New Years Eve

[Eve]

Eve’s pace naturally slowed as Daphne spoke her hesitations, giving them her full attention. But her eyes widened at the whisper placed softly in her ear, and for that she paused entirely, keen to give the moment room to breathe. She could not claim to know what passed beneath the marble of Daphne’s expression. She was always so tightly contained as to be impenetrable, though Eve was never really sure if it was herself she kept in, or the world she kept out. Either way it did not ever feel like a choice so much as a necessity, and it was one of the reasons Eve had always felt affection.

She shifted, her hands subtly offered palm up for Daphne to take for support if she wished to. With her Eve never crossed the boundary of touch without permission, instinctively respectful, but her compassion was the sort of unceasing warmth which would never refrain from making the offer either. Not relentlessly, not pushily, but with the unspoken assurance of I am always here.

Minty had never talked about children, and Eve knew she had never married, so she could offer no other information – nothing that might either ease Daphne’s fears, or gently let her hopes down. Clearly Eve had had no inkling of the possibility though, even when Daphne had mentioned she was here concerning the details of her adoption. She could not fathom why Araminta would have ever kept something like that secret.

“You would not have come all this way if it were an answer you could live with never knowing,” she said quietly, certainly. Not to push, but to support what she suspected fear simply made unclear in the moment. Eve would not interfere, nor press the decision should Daphne decide she simply could not face it. If that were the case, the secret would remain utterly safe – Eve would never speak it to another soul. But neither did she wish for the opportunity to pass her friend by.

“Do you see the woman over there? In the blue dress? That is Araminta.”