Chapter 6
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 5
When Arthur wakes up the next morning, he feels a strange lassitude and unconcern float through his limbs and mind. Vaguely, he thinks that Gregory must have put something in that tea in the evening. But he doesn’t care, he decides- he likes this. He likes not being scared, or worried.
Then he notices what woke him- raised voices from somewhere. Or one raised voice. He thinks that’s Darcy sounding upset again.
Come to think of it, he never found out what she was upset about yesterday, before she threw the inkwell at Gregory…
Maybe he’ll ask her later.
Right, Gregory- he peers around, but there’s no sign of him, either cat or boy.
Arthur’s nice and warm and comfy, but after another moment, he decides he wants to know what’s going on, so he gets out of the bed- staggers a bit when his feet slip down and down to the floor. The mattress is so thick that the bed is way higher than the one he’s used to.
He wobbles over to the desk chair, only to find that his suit isn’t there.
That almost brings him out of this nice floaty feeling- that was expensive! But then he looks into the wardrobe, and there it is, clean and put away with the others in there.
He recognizes it because it’s the least thick and dark and shiny fabric.
It must be the house spirit Darcy wrote about the day before. It’s nice that it cleaned it, so he says thanks as he takes it out to put it on again.
The other suits, being even more fancy, he leaves where they are.
His boots are also cleaner and shinier than he’s seen them in… ever?
And one of the cupboard doors is open a crack. When he looks in, he finds the heavy flask of Scotch missing. He thinks about this a moment, then concludes that Gregory probably took it.
Whatever. Gregory likes alcohol, he doesn’t. Cake is much better than alcohol.
There isn’t any cake around, though, so he wanders out to follow the sound of… now Gregory’s voice towards Darcy’s room.
The door is open, and Llew is there, too. He can only see the top of Darcy’s head, red hair and glowering eyes- huh, her eyes are a funny colour, he realizes for the first time. Kind of purple. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen purple eyes before.
But then he’s distracted by Llew handing him a letter. Puzzled, he turns it over in his hands. It’s normal paper, not too fancy, and it says “To Whom It May Concern, The Constabulary, Whitby” on the front.
At his look, Llew explains that he went to check on the humans, and that that is the sort of thing that’s their job now that they live in the castle. Then he hands Arthur a newspaper, too, turns around and… walks into the wardrobe.
Arthur blinks. Why would someone walk into a wardrobe? And when he goes to check, there’s only clothes in there, he can reach right to the back, and that’s solid. It’s very strange.
Gregory agrees.
Then it occurs to Arthur that, wait, the etiquette books didn’t say anything specific about this, but… probably if you’re not supposed to be in a lady’s room, you’re also not supposed to check her wardrobe for hidden doors…
Indeed, when he turns around to look, Darcy is still under her blanket and glaring at them.
That’s probably what her upset noises were about.
Since Arthur’s not sure what else to do, he mumbles some kind of apology and grabs Gregory’s sleeve and pulls him out of the room.
Gregory seems confused as to what the problem is, and Arthur can’t be bothered to explain. And in either case, Gregory then gets distracted by asking him how he feels with a hopeful look, and smiles brightly at Arthur’s: “Okay.” So he decides he’ll cheer up Darcy, while Arthur can look at the written stuff.
Arthur shrugs his agreement- it’s not like Gregory would be any help reading anything. And he’s hungry. So he wanders back downstairs to the kitchen he saw the day before while Gregory turns into his cat shape and slips back into Darcy’s room.
Arthur remembers peeking into the kitchen on his exploration the day before, but this is the first time he enters it properly. It’s on the ground floor, to the back of the building, or so he thinks. Or the back of this part of the building, anyway. The kitchen is clean and not too large, there is a big, old range on one side and a table in the middle with six chairs. Cupboards stand against the walls, and there is another door to what he assumes is the pantry. The table top is scarred from work, but also clean.
“Um… could I have some breakfast? Please?” he asks the empty air. And on the table, at the place to the left of one end, a place setting appears, with a plate and a steaming cup of tea, and there’s a rack of toast in the middle of the table, and glasses of jams, and a butter dish. And also a big serving dish with a silver cover. The scent of eggs and fried things drifts to Arthur, makes his mouth water.
So he thanks the house spirit again and takes a seat, peeks under the cover- sees a mountain of scrambled eggs, and sausages, and bacon, and fried mushrooms- all the tasty things he’s often envied characters eating in his books. And there’s so much of it!
And it’s only him, for the moment, so he loads up his plate and starts digging in- wraps a few slices of toast into a napkin and tucks them into his pocket, too.
~~~~
Meanwhile, even Pretty and his best efforts at being adorable and cheerful can’t stand against the sheer hate and discomfort streaming off of Darcy in waves of bitter emotion, perfectly readable to his empathy power.
The unexpected return of Eluned doesn’t have a good impact on Darcy’s mood at first but yet again, she seems different, what is it with these fey and being impossible to predict? Nevertheless, Darcy does start to feel a bit better the longer Eluned talks about Llew. She apologizes for her baby brother, he is a bit of a disaster around humans and clearly hasn’t explained anything properly so let her walk the lady of the house through her property, after all, she is really the lady of the house, the proper Lady Rossmore, that was part of the contract she signed. “Come, walk with me and I’ll tell you a love story, one that features your parents. Wouldn’t you like to make them proud by taking on your responsibilities?”
Yes, Darcy very, very much wants to make her papa proud so she puts on another layer and walks with Eluned through the house and gardens, gets spun into the story of her ancestors, into how she is not a prisoner but a guardian. The hospitality is not a trap, it’s an exchange, just be a good baroness, keep this beautiful place safe from human intrusions and all will be well. It’s the perfect fairy tale, down to her very own fairy godmother, and if it’s like in her books, it must be true!
Emboldened by this fortuitous turn of events Darcy returns to the library, welcoming her guests to her house, she is, after all, the hostess, so she can make introductions, Now she can talk freely, which does very little for her actually talking to Gregory.
~~~~
Arthur, who returned to the library after breakfast, only for Gregory to wander in a little later, certainly is glad that they’re past the fan language- and he supposes letter writing was a bit slow as a form of communication- even if he kind of liked it.
And unfortunately, reading the newspaper and the letter dispelled that lovely haze from the morning.
The newspaper confirms that him and Gregory are wanted for questioning in regards to the prison break, and the Shiver did escape their pursuers. The paper states that Prince James as well as Galahad and his Order are on high alert and expect to find them soon, but Arthur is not reassured.
And Gregory dismisses the bit about being wanted with a cavalier “Well, we’re safe now”, and that doesn’t reassure Arthur, either.
He just hopes the look Prince James got at them was too short, and he can’t put together the sudden appearance of this baroness and two random boys with the also very red-haired girl from the prison.
It’s all a bit too obvious for Arthur’s taste, but maybe Gregory is right and the fey magic will keep them safe?
Anyway, they might have to chance it far earlier than he’s comfortable with, because the letter is from some town called Newholm asking the local authorities for help.
They have had livestock going missing all summer, and checked for the usual reasons- no bandits or wolves in the area. And now some farmers found mutilated animal bodies, and also they’re claiming they’ve seen “monsters”.
It’s all a bit vague, but Llew shows up to tell them that yes, that’s the sort of thing that’s now their job to investigate.