Page 39 of The Dark Elf's Surprise Baby

Irealize that I am more drunk than I thought.

Usually one bottle of elf spirits isn’t enough to make me drunk, but maybe this bottle was left standing for much longer than the others.

Or maybe I am just becoming a lightweight again.

Because as I stand, looking at the night sky, I feel something, or someone, watching me.

It is an eerie feeling, but first I put it down to the spirits.

I must have become a lightweight. That is definitely it. There isn’t much chance to drink while on expedition.

I turn, ready to head back inside and grab another bottle, when I see her from the corner of my eye.

She is staring at me from the window, one of her delicate hands pressed up against the glass.

Harper is biting her lip, and her brow is furrowed.

But suddenly my vision grows cloudy around the edges. The alcohol is settling in.

My view of Harper becomes equally cloudy.

Maybe it isn’t really her. Maybe it isn’t the woman who had a child with another man.

I discard the idea of going back inside for more alcohol. Kerym and Layla will surely be waiting there for me, ready to shepherd me home.

I walk further and further away from the windows and the merriment inside. I am very drunk, I decide.

Too drunk to speak to anyone, too drunk to even walk properly.

All I can do, all I want to do, is to turn around and fall into Harper’s arms.

But I can’t even do that. She is bound to someone else now. Someone who she probably loves. What woman wouldn’t love the father of their child?

My thoughts are distorted and practically bouncing off the insides of my mind.

Would it have been better that I never knew about Harper getting into another man’s bed only months after I left?

Would it have been better for me to live, unknowing, and maybe happier, for the rest of my life?

The gardens have many winding pathways and now I turn down one. I want to stay outside and away from Kerym and Layla as long as possible.

I just want to be on my own.

I am quite far away from the hall where the party is being held when I hear the footsteps behind me.

The footsteps are light and are accompanied by the rustling of a dress. Shallow breathing whispers like birdsong through the night.

I know those footsteps. I remember Harper running back to the mansion a dozen times before I left, after forgetting one thing or the other.

When I was away, I heard those footsteps, a thousand times, during waking and sleeping times.

Hearing those footsteps became something of a nightmare to me.

She is behind me when I whirl around and grab her by the wrist.

The night is dark, almost too dark for me to see her. I drop the bottle and it falls and smashes with a deafening crash.

Harper’s eyes are wide with fright and her lips are parted.

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