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I'm sorry.

I'm back, and I'm so sorry that I havent added or posted in such a long time. I was afraid that I'd scare you all away because my adds wouldn't be good enough. I'm sorry.

I guess not adding scared all of you away anyway. I'm sorry. I've lost all my fans. Except you, Black. You're a good little boy. Have a cookie.

I'll add more tomorrow. (March 14) I promise.

Completely in your debt if you're reading this,

Reegena
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14-Mar-2010 05:07:16 - Last edited on 14-Mar-2010 05:09:16 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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Chapter 3

It had been a week since Elizabeth hired Alex as her assistant. Every day was the same. Now, Alex hadn't anticipated his job to be exciting, but Elizabeth had added a bit of mystery with her last statement the day of the interview: "There's no turning back now." What had she meant by that?

The work he did now was grueling - mostly because he took on half of Rosie's - but it wasn't anything he'd run away from. The schedual was tight. He'd get up before the sun, and he'd often not fall asleep until long after it'd gone down again. The only day off he got was Sunday, but that was only if they went to the holy church of Saradomin with the rest of the family.

On this particular Sunday, after church, Alex was resting under an oak tree with a book. The calm of the garden and the surronding forest was surreal. His book was rather boring, and the day was passing slowly.

"Are you reading?" A sweet voice as smooth as silk startled him. He hadn't noticed that he'd dozed off.

Rosette stood in front of him, her long blonde hair braided.

Alex shook himself back to reality. "Yeah. The book isn't very good, though."

She tried to smile. "Have you gone to school?"

Alex shook his head. "No. My father did, though. He taught me to read and write; I'm pretty good at math, too."

Rosie timidly sank down next to him. She wore a long, pink gown. She was very beautiful, but she looked even more so when she wasn't next to Mrs. Gildred. She sighed softly. "My father never taught me how to read. He's the gardener, you know."

"Rhody?" Alex laughed. Rhody - surely short for Rhodedendrum - was a stocky old man with a quick wit. He really didn't give Alex any real trouble for talking with Rosette, at least not like Violet. Although now that he was thinking about it, the rose bushes were creeping awful close to his bedroom window.

15-Mar-2010 01:53:02 - Last edited on 12-Jul-2010 15:39:17 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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Rosie returned his smile. "My mother taught me to count. A lot of the simpler math I learned on my own. Lillian, of course, aways promises to teach me to write. She never has, though."

"Lilly? The cook?"

"My sister, too. She learned to read from our brother, Ivan."

"Ivy?" Alex inquired with a small snicker.

Rosette seemed startled. "You know him?"

"Not at all."

"Then how did you know we call him Ivy?"

At first Alex though she was just playing a joke, but she didn't start to laugh. "Just a lucky guess, I, uh, guess."

She seemed content with his answer. "Ivy went to school. He was supposed to be a lawyer, but he decided he'd rather be an adventurer."

"A lawyer, huh?"

Rosie nodded. "Yeah, he would have made more money than all of us combined."

"Seriously?" said Alex, his jaw dropping. "And he turned that down?"

She shrugged. "Too much work. He'd much rather run around slaying dragons and doing quests." Taking Alex's book from his hands, she began to page through it absently.

Alex laid his head back against the tree. He could never be an adventurer. It's not that he didn't want to be one; it's that he physically couldn't be an adventurer if he tried. Unlike Rosette's brother Ivy, Alex wouldn't have any family to come home to after years on the road. He had to be home in time to take care of his mother.

The thought of slaying dragons made him ill, but it wasn't because dragons were such big, scary creatures.

The truth was, Alex fainted at the sight of blood.

15-Mar-2010 01:58:38

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Chapter 4

Sundating night, as Alex tucked himself into his cot, he wasn't looking foreward to waking up the next morning and doing the petty work Elizabeth picked out for him. Why had she even wanted an assistant? Mostly all he did was scrub the floors and hold her skirt when she walked in the garden.

In the midst of a dream, Alex felt the urge to open his eyes. When he did, the moonlight cast the shadow of a man leaning over him. After Alex was sure he wouldnt scream, he opened his mouth to speak, "Who are you? What do you want?"

"It's Rhody, you moron," said the man as he stepped back. "Did you enjoy your day off?"

Alex rolled over. "Now isn't the time to ask such questions. Go away and let me sleep!"

He felt Rhody lean over and wrap one of his callused hands around his shoulder, pulling Alex back to face him. "If you think you can date my daughter and talk to me like that, you're surely mistaken." He pulled the sheets away from Alex and slid an arm under his legs.

"Now what are you doing?"

Rhody let go of Alex's shoulder and slid that arm under his torso. "Up you go!" After a few grunts, Rhody had picked up alex and was now holding him like an infant. He carried him out of the room and down the hall. Alex was amazed. For a short man, Rhody was strong.

"I bet you're wondering how I'm doing this," Rhody said as he turned a corner and continued down the hall. "Well, you weigh about as much as my wife did on our wedding day. You're a very feminine little boy, which makes me wonder about Rosie..."

"Put me down!"

"The secret is to life from the legs. If you lift from the back, you'll end up like my brother Elmer."

"Where are we going?" They'd been walking for a while. Alex was sure he'd learned the house like the back of his hand in this last week, but at night, in the dark, everything looked different.

20-Mar-2010 02:50:04 - Last edited on 29-Dec-2010 23:36:36 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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"I'm not going anywhere," Rhody answered with a toothy smile. "The lady asked for you, and because of how you spoke to me a few minutes ago, I plan on making this experience as scarring as possible for you."

"Elizabeth asked for me?" Alex snapped. "Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"I just did. Now, I don't know if I can make it down these stairs without dropping you..."

"I'll walk!"

"Hm, that's an awful long way down..."

"I'll walk!" Alex repeated. "I'll walk, sir."

"There we go," Rhody let Alex down and slapped his back, hard. "C'mon, girlyman, Elizabeth Gildred requires your assistance."

Alex glanced out the window. The moon had just reached it's peak in the midst of a starless sky. "At this hour?"

Rhody shrugged. "She has a strange hobby." They descended the stairs. "She disguises herself as a peasant in order to read to the children of Phoenix Gang members in Varrock."

"Really?"

"No, but for a moment you sounded frightened. Do you have something against the children of Phoenix Gang members?"

"No. Just their parents. Where are we going?" Alex wiped the crust from the corner of his eyes.

"The cellar."

"Why?"

"To meet up with Elizabeth." Rhody said. "I thought you knew that."

"I did, but," they descended another flight of stairs, "why the cellar?"

Rhody yawned. "I told you. She has a strange hobby."

They arrived in the cellar. It was a small, dank, dark room with rows of shelves up to the ceiling stacked with jars of fruit. A wash bin and a stack of dirty laundry were in one corner, and a ladder leading up to the surface was in the other.

Alex frowned. "This is an unpleasent place." He remembered the cellar at his old house, with the nausiating onion smell and the rat infestation. The Gildred's cellar was nothing like that, but he'd still rather be above ground.

Rhody chuckled. "Yeah. Rosie says she finds the darkness comforting, though."

"Rosie comes down here?"

"You sound surprised."

"I am." Alex tried imagining Rosette in the darkness.

20-Mar-2010 02:58:51 - Last edited on 12-Jul-2010 15:44:41 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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"Well," Rhody pointed to the wash basin in the corner. "She does do the laundry. She basically lives down here because of it."

Alex shuddered. He glanced around the cellar again. "Where's Elizabeth?"

"I'm here!" She chimed musically.

Alex turned around and, in shock, took a step back. Elizabeth had come down the stairs, but that wasn't suprising. The startling part was what she was wearing. Her dress was bright red, and the puffy skirt barely reached her knees.

"Mrs. Gildred!"

She crossed her beautiful arms and snapped crossly, "Elizabeth!"

Alex nodded, bringing himself back to earth. "Oh yeah. Sorry, Elizabeth. What are you wea-" He caught himself. Alex learned from the week he'd spent with Elizabeth: you never ask her what she's wearing - or why. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Me?" She laughed. "No! Well, yes, but we are too."

"W-we?" Alex stuttered. "As in, me?"

Elizabeth nodded. "You and me and - well, that's it!"

"In the middle of the night?" Alex asked. "You and me going out in the middle of the night?"

"Oh!" She covered her mouth. "Alexander, don't make it sound like that! Rhody could come if he wanted too, but he has other plans."

The gardener nodded. "Yup. Keeping an idiot away from my daughter. The same thing I do every night."

"Um," Alex started. "Then were are we going? And...and why can't Charles come?" It was a strange question to ask; he knew that, but walking around in the middle of the night with a married woman was not what he had in mind. When he signed up to be her assistant, he expected long, hard hours full of pointless work and some flirting with the maid.

Elizabeth threw her head back and laughed. Rhody joined in as well. For a moment, Alex just stood there in the dark cellar, completely lost as to why they were laughing and what was so funny.

"Can you believe that, Rhody?" Elizabeth managed to ask the gardner after their fit of laughter ceased. "He asked me why Charlie couldn't come along!"

20-Mar-2010 03:09:09 - Last edited on 29-Dec-2010 23:39:21 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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"Boy, oh boy," Rhody hooted. "Is he gonna be in for a big surprise!"

Elizabeth nodded.

"Well," Rhody began ascending the stairs. "I'm off to bed. Lotta' work tomorrow. I gotta' trim the lawn, straighten the hedges, fix up my roses, keep Rosette as busy as possible so she stays away from Alex..."

It was eerily silent after Rhody left. Alex found himself staring at Elizabeth. She was easy to look at, very beautiful. Was it wrong to think about his boss that way? Yes, probably. Especially considering she was twenty-four and married, and Alexander was sixteen and far more interested in Rosie.

Elizabeth sighed, and her voice became distant, the way it had been back at the end of the interview. "Remember when I hired you?"

"It was only a week ago."

"A week ago? Oh. Well," she paused, "well then, maybe this is too soon."

"What is it?"

"Alexander Jaques, I want you."

He jumped backwards at least a foot. "Mrs.- Elizabeth! What do you mean?"

"Oh, pooh! Alex, you know what I mean, and it isn't that. I love Charles, and frankly, I'm old enough to be your older sister! I want you to come with me!" She made her way across the cellar, to the ladder in the corner. "I suppose; we should get going."

Alex followed her slowly, caustiously. "Where?"

"Oh, just up town a little bit to do some work."

"What kind of work?"

"Why do you qestion me when I speak to you?"

"I think I have a right to when the gardener wakes me up in the middle of the night and drags me down to a dirty old cellar. Frankly, I should be more than a little concerned when you want to take me with you up town to do 'some work'."

For a moment, it looked like Elizabeth was going to say something, but instead, she just shrugged and climbed the ladder. After a moment of silence, she added, "I'd be worred, but when was the last time I led you into any sort of danger? Come now! We have work to do!"

And Alex followed her.

20-Mar-2010 03:18:28 - Last edited on 12-Jul-2010 15:48:37 by [#BPN2TQMFI]

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