Who says reviews never made a lazy author update. Its short, late and little happens, but its there all the same ;D

Chapter 4

Peter awoke while it was still dark. Rolling over to look at the clock, he wondered if he had slept through a time change more than intended. But the clock read that it was still hours too early for him to be up. If so, then what had woken him?

He heard a slight noise and sat up, looking blearily at the room without his glasses. "Good morning sir, have a nice sleep"? the loud and overly cheery voice hurt his ears, especially this early in the morning.

He felt something shoved onto his lap, and what was probably tea spilt all over the covers. He clutched franticly for his glasses, still half asleep and with no idea what was happening. "Oh deary me, I seem to have spilt your breakfast, better go have a shower and change, now shouldn't you".

Surprisingly strong hands hauled him out of bed, across the room and literally threw his into the bath room, along with a pile of clothes. Rubbing sleep from his eyes he tried to re-open the door, only to find it locked. "Hey, let me out this minute"! He banged futilely against the wall.

He could still hear her outside, apparently pretending to be deaf. "Oh no, all these sheets will have to be changed now". She was touching his sheets! He realised after the noises from outside stoped that she really wasn't going to let him out before a shower, and proceeded to do so. After he was dressed, he again tried the door, now magically unlocked.

He burst out into the room gun in hand, only to find her nowhere to be seen. On the bed was a note. Breakfast will be served at eight in the dinning room. He had the feeling that this was something more than a petty revenge against him for yesterday, but he was too hungry to care. He set off, chucking all the fresh sheets out a window on his way.

x

It was quiet when he arrived at the dining room, and no one was inside. No breakfast either, he noted with a frown. Just as he was sitting down, the door opened and in came Vivaldi, trailed by the castle council and the maid from hell. Vivaldi seemed in a particularly good mood, and smiled at him as she took a seat.

"We were terribly surprised when you sent your maid to change the meeting to here, but now we see your thinking, we can breakfast at the same time"!

Meeting? He snapped his head towards the maid, who smiled rather smugly. He glared back with the promise of imminent murder. Vivaldi turned to her own staff. "Now go and fetch us some tea, we are not going to be done any time soon".

x

Three hours later, Peter dragged himself from the room, nearly dead of hunger. They had been too busy to even think of breakfast, and he couldn't live off tea. He caught sight of a faceless maid at the end of the hall, and was about to get her to fetch breakfast (or shoot her out of frustration), when he recognised the same smug smile.

"You"! He layed his ears flat against his head, pulling out his clock. Vivaldi could lock him up for as long as she liked, he just had to get rid of this girl. Just as he was lining the gun up with her head, she pulled something from behind her back. A tray. A tray filled with food.

Glaring at her he considered which would give him more satisfaction. Death or Food. His stomach decided for him, emitting a loud rumble. He stalked forward and grabbed the tray from her grasp, going to sit over on a bench. She followed, and seated herself lightly beside him, a respectful distance away. For this he gave her a sharp look, but said nothing.

After consuming all of the food, he placed the tray at her feet and stood. "You can't win in this game you know" he looked down at her.

"Well, I have no choice but to try" she gave him a small and rather sad smile. Turning away to look out a window she continued. "Do you think I would be doing this if I had a choice"? He hadn't been spoken to like this for what felt like an age, not since…well, not since better times.

He walked up next to her, inspecting the view. It looked out on a desolate courtyard, the only bad scenery the castle had. He glanced down at the maid again, his mind spinning.

"Its you"! She looked up at his sudden comment. "From that time with the curtains" he watched the colour drain from her face. "You-you mean you remember that"?

"Yes, I remember things involving the…foreigner clearly". "And your so short, who could not notice" he added as an after thought. She immediately fired up, turning sharply towards him. "I am not short, you roll-holders just aren't used to seeing people who aren't as freakily tall as yourselves"!

"Are you calling me a freak"? Her only response was to stick out her tongue, before turning to check the timetable. "You have another appointment in… oh no, five minutes"! Before he had a chance to protest she grabbed his hand and dragged him off at a hundred miles an hour towards the gardens.

This girl was amusing, or at least a break from routine. Ever since he had lost Alice, his days had been nothing but mindless flash cards of hallways and dead servants. Before her, he had been content with solitude. But love changed people. Now she was gone, and with no one to replace her he was left with a hole in his heart. But maybe this one could provide him with some distraction, for a while at least. Although with all these meetings, he wasn't quite sure it was worth it.

x

Over the week they both settled into a sort of routine. Each day he would wake up, get dressed, and be served breakfast by her. Scattered throughout the day would be a few meetings or other engagements, but besides that he was free to do as he pleased, it seemed that the castle staff weren't going to push their luck.

Although without her usual duties, this free time left Marianne with nothing to do but hover over Peter's shoulder, a tendency that annoyed the rabbit to no end. At the moment both servant and master were in the library, the minutes ticking by.

Peter's ear twitched in annoyance, ever since he had started keeping his commitments, he hadn't had a chance to kill anyone, at all. His nerves were tightly strung, and if he didn't get blood anytime soon…He looked over at the maid, cross legged in a chair by the door. Well her job was going to get a lot more challenging.

"Maid" he snapped. Jumping to her feet with a start, she stared wide eyed in his direction. "Go make yourself useful and request some more staff from the clock master" That should take care of her for a few hours.

"Wait, you mean go…outside the castle"?

"Yes" he said, a hint of annoyance colouring his voice.

"As in… have to go among other territories"? He realised that this did look like just another way to rid himself of her. "It's an order" he said with a smirk. If all went well this might just work to his advantage, I mean he was amused by her, but it was going to take a lot of amusement to outweigh all the commitments.

With a gulp, Marianne headed out the door, towards the palace maze. Who knows, maybe it would be alright. She might even make friends. With the optimism of the chronically stubborn, she set off into Wonderland.

Next chapter I believe we have other characters *gulp*. A nightmare to the character-interoperatingly-challenged. And I really need to stop with the made up words. Also this might be a bit disappointing to some, as I kind of lined it up for Peter-torment, and all he did was get hungry. Yes I suck.