Microscopes and Canvases - Chapter 63

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 63
Whoooosh.
A downpour crashed upon them in an instant. In the torrential rain so fierce that visibility vanished, even as the water lashed mercilessly at shoulders and cheeks, the two of them stood motionless, eyes locked on each other.
“I want to hear the rest, Beatrice! Please, tell me!”
Patrick raised his voice to cut through the rain. A faint smile touched his wet face, yet his eyes burned with an intensity they had never held before.
Beatrice’s chest swelled and fell in a great breath. Without knowing why, some indefinable emotion rose in her throat, threatening to spill over into tears.
“I am, Patrick!”
She took a deep breath to steady herself, then cupped her hands around her mouth like a trumpet and cried out with all her strength.
“I’m happy because I get to do something that matters! And because I can be with you… That’s why… I’m not alone anymore!”
Patrick stared at her, transfixed, as the rain soaked her through.
Her golden hair clung to her forehead, water streaming down her face, yet her eyes shone with an honesty and brilliance directed only at him.
This woman who kept knocking on the door he had locked so tightly within his heart. The one who had become a shaft of light for a mind imprisoned so long in darkness.
Patrick’s chest tightened with a surge of feeling he could not contain, and his hands clenched into fists. Even as he was swept up in that overwhelming emotion, Beatrice laughed radiantly and shouted with all her might.
“And I believe! Soon, people will recognize your research, the value of this work!”
Her words, piercing through the roar of the rain, completely shattered the walls Patrick Bennett had built around his heart. He was seized by a fierce, almost overwhelming impulse to dash through the downpour, pull her into his arms, and surrender to it entirely.
Could it be—could we be something more than colleagues? Could it be that way…?
‘I promise you. Even if the world splits in two, I will never propose to Lady Somerset.’
‘Of all the things a man has ever said to me, that was the most thrilling.’
Ah.
Patrick slowly closed his eyes, then opened them. Rain cascaded down, already reaching his shins. The heat that had surged through his entire body moments before drained away, replaced by a sudden chill.
He had to leave. He could not remain here any longer.
“The rain is growing worse. We need to find shelter!”
Patrick regained his composure, quickly retrieved his Walking Stick, and approached Beatrice, seizing her hand firmly.
Suppressing with all his strength the fierce desire to pull her close and kiss her, he led Beatrice away from the Peatland, now being torn apart by the deluge.
Their silhouettes faded into the distance, swallowed by layers of mist and sheets of rain as thick as a curtain.
* * *
Silver needles of rain fell like a massive curtain across the earth, erasing everything before it in white.
In the sudden downpour that engulfed their vision, the two of them splashed through mud toward the edge of the marsh. Each time the violent wind drove mist-laden raindrops into them, their backs were lashed mercilessly, accompanied by the sharp snap and whistle of air.
Beatrice’s Tweed Skirt, heavy with water, clung to her legs like a weight across the already treacherous, muddy ground.
Though her skirt became tangled with each step, nearly tripping her repeatedly, Patrick caught her each time, steadying her and pulling her forward.
“There!”
Patrick shouted urgently. Beyond the gray haze and the sheets of rain, a dilapidated building emerged in a dim silhouette.
As they drew closer, the structure did not appear to be in good condition, yet in this desolate Peatland, it seemed the only shelter from the fierce wind and rain.
Hand in hand, they stumbled out of the mud and, bending low, tumbled beneath the weathered, curved stone eaves of the old building.
The moment they stood beneath the stone wall and roof overhead, the violent sound of the rain seemed to recede at once. Listening to the steady drip-drip of water leaking through the eaves, both of them caught their breath, which had risen to their throats.
“Good heavens, we’re soaked through.”
Beatrice shivered and wrung the water from her clothes. Already drenched like a drowned rat from head to foot, the gesture did little good.
“The Waterproof Cloth was useless.”
Patrick, too, shook the honey-colored hair clinging to his forehead and let out a hollow laugh.
As his wet hair fell loose and he turned to look at Beatrice, his eyes still held that tender, smoldering warmth.
Looking at each other’s bedraggled state, they both broke into laughter. Patrick bit his lip slightly, glancing at her sidelong.
“I was grateful for what you said just now.”
Shame flooded through Beatrice belatedly, and she lowered her gaze. Where had such courage come from? Even she could not say.
The Mill’s interior appeared to be in disarray—abandoned for quite some time. There seemed nowhere suitable to sit or rest, and Beatrice’s heart sank.
Outside, the rain continued to pour, and the chill began to seep into the cool building with such force that teeth would soon begin to chatter.
Patrick found himself in difficulty. Beatrice’s lips were taking on an increasingly purple hue.
She rubbed her arms repeatedly, but it had little effect. Unable to bear watching her shake with her teeth chattering, Patrick drew her toward him.
“Beatrice. Just a moment.”
He reached out and gripped the collar of her Coat firmly. With an air of resolved determination and a slightly stiff expression, he carefully peeled away her soaking wet Coat.
The moment the Coat fell, her eyes widened. Round eyes looked up at him intently.
She seemed to want to ask something, but with her lips sealed, Patrick could not read what lay beneath.
“Your body temperature is dropping.”
Patrick clenched his teeth with effort. He slowly reached out to brush her hair back over her shoulder, then carefully opened his arms and pulled her against him firmly.
“Just stay like this for a little while.”
You’ll catch cold if we don’t, he whispered like an excuse, tightening his hold around her.
Beatrice held her breath, nestled in his embrace.
Was she always this small?
Patrick felt how perfectly Beatrice fit within his arms. Even drenched in rainwater, her golden hair remained luminously beautiful. He rested his cheek against it and closed his eyes.
What if you notice how hard my heart is pounding? He struggled with all his strength to calm the feelings that kept rising to the surface, yet Patrick could no longer deny his heart.
It was love. For him, still a feeling both terrifying and uncertain, yet one he could no longer hide.
Patrick felt his heart pounding painfully in his chest. The anxiety that Beatrice would draw away from him the moment she discovered these feelings, combined with an ache that bordered on agony, only deepened his confusion.
And yet….
There was only one thing he could be certain of.
I love Beatrice Somerset.
* * *
“The rain’s stopped completely, hasn’t it?”
Patrick slowly released his arms and carefully drew Beatrice away from his embrace. His hand was remarkably tender as he smoothed back the wet strands of hair clinging to her cheek.
“Yes, let’s go outside.”
The two of them gathered their wet clothes and pushed open the creaking door, stepping out into the afternoon.
Over the vast Peatland drenched by the rain, brilliant golden sunlight from the afternoon broke through in scattered rays, and the Red Sphagnum Moss colonies, luminous as they drank in that radiant light, embroidered the entire earth in crimson like burning ruby fragments.
At the far edge of that beautiful deep-red landscape, the clear blue sky beyond held her gaze with sharp clarity.
Like a miracle, an enormous rainbow arching across the heavens in a perfect parabola embraced the whole of Nospen in its span.
“Shall we go?”
Patrick turned to Beatrice with a smile. Watching him return fully to his composed self, Beatrice concealed her reluctance and nodded.
“Yes, let’s head back….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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