❝And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be,
right in front of me, talk some sense to me. ❞

─────── 

SEVENTEEN | ROOM 23

"Wow," Sam said, a soft and nervous chuckle left the boy's lips when he saw Nicholas, well, we had been in the same room for several hours, yet he couldn't help but stare. Nicholas looked so uncomfortable sitting there, pretending not to care, but he did and Sam noticed, "I'm sorry, it's just . . ."

"It's okay," Nicholas said, but he was growing annoyed by the attention he was getting, "you should browse 'Edith Cushing', you'd be surprised." He added, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Shhh," I said, placing a steaming mug of coffee on the small table in the back of the café. Sam's grandmother had gone to the city, therefore we were alone. I saw the curiosity on Sam's face as he looked at me with big eyes. I sat next to Nicholas and Sam pulled out his phone, typing what I thought was the name of Nicholas' great-grandmother, "So, what are we gonna do now?" I asked to Nicholas and he sighed.

"Go to this place and get some sleep," he handed me a piece of paper with Sam's handwriting and the address of a place we could spend the night, "tomorrow, we'll rent a car, and then, you say what time are we leaving for Allerdale Hall." He said, smiling.

"Okay, how about ten in the morning, we could-" we heard a soft gasp across the table and we looked at Sam, who was now staring at me as well, "Oh God, he found it," I uttered under my breath and he smiled. I took a sip of coffee and read the adress of hotel again.

"This is so weird guys, how on earth is this possible?" He chuckled, "This is insane!"

"I told you that you'd be surprised," Nicholas said and, since Sam returned to his phone, he said to me, "I think ten is a good idea."

"You know," we both looked at Sam, "now that I think about it," he gazed at his phone before placing it onto the table, "it's like, Sir Thomas and Edith had a second chance to be together again, eh?" He raised an eyebrow and I looked over my mug at Nicholas, who mirrored the surprise on my face, "Anyway, it's like I'm talking to Sir Thomas Sharpe and Edith Sharpe themselves! I just hope my grandmother doesn't see you here, she would probably have a heart attack or something . . ."

"Then, we should be leaving, we don't want to do that to your grandmother, " Nicholas said, smiling and straightening himself before standing up, "it's getting late anyway, you've been so kind," I looked at my watch, it was almost half past six.

"Yes, it's been so kind of you to help us," I said and I stood up, "it's better for us to leave, we have to get to this place, " I said waving the hotel address in my hand and we grabbed our backpacks.

"I would take you there myself but I have to help with the café tonight," he said.

"Don't worry," by this time, Nicholas had walked to the back door, "We'll see you around," he nodded and I began to walk towards the door, where Nicholas waited for me. He had opened the door and stepped outside, holding the door when Sam called my name.

"Adeline," I turned around to face him, "can I go to Allerdale Hall with you?" He asked and I bit my lip, thinking of a way to answer and convince him. I told Nicholas to wait outside, since he hadn't heard what Sam had said to me.

"Uhm, Sam, you've done enough for us and I think you should stay here, it's not a good idea, it's dangerous, and," I shook my head as I placed my hand on his shoulder, "I don't want anything to happen to you, okay?"

"I could stay outside of the house? Oh, Adeline, please? I want to know what's up there, nothing interesting ever happens in the café."

"Stay here, it's better that way, okay?" He sighed.

"Fine." I smiled and wrapped my arms around him.

"Thank you so much for everything, Sam."

"Anytime," I smiled and let go. I crossed the door, closing it behind me after sharing another smile with the boy. Once outside, I found Nicholas leaning against the wall, rubbing his hands together to get warm. We began to walk, determined to get a cab, yet we didn't find any, so we had to walk.

I began to compare the city environment where the station was with this part of town. The city environment was swiftly transmuted to a more suburban environment, ending up at the small café on Fulton Street. The small shops, welcoming new clients, a lonely car driving slowly past the shops, some people talking and laughing; the slow life in a small town, I thought.

We had walked in silence for a couple of minutes, both of us walking past the people on the streets, the snow had stopped falling by then, leaving a soft and thin layer of white on the cobbled roads. My fingers nervously toyed with a hair pin I had found in the pocket of my jacket as my eyes followed patterns and cracks in the pavement, briefly looking up only to meet another pair of curious eyes staring at us, some of them would stop and murmur something to their companion's ear. Nicholas straightened the strap of his backpack and he tried to keep his eyes glued to the ground. He cleared his throat and blinked.

"They keep staring," he said. He was tense and couldn't hide it.

"Just keep walking," I muttered. It had been like this for about fifteen minutes, where every single person that walked past us would look at us. The muttering grew louder, but I tried to ignore it.

"It's him," a woman said, pointing at Nicholas. By this time, people had gathered a few steps back from us, following us, commenting and glaring at me when I turned to see them. Eventually, we left them behind and we continued our way to the hotel, once there we approached to the reception.

"I'm afraid we only have one room available, and it's got one bed only," the woman said to us. I stood there biting my lip a little bit too hard, basically we didn't have a place to spend the night. I turned to Nicholas - who was thinking and as I turned he reached into his back pocket.

"We'll take it," he said, pulling out the money, "we'll manage, don't worry." The woman looked at me, raising an eyebrow and I nodded.

"Last night's blizzard affected the power and the phone service," she said as she left the reception counter, "we've been working on it the entire day, power's back but unfortunately the phone is dead," we followed her upstairs.

"What if we need the room service, what if we get hungry?" I asked.

"In the winter, we serve dinner at six, since most of the kitchen staff reside not less than two or three miles from here and the roads get very dangerous. So, dinner time has passed." I heard her mutter under her breath when she stopped at the room 32, "There's a mini-market across the street, I'm sure you can get something there," she said and I looked at Nicholas, rising my eyebrows. Apparently, her only way to communicate with others was through mutters, eye-rolling and scoffing.

"What about the room service?" I asked.

"Honey, this isn't the big London with five star hotels. You should be thankful there's hot water," I blinked, "there you go, enjoy your stay." She basically threw the keys at me and then left, before checking out and winking at Nicholas.

"Isn't she lovely?" I said and inserted the key in the lock. When Sam said 'small hotel' I imagined something smaller, like everything in this town, certainly this wasn't a five star hotel, yet it was pretty decent - despite that woman's attitude - the rooms weren't too small. They had a large bathroom, the bedroom - with a couch that looked like a comfortable place to sleep - and a mini fridge, the necessary. It wasn't much but at least we'd spend the night in a warm place.

I walked slowly through the room towards the window and threw my backpack to the floor with a thud. I just stood there, pretending to be thinking when my mind was honestly a mess.

"It's nice . . . I guess," I heard Nicholas say behind me, "I'll sleep on the couch, you take the bed," I looked at him.

"You don't fit there."

"I'll sleep on the floor, then. It doesn't matter, we'll manage after. I'll be right back, I'll get us dinner," he said, throwing his backpack on the couch and walking to the door and smiling at me before that. As soon as the door closed, I sighed loudly and rubbed my face with both hands.

"Everything's going to be alright," I said to myself, "if you stay with him, no one will harm him." I took a deep breath. I got in the bathroom and splashed water on my face, but it made me realise that wanted to take a shower. I locked the door and swiftly got rid of my clothes to then get into the shower. Nicholas hadn't even arrived when I got out and dressed up again. I was rubbing the water on my hair with a towel when I heard the door open and the sound of carrying bags. He smiled widely when our eyes met.

"There's a small restaurant down the street, I brought some lasagna." He said as I approached.

"Oh . . ."

"You don't like it?" Nicholas said, wincing as he pulled the lasagna out of the bags, "I should have asked-"

"No, no, I mean, yes I like it-" I shook my head, "I'm sorry, I've got a lot in my head, I'm being so stupid, sorry," I grabbed the lasagna and rumagged into the bag for the plastic fork and knife they'd put in it.

"Don't call yourself that," he smiled and took his food in his hands, "come, sit down." I followed him to the coffee table in the middle of the room and we sat on the floor. We began to eat in silence and actually I was okay and comfortable with it and the lasagna was pretty good actually. However, Nicholas broke the silence seconds after I realised of the silence, "If we had a car we would have arrived at the Hall two hours ago, but, we'll be there tomorrow," he sounded so determined to go to Allerdale Hall, "I heard some people talking about a snowstorm or something, everyone is- what, what is it?" He asked when he looked at me.

"Nicholas," I began, my voice reflecting the concern, "there's something that is not right," he looked confused at me as I shook my head. I stared blankly ahead, feeling his eyes on me, "Don't ask me what is it, but I just . . . feel something's not right at all," my voice was just a whisper. He rubbed my back and then tucked my hair behind my ear. I just had this feeling in my chest that made me think of something bad and even if I tried to ignore it, I couldn't.

"Things don't have to be right all the time, Adeline." I shook my head again.

"No," I looked at him, "you don't understand, this is- I don't-"

"We'll be fine, okay?" I nodded frantically, leading my hand to his, which was still touching my hair, "We'll be fine, I promise. I'll keep you safe," he whispered, "I'll keep you safe," he said again, this time leaning over, "I will . . ." His words disappearing in the small gap between us.

I felt his breath on my face and found myself enjoying the proximity to him. I blinked as I looked into his eyes, thinking that I just couldn't be doing this, this was something I had catalogued as a strictly-business kind of thing, obviously this wasn't in my plans and hadn't even crossed my mind. But there was a part of me that only thought what could go wrong. I couldn't deny my attraction to him, I felt really attracted to him since the moment I looked at that pair of eyes that observed carefully and with extreme attention the wound on my finger in that little house by the beach. Attracted by his intelligence, manners and, well, everything. Apparently all the Sharpes were blessed with extreme beauty and charm.

The last thought that came to my head before his lips touched mine was: he's not dead. The Baronet was much alike to Nicholas, and I had found myself growing fond of Thomas so fast, to the point of liking him and it was something ilogic to fall in love with a ghost. Perhaps what I felt was sympathy and sorrow and I had mistaken it for love, I wasn't even sure about it. But Nicholas, he was something else, something real, a man with dreams and aspirations, a man who had gone through a lot, a man who faced reality in a similar way I did, a real person.

His hand grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him and my hands gripped his shirt - which was soon opened by my own hands and I realised it was open because the short seconds in which Nicholas pulls out my blouse over my head were enough to see his bare chest. In the following seconds, I just know that we made our way to the bed, gasping for air as our lips refused to part, my hand made contact with the skin of his back and his hand made contact with mine, each touch igniting a fire within us and the rest is too great to be expressed in words.

I slept under the covers, feeling the warmth of the body next to me. Feeling his chest rising and falling under my hand, listening to his breathing, listening to his heartbeat, and secretly praying for going home safe and sound.

───────

AUTHOR'S NOTE :

hi there! I'm sorry if the book seems to go really slow, but I really feel like the characters had to go nice and easy when it comes to, well, their relationship. Don't fret ladies, we'll have Sir Thomas Sharpe in the next chapter! By the way this book is participating in the #Wattys2016! It would mean the world of you shared this story with, idk, your followers or friends and help me to get this fanfiction known! Thank you so much for reading, voting and commenting! ♡