Page 104 of The Heir
It was strange to me how calm I felt inside. My whole world had flipped upside down the minute I accepted Thor’s proposal. And yet, nothing felt frightening about holding Thor’s hand while mingling among Northlanders I had known my entire life. The constant smiles between us soothed me.
When Alexander and Christina’s son, Jones, asked Thor how he felt, he responded without hesitation.
“All day, I’ve been feeling high on a glorious sense of victory. It’s amazing. Every time I look at Linea, I’m in a constant state of awe that she is to be my wife.”
Jones grinned. “I know the feeling. It was the same when Astrid said yes to marrying me. She would have come today, but it was such short notice, and she had a meeting with her professor. Astrid’s dream is to work as a prosecutor and her professor is helping her apply for internships at the courthouse in Freeman. I’ll ask her to come for the official engagement party this Saturday.”
Indiana placed his arm around Jones’ shoulders and smiled. “I still can’t believe my little brother is a married man. Remember when you chased Belle and then you offered to marry Aubri?”
“I couldn’t know that you had beaten me to it, could I?” Jones defended himself.
It was wonderful to be met with nothing but joy and respect. I had feared that Khan would be unhappy with me as Thor’s choice of partner, but there was none of that. From the first moment we came walking out to the large patio area, both Khan and Pearl had welcomed me into their family with warm energy and genuine smiles.
After the guests were gone, Thor took me on a stroll through the massive park, asking me to pick a spot for our cottage.
I felt pride in my heart at hearing Thor laugh freely. When I’d first met him, he had been so angry all the time.
Overwhelmed with my love for this complicated but magnificent man, I linked my arm under his elbow and leaned my head against his shoulder.
“Are you tired?” he asked.
“A little. My social battery runs out faster than most people’s. It’s the price I pay for being sensitive to other’s energy. Parties overwhelm me and I haven’t recovered from our trip to France yet.”
Without another word, Thor changed direction and led me back toward the mansion and up to his room. “This will be our suite until we finish the cottage.”
I had been inside this room before and although the energy felt much lighter, I still remembered the sad despair I had picked up the last time I was here. Walking to his bed, I brushed my hand over the soft bedspread, and asked him. “Do you mind?”
He looked unsure what I was asking but swung his hand to the bed, encouraging me. “Go ahead.”
Lifting the mattress, I pulled out the drawings I had found there months ago.
Thor paled a little as if he had forgotten about them.
The distorted black monsters on the papers mocked our pink bubble of love. As I stood with them in my hands, the dark colors and depressive motives seemed even more eerie than the last time I saw them. I had already confronted Thor about the depressive thoughts that clung to these drawings. It was no doubt hard for a proud man like him to have his most naked and vulnerable feelings exposed but he needed to understand that I would never judge him for having been lost.
In three fast steps he was by my side, snatching the drawings from my hands and tearing them up. “Forget them. I’m not the same man who drew these.”
I sunk to the bed and said nothing. My shoulders and my lips drooped as I felt the energetic wall that he pushed between us.
“Those drawings mean nothing,” he insisted.
How could I explain that it wasn’t the drawings that upset me but the way he had torn them up, as if I couldn’t be allowed to see into his sadness and despair?
With concern in my voice, I said, “Thor.”
He tossed away the shredded paper and paced the floor with a sudden nervous energy.
Reaching out my hand to him, I urged him to come and sit on the bed with me.
“Can we forget you ever saw them?” he asked.
“Why?”
“I want us to be happy together. Those drawings were somber. I don’t like them.”
“They expressed your feelings at a time when you needed a safe outlet.”
“Maybe, but I want you to see me as the strong man I am. The drawings are from a dark time in my life where I was a wreck. Those days are gone now.”
