"He is such an arrogant, hypocritical, self-absorbed, rotten toe-rag!" Rose was standing in the kitchen next to a counter laden with tea and biscuits; her friends gathered around her also sharing their distaste of their ill-welcomed houseguest.
"He is an Abruti for sure," Lumier piped in, quickly winking towards a young woman dressed in a low cut black servant shirt, with thin white folds for the shoulders as she paused from dusting off the now empty cupboards as Mrs. Potts grabbed some more tea cups.
"Abruti?" Chip burst out, "he is far more than that! He is a connard!"
"Chip!" Mrs. Potts reprimanded.
Chips cheeks immediately blushed, he looked like a guilty five year old caught with the cookie jar, his eyes begged his mother's acquittal, "Pardon my French," Chip added guiltily, Mrs. Potts returned to filling the small, white, porcelain cups, but gave Chip an unnerving glare as he whispered, "But he really is a connard."
Rose only smiled; she graciously took a cup from Mrs. Potts before Cogsworth gave a quick, getting attention cough. He stood up from a short, wooden, three legged stool and whisked his hand sharply through the air,
"I hate to say anything impolite," he sniffed as he took a cup. Lumier gave a quick, fake cough pretending to choke on his tea. The young woman servant girl gave a glance of worry, but only smiled as he winked at her again. He cleared his throat before he muttered, "No you don't." before taking another quick sip of his tea.
Cogsworth ignored the interruption, "he certainly is a disgraceful young man," he asserted "and I do not believe we truly have much hope of rehabilitating him."
A large, heavy set woman sitting next to Lumier loudly scoffed, everyone except Cogsworth turned to look at her. She was dressed in a tan, loosely fit dress, white ruffles covered her neck and wrists and she had huge diamond earrings with a matching necklace pendant. She raised her pointy nose into the air, scoffing again before Rose gave a small nod.
"Yes Gisabelle," Rose replied, "what's on your mind?" the large woman still kept her nose in the air, but briskly took a cup from Mrs. Potts before she harshly replied, "Much hope?" she scoffed, "please, have you seen his wardrobe? He has the worst color sense I have ever seen. His clothes are tight fitting, they have no long sleeves, the fabric is awful, and nothing matches!"
"What does that actually have to do with anything?" chirped the young servant girl as she flattened her knee-length, black skirt with her hands. She gave a small smile before sitting very close to Lumier, ignoring the bright red faced Gisabelle.
"Well Madeline," Lumier chuckled as he moved closer to her, slowly sliding one hand flirtatiously under her chin, "you know a man's clothing choices say a lot about the type of man he is. For instance, my nicely fitting vest along with my golden sleeves and proud white cusps say that I'm-"
"a complete dunce," Cogsworth interrupted.
Everyone burst into laughter as Lumier started to gabble like a scared Cogsworth; Chip choked slightly on his tea before laughing to himself. Lumier raised his head high, before giving a sharp, cold "hmph!" Cogsworth just went back to sipping his tea, slowly raising it to his lips, then wiping his mouth each time the cup went down to make sure not one drop dripped on his perfect, red vest.
Mrs. Potts only laughed, "How about more tea?" she warmly suggested as she grabbed the empty tea pot, taking it over to large, ash covered stove. She started to turn the knob but gave a little frown as she realized the fire bowl below the warmers was empty. "Chip," she asked, "could you please go and fetch the wood cutter? We need more wood for the tea."
"Sure, mom," Chip replied, he jumped down from a high, smooth, white counter; he gave his mother a quick smile before he walked out the small, wooden edged doorway that led to the back part of the castle, which followed a small, beaten dirt path to the inner forest.
"Anyways," Rose continued trying to get back on subject, "have you noticed how he whines about everything? I even saw him complaining about how horrible a mirror looked! That mirror was a gift from the neighboring country."
"I'm sure he was just complaining about the reflection he was seeing," laughed Lumier.
Mrs. Potts tried to scowl disapprovingly but it didn't come off anywhere near sincere. "Well, I do worry about him. I mean, I do not think he has left his room for more than ten minutes at a time except to eat, and he's always keeping to the corners in the hallways and corridors when he does."
"And he has most certainly has not learned his lesson on the proper way to behave at the dinner table," Cogsworth added, "always strutting about and treating poor…. Um whatever his name is like a slave as if he was the emperor of Rome.
"At least he doesn't try to sit in the master's chair anymore," Mrs. Potts said nervously. She clumsily dropped a small, tea spoon; her face firm but a little shaky in her attempt trying to defend Daniel, only blushing from the shocked looks of everyone around her which gave her the conclusion that she had failed miserably at doing so.
Mrs. Potts blinked as Rose sharply clicked her tea cup against the little porcelain plate in her hand. "The only reason he doesn't he doesn't sit in an indecorous place such as my father's chair is because he know that next time he does my father will not be so gentle with him!" She snapped. Her fingers tightened their grip the small cup holding the rest of her minty, lemon tea. Lumier gave yet another flirtatious wink to the Madeline before looking at Rose.
"Sadly I believe you wouldn't be near so 'gentle' either," he grinned as he slid his arm around Madeline's waist; she promptly smacked it away before letting a small, teasing smile play on her deep, red lips.
"Well, he deserved a lot much more than he received," Rose disputed, she quickly looked away from the still grinning Lumier as she took another sip of her tea; giving a slightly disappointed frown seeing the low liquid line in the bottom of her cup.
Cogsworth sniffed disdainfully and took a sip of tea in a dignified manner. He whisked his hand through the air, quickly coughing to clear his throat,
"Yes he did receive no less than he deserved." He chided, "However, I do not think it is very befitting of a young lady, especially one of your standing to lower herself to that level of degradation, after all you-"
"I don't blame her one bit," Gisabelle said contemptuously, "I would like to give that boy a piece of my mind. Especially, when he leaves his dirty clothes all over his floor and expects me to pick them up for him like Madeline."
Madeline started to respond, but Mrs. Potts beat her to the point as she sweetly inclined,
"Alright, I will admit he can be quite disdainful, but honestly, the poor boy has been thrown into a world he doesn't know. Think about it, he has no friends, no family, no way to the outside world; I mean, yes he can be very appalling-"
"More like despicable," Chip interrupted as he reentered the kitchen followed by the hunched-over figure of the woodcutter who slowly lumbered behind him; his large, muscular arms laden down with the logs, his legs were thick like the trunk of great pines, he well stood over everyone in the room, even with the deduction of his heavy, arched over form. He didn't say anything as the group continued to converse. Painfully groaning as he heavily kneeled down to the floor, Rose saw his bright blue eyes, two small spheres of cold lightning underneath his mudded up black hair. She gave a weak smile before he promptly started to put the hefty logs underneath the cold stove.
"What do you think of him?" Madeline asked the woodcutter before once again smacking away Lumier's sneaking hand.
his heavy, dirt covered lips twitched, but paused for a moment before resuming his work and spoke in a slightly deep, raspy voice, "I have no opinion on the young man."
"Oh come on, everyone-"
"My work is done," he heavily moaned as he pulled all his bulking body back onto his powerful legs. "Is there anything else you require of my services?"
Rose looked at the sad, lonely form in front of her; there wasn't a part of him that wasn't clothed in leather or fur skin, and he had enough dirt on him to cover an entire wheat field.
"No, we are perfectly fine, thank you," Rose replied. The bunched over figure gave a small tip of his head, which seemed like the only bow he could muster without letting his huge, bent form from falling. He gave one last, pining stare at Rose before he heavily lumbered out the barely big enough door and back towards his lone shack deep in the woods.
Rose turned back to her friends as the woodcutter closed the heavy door behind him, "Have you noticed how much mail Terry has brought back from the city for him?"
"I did and I do believe his name is Tom," Cogsworth replied in a clipped tone.
"No, no, no it's Terence," Lumier inputted.
"No, that's not right either, it's Todd" Chip interceded.
"It doesn't matter what his name is!" Rose quickly grabbed a fresh cup from the small, high standing, polished waiter table beside her. "The point is Daniel must have dozens of friends to be receiving so much mail. Personally, I don't understand how anyone could possibly enjoy his company."
"They are most certainly all miscreants of the same caliber." Cogsworth waved his hand towards Mrs. Potts looking down at his empty tea cup.
Rose took another sip of her tea. "Which is why I don't see how we can expect him to learn anything when he's still associating with people as horrible as he is?"
Mrs. Potts went around the small circle again, carefully refilling any empty porcelain cups; she sighed before her sweet, wise voice caught the attention of everyone around the room.
"We'll just have to hope that the reminders of what he once had will help him want to be the gentleman he is meant to be, after all: the quicker he behaves, the quicker he can leave."
the small gathering nodded in agreement, before they slowly disbanded to continue their daily chores.
******************************************************************************
"Damn, ungrateful, little son of a bitch!" Daniel threw down the latest letter he had opened; it wasn't two seconds before his fingers snatched up another. He ripped it open ferociously and read about three sentences before it too ended up on the floor next to his useless, broken Droid Premium phone.
Any hope for rescue was continuing to grow slimmer as the pile of unopened letters dwindled, and the pile next to, around, and in the garbage can slowly, but undoubtedly grew larger. He had written to everyone he could think of with a plea for release, an escape, any chance of a-get-away plan; but no one gave a salvation call in any of their replies, not one letter contained any chance for freedom.
He continued this sad charade for hours, he slummed onto his bed as the sun was sinking behind the dark, reach less mountains; grabbing the last note, small white note hidden deep underneath all the pointless letters on his polished, wooden desk. His eyes weakly lit up as he saw the black ink spell the name, JOE.
his fingers started to shake, he tiredly tore open the small envelope, delicately opening the folded up piece of paper, savoring but quickly scanning through his friend's ramblings about his parties and latest 'conquests', he wished he could be with his friends again; feeling his heart start to sting from the longing for his old life. Daniel slowed as he reached the second page as Joe's writing became more relevant.
"It sounds like you're in some deep shit. I really wish I could help you out, but I'm really busy right now. I mean, its tourist season and I have managed to find some nice little American girl every single night this week. Besides that, I'm a little low on cash right now and your parents made a better offer than you did. You wouldn't want to cause your best bud to have to give all that up right? Besides, you should look on the bright side: you can always make some fun of your own with that girl you wrote about. She sounded like a real hot piece of-"
Daniel jumped up, crumpled the paper, and threw it across the room; his skin only grew hotter as the pile of crumbled papers fell and spread all over the floor. He started to pace across the deep blue colored carpet, working himself into a fury. His cheeks started to burn and his nostrils flared, his frustration levels we're reaching their blazing climax.
How dare his friends abandon him like this? After all he had done for them? After all the money and power he had given them?
His anger crept and burned into his throat, his voice turned venomous and disdainful as he yelled into the mirror, "Those useless gits wouldn't even be on high street if it wasn't for me! They owe me everything! I'm Daniel Stuart! The richest person in Kingston, I nursed and paid for them better than the queen could do Prince Charles! Those lousy no good mongrels, they wouldn't have a different girl every week if it wasn't for me! Well when I get back they won't even have a chance to sod off when I'm through with them! I'll-"
Daniel turned to see a silent, stone faced Ted standing in the door way. Ted's butler outfit was also half-in half, one side with deep black material and grey, shining buttons, while the other was silky white with dull, black buttons. He held up Daniel's dinner on the expensive, wavy serving dish. His eyes remained unchanged behind his thin, circle glasses.
"Sir," he paused, "do you need any other assistance besides your dinner? A shrink perhaps?",
"What do you want?" Daniel growled.
"I'm just bringing your dinner sir, as you instructed."
Daniel walked over, his lips curled as he slowly pricked his finger along the smooth, silver lid. His fingers firmly grabbed the small handle, his stomach growled as the steam and vapors from his cooked salty lobster reached his nose. He could smell the tangy butter, and strong lemons; his mouth started to salivate in his cheeks, but he looked up to see Ted's brown eyes, within the small, amber spheres he could see the smallest flickers of mockery.
Anger instantly returned and combusted in his chest. He slammed the lid down, raising his hand into the air,
"You call this food? My old-dead-great grandmother could cook better than that! Take it back until you can do it right!"
Ted just gave a small nod, his eyes slightly glistening as he replied. "Yes sir, right away." Daniel turned his eyes blazing, "didn't you hear me! You worthless bag of horse puck! I said-"
"yes sir, you want another lobster cooked up right away, I will tell the chief."
"Forget the lobster! I want a double pounder hamburger with cheese and bacon and-"
"sir," Ted looked at Daniel; his eyes seemed to brim with a deeper sense, his voice changed as if to an old, kind grandfather comforting an angry child as he smiled. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"
Daniel just stared, he tried to sputter and cough up more harsh words to insult Ted with, but his heart began to throb, and his blood began to cool. He sighed heavily as he fell back onto his bed, his throat stung but he forced himself to speak.
"Ted what the bloody hell am I doing here?"
Ted gently set the heavy dinner plate on the small stand beside the bed. His eyes continued to brim with inner wisdom, but his voice remained silent once again. Daniel just turned over, trying to hide his brimming eyes from the man beside him.
"I mean, Ted I've been here for three weeks. I thought Jane would have blown the whole murder investigation away already."
Ted's eyes moved over to the fallen, scattered pile of crumbled up papers, a small chuckle came to his lips before he looked back at Daniel
"looks like you had other plans."
"It was supposed to be the backup plan, my friends wouldn't be anywhere without me; but they won't even help me out of this stupid, crazy place filled with the biggest bunch of morons I've ever seen."
"These people are trying to help you sir, in order for you to leave you must-"
"yea, yea, yea I know: behave. Ted I will not let my parents win, they just want me to be exactly like Eric, the favorite; that why they've ditched me off to places like this my entire life, nothing this secluded, but a prison nonetheless."
Ted remained silent; he silently stood and didn't even whisper a goodbye as he left the room.