AN: In this chapter we see more of The Burke's house than in the last one. The idea of the Burke's house is based off of more than one house. It is based on four main houses. My grandparents old house (The room with the glass chess set and the carpet stairs) the house I grew up in (Unlike the Burkes my family was never rich but we did have a rather nice house) the grandparents house from "Gilmore girls" (dinner room) and the house from the disney LWW. (Pretty much everyting else).
Peter knew something was different or even special about this day. But he wasn't sure what. In was actually he's second birthday. But as he had no one to tell him this he was completely unaware of that fact.
He wanted Gwen to come and see him like she did nearly every day. But she didn't. He wasn't too worried about her because he'd heard something about 'the head maid visiting her family' from one of the younger maids a few days ago. He didn't know much about visiting but he did know it meant people didn't come to see him because they weren't around to do so. Often, he wondered where people went when they were visiting and why.
Because Peter was expecting one of the maids he knew, he was more than a little surprised to see a woman he didn't know come into the nursery.
She had hair like Elise's but wasn't half as beautiful in the face. She might have been if not for a rather absurdly large nose. Peter decided he liked the lady and her nose even if neither of them were all that nice to look at.
The lady didn't seem to have a real name, at least not one she was going to tell Peter, she called herself 'Auntie' and asked him strange questions like if he enjoyed the nursery or if there was any sort of treat he liked best.
Later one of the maids that cleaned the room even three weekends. (Peter didn't know her name. for a while he'd thought her name was 'Check her pockets before she leaves' because his mother said that constantly when she was in the room.) came in and said," Is it true?" To Auntie.
Auntie smiled and nodded.
The maid looked at her belly. "You can't tell yet."
"I know..." Auntie laughed. "But that can't last long. I'll probably look like a hippo soon."
"What are you going to call it?" the maid asked.
"I don't know, my husband wants me to name it Jane if it's a girl but I don't care much for that name. I was thinking of something more infesting like, Diana. If it's a boy, we're going to call him William after great grandpa William." Auntie explained.
"Which do you hope it'll be a boy or a girl?" the maid wanted to know.
"A boy." Auntie said firmly. "I'll love her just as much if she's a girl but it would be lovely to have a boy. Then we'd know what to call him and Peter here would have someone to play with. I feel just awful for him up here all the time by himself. I can't imagine what Elise was thinking..."
"Oh, he's not up here all the time." The maid said. "Gwen makes sure he goes outside a little bit every day for some sunlight and exercise and he has too other nurseries to play it that'll keep him from getting bored. He's plenty well off."
"I still say it's more of a jail than a home." Auntie looked angry and Peter wondered why. "But that's not for me to say, I was out of line." Her face softened and Peter wondered if he'd imagined her anger. "But where is Gwen today?"
"I heard she was visiting her sick sister." The maid told her.
"May-belle's been dying for thirty years, I think she's perfectly healthy." Auntie grumped. "She's just desperate for attention."
"She is ninety-five." The maid reminded her.
"And she's no less sour-faced than when she was twenty-five." Auntie half-joked.
Then with a quick goodbye, Auntie and the maid left. Peter was by himself again. He yawned and decided on a nap. He had a frightening dream that a monster with four heads was chasing him around the yard. He woke up crying. No one came. Would mother come if he cried louder? He cried louder.
The door opened.
Peter hoped it was mother. But the woman was ten pounds heavier and a great deal too ugly to be mother. It was another maid, this one was named Lessie.
"Air's 'um?" Peter asked rather crossly. That was his way of saying "Where's Mum?"
"Your Mum isn't home dear." Lessie told him. "Are you quite alright?'
Peter pouted and crossed his arms. "No."
"Good." Lessie wasn't listening to him. "I'll come back and check on you in an hour."
Early that evening, Peter could hear strange noises coming from downstairs. It sounded like people were moving things around the house.
"Not there, put that in the corner." He heard his mother's voice say.
Mum! Thought Peter happily. She was back. He crawled over to the door and pushed on the wood (He couldn't reach the knob yet) until it opened. If it had been locked it wouldn't have stood a chance but Lessie was forgetful and ever locked doors behind her.
Crawling down the carpeted stairs wasn't as easy as it had seemed. Peter was worried he might fall down them. At least they're soft, he thought. He reached one of the main living rooms and noticed with displeasure that he was actually further away from the noise than before. He'd taken a wrong turn on the stairs. Now all he could see was a white couch and a table with a glass chess set on it. He was however quite close to the kitchen and could smell something wonderfully coming from it. Someone was cooking.
Peter's stomach growled. Lessie had forgotten to give him lunch that day and he was very hungry. Gwen never forgets to feed me, Peter thought bitterly, why should Lessie? and why didn't Mum make sure she did? No matter, he'd crawl into the large kitchen and get something to eat from there.
"Ahhhh!" the cook screamed when he saw a little blond kid looking up at him blinking his blue eyes and looking annoyed. "Who or what are you?"
"Peter." Peter pointed to himself proudly. His stomach growled.
The cook handed him a piece of cheese. "Here."
Peter ate the cheese and then continued to look up at the cook.
"What do you want now?" The cook asked sounding bitter. "Some one get this kid out of here!"
"What kid?" a maid came in.
"That-" The cook point to where Peter had been mere seconds ago. "Hey, where'd he go?"
Peter had already crawled out of the kitchen and into a library with French doors. The door was all red with white plaster paintings of ladies with big hair and huge dresses. There was a lamp with a little porcelain humming bird for the on-off switch. There weren't as many books as you would expect (It was actually the servant's library they weren't allowed to use the big one that Jacob used) only a few volumes of religious newspapers and a book or two on cross-stitching. There were no children's books for none of the servants had children. Peter noticed a door with a key in it on the side of the room. It was open a crack. He crawled through it and into a cold dusty room with pink wooden stairs and a long shinny brown railing.
He decided he would climb the stairs. It led to a pink floor of the same sort as the stairs and a while door with a glass knob. The door was locked. but right across from it were more stairs. These stairs were harder to climb because they were covered with old junk that no one used anymore.
If Peter were a very little bit older, he might have wondered who on earth had ever owned such odd things. There was a play set of a fair that was cracked down the middle, broken glass flowers, broken glass boxes, broken china dolls, broken piles of wood, purple bins of old toys (That had once belonged to Jacob when he was a child).
If he'd decided to climb those stairs he would have surely been cut by all the broken glass and bled to death but he didn't like the looks of a certain clown-doll with a missing eye that was on top of the stairs and figured he wanted to get away from it, not closer to it.
So, Peter knocked on the door until a butler opened it. "Good heavens!" He exclaimed.
Peter thought the man looked funny. "Tood levens!" He repeated smiling up at the funny butler.
"How did you get in there?" The man picked him up as though he was a small puppy rather than a little boy and set him down in the room which was yet another living room. Peter crawled away again and headed down another set of stairs before the butler could catch him. This time he passed a window and noticed how dark it was getting. It was almost pitch black out. but he forgot this when he realized he was getting at last, closer to the noise. He also heard his mother's laugh.
Soon he was in a big room with lots of people in it. He didn't know any of them. It was a party but Peter who knew nothing of parties wondered, why are all these people in my house?
He crawled under the table and soon was surrounded by feet. Lots and lots of moving chairs and feet. Dinner was about to start. After a while, he fell asleep.
One of Jacob's friends felt something on his feet. "Do you have a dog?" He asked.
"No, Elise hates dog." Jacob said as he put a forkful of food into his mouth.
"Then what's sleeping on my feet?" Demanded his friend.
They looked down and saw Peter under there.
"Who's that?" Jacob asked.
"That's our son." Elise rolled her eyes. "I'm going to kill those maids. Why is he here?"
"Yes, why is Paul here?" Jacob asked.
"Peter." Elise told him.
"Like it matters." Jacob called for one of the maids to take the child out of the room.
AN: That's all for now. Please review.
