Will woke to the feeling of his entire body being confined to a tight spot. He thought it was a dream again, but when he looked up he saw Tessa spreading a blanket over him and tucking it in.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"I'm fixing your bed," simply said Tessa. "When I woke up this morning, I saw that your sheets were spread everywhere. And besides, you were shivering, so I thought I could help a little bit and just tuck the sheets in."
"Well, you didn't have to do that. I don't like being touched," Will said rudely.
"I'm sorry for that," Tessa said, not looking sorry at all. "Just thought I could help a little bit, but of course you are not a tad bit grateful this morning."
Will sighed in annoyance. "What time is it?"
"It's seven in the morning."
"Who in the name of the Angel wakes up at seven in the morning?" Will asked, alarmed. He never woke up past nine back at his castle.
"Most people here in Blackfriars," said Tessa, eying Will suspiciously. "Didn't you say that you used to work as a servant for the Herondales? You should have been used to getting up early to do whatever you did for His Royal Highness." There was slight sarcasm in her voice.
Will decided to ignore this and he let his eyes wandered to the floor, where a bunch of white sheets were spread narrowly as if someone had been lying down there. "Have you been sleeping there?" he asked, pointing to the sheets.
"Yes," Tessa said, avoiding his eye contact, "since someone else is using my bed."
"Goodness, is this your bed?" Will said in mock interest.
Now it was Tessa's turn to roll her eyes, not believing his fake caring tone. Giving up on his sheets, she went over to the table on the far side of the room to a small wooden table and picked up a basket. "Here have a roll," she said reaching into the basket and pulling out a perfectly rounded bread roll. She handed it to Will, who took it, "I baked them fresh this morning."
Will took a bite of the roll. It sure was delicious; even better than ones he had back at the Institute. The Institute was known for its fine dining, but Will was proved wrong by this simple girl's cooking. However, Will decided a different way to show his opinion. He threw the roll at Tessa, hitting her right in the face and dropping unceremoniously on the ground.
"Ouch!" Tessa flinched back, rubbing her temple.
"It's disgusting," Will said, turning away from her. He did not want to be a complete ass like this, but he had to keep his walls up. This girl was no Jem and Will had yet to learn to trust her.
"Yeah, well get used to it. You're going to be eating these almost everyday," she said, walking towards the door, "I don't know what the Herondales served the servants back at the castle, but people here in Blackfriars make do with simple, bland foods. And we are probably happier than most others." Will felt offended by this, but knew that Tessa was most likely right about this. He was not very happy in the Institute, and neither were most of the other residents. He decided to keep quiet about this.
Tessa began to step out of his room, when Will said, "where do you think you're going?"
"To work," she said, and continued before he could interrupt, "I work at the local inn here. Someone has to be able to pay for the food we have to eat. And now I have three mouths to feed instead of two." She sounded tired, as if talking to him had drained the energy out of her. "You could at least be grateful for all that I've done for you," she added, but before Will could reply, Tessa and shut the door.
"So I heard that there's a new boy in town and he's staying with you," said Tessa's friend Sophie Collins, giving Tessa a slightly teasing look.
"Oh shut up Sophie," Tessa said, laughing her off, "I found him the woods and he was badly injured, so I decided it was best if I could tend to him."
"Couldn't you just ask Magnus Bane or someone?" Sophie asked. That was true. Magnus Bane worked at the apothecary down the road and had loads of knowledge about all different sorts of medicines, herbs, and tonics. Tessa could swear that he practiced some hidden magic, although she would not dare speak of it. Magic was often frowned upon in the kingdom.
"I could handle it myself," Tessa said defiantly, before reaching up to lower a chair and push it into the table.
Tessa and her friend Sophie worked at the inn ran by the Branwell couple, Charlotte and Henry. It was an old inn and had been run by generations of Branwell for the past few hundred years. There were twenty rooms in the inn, and at any given time they were almost completely filled. The Sensor was one of the most thriving businesses in Blackfriars. Travellers who often passed through Blackfriars stopped by the inn, called The Sensor.
Why it was called that, Tessa had no idea. It was the Royal Oak before Henry Branwell changed it to the current name. Henry was a little bit eccentric, but Tessa still adored him. And she looked up at Charlotte. Charlotte was small for her age, but had a demeanor of a wise old woman and Tessa admired Charlotte for her strength and resilience. In a way, Henry and Charlotte were more of Tessa's parents than her aunt and her brother. Although, her Aunt Harriet was dead, and Tessa's parents had died a long time back.
Tessa had been working at The Sensor for the past year or so. Her brother was utterly useless, often going to pubs around town and getting so drunk that he could barely make it home. Someone had to provide for her and her cousin Nathaniel, or Nate as she called him. So once Aunt Harriet had died, Tessa approached Charlotte if she could work at The Sensor. In other towns, woman often found it hard to acquire a good job, but Blackfriars was different from most places. They were much more progressive and had a better sense of community.
Charlotte had happily handed a job to Tessa. Although it didn't pay the best, it was still enough to scrape by a living for her and her cousin. Tessa had no idea how Nate had any money to pay for alcoholic beverages since he hadn't worked a single day in his life, but she could care less. She had a bigger problem now: William Carstairs.
"What's he like?" Sophie asked Tessa, obviously about Will. They were pulling down chairs and pushing it into the table, as they did every morning before the weary travellers began to trickle into the inn.
"How did you know that there was someone staying at my place?" Tessa said to her friend, trying to avoid the question. Tessa was partly curious, although news did spread like wildfire in Blackfriars. It was a small village after all.
"I heard it from Thomas who heard it from a very drunk Nate the other night at the pub the other night. Nate didn't sound very happy at all," Sophie said, chuckling. Tessa was not surprised; Nate would go around and complain to everyone about how there was a stranger at his house, though he wasn't the one who was even taking care of Will. He just expected Tessa to do all the work, as usual. Tessa had brought this on herself and could not anticipate Nate to help in any way.
"You haven't answered my question, Tessa," Sophie gave Tessa a stern look. They had finished setting up the tables and had opened the door to allow customers to come in. It was nearly eight in the morning.
"Huh?" Tessa said unintelligently, snapping back to reality.
"Tessa, you need to stop daydreaming. I know that look when I see it. I asked what is the new boy is like."
"Well," Tessa started, but stopped to think about the question. What did she think of Will? When she had first saw him, she thought he was the most handsome boy she had ever laid eyes on. He was slightly taller than her, which threw her off. Tessa was very tall for her age and was used to looking down at most boys. However, this boy was tall. And on top of that, he had messy black hair, unusually dark blue eyes, angular features, and full lips. She could hardly even believe that he was a servant for the despicable Herondales, with looks like that. She could even swear that Will was a prince with just one glance at him. And that arrogant and irritating attitude of his would make this even more credible. Though, she had never seen a prince before, nevertheless anyone in the royal family. Nobody knew how anyone in the Herondale family looked like, since they never left their castle, the Institute.
So did she like this mysterious Will Carstairs?
"I hate him," Tessa told Sophie, "he's annoying, arrogant, lazy, and I just can't stand him. At all."
"It sounds like you like him," Sophie threw Tessa a wink.
"No I don't!" Tessa said, shaking her head vigorously. This much was true, even if her friend didn't believe her. Before Sophie could reply, they heard footsteps coming from above and looked up.
"Good morning Tessa!" Tessa looked up to see Charlotte coming down the stairs with a cheery expression, Henry right behind her. "I heard that someone is staying with you."
"Does everyone know?" Tessa said, exasperated.
"I may have told them," Sophie said with a shy look. "If you don't mind," she added quickly.
"Of course not," Tessa brushed it off.
"How is he recovering? Does he need any help?" Henry asked in a concerned tone.
"He's fine. And no thank you, Henry. I'm doing just right by myself." As much as she liked Henry, he was an aspiring inventor, but his creations often failed. Even if Tessa disliked Will, she wouldn't risk his life with Henry's inventions.
"Very well," said Henry with a smile. He was always a happy person, no matter what happened to him.
Tessa continued through the rest of the day, serving food to hungry travellers, wiping down tables, and showing people to their rooms. These were her usual duties alongside Sophie whenever she worked, which was every day of the week, including the weekend. At around noon, one of the peak times at The Sensor, Tessa had been cleaning the table when she heard something that piqued her interest.
"Have you heard the news?" said one of the travellers, who had sat down at a booth for a hearty lunch.
"What news?" said another traveller. Tessa had observed that travellers were quite the social butterflies and sat with each other to spark up any conversation.
"William Herondale is to be married soon! It's the biggest news in the kingdom," the first man sounded quite excited by this. Tessa groaned quietly to herself. If William Herondale was going to be married, that meant that Edmund Herondale's reign was almost complete. And if the stories were true about how awful William was, Tessa could only guess how much worse the kingdom would become with his rule. If William's bride to be was decent, maybe the kingdom could still thrive. Tessa could only hope.
"That is big news indeed! And to whom is he going to be married to?" inquired the second man.
"Jessamine Lovelace. A perfect match!" An imperfect match actually. Or so Tessa believed. Jessamine Lovelace was from the neighbouring kingdom of Lyn and was detested there. Tessa had heard stories about how snobbish and insane she was all at once from travellers from Lyn. This marriage would be even worse for the kingdom. With Jessamine Lovelace and William Herondale running Idris, everything was bound to go straight to hell. If only Tessa could find a way to stop it, but she knew she never could. She was just a simple commoner and had no use for the royal family. They would never listen to people like Tessa.
"Tessa, could you come over here please?" Tessa looked up from the table she was working on to see Charlotte waving her over from behind the counter where travellers checked themselves into the inn. Tessa dropped her pail and cloth and sauntered over to Charlotte.
"What is it Charlotte?" Tessa asked, not unkindly.
"I was wondering if we could enlist that boy who's staying at your place to do some work here at the inn. I could use an extra hand."
"I could try and ask him," Tessa said, more to please Charlotte. She knew it would be difficult to get Will's lazy ass up and moving, but Charlotte was right; it was difficult running this place with only Henry, Charlotte, Tessa, and Sophie. Any extra help would be much obliged. "He was a servant after all."
"A servant? Where?" Charlotte's large brown eyes widened even more.
"Apparently at the Herondale castle," said Tessa, "his name is William Carstairs."
"Is that so? That's… interesting."
"Why do you say that Charlotte?"
"We often don't see people that come from that far and stay here for a while. He must have been given one hell of a time to even try and escape that awful place." Charlotte shuddered as if thinking about it bothered her. "So you'll ask him for me?"
"Of course Charlotte," Tessa said, forcing a smile. Charlotte had done so much for Tessa, so this was the least she could do for the older lady. Tessa was now dreading about heading back home. She needed to prepare herself to face the wrath of William Carstairs.
For those of you wondering if this is a Wessa story, it is! Just be patient... the Wessa will come :)
Thanks for the reviews, favourites, and follows! You guys are the best :D
Could I get four more reviews for the next chapter? :)
