A/N: Thanks for reviewing!
The trip to Uncle Luke's estate took more than a day. They spent the night in a small inn. Rey was relieved that she and B.B. were accompanied by the coachman, Mr. Bacca, as she would not have liked being in such a place on her own. Still, the night passed without incident and they were on the road again bright and early. B.B. mostly slept in the carriage, leaving Rey to think about Finn's cryptic warning and who Uncle Luke might turn out to be.
It was dusk when they arrived at a large house, bigger than Master Dameron's, though not in the same state of repair. The hedges could use a trimming and the gardens had more weeds than she expected of such a grand place. It was with mixed feelings that she saw the front door open and a man step out. Being welcomed was preferable to waiting around awkwardly, but she wasn't sure she was ready to meet her new host.
"Uncle Luke!" B.B. cried happily, running up the steps.
The man in question hugged her and smiled in a way that made Rey think his face was unused to the expression. "Beatrice, my dear! I'm afraid I did not know you were coming, so things aren't quite prepared."
"That's alright, Uncle. This is my governess, Rey," she added, gesturing.
Master Luke looked her over briefly. "A pleasure, I'm sure," he said formally.
Uncertainly, she settled for inclining her head in response.
Without another word, Master Skywalker turned around and headed back into the house. B.B. followed him and Rey brought up the rear, trying not to crane her neck as she looked around the place. It was old, older than any building she had seen before. Ancient tapestries were on the walls and she had a sinking feeling that they were more than just decoration – that the stone would do little to keep out the draft.
The hallways through which they walked were at least cleaned properly, despite their age. They went up a flight of stairs and down two corridors before arriving at a door. "Your room, as usual," Master Skywalker said, gesturing.
B.B. grinned and went inside excitedly. "A new fishing rod! Oh, thank you, Uncle Luke!"
"We will have to test it out in the morning," he replied, smiling again. "You'd better get some rest, Beatrice."
The child nodded. "Good night, Uncle Luke! Good night, Miss Rey!"
"Good night," Rey replied, pushing away her growing unease to smile at the child.
Master Skywalker shut the door and glanced at her. "Come along." The warmth in his manner had vanished completely and she was not optimistic about the change. Of course, everyone was warmer where B.B. was concerned. But Master Dameron and Finn were still friendly with her. Perhaps a governess was really just a servant, and she had been lucky to be employed by nobility who treated her better than one.
Her room was not to be next to B.B.'s, it would seem. She followed Master Skywalker to what was clearly the servant's wing. The rooms were small and she was surprised to find that they appeared to be empty. "I'm sure you'll be comfortable here," he said shortly, then turned away.
She struggled to suppress the many questions she had and resigned herself to her tiny room. At least it was private. At least she didn't have to share it with anyone else, like she'd done for most of her life. At least it was warmer than the hallway outside. At least she felt reasonably confident that she could find her way back to B.B.'s room if necessary. At least her trunk had already been delivered to the room.
Focusing on the positives, she prepared for bed, and soon sank into a fitful sleep.
The next morning was dreary, threatening rain. Rey woke up feeling much like the weather, and hesitantly headed for B.B.'s room. It was empty. A flutter of panic rushed through her and she took a deep breath. Where to go? The hallway was silent. It hadn't seemed like Master Skywalker employed many servants. And she doubted that he had any family here when B.B. was with her father. The thought concerned her and she hurried down to the front hall.
Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, the door opened. B.B. and Master Skywalker walked inside, the girl looking delighted and the man smiling a bit. Belatedly, Rey surmised what they had likely been doing, remembering the present Master Skywalker had given B.B. the night before.
"Good morning, Rey!" B.B. said happily. "We caught fish for breakfast!"
"That sounds lovely," Rey replied, forcing a smile.
"Take them to the kitchen, Beatrice." Master Skywalker looked at Rey and waited for B.B. to leave the room. "Why are you here?" he asked without preamble.
Rey started at the question. "I'm B.B.'s governess."
"Yes. She was telling me how you met."
She remembered the suspicion with which that man – Kylo Ren – had regarded how she met Beatrice and braced herself for a similar response.
"Our family… has reason not to trust strangers. Especially those who find convenient ways to get close to us."
"I'm just here to educate Beatrice," Rey replied coolly, holding onto her temper.
"I see. Well, I will be teaching her while she is here. I suppose you can consider this a vacation for yourself."
Rey frowned at him. Why had she been sent along with B.B. if she was going to be of no use? The dismaying thought that she would be of even less use to Master Dameron struck her and she swallowed heavily. Without this job… What was she to do? What was her place in all of this?
"I'm sure I can be of use, Master Skywalker," she said slowly.
"I'm sure," he agreed distantly, clearly humoring her. He watched her silently for a long moment and she shifted her weight. "The library could use a good cataloging. Ask the caretakers if they need help with the mending, or whatever else you young ladies are brought up to do properly. The horses could use exercising if you ride," he added, clearly an afterthought.
"I do," she told him resolutely, disliking the implication that she was not good at anything else.
He turned away, clearly considering the conversation over. Then he paused. "Be careful where you ride. Our land is extensive, but the neighbors are not the friendliest."
Losing her temper at last, she strode quickly after him and planted herself in his way, forcing him to stop short. "Who are your neighbors?" she demanded.
Clearly surprised by the strength of her reaction, he just blinked at her.
"Finn said the same thing. I'm tired of cryptic warnings. Tell me what this is all about."
He looked away. "I'm sure that if your employer wanted you to know, he would have told you."
"He didn't tell me I was coming here until the morning we left!"
His expression softened slightly. "He has a lot on his mind."
She snorted, and he gave a wry smile. "I deserve to know what's going on. I don't appreciate being woken up to find out I'm being sent away. Being sent some place that has no use for me. Cryptic warnings about the neighbors. I'd almost rather go back where I came from!"
"That school? Jakku?" he sounded considerably surprised. "No, I'm sure no one wants to go back there."
Throwing her hands up in exasperation, she snorted again. "At least people trusted me there and I wasn't being questioned about how I met B.B. every time I run into someone new."
He frowned slightly. "Who else has questioned you?"
Perhaps she had gone too far, because he seemed concerned. "I think… I think his name is Kylo Ren."
Master Skywalker went pale. "You had better tell me everything." He led her to what must be the dining room and sat her down across from him. She summed up what had happened since she'd met B.B. and left her Jakku, omitting her own past and the intimate details about her conversation with Kylo Ren. Like the fact that she'd been in his room, or how he seemed to understand very well what life at a boarding school was like, or that moment when their hands had touched: things she did her best not to think about anyway.
"Who is he?" she asked when she finished.
Master Skywalker sat back in his chair and looked toward the window, seeming far away. "My sister, the princess… She had a son. Before she took Poe in as her ward. He had… a lot of potential. We entrusted our family legacy to him. Sent him to best schools. I taught him myself for many years. Then…"
He fell silent for long enough that she wasn't sure he would continue and began to cast about for ways to prod him along.
"He had been put in charge of managing a few of our factories. To prepare him for his future. But… he wanted to sell them to our competitor, to leave us and make his way on his own. I confronted him and he – he burned the house down. His father, my best friend, was killed in the fire, along with Beatrice's mother."
Clearing his throat, Master Skywalker looked at her again. "Now he owns half of this estate, and lives there when he's not in town, making trouble for his mother in the House of Lords. He changed his name and always accompanies Snoke, so no one knows who he was. But Kylo Ren is my nephew, Ben Solo. Or he was, anyway."