Chapter 7: 1903 Anniversary
ENGLAND 1903
Nora woke particularly early this morning. She was up before day break and dressed just as the sunrise. In her beautiful long dress, she tip-toed across the corridor to a door that hung a string of small bells as decoration at the centre. She sneakily turned the door knob and hastily entered the room and closed the door gently behind her.
The room was dark as the curtains were still drawn and blocked the rising sun rays but she had no difficulty navigating in the room as she moved with ease. She crept towards the figure in the canopy bed as quietly as possible; passing a chair that had dresses stacked one after the other, a corner where towels messily piled to form a miniature hill and glasses of wine and champagne scattered everywhere on a long table. It was as though she was already familiar with such sight as she didn't express any shock nor surprise when she passed them.
As she crept closer to the canopy bed, the blonde in bed still showed no signs of stirring. Just when she was close enough, she leaned softly on the mattress and wrapped her arms around the blonde under the blanket.
"Rise and shine dar-," Recalling, she managed to stop herself from completing the sentence.
"It's a very beautiful morning, would you like to take a walk to the nearby lake with me?" she gently shook her shoulders and stroked her blonde silky hair.
Mary Louise still showed no sign of stirring. Her eyelids remained closed and her breathing was relaxed. It was only later when she opened her eyes to find Nora on the floor with head rested on the bed beside her. In one quick move, she wrapped her arms around Nora and pulled her into the bed under the blankets. Shocked, Nora didn't have time to react and by the time she realized, she was already pinned under by Mary Louise.
"Mare? Don't forget that we're –"
Ignoring her protests, Mary Louise leaned in for a kiss but Nora shook her head playfully to deter Mary Louise's advances. When she finally managed to land a peek on her checks, she pulled away and smiled broadly. "Happy Anniversary Nora!"
"And Happy Anniversary to you too Mary Lou!" Nora couldn't hide her smile when she heard that. She looked forward to this special day since a week ago as it was one of her favourite occasions. She already had a plan in mind; to bring Mary Louise to one of the prettiest garden in the morning to look at flowers, to shop in town in the afternoon and finally, a romantic dinner at a restaurant.
Mary Louise leaned in to steal another kiss but this time, there was no struggle.
Her arms caught Mary Louise gently around her neck and their lips touched. Mary Louise's lips were soft, tender and irresistible. She felt a wrapped arm around her waist and she was pulled closer and she did not resist. The kisses were warmer than usual and as Mary Louise's body pressed closer to hers, she gently tightened her arms that were around Mary Louise's neck. Mary Louise ran her fingers across her back and down to her thighs and gently caressing them back and forth and their kisses continued. However, she caught Mary Louise's wandering fingers just as they were moving upwards from under her dress.
"Wait! Mary Lou! Stop!" She paused to catch her breath before continuing.
"We could get into trouble here," she whispered while still holding on to Mary Louise's fingers that never budged from under the dress.
"But it's our anniversary! Nora, please?" Mary Louise looked like an innocent puppy asking for a cookie.
Knock
Knock
Knock
They turned to look at the door and waited for it to open, but it did not open.
"Ahem! Girls, can I speak to the both of you in my room now?"
It was Lily on the other side of the door and her request was crystal clear.
"See, what trouble we have gotten ourselves into now," Nora sighed as she separated herself from Mary Louise and went after Lily.
"Girls, I thought that we have an agreement?" Lily crossed her arms and waited for an explanation as Mary Louise closed the door behind her. Both Nora and Mary Louise remained silent and stared blankly at the floor, not looking into Lily's eyes.
Julian pretended to not notice the lecturing and continued to pick his coats from the closet, trying to find the perfect match.
"What did you girls promise me?" She asked.
Neither of them spoke.
"Nora, I expect you to follow. Mary Louise, you too! I expect you to keep your word," she sighed loudly and turned to face the window.
"Did you girls forget our agreement?" Lily reminded, "That there is to be no physical intimacy for as long as you girls are in this house as guests? The Masons is a reputable family and have been friends with Julian for almost a century."
Lily paced from the window to in front of them. "Were you going to continue if I haven't heard and stopped you girls?" Mary Louise could see from the side of her eyes that Nora blushed at the mention of them making out. Mary Louise shot Nora a wink and a quick smile to try to console her when Lily wasn't noticing.
"Don't forget that everyone in the household can hear you," Lily became more agitated the more she thought about it.
It was a painful one-way conversation, where Lily lashed at Nora and Mary Louise and where they had no intention of defending or arguing back.
"Lily, the Masons have been on a trip since yesterday. I'm sure they are pretty liberal and will not disapprove if they were to know –" Julian stopped when Lily shot over a disapproving look. He returned to his wardrobe to continue to look for his perfect coat.
"Now, I expect better behaviour from the both of you. Did I make myself clear?" Lily demanded.
They both nodded.
Lily held out a wrapped rectangular present and handed it to Nora. "Here is my gift for the both of you. Happy anniversary girls."
They both left the room and were just about to return to their own rooms when Julian signalled for Mary Louise to follow her to the garden.
"What is it Julian?" She asked as they strolled in the garden.
"Here's my present for the both of you," he handed over a small box and two tickets and brought Mary Louise to a hug. "The Masons won't be back till tomorrow afternoon and we'll worry about Lily when the time comes. Have a fabulous night Mary Louise. I'm sure that you and Nora will love it," he winked and then slow jogged back towards the house.
"Hmm tickets to a play and what's this? A metal match stick box?" She shook the metal box and after meddling with it for a while, she found a small switch by the edge and flipped it upwards.
Click
The casing of the metal box swung open to reveal a key with a chain attached to the box. She scrutinized the metallic box and found an engraving in the inner side of the box with the words "Savoy".
PRESENT
The small office desk was stacked with files of many different colours. Nora and Mary Louise randomly picked up a file to read before dropping them back to the desk.
"Look at this guy, he's hilarious looking don't you think so Mare," Nora showed the file to Mary Louise before she flipped the page.
"Ahem, look at the case description. The important points are those," Caius bright blue ring glittered under the room light when he handed over two bottles of mineral water.
"Okay, that's enough. We have no idea why you are making us read these at this hour. It's a waste of our time! We have skimmed through some files and can draw no similarities to the situation that we have encountered. Out with it Caius," Mary Louise impatiently demanded.
"Alrighty," he mentioned, "There has been a sharp rise of reported missing people and people being murdered for the past week and I happen to read some interesting cases that took place a week before we arrived," he flipped through the files that were on the desk and pulled out an orange one.
"This! The victim bled to death but we couldn't find his blood. Sounds creepy huh?" He showed them the file and flipped to the page with photos.
"What do you mean by couldn't find his blood?" Nora asked.
"His throat was slashed most probably by a huge knife and he was bled dry. There were only a few drops of blood on the ground though he was left hanging upside down. The police couldn't find the weapon of murder, neither could they explain where his blood went."
"To make matters worse, we have had 10 such cases happening within a span of one week." Caius pointed to the orange files hidden amongst the pile of files that were on the desk.
Surprised, Nora and Mary Louise pulled out all the orange files to study.
"Someone needs a lot of blood. A hell lot of them," Nora unscrewed the bottle cap of the water bottle and took a mouthful before she suddenly clutched her throat and dropped the bottle to the floor.
The water was initially refreshing but then it later burnt and hurt as though someone had set her throat on fire. Smoke steamed out from her mouth as she struggled to breath. She tasted blood, her own blood, and it was so painful that she knelt onto the floor and clenched her throat.
Mary Louise immediately sped towards Nora and held on to her arm to support.
"Caius!" Mary Louise shouted.
"No! It's not me, I didn't do this. I got the bottles from the batch that was just delivered to us from the factory," he explained before offering a helping hand. "Are you alright?"
It took Nora a while for the pain to subside and much longer for her throat to return to her regular colour. Even before the pain subsided, she immediately grabbed Caius's neck with one hand and gave it a twist.
Crack
"Hmmm, I feel so much better after breaking his neck," Nora declared as she stared at the motionless Caius on the floor.
"We must remember to remove his ring when we really want to kill him one day," Mary Louise jokingly pointed at the unicorn heart stone ring.
"Do you think we can trust him?" She continued.
"I guess so…" Nora was taken aback by Mary Louise's question. "Anyway he can't be compelled and we're stuck with him for now. Don't forget Lily's instructions."
"So shall we pay the water bottle factory a visit? Payback time for trying to burn my throat while I'm alive!" Nora was furious, she had never had vervain down her throat before and was ready to burn down the water bottle factory to appease her anger. They studied the bottles and right after they figured out the water bottle brand, they sped off for revenge.