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There is a gentle rustling of blankets that breaks the dead silence of the night air. Tucked away in the back of the tower, behind the heavy dark curtains that divide the study from the sleeping quarters, Jack stirs in bed. The sound of the wind tapping on the cracked windows had awakes him from a the most wonderful nightmare. He lies flat on his stomach, feeling the weight and warmth of the sheets and blankets on top of him. A lovingly made patchwork quilt brushes against his bone, the coarse cotton lightly kissing his skull.
With the quietest and most indiscernible movements, he creeps across the surface of the mattress towards the slender figure lying dormant beside him.
Sally sleeps peacefully, her right cheek pressed into the pillow, chestnut hair splayed behind and around her long elegant neck, lips askew, the bottom not quite aligning with the top.
In the darkness he stretches beside her, content to simply be in her presence. Sally is beautiful in this moonlight, streaming in from the cracks in the dark curtains that separate the pair from the outside world.
There is too much gossip out there. Jack would much rather remain in the silence between each of Sally’s breaths.
She turns in her sleep and her long eyelashes flutter open revealing two large round eyes that stare up at him as she adjusts herself to being awake. She registers his face and smiles, stitches on the side of her lips, arching upward in a delicate display of her affection towards him. She begins to yawn but that gives way to a sleepy sigh. She mutters something incoherent and her eyelids begin to have trouble holding themselves up again.
“Go back to sleep love,” he says softly, pressing his lips to her forehead. He lifts an arm and manages to wrap her in blankets and in his arms at the same time. Even in her sleep she snuggles closer to him, burying her face into his chest.
His chin resting on the top of her head, he listens to her breathing, syncing his own breath with hers. Their sighs and nightmares drift off together out the windows and into the chilly night and soon they are fast asleep once more.