Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable HP terms, characters, or locations. They are the sole possessions of JKR. The goddess of the Earth.
Rating: I'm keeping it PG-13 for now still.
Just a note: When I titled the story, for some reason, I was thinking "Lament" meant something else. Then I realized, too late, that it did indeed mean something entirely different. So please be rest assured, I have no intentions of killing Eira or Lucius at any point in this story. Please forgive my mess-up with the title.
CHAPTER 2
Lucius awoke the next morning to a heavenly smell. Sausages, eggs, potatoes, and onion; there also seemed to be the delicious smell of fresh baking bread. He cleaned himself and went downstairs to the dining room, where on the table, lay a spread of fruits, cheeses, and fresh squeezed orange juice. He could hear humming coming from the kitchen, no doubt the silly girl consorting with various fauna again. He sat down and picked up the issue of The Daily Prophet. While reading, he barely noticed Eira set the plate of food in front of him. He set the paper down and inhaled the scent, and found it most pleasing. Eira took her place near the corner and waited in case he needed anything. Lucius ate silently, though while not showing it, enjoying every bite.
When he waved the plates away, he finished his juice, and left the table with nary a word in Eira's direction. The woman just picked everything up, cleaned, and went onto scrub the floors downstairs. It was back-breaking work, the floors were positively filthy. Lucius had taken his usual spot by the hearth, it wasn't lit but Eira could not imagine stopping to light a simple fire. Lucius grumbled, mentioned something about taking a horse-ride, and walked out the door. Eira took this opportunity to clean out the hearth.
When the inside was done, Eira went outside to the gardens. They were poorly tended, so she went to work. She used a spell to make the rakes and hoes work the grass and dirt while she pulled endless weeds up. Lucius pulled his horse up to the small cliff overlooking the cottage and watched the woman work in the gardens. She fell down due to her cumbersome dress, got up and continued on, this brought a smile to Lucius. He clicked the horse onward and broke into a canter over the green fields. Eira had seen the blonde man on his horse, up the hillside. It made her nervous, him watching her, she preferred the silent brooder.
The weeds could not pulled up easily, which was a good sign. It meant that the soil was well enough for plants to thrive. There was a healthy amount of earth worms as well. Eira smiled and stretched her back, the garden would be beautiful next spring. She looked at her hands and dress, she was an absolute mess, this needed to be remedied before lunch. She went back into the house, where she showered and put on a clean dress. She began lunch as she heard the soft snorting of Lucius's horse, he had come back from his ride.
When Lunch was ready, Lucius sat at the table silently as Eira served the stuffed herbed chicken, redskin potatoes, and baby carrots covered in cinnamon glaze. He ate quietly as Eira stood in the corner, waved the table cleared and went to his chair. And for the first time that day, he spoke to her.
"Light the fire and fetch me a brandy." his voice was smooth as silk, and dripped with masculine prowess. Yet, he hadn't uttered one provocative comment, this was his greatest talent. He made the most mundane things sound exquisite. Eira walked towards the hearth slowly and began putting fresh logs into it. She raised her wand.
"Incendio" as a small poof of fire engulfed the logs, the warm heat spilling out. Eira stood and walked to the cabinet with the liquor., pulled out a snifter, and poured brandy into the glass. She walked over and held the snifter our towards Lucius. He took the glass without speaking, his ring finger gently grazed Eira's index finger, sending a small shiver through the girl. She turned and walked back into the kitchen to begin cleaning the mess from lunch. She then went on to the upstairs to clean. Dinner went on as the same as each meal, Eira cleaned thoroughly afterwards, Lucius in his study, probably doing something studious. Eira took a shower and put on her night shirt, combed her short brown hair, and laid back against a pillow to read. She heard a soft knock at her door.
"Yes?" she replied, the door creaked open, and Lucius stood there, his eyes diverted from the girl's direction. Eira brought the blanket up a bit further on her lap.
Lucius cleared his throat." Do not worry about any meals tomorrow for me, I will be out all day."
Eira looked at the man thoughtfully. "Alright sir." Lucius then looked at her face, illuminated by the oil-lamp light. She was not a classic beauty but she was pleasant. Full lips and big eyes, the skin fair. The hair was a bit short but it set off her eyes nicely. She was different then other witches. Most were either eccentric or haughty looking. Narcissa had been tall, pale, arrogant, a true aristocrat. Her icy eyes that could see through one's soul and know in an instant if you were worthy. She had been Lucius's true match from the beginning, killing her was his greatest tragedy. She stepped in front of Draco when Lucius yelled the killing curse, taking the woman and her son down at once. Narcissa was many things, a loving mother was one of them, that, had destroyed her. Lucius bit his lower lip, why did this simple mud-blood witch raise these memories in him? Lucius clicked Eira's door shut without another word, his footsteps padding away until heard no more. Eira sighed.
"Well, at least I won't be waiting hand and foot for Mr. Broody tomorrow." That was a relaxing thought. She could also clean for the entire first half of the day, without interruption, leaving the second half for herself. It was like having a day off, almost. She smiled to herself , set her book down, and turned the lamp off.
The morning was beautiful, this was probably exaggerated by the fact that Eira's cold employer was missing that day. Eira had opened all the windows in the house to allow airing out. The floors were finally rid of the gritty filth, and the stale smell was leaving, more as the day progressed. Eira showered and put on a favorite dress. It was a light blue dress, with an empire-waist, puffed short sleeves, and a square neckline. It was a dress from Jane Austen's era, and it made Eira feel lovely. The people of this non-muggle world did not wear popular muggle styles. They preferred the fashions of before the twentieth century, perhaps even into the early teens of the twentieth but nothing beyond. It was a hard adjustment for Eira at first. To go from comfortable and liberating woman's muggle fashions to the cumbersome hoop skirts, bustles, whale-bone corsets, and whatever devices of torture women endured before fighting for their sexual liberation. Teen witches and many other witches, including Eira, still wore modern bras, underwear, and stockings. These garments managed to fit with the traditional fashions just fine.
Eira spent her day sitting out in the gardens, writing, forever looking like Snow White with the squirrel and birds hoping around her. There was a nice wind that harassed Eira as she tried to write on her parchments, a letter to her parents. They worried about her like any normal parents, they needed reassurance occasionally, that she was indeed alright on her own. They put money into Gringot's for her once a month, emergency money, they called it. They would be pleased that Eira found a job, especially with room and board. She omitted the name of her boss, in fear, that her parents would panic and demand that she return to the safety of the muggle world. As she was writing, a nice wind came by and tore the parchments from her hands, making them fly until they landed, naturally, in the brook. Eira pouted.
"Oh bugs! " she stood up and walked down to the brook. "Perfect, perfect, perfect!" she whined in her cynical and sarcastic tone. Eira continued mumbling as she used all sorts of objects to bring the parchments close to her. She kicked off her shoes and gathered her dress up above her knees, and proceeded to wade into the brook. "This is just bloody fantastic." Her feet hit the bottom of the brook and sunk in slightly. She walked, rather like she was on stilts, towards her parchment. It kept floating just out of her reach. "It mocks me." she grumbled. Her foot hit a slippery rock and SPLASH! Eira's legs went above her head as she crashed down into the water on her back. Choking in water as it spilled in on her, she attempted to sit up. Once this feat was accomplished, she sat gingerly in the water, her parchment now floating within her grasp. Eira snatched it up and shook her head. She tried to stand but was on a patch of more slippery rocks, making her attempts futile at best. She had to crawl from the brook and pull herself up onto the solid ground and soft grass.
Eira, sopping wet and rather sore, walked back to the cottage. The flung open the door and stop suddenly, staring at her with a raised eyebrow, was Lucius.
"You're back." she hadn't meant to sound disappointed but it sounded that way. Lucius kept his eyebrow raised.
"I was finished with business early, what exactly is going on?" he as quizzically.
"I was swimming." Eira retorted sarcastically. When she saw that Lucius was not humored by her sass, she changed her reply. "I fell into the brook." Her cheeks burned red. "retrieving my letter."
A coy look of humor crossed the man's handsome face. "My… my… my, dear girl. Why didn't you just levitate the letter from the water?" That was an excellent question. Eira had been living amongst the muggles for so long that she had forgotten sometimes, the little tricks she could do. She could use her magic to tend a garden but resorted to muggle ways with other things.
"Well…I…er…well, I guess I wasn't thinking smartly at the time." Was all she could say for herself. The man was quite entertained by her silliness. "I will go get changed and begin your dinner. "
Lucius nodded. "Good. And Eira." Lucius asked and the girl turned back. "Try not drowning in the kitchen sink." He walked up to his bedroom to change for dinner. Eira sniffed at the man, rolled her eyes, and huffed to the kitchen.
"I fell into a brook! I won't drown in the damned sink." Eira slipped out of her wet dress. "Like I'm some kind of idiot. Bah! That man!"
She would rewrite her letter that evening, in the dry safety of her bedroom. Dinner progressed as usual, except that there was an air of light-heartedness. Lucius would throw a smirk in Eira's direction occasionally. He'd had never met someone like her, someone who'd actually fall into a brook to retrieve something that fell into it. He wondered what other moments this young woman would offer, she fell a lot. Twice already, in the time she'd been here. She also sassed him, something that Lucius Malfoy rarely heard, insolence. He enjoyed the red that flared in her cheeks when she was embarrassed or angry. Perhaps he could find more reasons to cause her cheeks to flush.