This kind of comfort and sophisticated living was a foreign concept to Duo, as he entered the mansion to find himself surrounded by things probably worth more than him. Relena led him inside by the wrist and pulled him into the foyer.
"Our house is always so empty since we never have any company," She gave her coat to a servant waiting right by the door. "So I hope you'll stay so we can all enjoy some fresh air in this stuffy place."
When Heero came inside Duo was sure to keep a good distance between them, but he knew that the bodyguard was now suspicious. That would probably result in Heero either understanding Duo's discomfort or else make the guy more curious.
"I really don't want to impose on you or your family, and I'm not really used to this kind of lifestyle." Duo tried to back up, but Heero was right behind him to make sure no one left.
Heero stepped out of the way instead of remaining an obstacle to the guest, "We would all truly appreciate it if you at least stay for one night. As much trouble as everyone went through I do believe you at least owe us that courtesy."
Duo hated being forced to stay, but he had no other choice. Relena seemed like the kind of woman who would be hurt if he continued to refuse her invitation to stay. Not to mention she really seemed to trust Duo after telling him all about her mother's death. That wasn't the type of thing you randomly tell an acquaintance you only met two days ago.
Relena really must've thought of Duo as a friend to trust him with that personal information.
'You shouldn't be here. What you should be doing is trying to get out of Bordeaux as quickly as possible... but then again... Nobody would expect Relena Peacecraft to help out a fugitive she has no real connections with...'
"I'll stay, but if I start to be troublesome I'll leave right away." Duo was taken aback by the smile that lit up on Relena's face.
"I'm so glad you changed your mind Duo! Heero will show the rooms we have available, and you can pick whichever one you'd like. I have to go and take care of a couple of things, so we can talk later." Relena went up a large staircase directly adjacent to where they were standing.
Once again Duo was left with no choice but to follow Heero as the bodyguard led him up the stairs after Relena. Duo tried hard not to show the uneasiness he was feeling as his heart was pounding heavily in his chest.
'There's no reason for you to be this nervous, so just cut it out!'
It seemed he was unable to trick his mind into forgetting Heero was even there. Duo really hated how much the bodyguard was able to make him so vulnerable and insecure.
"You can choose from any room in this hall, but the west wing of the house is for the Peacecrafts' only." Heero instructed as he allowed Duo to get a good look at his boundaries. "You're welcome to explore this area of the house as much as you desire, but don't get lost and be late for dinner."
Duo decided to ignore the last bit of Heero's statement since it sounded like he was being lectured by the bodyguard. As he began to explore the hallway Heero had indicated to choose a room from, he discovered every single room was a bedroom. Duo had expected a lot of rooms, but to have about ten guest rooms in just one hall was overkill in his opinion.
All of the rooms were the same for the most part, but when he walked into the room that was second from the end of the hallway Duo knew it was the room he wanted. Unlike the other rooms he'd previously examined, this one had a balcony that allowed him to look out into the world beyond Bordeaux.
Relena's father had chosen to build their mansion towards the edge of the town, so Duo wasn't forced to look at the city. Now that he'd picked his room, Duo decided it was time to get a better look around the mansion.
As he left the room the young man found himself desperately wanting to bathe. Being surrounded by such an extraordinarily sanitary people and began a search for the bathroom. As he went looking through two other hallways, he was unable to find a washroom, so he asked a maid.
She seemed terrified when he walked up to her, and Duo could see it clearly by the way her slender hands were trembling.
"Listen, I can't find a washroom as you can see I need to get cleaned up. Could you point me in the right direction?" Duo tried not to be intimidating in any manner, but there was no response from the maid except a small whimper. Without thinking of how she would most likely react, Duo reached out and put a hand on the maid's shoulder.
This resulted in her suddenly screaming at the top of her lungs, and startled Duo into making him back far away from her. The maid stopped screaming as there were suddenly two large men behind her reassuring her that it was okay now that they were there.
The maid pointed an accusing finger at Duo and then told the bodyguards what she believed was the truth. "It's a burglar! He's trying to rob the Peacecrafts!"
"No, you're wrong! I'm a guest here! I'm not trying to rob anybody!" Duo attempted to explain what was going on, but the bodyguards weren't listening to anything he was saying.
As the two men came charging at Duo, he had no choice but to run away. He knew it probably wasn't the best idea since it would give the impression he was guilty of something, but he wasn't about to let himself be attacked for no reason.
He took off down the hallway where his own room was, and then went straight for it. Duo wasn't sure about how to get around the house without getting completely lost, but he did know one place that the guards probably wouldn't look. As he flung open the door, he went straight to the balcony and stood on top of the stone railing around the edge of the balcony.
Duo didn't have much of a choice but to hope he was able to grab the edge of the roof or else he would have a long drop. As he pushed off of the ledge he felt the adrenaline rush as his heart pounded, and that terrifying moment of hanging in midair seemed to last forever. But he managed to catch the edge of the roof with one hand and Duo then managed to get a grip with his other hand.
The guards were out on the balcony by then, but Duo had jumped out of their reach and pulled himself up onto the roof. Somehow he'd gotten lucky enough that the two men hadn't even seen him jump onto the roof; instead they were searching down below where even Duo wouldn't dare to jump.
'You really got lucky this time... but don't expect much more good fortune like that any time soon.'
"Yeah, yeah..." Duo murmured in reply to himself. The bodyguards disappeared a few seconds later and left Duo alone. He was careful as he crawled farther up onto the roof to where he could slip into the window of the spire extending out from the rooftop.
No longer sure of exactly where he was, Duo decided to have a look around the room.
As he began exploring the area, Duo found that this room apparently hadn't had anyone clean it for a long while. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and the only thing that had disturbed the room was Duo. As he was heading to the door he noticed something odd about the floor.
From the door there was a clear path in the dust to a rug about two feet to the left. Duo went towards the rug and was about to pull it up when he heard footsteps coming up what he assumed were stairs on the other side of the door.
Without any real reason, Duo hid behind a large piece of furniture covered by a sheet. There was the sound of a key unlocking the door and someone opening it, as Duo glanced around the corner he saw Heero.
Heero seemed to be scanning the room for traces of a person, and when he saw the open window from across the room it was obvious he knew. Duo couldn't explain why he felt his heart pounding and as much as he wanted to get up and show himself to Heero... his intuition kept telling him not to.
Something about Heero's presence was making him overly cautious and reluctant to be near the man.
"Who's in here?" Heero asked out loud as he began walking down the aisle made by the surrounding junk. Luckily he had chosen to walk the opposite direction of where Duo was hiding, and as Heero turned a corner to head towards the window Duo took his chance.
Duo pushed off into a full sprint and was out the door in record time, but he didn't know if he would be able to get away before Heero came after him. Already Duo could hear something fall over from when he pushed off of, and heard Heero yell something out the door.
'Shit... I have to get out of plain view before Heero gets out of that room and sees me.'
That's when he got an idea Duo knew he would regret trying. As he made his way out of the staircase Duo found the first room he could get into and hid in there. He wasn't sure if he'd been too loud when going into the room, but as he heard Heero's footsteps slowing as he reached the bottom of the staircase Duo's heart began to pound even faster.
He watched under the door as Heero's shadow passed by without even hesitating and resulted in Duo letting out a quiet sigh of relief. There was no telling if Heero was still nearby so Duo decided to wait for a few minutes in case the shadow passed by again.
"How will I explain myself if Heero finds me?" Duo asked himself as he sat in a chair in the dark room.
"How indeed will you explain this intrusion?"
A voice asked making Duo jump out of the chair and go for the door. But a pale hand grabbed his wrist and refused to let go of him. Duo looked at the man restraining him and now could see that he resembled Relena except for some minor details.
"You must be Milliardo Peacecraft?" Duo tried not to show his intention of escaping at the first chance but the man wasn't so easily fooled. "I heard you left France years ago."
"Then you must have heard wrong, but I have to wonder who you are and why you're all the way up here?" Milliardo refused to loosen his grip, but Duo wasn't sure about explaining the story about everyone chasing him around as a thief.
"Never mind, I'll let you go for now but you cannot tell anyone we spoke or people will know you were up here." The blonde let go Duo and made the younger man stare at Milliardo dumbly as if he couldn't believe it. "You'd best get out of here before Heero gets back or else you'll be in real trouble."
Duo rubbed his wrist as he could see it turning red from the grip Milliardo had on him, and then grabbed the doorknob. "Thanks..."
He opened the door and shut it quietly glad to be away from that man.
All of the bodyguards, including Heero, seemed to have left the area giving Duo time to let his body rest. The adrenaline rush was finally wearing off from earlier and now Duo could feel a horrible headache coming. And on top of all of that...
He was had no idea where he was.
Deciding that he would just have to find his own way back, Duo began to wander down the halls. There were several pieces of priceless art lining the walls and it reminded Duo once again how wealthy the Peacecraft family was.
Eventually after exploring the house for about thirty minutes he finally found himself back by the main staircase. Heero was down in the foyer and hadn't heard him yet, but Duo didn't want to arouse any suspicion as to where he'd been for so long.
Heero turned around abruptly from whatever he'd previously been doing to ask Duo, "Where have you been?"
"I've been looking around for a washroom the whole time, but I couldn't find anybody to ask. Could you point me in the right direction?" Duo tried to be casual about it, but his muscles were about to give out from exhaustion.
"To make sure you don't go wandering anywhere you're not supposed to, I'll show you there myself." Heero began to lead the way back up the staircase and immediately to the east wing of the house. As it turned out there was a bathroom in the hall right next to the one Duo was staying in.
Duo felt a little embarrassed he hadn't even thought to check, but tried not to let that show through. "Thanks, sorry for being an inconvenience."
He was about to leave until Heero grabbed his arm and pinned him against the wall. Already his face was getting hot and Duo couldn't believe Heero was doing this.
"Do you want me to accompany you and help you?"
Just hearing that made Duo practically lose himself, but he didn't want to indulge that desire. Instead he managed to pull loose of the bodyguard and quickly locked himself in the bathroom.
'Why is he acting that way? Before he seemed like an ordinary guy... sure I was probably the one who gave off the signal that I felt an attraction, but I didn't want something like this.'
After stripping down and drawing a hot bath, Duo started to force himself to forget about the incident. The only thing he could really do was attempt to avoid Heero as much as possible or else be around Relena all the time. Heero wouldn't dare to do something like that in front of her.
"I wish Hilde was around to see what situation I've gotten myself into now. I'm sure she would've had some type of advice for me." Duo unbraided his hair and then slipped into the bath. The steamy water helped to soothe his headache and let him meditate in a way.
As he washed away all of the accumulated dirt and sweat, it gave Duo a truly refreshing feeling he didn't feel often. Usually he was forced to bathe in freezing water and all Duo ever got was a small amount to rinse his hair.
'I should hurry up before I make myself too comfortable. Besides I think I'll take a nap before dinner and hopefully I won't get the maid who thinks I'm a burglar...'
Duo did just that, as soon as he was done bathing he carried his dirty clothes back to his room and dumped them on the floor. He looked through the drawer of a dresser and found a pair of comfortable pants to sleep in.
The bed felt absolutely amazing as well, because he'd never actually slept on anything other than a worn mattress the bed was a wonderful thing. Duo supposed that's why it didn't take him long to fall asleep, in fact it was almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
After what seemed like only a few minutes Duo was woken up by a knock on the door. Sitting up in bed Duo was almost unsure if this was reality, and almost believed he was still dreaming.
"Monsieur Maxwell?" A man's voice droned from the other side of the door. "Dinner shall be ready soon. Mademoiselle asks for your presence."
"I'll be there in a minute..." Duo told the man while yawning and then heard the man leave.
He struggled with all the blankets he'd tangled himself in, and after a couple minutes managed to get out of the bed. Duo felt rejuvenated as he stretched out his sore muscles.
'It's too bad I can't live like this everyday. Now I see why everyone wants to be rich, and how wonderful their luxuries are.'
Too lazy to change out of his sleeping outfit, Duo just grabbed a shirt out of the closet and then left for the dining room. He hoped he wouldn't get lost once again, but doubted it was possible since the ground floor couldn't have that many rooms.
Luckily Duo was right, and it didn't take him long to wander around the first floor before finding the dining room. It was decorated elegantly, as to be expected by the wealthy, and it also included a table too long to ever be completely filled up.
"Duo! There you are!" Relena smiled as she hugged Duo tightly. "You're a bit late, but we can eat now so it's alright."
Relena sat down at the table and Duo was placed in the seat beside her. Fortunately Heero was sat on the other side of the table across from him, but as dinner was being served Duo noticed two seats empty.
"So where is your father?" Duo was just trying to figure out more about Relena Peacecraft and do anything to avoid looking at Heero.
"Father travels often and right now he'd in Paris, but he should be back tomorrow. Though he'll most likely be back in a couple of more days because he always stops a lot along the road to sightsee."
The conversation ended there as all three of them began to eat the delicious food placed before them. Duo tried not to be too rude and use what little table manners he'd actually learned, but it never seemed to phase Relena or Heero in the slightest when he did something wrong.
Yet the other empty seat began to make Duo more and more curious about whom it was for. And then he understood it must be for Milliardo. Yet it appeared that he wasn't commonly seen down there eating with everyone else as nobody had even set his place at the table.
After finishing their meal, Relena took Duo into a library filled with bookshelves covering all the walls. There were several books and they ranged from many different subjects and authors, but Relena had apparently brought Duo in there to sit and talk.
"So Duo you must tell us about yourself, as much as your comfortable telling us." Relena gave of a reassuring presence and it made Duo want to talk about his past, and everything. Yet he didn't want to have Heero there hearing such personal feelings and memories, so he decided to only tell them of his general background.
"I was actually born in America with my parents, but my parents died when I was young from an illness. So after they died I just lived on the streets as an orphan until I got an offer from a man for a job. So I stowed away on a boat to France and ended up working for that man for several years until I found the job at the theater." Duo spoke to them casually, not letting on how uncomfortable he really was revealing his life.
But he continued on anyway, "I've been working at the theater for a couple of years but I was really hoping to get a different job for a while now. So I'm not all that disappointed at being kicked out of that place."
Yet then Duo remembered as the day's events really hit him. Tomorrow Relena and the whole city of Bordeaux would hear about the guy who everyone thought had murdered Hilde. And of course the caretakers of the Theater of Bordeaux would tell the police that it was him, and nobody would have any reason to doubt it either.
'Tonight I'll have to get away from this city and go somewhere that nobody would be looking for me. But how will I get away?'
"Relena it's getting late, you should go to bed to be ready for your father's arrival tomorrow." Heero helped Relena up even though you could see she wasn't ready to sleep.
"You know he probably won't be home tomorrow."
"It would just be better to be ready just in case. Besides he assured us that he would definitely be back and with a gift for you."
Relena sighed showing her doubt, but allowed Heero to escort her to the door of the library. Another guard began to follow her once outside of the library, but Heero remained behind with Duo.
As soon as the door was closed Heero wasted no time in getting to the point, "You know you won't be able to stay here for much longer. By tomorrow morning everyone will have heard about the disappearance of that woman and you'll be suspected first."
"Don't you think I've already been trying to figure out what to do?! But it's not like I have any place to go, and I don't have any way to get out of the city without being seen." Duo stood up and walked over to the large window, now basking in the moonlight to shining through.
"Fortunately for you I have a way to get you out of here, but you'll have to give me something in return."
Heero gestured for Duo to follow him as the bodyguard left the room, and not having any other choice Duo did follow. He was led outside to the back of the house where Heero had apparently arranged transportation to get him out of the city.
It may be a carriage but Duo was glad just to have something to get him out secretly.
----
Sorry for the delay in updating. I assure you the next update will be much sooner. Which brings me to my next point... There is only one more chapter to this series.
I know some of you were probably hoping for a longer series, but I already have planned out the ending. Whether you guys like it or not... that's up to you. But I do hope you've enjoyed this chapter and the series so far.
Please R & R
Shari Maxwell