Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters in it.
I shrieked, jumping backwards to avoid him. His eye-brows rose and he was obviously wondering about my reaction. His father and my father had been allies along with close friends, so Jacob was one of the few people I had liked that my father wanted me to "get to know". Naturally, before he had turned insane, he had deemed Jacob and me the perfect couple. I knew he thought about arranging a marriage between the two of us at times.
"Hello," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And who might you be?" he asked.
"M-Mimi," I stuttered out. "My name is Mimi."
"Mimi, hm?" he asked. "Well, Mimi, you look rather... familiar." He chuckled. "Did you ever work for me, or have you ever lived in a town near one of my castles? That would explain why you are so familiar looking." I considered lying to him and saying yes, to get myself out of this situation, but lying may cause another one if I was caught in the act of it.
"No, my lord," I confessed.
"Oh." He seemed to be at a loss for words now.
"If you'll excuse me," I muttered, turning away from him to refill the bucket. I placed it back in the well, allowing it to scoop up water before dragging it back up by the rope. I could feel Jacob standing behind me, his gaze burning into my back.
I turned around to face him, the bucket in my hand, attempting a smile.
"Let me get that," he said, snatching the bucket from my hands. I opened my mouth to protest but shut it, deciding it would be best not to question a man of higher status. That would most likely make him mad, and that could possibly result in me getting beaten. Although I couldn't really imagine Jake ever ordering for someone to be beaten; he was, generally, a friendly guy.
"Thank you," I muttered. He laughed.
"Just lead the way!"
I started walking ahead of him, but he quickened his pace so we were practically side by side. I kept glancing at him, trying to distant myself from him without it being obvious. He was just staring at me has if he were captivated – or, unfortunately, trying to remember where he had seen me before.
"So are you excited with King James's arrival?" he asked. "I mean he brought his men and stuff, so now that bloodsucker can't read minds and the other one can't tell the future. I think that's great, personally, but I don't know about you. Are you happy with his arrival?" Jacob asked me, trying to make small talk.
I said nothing, just shot him a frantic look and then looked away. Were these people all foolish, or were the Cullen's actually vampires? If so, everybody that works here must be suicidal. Then again, they didn't feed off of humans, so it'd most likely be safer here than anyone else. No human eating vampires could get inside; I had heard that before in the fairytales about them.
That was only if they actually were vampires, of course. Which they weren't.
"Well, aren't you at least happy with my arrival?" Jacob teased when he received no response. He stopped walking so I did as well as common courtesy taught me to do. I could lie and say yes, or I could stick to the truth and say 'no I was not happy he was here because this caused more complications'. There was a chance he'd recognize me. But, the truth was cruel, so I decided to just stick with the lie.
"I'm very happy, my lord," I said dryly. Jacob laughed, but it appeared like he was forcing it.
"You're very pretty," Jacob noted out of the blue. I nearly groaned. It seemed like everyone thought that, and yet I felt anything but pretty. I was dirty, hadn't had a nice, long bath in quite some time, my hair was all stuffed up and under the wig and I sweat covered me from the kitchen. Oh, and I had stains on my plain dress from food. Yes, I bet I looked like an absolute angel.
"Thank you," I muttered, forgetting all formalities.
"Do you know who my role model is?" Jacob asked. I raised my eye-brow.
"No, my lord. Would you like to tell me?" I hoped that was proper enough, but Jacob just waved my words away.
"None of that 'my lord' stuff. Just Jake." He flashed me a grin. "And my role model is King Charlie." I grimaced at that, memories surfacing back at top speed. I pushed them back, focusing on the matter at hand. "Do you want to know why King Charlie is my role model?" he asked.
I nearly grimaced again at the sound of his name. "Yes," and then added hesitantly, "Jake."
"Because he fought for the woman he wanted." Despite the fact Jake was smiling ever so innocently, I caught the implications. I attempted a smile, taking a step back before turning my gaze to the bucket. I wish he had let me carry it. I would have been out of here by now if he had let me do that.
"That's nice, and King Ch—well, he was a very devoted husband," I responded, deciding to play innocent. I couldn't even bare to say his name aloud, I was rather ashamed to admit. "I can introduce you to some pretty girls back at the kitchen who would absolutely love to be fought over, I assure you." I forced myself to laugh at my remark, and to my relief he did as well.
"No, I think I'm alright," he teased. "By the way, why do you wear that fur coat? While it is quite extravagant," I could see this shocked him, "it also covers your face when you keep the hood up. People want to see your pretty face. No need to cover it." He was laughing to himself, enjoying his own remarks.
Too bad the fact it hid my face was the point of it.
"It keeps me warm when I am cold," I told him. "The weather is cold at the moment, and I need to wear this to stay warm. Not all of us can afford such luxuries as cloaks that do not hide your face and yet keep you warm." I attempted to sound teasing, but I was pretty sure I just sounded bitter. I sighed.
"That makes sense, I guess." He frowned. "Now, I do have one serious question to ask you."
"Yes?" I smiled patiently.
"Would you like to come back to my room with me tonight?" he asked. "I don't usually ask ladies that, but I like you." He was still smiling innocently, and he put down the bucket of water. I reached over to grab it so I could bolt, but he grabbed my arm, pulling him closer towards him. I wasn't angry with him – just petrified of him. I knew he didn't mean to offend me in any manner.
I struggled to breathe properly, tugging at my arm to get it away from him.
"I have a lot of work to do today," I breathed out. "I am incapable of going anywhere but to the kitchens for the remainder of the day." That was my excuse, but Jacob just brushed it aside, smiling.
"It's okay. I can get you out for the remainder of the day." He was still smiling; having no idea just how much he was scaring me. His actions and words were not that horrendous, for I knew Jacob would never force himself onto me, and yet I still found I was absolutely terrified by his touch alone.
"No, no, no," I hurried to reply. "I am quite fine. I really should work."
"No, it's fine," Jake insisted. "We already have more food then we can eat prepared. I can get you off for the rest of the day."
"Let go of me!" I shrieked, still tugging on my arm. He complied immediately and I stumbled backwards onto my bottom. I scrambled away from him, ignoring his confused expression. I felt sort of bad reacting as I was, because I knew Jake would never rape me and I knew he never intended to offend me, but I was still afraid for reasons he had nothing to do with.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Why are you so afraid? I didn't mean to make you afraid."
I didn't answer him, just sat there taking deep breaths to calm myself. He waited patiently for me to regain my posture, his expression a mixture of confusion and hurt that I had reacted like that. I heard someone stomping toward us but I didn't look to see who it was – Jake did. His expression twisted into a scowl and he crossed his arms over his chest once again.
"What are you doing here, bloodsucker?" he spat out.
"What's wrong with her?" Edward demanded and his expression back to the furious one I had seen not too long ago. He glanced at me and then back to Jake, whose gaze was also flickering between Edward and I. I took another deep breath, wondering if I could sneak away without either of them noticing. I really did not need any more attention given to me.
I started to crawl away as quietly as I could, deciding I'd break into a run and spy at them from around the corner. And then, once they were done fighting, I'd rush back and grab my water bucket and go back to the kitchens. My plan was perfect, except I didn't expect both Jacob and Edward to round on me as soon as I started to crawl away.
"And where do you think you're going?" Edward demanded at the same time Jacob yelled:
"What are you doing?"
I grimaced, sitting myself back down at the ground. "Just... moving to get comfortable, Jake, my lord." That was my excuse, and neither of them really seemed to believe it. Luckily for me, they decided it was better to argue with each other then argue with me because they turned back to each other, scowling.
"Just Edward," Edward snapped to me, and I figured that I being on first name basis with Jacob must have encouraged him to want to be on first name basis with me, too. He must be trying to rub that in Jacob's face. "Now why is she so terrified?" he demanded.
"You wouldn't know if she was terrified!" Jacob snapped. "The leech that controls emotions can't use his powers." He grinned here. "So how would you know if she was terrified?"
Edward's eyes narrowed. "He didn't disable Jasper's powers. Jasper convinced him not to."
Jacob's mouth fell open. "You're jesting!"
Finally, Edward relaxed and a smug smile found the way onto his face. "No."
Jacob glanced between Edward and me for one brief moment, before he turned to face me. "I'm really sorry if I scared you there. I'll have you know I would never force myself onto a woman. But, I am sorry that it seemed like I would. But now, if you'll excuse me Mimi, I need to go talk to a friend of mine." He hurried away then, muttering something under his breath. Edward still looked smug until he turned to face me.
"Why were you so frightened?" he asked. "Did those men cause you to be frightened of Black?"
I was silent for a moment, before I decided it would be best just to lie. "Yes," I lied.
His eye-brows narrowed and he approached me slowly, grabbing me from under my shoulders and pulling me up so I was on my own two feet. I wobbled slightly and so I forced myself to relax, not wanting to appear as if I was still frightened. I had over reacted, and to still be afraid would be ridiculous on my part.
"I don't believe you," he stated flatly, breaking the tense silence that was among us.
"What?" I gasped.
"I don't believe you," he repeated. "Now do you mind telling me what happened to cause you to be so frightened?" I gulped at what he said, shock taking hold of me momentarily. I had never spoken the words, not even to Gretchen, and I never planned to. How could he ask that of me – to speak the truth? Common sense told me it wasn't his fault, and that he couldn't have known.
"Nothing happened," I lied once again. He narrowed his eye-brows.
"Oh?"
"Nothing happened," I repeated. He sighed.
"Very well. Now, mind telling me what you are doing outside in the freezing cold weather when you should be inside the kitchens?" I figured that answer must be obvious. I walked past him and picked up the bucket filled with water, holding it up so he could see it. Comprehension dawned onto his face within a moment.
"I was fetching water," I told him.
He sighed loudly. "Couldn't they have sent someone stronger to do that? You'll catch your death out here." I frowned. I was plenty strong! Perhaps not strong enough to carry the water bucket around easily, but strong enough that I could carry it around with some hard work. And that was decently strong. Well, sort of.
"I'm fine," I muttered. "I can do this." But either way, Edward reached over and grabbed the bucket for me, gesturing for us to start walking. I followed after him, struggling to keep pace with his quick movements.
"By the way," he began. "You haven't seen anything... overly expensive around, have you? We're on the search for it."
I gazed up at him. "What does it look like?" I asked him softly, having used up all of my breath in just keeping pace with him. Most everything here was overly expensive. "Perhaps I can help you find it. Or if I can't find it, I'm sure one of my friends knows where it is. The servants here go most everywhere, since we have to clean and deliver food. I think we can help you."
He smiled down at me, chuckling. "That is very sweet of you, Mimi." He sighed. "The thing is, we don't know what it looks like. We're just assuming that it is incredibly expensive."
I was baffled. "You... don't know what it looks like?"
"No, unfortunately." He didn't continue, obviously wanting to drop the subject, and I got a bad feeling. I shuddered, and even though I knew it was against the rules of being a servant, I continued to press him for answers.
"Then why are you looking for it?" I asked. He sent me a look that I couldn't make out before facing ahead once again.
"Because we were asked to do that." He was being rather brief, I couldn't help but think.
"By who?" I pressed. He shot me an annoyed glance.
"You talk a lot," he noted. I smiled up at him.
"I'm often very curious," I confessed. He chuckled, his annoyance, thankfully, lessoning.
"I've noticed." Unfortunately, he did not answer my question, so I would have to continue to press him. We had stopped walking now, and despite the chill that ran up and down my spine from the cold, I did not want to move from this spot. I felt quite content and safe, standing here with him, even if I was starting to believe he might actually be a vampire.
But I wasn't going to believe that until I had some proof.
"So who asked you to search for something expensive?" I asked. He sighed out loud.
"King Charlie did." He sneered here. "And we're trying to find it, that way he doesn't come here looking for it. He wouldn't state what it was; just that it was his 'most precious treasure' and that he needed to get it back. We have to let him come look for it here like King James let him do at his kingdom, otherwise we risk starting a rivalry. Well, a bigger one, anyway." He laughed. "We want to find it ourselves that way we can just send it to him and he'll never have to come here. None of us really like him, as I'm sure you already know."
I collapsed.
Authors Note: Ahh, don't hate Jake. I love Jake, too, and he really never meant any harm.
Please, please, please review! I got this chapter out quicker than usual. Doesn't that count for something?
xoxoxo
