Chapter 41
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 40
Arthur carefully scoots his way from the back of the row boat to the middle, gets the oars out from under Gregory, and starts pulling towards the post boat and the little island.
The rowing is much harder than it was in the… dream? Illusion? And he thinks it’s slower-going, too. As if they skipped little bits of time in the illusion.
In hindsight, what he can remember feels disjointed- the way things are in dreams, where it makes perfect sense while you’re asleep, and you wonder why when you wake up.
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He’s out of breath when he finally arrives at the post ship- and then he has to figure out how to get onto it, and also, how to not have the little row boat get smashed against the larger boat. That wasn’t a concern in the dream, that he remembers, but now he can feel how the water might suck the row boat against or even under the post boat. He doesn’t know if that’d really be as dangerous as it seems, but he isn’t about to risk it with Darcy and Gregory unconscious.
So he rows a little longer until he can pull the boat up onto the rocky shore of the little island. Of course, that means now he’s wet up to his thighs, and the water is really cold, and it’s probably not good for his boots- he hopes the house can fix that.
He makes sure the row boat won’t be washed back out to sea, and then manages to make his scrambling, wobbling way along the sharp, slanting rocks that have caught the post boat. Getting up onto it would’ve been a real problem he didn’t foresee, either, if a rope hadn’t come loose from somewhere above. His breath comes in pants and his arms feel like jelly when he finally pulls himself over the railing and onto the deck, but he makes it.
On the deck, he finds three crew men, including the one who was about to tie off the rope Arthur just used. For a quick, hard heart beat, Arthur thinks they’re dead- they’re sprawled out like they just dropped where they were. But when he goes to check, he finds their skin warm, and they’re breathing. They’re asleep, like the other people who the captain and the constables told them about, and shaking them doesn’t do anything to wake them up.
So he goes explore for the source of the… dream illusion field, or whatever it is. And tries not to let worry distract him, about Gregory and Darcy, about what might be happening to them in the illusion, about what would happen if he can’t figure it out…
~~~~
It’s not long before pirates arrive in the courtyard, and while Gregory and Darcy barricade themselves into a room, she can’t help another excited wiggle. She loves stories, she’s the heroine, surely there will be a daring rescue at the last second, and she can’t wait for it!
Before that story trope can happen, however, she is delighted that she gets to experience another one because, yes, with a scraping sound a hidden passage behind her opens and John Silver grins roguishly at her, tells her that she should just come with him. Despite his tiny size, Gregory jumps to the attack, even does some damage before he is thrown across the room and John grabs Darcy’s hand with a wink to pull her into the passage with him.
Far, far too lost in the story (and getting to have one of her childhood crushes interact with her) Darcy just giggles and for show smacks a rather gentle fist against John’s shoulder, but doesn’t even try to resist, runs happily along with him. Gregory is going to save her, if there’s any reason to save her.
Not that she wants to really be saved from being brought into a hidden grotto, complete with moored escape boat and waterfall exit. Sitting down into the boat, (wasn’t she afraid of boats actually? Doesn’t matter now,) Darcy waits on John to get in, but he seems frozen for a second, a slight earthquake shaking the entire island, and only regains his senses a second before Gregory barrels into him, enraged and out for blood now. Darcy has to jump in, suddenly worried that he’ll kill John, pulls the growling and shouting Gregory back. She has to pull him to the boat, tell him to save her by rowing them away, but her gaze keeps going back to John, now heavily bleeding.
When he fights to sit up and extends a hand after her, pleads with her not to leave, he can’t be alone again, it’s too much, she looks at Gregory. Please. This isn’t how the story should end, please, row them back. Gregory gives her an incredulous look but, like always when he would have to go against a strong decision of hers, he falters, just goes along with it.
Rushing back to John and kneeling next to him, none of her normal shyness around people visible, Darcy supports John as he starts to remember that yes, he made the illusion. He… remembers that his father made him drink some disgusting tea. Darcy can tell that he remembers more but can’t bring himself to tell them. Maybe he’d tell her but it’s easy for her to see that he wishes Gregory wasn’t there. Trying her best to distract him, she asks why he named the ship wrong and he immediately, and with a small grateful look, jumps on the topic, complains that it wasn’t him, the sailors on the ship have no clue about Treasure Island!
With a laugh, she agrees, people are so much worse than books, she likes books.
“I can tell…” he says, frowns in confusion. “I let you in because something about you feels right…”
~~~~
The rest of the post boat is the same- crew members sprawled unconscious or asleep, Arthur isn’t sure how to tell the difference, like they just dropped where they were. The captain is in his cabin with his face on a book he was writing in and ink in his beard and on his face, because there’s an open inkwell on his table with splashes around it. Arthur finds the cap on the floor, and screws it shut.
He finds a kitchen, thankfully empty, no fire and all knives put away, and a storage cupboard, and then he opens a door and a sweet, medicinal scent wafts out.
It’s another cabin, a small one. Barely large enough to fit the cot on which a blond girl lies. Arthur blushes, because she’s only wearing a nightgown and he feels very rude and uncomfortable seeing her like that, but more important is that she’s tied down to the frame of the cot and there’s a cup and a small bottle on a shelf built into the wall next to her.
Arthur bites his lip, but steps inside. This is the most unusual thing on the boat he’s found so far, so probably what he’s looking for.
And also, she’s really pale and still, and tying people up is generally a sign of something going on.
The bottle is laudanum and the sweet scent is coming from the cup. Arthur reaches to check for a pulse at the girl’s wrist…
~~~~
And finds himself in a cave instead.
There’s the rush of a waterfall into a pool, which is where the light in the cave is coming from, so it’s all muted and wavering. A row boat is pulled up to a wooden dock at the shore, and Gregory is hovering next to it, looking uncertain- then surprised when he catches sight of Arthur.
Arthur turns, sees a set of stairs leading upwards behind him, and John Silver huddled on the floor, with Darcy next to him.
“What’s going on?” Arthur asks, even while his mind races- he’s back in the illusion, just when he was about to touch the girl… the blond girl. He squints at John Silver, who looks… doesn’t he look too young and blond for John Silver? At least the way Arthur’s always imagined him… And are his features kind of similar? It’s hard to tell, what with him only having seen her for a moment, and her being all unconscious, and this guy not being unconscious…
“Arthur dear!” Darcy exclaims. “What are you doing here?” She looks between him and John Silver, like he’ll have the answer.
“I don’t know…” Arthur says slowly. “I was on the ship- the post boat, I mean. And there was a cabin, with a girl tied up…”
That’s as far as he gets, because: “I’m not a girl!” John howls.
~~~~
“I’m not a girl!” John howls, the emotion in his voice so harsh that Darcy takes both his hands as a suspicion grows in her. A suspicion she never would have had if not for, well, her own body is different, too. She tells Arthur immediately that that’s John, and yes, he’s a man!
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Arthur’s not sure what the matter is with the whole girl/man thing, but… apparently, Darcy gets it. And it’s clearly very important to John. And really not the most important thing otherwise right now. Well, he’s sure whether John is (or looks like) a girl or not does have a bearing on the situation, since he suspects he wouldn’t have found a young man tied up and drugged like that, but it isn’t important to getting the situation sorted.
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Darcy’s emotions burst into flaming rage as Arthur explains how he’s found John, and how badly drugged he seems to be, and how concerned Arthur is that he might be dying, that he probably really needs healing, urgently.
Still holding his hands, Darcy asks John if he please can let them out, she’s not going to leave, it’s going to be alright. She sees his immediate worry and her smile at him goes soft, it’s already alright, he’s a man, she’ll make sure the entire world knows that.
~~~~
She’ll do what? John stares at her, stares at the way she’s holding his hands, stares at the way she’s smiling at him. How that smile goes all the way down to her soul and then right through to his. She can see him? The real him? Her friend told her… told her about the outside world and she immediately defended him. Nobody has done that. Especially no girl, and he let her in because there’s something about her. Maybe… maybe she understands him, maybe she’s like him? Somebody to believe him, somebody to understand him, somebody to keep smiling at him like that. Like he always wanted girls to smile at him. Fuck, but he could get used to that smile. And there’s only one way to get used to it, trust her far enough that he’ll believe it’s better that she sees him out there than to die in this dream. He’ll dare, for her, for their future.
~~~~
Darcy finds herself back in the small boat, now up on the rocky shore near the post ship. She startles as she feels Gregory’s arms around her. He says he has his empathy back, now he can feel her emotions and they’re so big. Patting his arms but extracting herself, she tells him that she’ll manage, she has a promise to keep. She marches into the ship and finds Arthur in a tiny room, healing what looks like a blonde girl. It takes all of Darcy’s willpower not to spit with fury when she sees the way John is tied up. She cuts through the ropes with her claws, tells Gregory to find John some proper clothes, and asks Arthur to see to the sailors. She will bring John home.
He’s still unconscious, the effects of the drugs lingering, but Arthur-dear is fairly sure he’s stable and safe to transport. It’s well into the afternoon now, and the light is fading, and a heavy fog bank rolled in. It obscures them from the shore, even the police boat is just a dark shadow now, so Arthur agreed that it was safe enough for Darcy to fly John back to the castle as a big bat, as long as she stays in the fog as much as possible. It’s leaving tiny droplets on her fur, and makes the whole world smell of water. Darcy is about to take off, made sure John is held securely in her bat feet, when Pretty jumps on, declares that he’s not leaving her alone, he’ll protect her! Darcy’s again startled, not sure what exactly she needs protection from, but she doesn’t mind.
Once she arrives on one of the balconies of the castle, her papa already comes running. She transforms back to her human form to tell him that this is John, he’s a male patient and has been badly drugged.
~~~~
Jack blinks a few times, but he can see that his rose petal is not accepting any kind of argument. That’s his strong girl, so he tells her, with a proud smile and the pet name he uses when she is being brave and empowered: “Your doctor will see to him, Ruby.” That has her beam, of course she could rely on her papa, so she hugs him, tells him to get Mother to sit at his bedside, she doesn’t want him to wake up alone.
~~~~
Pretty is about to jump back on when Darcy prepares to get back to Arthur, but she tells him that she is much less suspicious as a small bat, he can… she hesitates, what can he do? He can’t start any paperwork for this excursion, he shouldn’t help her papa with John, ah, of course, he likes doing that, so she sends him to the kitchen to make some food for John.
~~~~
Arthur is very, very glad when Darcy returns within less than an hour. He’s been busy enough helping the sailors on the boat that he didn’t have to decide exactly what to tell them in too much detail- only that he’s Lady Rossmore’s scholar, here to investigate a phenomenon of unknown origin.
He feels awkward enough about that. He’s kind of in charge, needs to be, but the sailors are strong, tough men, and he can’t imagine they like to have some scrawny kid tell them what to do. But nobody makes a fuss about that.
Of course, that could be because all the men are feeling very poorly. They’ve been out on the boat, in the elements, for a day. And Arthur’s only read some basic medical texts, but he knows that that’s hard. (Also, he’s felt the bite of the elements enough himself over the last two years to have a healthy respect for them.) So, with that dubious claim of expertise as his cover, he checks over the men, sneaks a little bit of healing for the ones that are the worst off. Mostly, he’s trying to keep busy until Darcy comes back, the men know they need water and warmth themselves.
By the time Darcy does arrive, the fog is thankfully still heavy, and one of the sailors made tea, and everyone is huddled in blankets, and Arthur’s told them that they’ve been unconscious for a day, and the baroness was called in when the police found they couldn’t go near the boat without people falling unconscious, too.
He doesn’t mention John, because he’s not sure what to do about it, whether they want to kick off some official kind of investigation or what. Someone, or everyone, on the ship must know he was there. But no one volunteers anything about that, so Arthur doesn’t, either.
Nor does anyone ask too many questions about where the baroness suddenly appears from when there’s only a small ship and a small island around. The arrival of the police boat about half an hour into getting everyone looked after probably helps- people assuming she must’ve been, respectively, on the other boat when she joins Arthur.
She looks very composed and in charge, anyway, when she and Arthur step to the side by a railing to talk- very quietly. Sound really carries on the water, as evidenced by all the voices they can hear around them while the people from the police boat help to check whether there’s any damage to the post boat, and how they might get it off from where it’s run aground, and also are talking to people about what happened and what they remember. Arthur keeps an ear out for anyone mentioning any girls, but everyone just talks about nightmares and then waking up and not having any idea what happened.
Arthur makes sure to keep talking about ‘he’ and ‘John’, too- because it was clearly important to John, but also, it’s nifty, he doesn’t think even if anyone does catch anything of their conversation they would realize that they’re talking about the prisoner on the boat.
The question is, of course, whether they want to prosecute this or not. They both agree that they’re dealing with a case of forced marriage, and that’s illegal- so is tying someone up and poisoning them almost to death. If they want to handle this all ‘official, Arthur thinks Darcy could make a case of giving John asylum and taking legal steps, and draft him into the household because of his powers.
Of course, that would make those powers official. But if he just vanishes, he might not be able to get back in contact with any people, friends or family he might still care about.
~~~~
Darcy just wants to make it better, she’ll do whatever it takes! Just, maybe not the talking right now because she’s still boiling with emotions. So they decide not to say anything about John for now, and ask him what he prefers, Arthur-dear thinks they probably still can take legal steps later, even if that means the damning evidence of the ties and bottle is gone. But he points out that Darcy is a noble now, so her word will count for more than some sailor’s.
For now, Arthur talks to the police and doesn’t tell them that they experienced anything other than the sailors, leaving the mystery unsolved. And then they can both finally get back to the castle by way of ship (and now Darcy hates that again, it must have been the illusion that took her fear away) and carriage. It’s a quiet ride, Darcy deep in contemplation and Arthur making notes in his notebook.
Her mood improves when they reach the castle. It’s almost dark by now, and the heather and the cliff and the foot of the buildings is also wreathed in fog. It brings out the autumn scents of dying plants and wet stone, and looks like a proper, mysterious night creature lair.
Once inside, she calls straight for Llew, and when he appears, asks if he could please get his sister for her, she… should she hesitate? Should she think this through more? No! She’s made her decision! She said she’ll make the entire world see that John is a man. Could Llew please get her Eluned, she needs another contract. That has him inhale sharply, eyes first going wide then narrow, but he just vanishes without a comment.
Fine by her, she would much rather see to John than figure out what that weird fey guy is up to now. She’s so happy when she finds him wearing a male house robe and her mother giving him a haircut while talking about Treasure Island. Darcy is still surprised that she could rely on her mother the same way she could on her papa, but it’s lovely to see that she judged right. She didn’t think John would like any men around him with what he just went through, and here is her mother, having very much the same reaction as her to him, body or not.
Despite that, she wants to talk to him alone (why is that making her blush now? And blast, he shouldn’t smell like that in that wrong body, but somehow, to her nose, he already is the man he says he is). Her mother lifts an eyebrow and gives her a look that is far too knowledgeable, but she does as asked and leaves them alone.
Smiling a bit shyly at John, Darcy sits down next to him and asks if he is up to talking through some very important decisions, or if he needs more rest. He shakes his head and tells her that he’s had it with being helpless. Even if it’s just making decisions, he needs to do something. That has her smile more, somehow that feels very right, feels like a lovely characteristic.
So she asks him if he has anybody who he would miss, learns that no, it’s only his asshole of a father (his words, making her blush from the crudeness).
~~~~
His mother died not long ago and if John thought it was bad before that, yeah, fuck no, his father only gave him more reason to hate him. John’s voice becomes a mere whisper, uncomfortable to the core at having to say it but… he knows why he got drugged and shipped off. His father, well, let’s fucking call it for what it is, he sold him to another man, sold him off to get married. Darcy growls, actually fucking growls, more like an animal than a girl, and long, pointed fangs spring out while her eyes go blazing red. John startles back, too weak to get up to get away from her but also, he’s an aberration, what is he even complaining about?
~~~~
Embarrassed by her reaction to having her worst suspicions confirmed, Darcy holds a hand in front of her fangs as she struggles to retract them again, to keep her raging emotions in, to soothe her drac down from a strong urge to run to wherever John’s father is and rip his throat out.
John studies her before a small, dark smile appears on his face and he leans in again. “Yeah, that’s what I’d like to do to him, too.” After a few moments of blinking, Darcy blushes again, furiously now, because her drac just decided to forget its anger and is now bouncing with a tail wag around John, because nobody else accepted her dhampirsm like that before, nobody just understood the whispers of her animalistic urges like that.
She bites her lip before she nods and then asks him if he’d be willing to get drafted into her household, she’s… um, sorry for not having mentioned that before, she’s a baroness and she could give him asylum if he works for her. Nobody bats an eye at aberrations being hired for protection and he showed off how well he could protect her. Something about her words makes the darkness melt out of his smile and now he very nearly blushes, rubs his neck and coughs. Yeah, sure, that would be amazing actually, he says. He didn’t have many plans anyway and, his eyes flick to hers for just a second, she treats him like the man he is, that… his words falter he just adds a thanks before he goes quiet.
That short look hits her right in the soul and she feels only more intensely that she made the right decision. So she grabs his hand before she tells him that she promised that she’ll show the whole world that he is a man! She has a way to make him look like he should. Blushing only more, she gestures at herself, admits with a squeak in her voice that her body is different, too, she very nearly ended up looking like a boy and that would be bad, but she has a contract with a fey so she’s going to include him in her contract and then everybody will always see him… the way she sees him.
~~~~
His mouth falls open and he can’t stop himself, he pulls on her hand to hug her, just to show how overwhelmed he is, definitely not to hide that he’s fighting with tears. He hates showing emotions, that just makes him seem like less of a guy, but what she just did for him, offered him, she wants him to protect her, she is so outspoken on seeing him as a man, how could he be anything but overwhelmed with this woman… this woman who understands him! He doesn’t care about the details of her body, that’s up to her, he’ll never put her on the spot, but she understands and that feels so unique, he suddenly isn’t alone anymore. And if he doesn’t fight harder he’ll fucking sniffle and that would be embarrassing so he squishes her as hard against himself as he can, shudders when she closes her arms around him, too.
“Welcome home, John.”