As the former nun was pondering in her train of thoughts, peeping through the blurry window glass as her hazelish-brown orbs admired the extraordinarily glamorous winter's scenery outside, all of a sudden a handful of sufficiently loud door taps snapped her of her train of thoughts. 

"Yes?" The blonde evoked out rhetorically, allowing her former lover to enter in the bedroom as he opened the door, subsequently shutting it behind him and tiptoed up to her as an angelic, soft smile curled upon his face. 

"How are you now, Jude?" He enquired concerned as she turned to him, facing him as their eyes met, locking up his warm, reassuring chocolate brown pools. 

"I'm well. Thanks! And ya?" She asked plainly, holding yet the book as Timothy glanced down, noting his love interest reading Russian poetry as his humongous inquisitiveness enveloped his heart and mind, trapping him with the childish curiosity. Exposing his another side. 

"I'm fine even happier." His face softened as the reluctant glance transformed into stare in the antique, compact book cover. "What are you reading? Russian poetry?" Enthusiasm and felicity gathered altogether were vomited in his velvety voice. 

"Yeah, I do. Why? Don't you like Russian literature?"

"Not at all! However, the Romantic era's poetry is spectacular and breathtaking." In the interim, the middle-aged woman just bobbed humbly her head, affirming his words as agreement was sketched upon her bob.

"I can't agree more. Let's not forget it's even emotional." At the moment, she walked away from the window, putting the book back in the grand, polished bookshelf as the younger man followed her. "If you aren't into Russian literature, therefore what kind of Literature is your cup of tea, Timothy?"

"Urm, Scottish, English, classical and medival ones!" Meanwhile, stuttered infected his tongue as he listed his favorite literature. 

"That's good! My other preference as Literature could be French, German and ancient Greek ones." Afterwards she sat on the edge of the bed, stretching her arms as a casual yawn punched the palm's barrier, pausing before keeping on with her utterance. "Nevertheless, if we are talking about poetry, it's my passion, no matter the country's origin of the masterpiece."

At first, Timothy scarcely could believe he could get to know her since she has lacking trust in the former Monsignor and share some personal information especially interests of her as they didn't have any opportunity to get to know one another on more personal level when they served the church. Serving the church as servants of God, his chosen hallowed angels. Chosen hallowed angels, who have took their solemn vows since they have opened a new chapter in their lives as they join the church whether young or older. Business and their missions were on the very top priority list as they collaborated along as they didn't have any spare time for friends, family, lovers or anything else, associating as a part of the life. 

Little did the British aristocrat know what were Judy's passions as well as the fewest things he knew about her were she was a marvelous cook, responsible and diligent employee, a native Bostonian and coq-au-vin was one of their favorite meals.

"What an interesting and wonderful preference!" He couldn't help but compliment her preference.

"How to not thank you!" A sympathetic, grateful smile blossomed on her soft as velvet, rosy-coloured lips. "Have you ever thought of going outside on the snow?"

"Now?" He raised an arch of his thick eyebrow as his temple crinkled in perplexion.

"Why not?" In this moment, the former member of the church sat alongside his former lover on the edge of the bed as the gap was sealed with their figures. "Can't ya agree the winter scenery outside is just lovely?" The former holy woman placed a hand on her chest as she glimpsed at the window and the tumbling hive of snowflakes.

"Indeed! Winter has always been my favorite season." Suddenly he placed on top of her petite, smooth hand his larger, surprisingly warm one, squeezing it as shivers electrified her spine and body, plaguing its vulnerable body muscles and its subtle nerves, earning the blonde's childishly inquisitve look, crawled on her still youthful, porcelain complexion. In the meantime, sanguine pigmented her cheeks as muggy heat crawled underneath her facial skin. "The sceneries are just magnificently breathtaking and you just cannot help but fall in love with the landscapes which the nature paints them outside."

"Exactly! Spring and winter could be my favorite as they're unarguably lovely by judging the atmosphere and their uniqueness as well."

"If you excuse me, they aren't as lovely as you, Jude!" All of a sudden, Timothy's direct response caught off guard the older lady as her honey brown irises widened at unspeakable surprise and disbelief.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" Sanguine expanded its pigment all over her parchment face as she nibbled on the silken skin of her bottom, plumpish lip, staring into his chocolate brown eyes in disbelief.

"I said these seasons which you said are your favorite aren't as lovely as you, rare bird!" His smile progressed as a crescent form shape formed on his berry-coloured lips. What it struck the former woman of the cloth was their postponing to dress up in comfy, warmer garments as Timothy accepted her suggestion to go outside on the snow and instead, they were in the same room, receiving kindhearted, sincere compliments from the man, whom she just figured out the head over heels in love phenomenon occured again and corrupting her train of thoughts as the thoughts were railing and railing. "Aren't you eventually deaf?" He said in sarcastic manner, without opting to offend her or cause any upheaval in her demeanor, transforming it from peaceful and neutral into antagonizing and violent. 

"I'm not deaf. But I've actually to say," She lowered her stare bashfully, demurely, eyeing the carpeted flooring, biting begrudgingly her bottom, plump lip once again, due to the immense intensity and embarrassment accumulated in the same time. "You are mistaken! Where are yar glasses to put them on and see what a hag have you brought at home?" She crossed one of her fragile, slim arms, expressing her frustration when it comes up to her physical looks and the compliments, addressed to them. At the moment, wry chuckle zinged her lips.

"Jude, Jude, do not talk about yourself like that!" He cupped her chin with a couple of long, adroit fingers as they were wrapped beneath her jawline, tilting her head to meet her gaze as her eyes darkened as if the devil and its vileness's spells glimmered through them. "I don't need any glasses to see your undeniable beauty."

--- *** ---

A quarter an hour later the both adults went outside after changing themselves into warmer, comfy garments, matching with the frosty climate outside.

The thousands of sluggishly cascading crystal, tiny snowflakes danced in the sky just before they hit the ground as thick layer of snow sheeted the ground.

As they were outside in the grandiose yard, subsequently they started playing as rejoicing children, throwing at each other snowballs and squealing in euphoria as if they were in seventh heaven at last. It was part of the new chapter they have already opened of the sequel of their life. It was about their interraction and working on their toxic, nonetheless with brilliantly monstrous potential to heal one another and seek atonement from one another, although the trials' gravity having an utter control over the events and some ordeals, blocking their way at times from accomplishing ultimate happiness and peace. Happiness and peace as their main goals. 

It has been a long time since they have showed their childish sides and most of all, playing outside on the snow whether with their peers or somebody else, filling their leisure time. It brought them episodes of recollected memories from their younger years, flooding their whirlpool of thoughts and most of all, their hearts aching due to the nostalgia. 

Once they tickled one another with their gloved hands, consequently they slumped as their merry giggles left their lips, writhing their arms and legs as they were making snow angels as their giggles and voices were as whispers in the desert. 

All of a sudden, Jude's optimistic smile which poised her lips ebbed at the thought of her younger years especially the last time that she played on the snow and recollected a piece of memory.

"I cannot remember exactly when it was the last time when I've played on the snow."

"Oh! Was it a long...long time ago?" He took a deep breath as his smile wiped off his young-looking, pale as ghost face, enquiring with apparent zest. 

In the interval, the former promiscuous jazz nightclub singer's heart sunk at the thought of her childhood or slightly after that, due to the fact, the memories were as painful as the heavy medicaments which she was forced to accept in the nuthouse. 

"Yeah! A long time ago. Probably before my nunnery or even before that! That was the time when I used to a nightclub singer." She swallowed hard, due to her grim past which haunted her up to nowadays especially when her reputation wasn't as superb and revering as when she was a sister of the Roman Catholic church. It was a gap on her flimsy heart, enveloped in soreful, timeless pain, sorrow and absent warmness. 

"Y-You used to be a singer? That's interesting and amazing." A tad optimism lingered on his tongue as he vomited the caution. A slight, tenderhearted smile cradled his lips. 

Mild exasperation cooked and brewed inside the former nun especially when the former Monsignor's blunt optimism for his liking for the notorious profession singer was recklessly expressed as if a child carelessly replied a high schooler it's cool to be studying in high school. 

Her bottom lip as it curled, it pouted, heaving a jaded, dramatic sigh from the top of her flaring lungs as if volcano was surging its lava from her contracted chest's organs up to her nostrils. 

"It's not as cool and amazing as you claim. I was just a mere singer in the local bars. I wasn't something like Elsa Mars or some of the old Hollywood ones. I used to be in a jazz band. In brief, my life was a chaos then."

"Oh! I'd like to know more about you and the past, you associate it with chaos." 

"Well, I used to be a jazz nightclub singer until I joined the church to survive as I struggled and I didn't have my own home. Even more the alcohol and the one-night stands with the guys were the main medicines to anesthetize the pain of the heartbreak I've been through even if it was just only once."

"Oh!"

"The heartbreak emanated from the man, who I truly believed he loved me for what I'm actually but, but," She hemmed as salty dew pooled her brittle eyelids, tears verging to well in her irises as she has thought of her first love, who betrayed her and dumped her as a piece of garbage, besides giving her syphilis, preventing her from having her own children. "Little do I know until nowadays why he did it to me. I mean, why he was and seemed so unhappy with me as if I'm the core of his final motives?"

In the meanwhile, Timothy rolled on the other side as he took one of Jude's gloved hands into his larger, secure one, squeezing it tightly as the thumb kneaded the back of her hand, whereas the awkward silence was as piercing as the tumbling crystal snowflakes. The intensity escalated between the both adults especially when the former man of the cloth cupped his former lover's cheek into the palm of his gloved hand, admiring her ethereal, inescapable grace, naturally highlighting her elegant, authentic facial features. 

"It wasn't your fault why he was unhappy man at all. What I can say, he isn't the man whose type of women like you would be his cup of tea. I mean, you're way too perfect to be owned by such a disgraceful asshole like him." It was hardly believable the former holy man cussed especially spitting it out directly as a serpent's venom, lingering on his serpentine, subtle tongue. 

"He was asshole for sure! He's the reason why I'm childless and I can't bare anybody's baby. He literally cheated on me except he took away one of the things I've longed for ages to have."

"You're absolutely right! He isn't the ideal man for you as I can see exactly for who he is." Mild irritation affected his exclaimation as the thumb traced her well-defined cheekbone, fixing his warm, benevolent chocolate brown pools on her hazelish-brown ones, staring right at her soul. "I'm deeply sorry to hear all this and for what you've been through."

"It's not only that what you think and worshipping me as if I'm a saint, but also one night on my way to home as I was inebriated and lose control over my cab by delving in my purse for some cognac, thus I hit accidentally a young girl, dressed up in blue." One of her remorses was just confessed as she expected to be rejected and to be thrown away from his life along with the property for the rest of her days as he could think her of a vicious and intoxicated drunken whore. That was the blonde's version over Timothy's recent thoughts, resurfacing as icebergs in his mind. The tears sprung up into her eyelids freely, rolling down on her cheeks as the former Monsignor wiped them off from her porcelain, pale as ghost complexion, sniffling quietly to herself, grasping his hand into hers. 

Heartache was the definition of what the younger man exactly felt at the moment. He has never pictured his love interest could have such gloomy past as his mind could contain it as a complex novel with galore descents, part of the roller coaster of her dynamic life with almost no light, guiding her to the right path and God.

"It's okay to cry, rare bird! I don't blame you for all this as you aren't a murderer and a whore as you might call yourself."

"Of course, I'm! Don't ya remember what the possessed poor boy Jed said during the exorcism as ya were dragging me from the room?" 

"That's right, Father, protect your whore. That's right, Father, protect your whore. It's you she thinks of when she touches herself at night. Oh,yes. Protect your whore."

"I didn't pay attention to it at all, because I know the evil always lies as it tried to test your patience."

"It didn't try to test my patience. It said exactly the things how they're." She rejoinded, sniffling uncontrollably yet even when Timothy was her last hope for finding comfort and light. "The devil knows everything and most of all, be careful what ya brought at yar house, Timothy!"

"Shu, shu, shu, Judy! Everything is okay and everything is going to be okay! The devil lies as always as you aren't a whore as it framed you the evil, itself. And I'm wondering yet what happened to the little girl, whom you hit in the late night incident." He wiped off the last gushing crystal, howsoever, salty tears as her sobs subdued, no longer levitating in the background. 

"She's still alive, fortunately! The good news which I can break are the girl is alive yet with a baby and I saw her weeks ago. I've always prayed out my heart for her soul for ages, keeping my wits about her condition and what I did to her."

To be continued...