matter how many times he'd seen her, every time he laid eyes on her his heart skipped a beat.

"Are you ready?" The boy question the girl.

"Let me just fetch my dagg-" Guinevere stopped midway her sentence when she noticed her mother's deathly glare.

"Umm let me just fetch my satchel and we can be on our way." She jittered anxiously

She walked passed her mother for her bedroom, but not trusting her daughter, Gezelle followed her close behind to see what she was up to, there was no way she was allowing her daughter to carry a dagger on a date.

When the ladies were out of site, Richard patted the chair next to him and motioned Jillian to sit down. "Take a sit son, I want to have a word with you man to man."

Upon hearing that, Jillian instantly became nervous. Talk man to man? That didn't sound good.

The boy sat down on the chair and nervously smiled at Richard.

The man inched his face closer to Jillian and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Listen son, I understand you have these feelings or whatever you call them for my daughter, but I just want to let you know..."

Richard looked at the doorway to make sure the ladies had not returned before continuing his statement. "Guinevere is my daughter, my only child, if I notice as much as one hair missing from her perfect little head, I will come for you. It's your job to keep her safe so make sure you do it. I know where you live boy."

Jillian gulped.

Richard proceeded to placing a firm hand on the trembling boy's shoulder. "Take care of her, got that."

"Yes sir." The boy responded.

"Ah princess, Jillian and I were just talking about how wonderful the afternoon he has planned out for the two of you will be." Richard spoke with a chuckle. He had managed to change the expression on his face right when Guinevere walked in.

"A wonderful and SAFE afternoon, isn't that right Jillian?"

"Definitely sir."

Guinevere squint her eyes at her father suspiciously. "I see, very well then. Shall we Jillian?"

Jillian got up and took Guinevere's hand in his. "Yes."

Richard cleared his throat while mumbling the words 'I know where you live'

And Jillian instinctively released Guinevere's hand and smiled sheepishly. "Let's be on our way."

Gezelle watched the young couple disappear down the road with a grin on her face. Oh she could hear the wedding bells already.

"Stop scaring the poor boy honey, he really likes our daughter."

"And thats the problem." Richard mumbled under his breath.

"She's growing up, she won't be your little girl forever."

*

"So where are we going?" Guinevere questioned Jillian as they walked down the road.

"It's a surprise." Jillian responded. "We're almost there don't worry."

[please let it be something actually interesting this time, not like the last picnic surprise.]

The last few times Jillian had asked Guinever to go out with him, he'd plan things like walks through the meadow, or candlelight dinners and picnics. And it's not that Guinevere didn't appreciate those things, she did. It was sweet that Jillian tried so hard to make her happy, but they just weren't her thing.

The two arrived at a fenced clearing and Jillian led the girl to a gate which he opened, leading them into a meadow of lush grass.

"Oh, another picnic?"

"No not this time." Jillian responded. "First I have to blindfold you until we get to the actual surprise."

"Blindfold?" Guinevere was a bit skeptical. "Okey fine, but if I stab my toe you'll be sorry."

The boy chuckled and took out his handkerchief which he tied over the girl's eyes. When he was sure she couldn't see, he took her hand and led her further into the clearing.

After a few minutes of walking, Jillian let go of her hand and Guinevere could hear his footsteps moving away from her.

"Hey where are you going?!" Guinevere questioned the boy.

"One second." Jillian walked back to Guinevere and placed a round object in her hand. "Okay now just stretch your hand out," he instructed her.

Guinevere did as she was told and stretched out the hand with the round object. She felt the object press against her palm followed by a crunching sound.

"What Is that?!" The girl shrieked

"Are you ready for your surprise? I'm removing the blindfold now."

The girl winced at the sudden brightness that hit her eyes after the blindfold left them. She blinked several times to adjust her vision and make sense of her surroundings.

She jumped back when she saw a white horse lazily chewing a piece of the apple it had taken a bite of from her hand.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Jillian spoke.

"She is." The girl cooed "Can I touch her?"

The boy nodded and Guinevere slowly reached out to the horse and stroked her beautiful white coat.

"Wow, she's so majestic, I've never seen a horse up close before."

"She's yours."

The blue eyed girl turned around and stared at Jillian, not able to really process what she had heard.

"What?"

Jillian walked up to the girl and smiled down at her. "You'll be turning sixteen in a few days right. So, happy birthday."

Guinevere's brain short circuited. "B- but how? I mean, where did you get the money?!"

"I've been saving up money from the game I sell, and from the odd jobs I do around town. Took me a few months but I think it was worth it."

Guinevere rushed towards Jillian and hugged him with tears rolling down her cheeks, and a smile on her face.

The boy was startled, even though him and Guinevere had been courting for almost three years, the only main physical interaction they'd had was holding hands. It was rare that they hugged, and when they did, it was always Jillian who would initiate it.

So this hug took him by surprise. He wrapped his arms around the girl and returned the hug, not wanting it to end.

When Guinevere broke away from the hug, she looked up at him and smiled. So this is what it felt like to have someone genuinely care for you, it had been so long since she felt this way.

"Thank you."

Jillian wiped the girl's tears and pulled her back into his embrace. "Anything for you."