Before she could take a step back, Caelen clutched her arms tight.
"I know this all feels so sudden to you, Marie. But I will keep you happy. Say yes. You won't regret it".
She looked at him. "Caelen, I told you, I don't think about you that way. I was worried before thinking if you thought like this. But then I got rid of that thought. I apologise if I've given you any misdirections but trust me, it was never my intention". She tried to free herself from him but he clutched her tightly looking at her as if she had grown a second head.
This was what she was worried about. Caelen thought just the same as everyone in the village. That she was interested in him. And now she had broken his heart. But Mariana did not want to further this moment any longer.
"Let me go, Caelen", she wriggled his arms.
He clutched her even tighter. His fingers clutched her open skin on her arm and it stinged. "Say yes, Mariana. Say yes. I won't let you go until you say that you are mine".
Mariana swallowed looking at his eyes. Blazing fire. They were angry amd furious. She had never wamted him to be sad or crying over her rejection. But neither did she like this reaction.
"Let me go, Caelen", she whispered. Eyeing around her, she saw people staring at them. Some with pity, some with excitement.
"Caelen", she raised her voice. "Let me go!"
He looked around him where people were staring at them and he freed her. Thankfully, she didn't know many people here. But she was sure, it won't take time for this scene to become the latest gossip. She was very dissappointed with Caelen. No matter what, he sould not have behaved like this.
She looked down. "I'm leaving".
She walked around him, leaving the inn and asking for a hackney to a guard.
She wanted to go home, but she decided to carry on with her plans and go to the new market to clear her mind.
A hackney stopped before her, and she climbed on the seat.
"Marie", Caelen came running towards her. "We will talk later. You can think about my proposal. I will come to your shop-"
"I have shopping to do at the new
market. I'm going there".
"New market?" He pinched his brows together. "You must go home and think about my proposal."
Mariana frowned. "Caelen please. Leave me alone for some time. We can perhaps talk later. But now I would like to go". She gestured for the hackney driver to move foward.
As the hackney began to move forward, she looked at Caelen who looked more angry than upset.
When the hackney travelled ahead of the inn, she dropped her face in her hands and weeped.
She never thought she would ever cry because of Caelen but she was so scared and upset from his behaviour today. She was afraid to break his heart but he had broken her's now. Insisting that he thought she loved him because she spent time with him seemed insulting. Was she really to blame for kindness? She always thought of him as her best friend but today he made her feel as if she never knew him.
It took an hour for the hackney to reach to the new market. Mariana's head trobbed from crying and re-living todays scenario again and again in her mind.
While the hackney was moving slowly through the other hackneys and carriages, she leaned back and undid her chignon, removing the numerous pins. She tied a simple braid which felt light on her aching head.
The wind she'd felt on her face, through the road pretty much stopped her tears. She wiped her face with the kerchief and blew her nose and hoped she looked presentable.
Aunt Penny always suggested her to carry a tiny mirror in her satchel. But as her shop was filled with mirrors, she never felt a need until today.
"Where to stop, miss?" She heard the hackney driver ask.
"Just near the shop there, sir". She felt her voice turned weak. She hadn't cried with her sound and it always made her voice thin.
This won't do. She won't let anything come between her and her work. She was to shop for the king and the princess and it needed her full focus and confidence.
Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly. When the hackney stopped, she climbed down and gave her driver his fare.
The market was so bustling with people. She opened her pocket watch and found the hour to be half past two. She had pretty much the remaining day to shop as she didn't plan to go back to the shop today.
Crossing the busy walking bodies, Mariana entered the shop of regal silks. She shop she ordered the fabrics from for her daily customers was limited to their variety. So she chose to shop here, the most grand shop for fabrics.
She entered the shop and was immediately welcomed by a colourful surrounding. Mariana was in awe of the shop. It was two stories tall and the walls held every possible colour of the fabric to ever exist in the world, arranged neatly for the display.
"What can we bring at your service, miss?" She whirled around to find a very handsome boy enquring.
"Good afternoon. I would like to purchase silk".
"This way, miss", he nodded and extended his arm towards the direction.
While walking, she saw the corridor reserved for cotton, linen, wool. Mariana happily thought that when she raise her own shop to two stories, she would give her employees the similar compartments. One she would hire to sew from cotton, one from linen and so every other material.
When the boy haulted, she was welcomed to a grand room filled with silk fragrance. Mariana breathed the scent as if she was inhaling the most exotic drug in the universe. She went ahead with the boy and he handled her responsibility to a bald man behind the countertable.
"How can I help you, miss?"
"I would like to purchase yards of plain fabrics. I am a semstress", Mariana smiled proudly.
The bald man returned her smile with a cute one of his own. "What shade would you like?"
Mariana opened her book and showed him the precise shade she wanted to buy. He showed the fabrics one by one.
After rejecting several shades, she found the exact colour she wanted for the princess's gown. Her eyes shone when the man showed the perfect colour she'd imagined on princess.
Then, she chose another shade for the king. Imagining his skin made her blush, but it was the requirement for her job, so she continued her work. She bought every shade she needed and then purchased the linens Mr. Roberts had written about in the lists.
Now, the last thing in the fabrics remained was for the king's cravat. Mariana was confused between golden and silver. Both shade matched the colour of the suit she chose, but she wanted cravat to be precisely complimenting to the king's face.
No matter how much she thought, she couldn't choose the perfect colour. Finally, she sighed and decided she needed a glance of the king once, and then she would come again here to purchase.
After she paid for the fabrics, the shopkeeper packed her two big boxes. Mr. Lawrence would be here by four and she had lots of time.
"Would you be so kind to keep these boxes for an hour. I want to shop few more things and then I'll be back to collect them", Mariana requested to the shopkeeper.
"No problem, miss".
Thanking him, Mariana left the fabric shop and moved towards others.
Every ten seconds, she was pushed by a person or the other, the market was so crowded. But Mariana felt really good being alone here. Her mind felt satiated and her heart felt less burdended than earlier.
She walked forward and stopped at the synthetic diamonds shop. This was even bigger than the fabrics's. And seemed much more extravagent. It looked like she landed in an ocean. Their walls were just mirrors and there were diamonds everywhere. The bright sunlight peeking from the only door left opened, reflected over the diamonds and the effect was magical.
Mariana asked a helper to help her towards tiny diamonds section and he guided her ahead.
On the way, she stopped at an earrings section. Each piece was so pretty. The woman in her couldn't stop and she asked for a trial of a very lovely pair of diamond earrings. They were white, resembling a tear drop.
Mariana didn't wear them. Just placed it over her ears with her hands and admired them on her face in the mirror. She looked at herself through various angles and she loved them on her. She had money to puchase them, but right now, she didn't need any.
The seller woman insisted she tried another pair, these resembling oval diamonds. She placed them over her ears and instantly fell in love with them. Who needed real diamonds when the synthetic ones were these beautiful!
She admired the diamonds on herself in the mirror when she saw two sapphires behind her looking at her reflection.
She froze.
Was she hallucinating?
Was this a magical mirror?
Before she could even blink, he spoke, "They suit you".