Prompt: After Nevery, Conn, and Benet arrive at Heartsease. Nevery wonders where he has seen Conn before.
Book #: 1
Nevery.
I watched from upstairs as the boy left one side of the house and entered on the other side. Looking for something to steal, I couldn't blame him if he did. No matter, Benet could take care of him if he got into trouble. He was still young, and had no doubt heard the stories about Heartsease. I couldn't blame him for wanting to explore to see if any of the rumors were true.
"Sir? There's a box with your old books in it. Whatcha want me to do 'bout it?" Benet stood by the door arms folded. I hadn't seen him since I had been exiled, and few people had addressed me like he had since then.
"Where did they leave it?"
"Your father's study." The one place Willa wouldn't have sent her guards. My anger with her cooled down slightly at the thought.
"We will go through it later."
"Something bothering you Sir?"
"Nothing Benet. You may go." I waited to hear him leave but there was nothing. He hadn't changed as much as I thought he would have. "You're as stubborn as you ever were. Few Masters would put up with this disregard for authority."
"Not many servants know their Master well enough to tell when he's lying." Even though enough time had passed, I wasn't surprised that Benet was as observant as he was the first day I took him on. Back then —despite my affinity for magic— I wouldn't have made it home with just a few bruises if Benet hadn't stepped in. His ability to sense a dangerous situation before it could unfold made him useful then.
"I feel like I've seen the boy somewhere before. Doesn't he look like someone we've seen before?"
"He looks like a gutter boy." No, that was besides the point. I knew that I had never seen him personally before, that was impossible. But his face, those eyes, I had seen them before.
"Whatever happened to that chimney swift that used to come here, Benet? He couldn't have been older than eighteen when I was exiled." His name escaped me as I tried to remember him. My parents had employed him when he was young. Even when he started to come around with a boy of his own, I had kept him. Before my exile, we had had dinner together a few times; but I had done it more for the sake of having company than to offer kindness.
"Don't know. I saw him around the Twilight with some girl a few times, but he didn't live in the Twilight."
"Willa never called him in for questioning?"
"Don't think so Sir. They didn't say a word when they took me in." His face appeared in my mind and my thoughts drifted to those eyes. They had been blue just like the boy's and something about that grin was more familiar than I cared to admit. "Why did you wanna know?"
"Do you think he ever settled down?"
"Maybe." Maybe. The more I thought about it, the more it began to make sense. Or at least, I would believe it if someone told me that the two of them could be related. But for the boy to be out on his own, that mean that even if the two were father and son, there would be no way of knowing for sure.
"Is there anything else I can do for your, Sir?"
"Go make sure the boy isn't getting himself into more trouble than he's worth."