When You Hear the Knell of a Requiem Bell by Flashbeagle

Bonus Features

Alternate Character Focus: Ramsley the Butler

What did Ramsley think when Kim first arrived at Gracey Manor? I actually wrote this right after I finished the first draft of the first chapter of the story way back in September. It has since been edited. It was written as a work in character perspective.

            It wasn't possible. It simply wasn't possible.

            But there she was, Mistress Gracey, looking up at me, just like old times. It was like the first time she had been brought to Gracey Manor with her parents, curiously exploring everything.

            "Um, hi!" she said.

            "Sorry." I responded. "What did you say your name was?"

            "Um, I didn't. I'm Kimberly Fox, from Carr News." She stuck out her hand.

            I could only stare at her. I had glanced at the tag around her neck, noticing her full name as Kimberly E. Fox. This was impossible. She even had the same initials as Mistress Gracey had before she and the Master were married. Her voice sounded exactly the same!

            "Ah, yes. You must be the writer doing the piece on the Manor." I said slowly.

            "Yeah! Um, I just wanted to come over here, introduce myself, and um, I just wanted to let the owner of the place know what I'm going to be doing, you know, since I'm going to be ransacking through his or her stuff and all to get my info." She quipped.

            "Alright. I am Ramsley. Master Gracey has been expecting you." I said slowly, turning around, indicating for Miss Kimberly Fox to follow me. What would Master Gracey say? Surely his reaction would be ten times as eventful as mine!

            "Master Gracey rarely receives any visitors. This is a pleasure for him." I said, trying to trace her emotions.

            "Um, yeah, great." She said, clearly distracted, looking at some of the paintings of various Gracey relatives.

            "We often get lonely here. It's a large place and-"

            "W-w-wait a second! You mean he actually lives here?"

            "Yes, miss."

            "Whoa! But this place has no electricity! No TV, no cable, no phones, no computers, no DVD players….My God, how do you survive? Is there even a bathroom here?"

            She was clearly a woman of her times.

            "We manage." She gave me another strange look. "How long will you be staying, miss?"

            "Uh, not very. I have to meet a colleague to discuss our articles." Miss Fox had the exact same personality as Mistress Gracey had. She was just as vivacious and warm as Mistress Gracey had been. She always loved to have fun, and loved to laugh. Young Emily Westin, whom Master Gracey's father had married, but who had died on her wedding night, was much like that as well.

            "I'll let Master Gracey know you're here."

            "Ok." She shrugged. Before I walked off, I noticed her accidentally crash into one of the walls.

            "Ow! Son of a…" she muttered.

            I slightly chuckled. Miss Kimberly Fox seemed rather nice. Slightly bumbling, and surely flighty, but very sweet. Very much like Mistress Gracey. Almost too much.

            "Master Gracey?" I said cautiously as I opened the door to his office.

            "Ramsley, is the reporter here yet?" He asked impatiently.

            "Yes, sir."

            "Well, show him in then." He snapped.

            "It's not a 'he', it's a 'she'." I said, trying to carefully pick out my next words.

            "What difference does it make?" Master Gracey took a long look to the side. He looked so hopeless. After his wife's death, he became withdrawn and angry. He spent all of his days alone in the Manor, drinking excessively and mourning his poor wife until, of course, he killed himself.

            "Master Gracey, I don't quite know how to say this, but this young journalist, Miss Kimberly Fox, bears a rather striking resemblance to your wife."

            Master Gracey's expression froze. The topic of Mistress Gracey is a very difficult one for him to even think about.

            "How so?" He asked very softly.

            "In almost everything. She is her exact double. Same eyes, same smile, nearly the same hair, same disposition, same attitude, even her voice is the same!"

             Master Gracey looked pale. His eyes grew wide and he turned away from me. Were he alive, I was certain that he would have not been able to breathe.

            "Master?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

            "I have to see her for myself." He said slowly. "Show her in."

            "Yes, sir. " I obliged, and left the room to look for Miss Fox.

            She looked bored when I arrived back in the portrait gallery.

"Master Gracey will see you now. I hope I did not keep you waiting too long." I told her, motioning for her to follow me.

           "Oh, no, not at all! Microsoft just came out with a new version of Windows while you were gone." She said, a mischievous smile on her face. I assumed that what she spoke of was something popular in her time period.

            When Miss Fox left, I had been attending to other affairs, but I heard the door close. Almost instinctively, I ventured into the banquet hall. Master Gracey was standing up, staring down, and drumming his fingers thoughtfully on the back of a chair.

            He spoke before I could even open my mouth.

            "It's her." He said plainly. "My Katherine."

            I merely nodded.

            "I could feel it." He said very softly. "It was in her eyes."

            He looked so wistful. I've known him for so long, it feels like he's my own son. Mistress Gracey, too, was like a daughter to my wife and me.

            "Master?" I began. "Did it…pain you? Seeing her?"

            "Quite the contrary. It felt just like it used to." He said, with a brilliant smile lighting up his face. Master Gracey hasn't smiled like that since,

            Well, it was a very long time ago.

            An old image of Mistress Gracey, grabbing onto Master Gracey's arm, staring dreamily up at him, a proud smile adorning his face. She had been such a beautiful girl, and he had been such a handsome man. Their personalities went together perfectly. They truly seemed to be destined for each other.

            How he had loved her…

            We all did, actually. She had this presence to her, one that made you want to smile.

            And then things had gone so terribly wrong…

            "She starts her research tomorrow." He commented.

            "Yes." I nodded. "I'm sure she'll find it…rather interesting."

            Master Gracey smiled again. "Indeed."

Next on our bonus features journey: Read the descriptive story starring Christine, the character who would later evolve into Kimberly Fox. Beware in advance: there are LOADS of SAT words in it!