This episode is the line between what I'm casually calling the first and second series, although there's really going to be no interruption in the story. It also has a warning for, um...how shall I put this...adolescent female ickyness. XP
Disclaimer: I need one of those memorabilia stores that sells life-size cardboard cutouts of famous celebrities and movie characters. Why? Because I don't have any real Gundam pilots of my own, and I have to make them from scratch, that's why! *cries* I wonder how much paint it would take to turn a Han Solo cutout into a Trowa cutout...
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Episode Twenty-Six: Natural Law "Knowledge is the antidote to fear." ~Ralph Waldo EmersonNovember 14th, 1901 The agreement was that Heero would return to Cloverderry Glen once every seven days without fail. The restrictions of reality were such that he only had Thursdays and Sundays off, and since his first dose of the mysterious smoke was received on a Tuesday, this presented a problem. Rather than go twice in three days, Heero thought it would be just as easy to show up two days late for the second dose. Up until Tuesday of the following week, it was a pretty good idea. Then the symptoms began. It wasn't much at first, just a little fatigue and muscle pain. By Wednesday, his appetite was waning as well, which only added to the fatigue and did nothing for his job performance. Duo tried everything to get him to eat, especially when he saw Heero drop an empty tray on the kitchen floor for no reason at all. Heero never dropped anything. On Thursday morning, the trip to the country was looking less like a duty and more like a blessing. Trying hard to hide his growing dizziness from Duo, he groggily slipped out the front door and took a cab to the train station first thing. All the while on the train, he was overcome by stomach cramps that grew and grew until he was clutching the seat in front of him in a white-knuckled deathgrip, his breath coming in short, painful gasps. Several passengers on the train saw the boy's unusual posture and sweaty pallor, and naturally asked if he was alright, but he couldn't hear them. Somewhere between the second train station and Cloverderry Glen, Heero passed out in the carriage and had to be shaken awake by its driver when they arrived. Becoming his stoic self out of sheer pride, he managed to get out of the carriage without falling down, but just ended up leaning against the nearest building and wondering where he was. Mercy smiled on the boy at that moment, for the first person to take notice of him was Noin, on her way back to the post office after delivering a basket of fresh vegetables to one of the townsfolk. She rushed to his side and shook him by the arm, nervously trying to shield him from the curious eyes of the villagers. "Heero!" she whispered. "What's wrong? What's happened?" Heero looked up through slightly blurred vision and recognized the woman, then pointed feebly at the muddy path leading out of town. "...Jeffrhyss' cottage," he growled in a gravelly voice. Noin looked over her shoulder at the path, then back at Heero. "You want to go there? In this condition?" She shook her head and tried to prop him up, the empty basket still hanging on her arm. "Let me take you to the Trimbles', and you can lie down..." Heero swallowed, and it took much more effort than it should have. "...have to," he choked out. The woman glanced at the post office and wondered how long she could be gone before she'd be missed. Then she wondered why she was even getting involved, but she instinctively felt that the two of them were on the same side somehow, and they were supposed to help each other. Noin sighed and tugged the boy away from the wall gently. "Alright, alright...just take it slow..." With steely determination, Heero straightened up under his own power and walked stiffly through the town square and down the path. Noin walked close at his side, ready to prop him up again if he faltered, but let him walk at his own pace, unassisted. It was bad for his body, but good for his ego, she thought. She guided Heero all the way to the front door of Lord Jeffrhyss' cottage, farther than she usually liked unless she was summoned by his Lordship, and even then she got chills just looking at the place. Soon, Heero disappeared into the cottage without any backward glance, leaving Noin standing on the cobblestones outside to worry whether or not he was well enough to even make it down the stairs. She paced and paced for nearly half an hour, according to the corroded copper sundial in the tall weeds, until the sun drifted behind a cloud, rendering it unreadable. Then, just as she was about to give up and go home, the door opened. She spun around and had to stare for several seconds to be sure she was looking at the right boy. There was Heero, calmly tucking in the shirt cuffs under the sleeves of his jacket; he appeared perfectly healthy. Noin took a cautious step forward. "Are you alright?" The boy's eyes slowly swivelled upwards; they were dark and glossy, but focused at last. He took a moment to let the gears of his mind slide back onto their axles, then blinked at her innocently. "Yes. Thank you." With no further explanation, Heero walked straight past her and headed back up the path to the village. Noin stared at him from behind, dumbfounded. He's got it backwards. You're supposed to look normal when you go in and like a dishrag when you come out, not the other way around! She followed him from about twenty feet behind, watching him walk; he wove languidly back and forth across the width of the path, but other than that, he seemed totally in control. When they reached the village, he climbed back into the carriage that brought him, and the driver coaxed his horses into action, pulling the rickety wooden vehicle away. Noin stood in the middle of the town square next to the gazing pool, with a dozen or more villagers milling around, oblivious to the mystery that engulfed her. I have a feeling I'll find out what's going on eventually, she thought, whether I want to know or not. **********Duo worried about Heero every hour of the day, and even in his sleep, but he knew when to give it a rest and just trust the boy, and today was one of those days. While he was gone, someone had to serve all the meals, and given what had arrived in the mail for Treize that morning, he wasn't about to let anyone deprive him of the pleasure of serving lunch to the Count personally. He sashayed around the kitchen in a glorious mood and gave the pot on the stove a generous stir, smelling the contents approvingly. Ahhh, the smell of vengeance, he thought with a smile. Hilde walked past carrying a stack of fresh tablecloths and wrinkled her nose at the odour. "Oh, not again...haven't you punished the man enough?" "Hey, he stuck me in a filthy jail cell for five and a half days, he's getting off easy!" Duo switched his attention to another pot, one of boiling pasta, and took it to the washbasin to drain it. The chef was not unaware that the ruse of sending him out for ingredients to make tagliatelle primavera was how Treize tricked him into the cleverly-planned trap that got him arrested. It therefore satisfied Duo's sense of poetic justice to feed Treize absolutely nothing except the peppery cheese and pasta dish at every single meal, until the gourmet delicacy became nauseating. Breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, it made no difference. He even put up a Mason jar full of the stuff and caught Treize with it when he wanted a midnight snack. Hilde shook her head and clucked her tongue with a grin as he added the chopped vegetables to the cheese sauce. "So childish..." "How many children can cook tagliatelle primavera in their sleep? I bet I can!" He poured the steaming hot sauce triumphantly over the pile of thin pasta sitting in a bowl. "I'm a genius. I should get an award for this. Anyway, this batch is the last...check out what came in the mail today." He nodded in the direction of the kitchen table, where he'd sorted out the morning mail in Heero's absence and held back one important piece. Setting down the tablecloths and making no attempt to hide her curiosity, Hilde picked up the rather thick envelope and read the return address. She smiled brightly. "Your papers from Mr. Marlowe?" "Got it in one," Duo congratulated her. He made up a tray with the plate of pasta, loaded it into the dumbwaiter next to three other trays, and pulled the rope to raise the four lunches to the main level. He tied it off to a hook in the wall and turned to Hilde, reaching into his pocket. "Listen, can you get rid of the maids for awhile?" "Why?" "Well..." Duo paused, thought, and grinned endearingly. "I'm about to drop the hammer on this guy, and if it ends up in raised voices, I'd hate for you ladies to have to suffer through it." "Yeah, right," Hilde mocked, "you've just got more shopping for us to do." She held out her hands and received what she suspected was coming next, a fistful of coins and a long, long list. "Christmas isn't for weeks yet. Why don't you pace yourself on the new recipes?" Duo smirked in self-defense and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Just go get what's on the list, and take the girls out to lunch with whatever's left over." He took the thick white envelope back from her and headed for the stairs. "And make sure they have a nice pink bib and a little high chair for Elsie." Hilde watched him leave, smiling fondly; Duo had actually been quite a gentleman about Elsie testifying against him. Other fellows might've screamed at her until their face was as blue as their language, but Duo's handling it with dignity and subtlety. He's a true gentleman...but lovely as that is, it's not making my decision any easier. Her smile grew and was joined by a rosy blush as she contemplated her choices. It's getting late...I'd better get the girls together and do the grocery shopping so I'll be back before Heero gets home! Skipping away with a flourish, she went to gather the housemaids from wherever in the house they were hiding. **********Upstairs in the dining room, Treize and Otto sat on opposite sides of the table, offset by a chair apiece, staring at nothing; the Count was glowering, and his subordinate just looked blank, as befit their moods. It took a bit of arm-twising on Otto's part to get Treize to even set foot in the dining room. He was developing a serious phobia of the room and did his best to avoid it, but the tagliatelle primavera followed him all over the house like a bloodhound, and he couldn't get away from it. "I was up at five-thirty this morning for breakfast," Treize said in a zombie-like tone. "He knew. Somehow, he knew. He was waiting for me...with a great toureen of it on the stove and a spatula in his hand...waiting to shove gallons of pasta down my throat if I so much as grunted in his direction." Otto fiddled quietly with the tablecloth, deliberately looking away. "I suppose it was to be expected..." Treize sighed. "...mmm." "...after what you did." The burly house steward looked at his companion out of the corner of his eye, ready to bolt if he found he'd overstepped his boundaries. Treize moved nothing except his eyes, ever so slowly glaring at his impudent assistant. Otto looked down. "It's just the three of us for lunch," Dorothy said as she sailed into the dining room, just in time. "Relena has a stomachache." The menfolk were silent, eyeing each other like circling jackals. Dorothy sat down across from Treize and looked back and forth between them. "A quiet lunch for once! The novelty is overwhelming!" Not a word was spoken, not a sound was heard until a faint clattering grew, coming from a few rooms away. It stopped, was followed by four loud clanks, and then rolled on, and the diners could swear they heard someone whistling. To the Count's ears, it was akin to the rattling of a hospital gurney, wheeling him down that long, bleak hall to his execution. As if on cue, in waltzed the executioner pushing a silvery cart of fresh-cooked meals. "Luncheon is served," the chef sang evilly. "Thank heavens, I'm famished!" Dorothy crooned back. "Miss Relena sends her apologies, but she's a bit under the weather." Just as well, Duo thought as he unloaded the first tray from the dining cart. She really shouldn't be watching her dear uncle's downfall. "For the lady..." He set the tray down in front of Dorothy and pulled off the domed cover. "Smoked salmon, vegetable soup, garden salad with croutons, chocolate-dipped shortbread, and Irish coffee." The Baroness smiled with delight; though she didn't know it, her slightly helpful testimony at the trial had earned her better food than Otto and Treize. If Relena had been well enough to eat, she would have received an identical tray. Duo placed the second tray in front of Otto and unveiled it with the same flair. "I ran out of salmon and soup, so you'll have to make do with macaroni cheese and beanie weenies." As the chef walked back to the silver cart, Otto looked down at his plate numbly. He was neither hurtful nor helpful at the trial, so his meals for the last week had been mediocre, but edible. "And for you," Duo announced, setting the bottommost tray before the Count, "oh, I've got a special treat for you!" Treize shrank away from the silver dome, watching the chef's snakelike arm as it grasped the cover and pulled it away. There, lurking underneath as it had done for the last twenty-three meals in a row, was the plate of piping hot pasta in cheese sauce. Treize whipped out his handkerchief and held it to his nose and mouth, grimacing slightly; the once-divine smell was now making him sick. "It's creamy smooth, and mmm, mmm, good!" Duo chirped gleefully. "And you be sure to save room for dessert!" He took the envelope from Mr. Marlowe out of his apron pocket and handed it to Treize, who read his own name above the address with suspicion. The Count snatched the letter and tore it open, and Duo hung over him like a vulture, relishing the sight as the man hurriedly glanced over the contents. The others watched, perplexed, as his forked eyebrows arched angrily downward and his face took on a reddened hue like a stick of dynamite that had just run out of fuse. "Defamation of character!?" he bellowed. Duo whistled, impressed. "My, what big words them law folk use!" he said in a southern drawl. He bent down and put an arm around the Count's beefy shoulders, closing in for the kill. "There's a lot of big words in there, so I'll save you some time. It's a summons. I'm suing you for slander. Bon appétit!" He slapped Treize on the back and departed with the silver cart, singing. Treize looked at the summons...then down at the tagliatelle primavera...then back at the summons...then at the door through which Duo had exited...and finally at Dorothy. "Let's get out of here." Dorothy, who had been engrossed in the little side-show with her fork suspended in mid-air bearing two bits of lettuce and a crouton, frowned. "But I haven't even started!" "And you're not going to," Treize snapped, leaping out of his chair. "We're lunching at the Savoy. No arguments." At the mention of the Savoy, probably the classiest and most expensive hotel in London with a restaurant menu to die for, Dorothy quckly warmed up to the idea, and followed him to the door. Otto allowed himself to be led as well, but had to quickly cover up the amused grin that had crept over his face. Treize looked him in the eye as he walked past. "I wouldn't laugh, Otto. You're buying." The smile fell. Duo watched through the crack in the opposite door as they paraded out for greener pastures, at which point he couldn't contain himself any longer, and nearly killed himself laughing. The raucous hooting and yowling chased Treize and his entourage right out the front door. It was nice, just this once, Duo decided, to be a sore winner; he didn't know if he'd ever get the chance again. As soon as he thought the troupe wasn't coming back, he ran to a window at the back of the house, spotted Trowa and Quatre practising with their fencing foils, and hollered out to them. "Hey guys! Soup's on! Hurry up!" **********Feeling much more himself, and not a moment too soon, Heero hiked the last few blocks from the train station to the manor, checking his progress on his gold pocketwatch while getting a few extra gulps of fresh air. It was a little after one o'clock. I'm getting better at this, he thought. Indeed, he shortened the journey to Cloverderry Glen a little bit each time, and with repetition, he felt certain that he could shave it down even further. He jogged up the front walk and the concrete stairs, let himself in with his key, and was less than two feet in the door when he was nearly bowled over by a hungry delegation of the aristocracy, led by Treize. The Count barelled down the front hall, paused briefly to glower sharply at Heero, then brushed past him and left. Otto came next, and just sort of looked away as he exited. Third and finally came Dorothy, wearing an expensive-looking fur cape over her dress and pinning it in place with a diamond brooch. "We're going to the Savoy for lunch!" she crowed haughtily. "How does my hair look?" Heero stared. "Same as it always looks." "Oh, good!" she cheered brightly, and with that she joined her companions on the sidewalk where they were attempting to hail a midday cab. Heero regarded them all curiously, then decided it was probably no concern of his and shut the door. He could immediately detect the smell of Duo's home cooking coming from the general direction of the dining room and was instantly suspicious. Why would the family go to a hotel for lunch if there was already food at home? It defied reason. Energized at the thought of having a mystery to solve, however small, Heero set out towards the dining room, but was held back suddenly by a little squeak. The butler turned around, noticed nothing unusual, then began scanning the floor for any furry visitors. Sure enough, someone had been standing at the door waiting for Heero ever since he left that morning; crouched under a decorative table that perpetually held a vase of flowers, was the little charcoal grey kitten. Giving way to a faint smirk, Heero ducked down, gently pulled the animal out from under the table and lifted it off the floor, letting its tiny paws dangle like the arms of a rag doll. The kitten looked up at him and squeaked again, and they made their way to the dining room together. It was a jovial scene there when they arrived; Duo, Trowa and Quatre were chatting away and chowing down heartily on soup, salad, and sandwiches, though it seemed the chef had saved all the macaroni and cheese for himself. There were four trays in all, the last one still covered with a silver dome. "Heero!" Duo chirped, standing quickly. "The maids are out grocery shopping, the snobs all flew the coop, and we've practically got the whole house to ourselves, so sit down and dig in! I didn't know when you were getting back, so I'm afraid this is all we've got..." He reached across the table and took the cover off the fourth tray, revealing Treize's untouched tagliatelle primavera. Many a time had Heero brought this fine dish to the ungrateful Count and never had a morsel for himself. "When have I ever turned down your cooking?" Heero asked rhetorically. He sat down next to Trowa and the conversation resumed. The kitten was allowed to sit right on the tabletop with them, and scooted towards Quatre right away, liking the smells that were drifting off his plate. "Why, hello there, kittykins," Quatre greeted the feline. "Would you like some of my salmon?" He put a bit of fish on his finger and let the cat nibble it off sweetly, turning to Heero in the meantime. "Did you have a nice trip?" Heero looked at the gardener, poured himself some white wine, and lied through his teeth. "Very nice, thank you." "You missed one hell of a show here," Duo mumbled enthusiastically through a mouthful of macaroni. "I served Treize with papers for my lawsuit just now. He was furious!" The butler nodded. "I saw him." "Mr. Marlowe figures that so long as Duo has that royal pardon backing him up, Treize hasn't got a prayer," Trowa said. "And yet I can't understand why he would go to all the trouble of having him arrested on false charges and brought to trial, when he could have just asked Relena to sack him if he was that unsatisfactory. I don't see what he has to complain about anyway...the food here is better than I've had anywhere else in my life! It's very puzzling..." "I don't think Treize is nearly as nice as he acts sometimes," Quatre said, eyes downcast. "There's something terribly cruel about him." Duo and Heero looked at each other quietly from opposite corners. So far, they were the only servants who knew the real reason for Duo's arrest, and they intended to keep it that way, for everyone's safety. Heero was content to let the subject drop and get on with his lunch, but before the first forkful of pasta even made it to his lips, a distant, high-pitched clanging came from below, and all four of them froze. Heero listened to the pitch of the bell and deciphered the location of the summons with a sigh. "Relena's room." Quatre got up and put his fork down, giving the kitten a quick scratch behind the ears. "I'll go, Heero, it's your day off." "No, I'll go," Heero countered, putting the silver dome back on his plate dejectedly. "I won't be long." He rose and left them to their conversation, which was now dotted with sympathetic remarks especially for him. He climbed countless stairs and navigated the maze of corridors, finally arriving at Relena's bedchamber door. It dawned on him that, even though he had known the route since his first week's employment there, he'd never ventured beyond that door. A faint trepidation tingled through his fingers as he opened it and stepped inside. The room was unmistakenly pink. The colour was everywhere, on the walls, on the furnishings, on the rug that covered much of the hardwood floor...and in the middle of it all was a massive canopy bed with pink and white frills floating all around it. Propped up against a pile of pillows, within easy reach of the bellpull, sat a teary-eyed Relena, her face redder than the wallpaper from crying. She sniffled and sobbed and held both hands out to Heero, and taken slightly aback by her hysterical state, he went to her bedside and took her trembling hands without question. "H-heero," she choked miserably, "you m-mustn't be alarmed...b-but I wanted to s-see you...one last time." The girl squeezed out a few more pathetic sobs before gaining control of herself and looking at him with red, watery eyes. "I'm dying." Heero squinted. It was an odd place for one to be dying, to be sure. "Who told you that?" "N-nobody," Relena whimpered. "Please don't ask me how I know, I just do. Listen to me...I don't know how long I have, but I want to be buried next to my father. I'm trusting you with this task, Heero!" "Wait, wait," Heero blurted out, squinting harder and waving away the funny chirping birdies flying around his head. "Has the doctor been here to see you?" Relena looked down and shook her head. "Would you like me to send for Dr. Pritchard?" "No!" she gasped, looking up fiercely. "I don't want to talk to him! I can't talk to him!" She buried her face in her hands and seemed ashamed to even be ill. "I can't talk to anyone! It's too horrid!" The girl wept out of despair, and Heero fidgeted uncomfortably. Hoping to coax some more information out of her, he sat next to her on the bed and put an arm lightly around her shoulders. "You can talk to me," he said quietly. "Tell me what's wrong." Relena glanced up and sniffled, gaining a small amount of strength from his close proximity. Her lower lip quivered as she tried to decide where to begin. "It hurts..." "What hurts?" She paused, as if unsure of exactly what she was describing. "...my stomach," she managed finally. By now, several dozen possible diagnoses were buzzing around Heero's brain, but he needed to narrow down the choices some more. "Is there anything else?" he prodded gently. Relena looked away and sniveled some more, blushing from humiliation as much as anguish. When she looked reluctant to divulge any more details, Heero gave her shoulder a little squeeze and a shake, but she only burst into tears again. She sobbed into her handkerchief for a full two minutes before gasping out the awful truth. "...I'm bleeding!" Heero banged the back of his head on the bedframe and shut his eyes, 99% certain of what the problem was. It couldn't be a nice, straightforward case of appendicitis, oh no. He lifted his head, exhaled slowly and stared at the opposite wall. "I don't think you're dying." "Then what else could it be!?" Relena cried. That was exactly the question Heero didn't want flung at him. In his short lifetime he had faced mercenaries, assassins, projectile explosives, potentially lethal obstacle courses, and Rottweilers with a taste for blood, but they were all looking much better than the prospect of sitting on the bed and explaining the unexplainable things that men really didn't want to know. Just about then, he could have smacked Duo in the head for sending all the female servants out of the house. Heero slowly got up off the bed and looked over his temporary charge. "I know a lady doctor who lives not too far away," he said in a schoolteacherish voice, "would you like me to send for her instead?" Relena thought about that for a moment, and actually stopped crying in the meantime. Slowly and fretfully, she looked down again and nodded. Heero backed out of the bedroom respectfully and counted his blessings for having dodged a rather unpleasant bullet, then went downstairs to ring Sally. After briefly explaining the situation to Dr. Poole on the phone, without, of course, going into too much detail, Heero plodded back to the dining room to see if there was any heat left in his hot lunch. The other boys had finished eating and were amusing themselves playing with the cat, dangling a piece of string in front of it and watching it pounce and slide on the highly-varnished wood table. "So what's the buzz from the third floor?" Duo asked genially. Heero sat back down and took the cover off his plate, dismayed that it was no longer steaming hot. He shrugged slightly and picked up his fork anyway. "Relena's dying." The other three froze. Even the grey kitten stopped toying with the string as it sensed a change in mood around the table. "Dying?" Trowa whispered. Quatre shook his head, wondering why he didn't notice it before. "Oh no..." "I swear to God, it wasn't food poisoning!" Duo exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "Well," Heero interjected, "she not dying, dying...she just...thinks she's dying." He really wasn't hungry anymore, but continued to shuffle the pasta around on his plate, well aware of the three pairs of eyes boring holes into his skull. After brief thought, Quatre realized that Relena was so often upset, mostly by little things, that he had trained his sixth sense to tune her out most of the time, to more or less treat her emotional outbursts as white noise. As he dropped his mental barriers and paid attention, however, he could sense her genuine distress. "What's wrong with her?" Heero looked around the table in a sullen fashion, tapping his fork on the edge of his plate. Finally, he locked eyes with Quatre. "You grew up with twenty-nine sisters, correct?" Quatre nodded. "Of course." "On average, how many of them were 'dying' on any given day of the month?" The gardener seemed to retreat into his memory, recalling times when his sisters were in the same amount of peril Relena was in, or close to it. Suddenly, a common theme came crashing out at him. "Oh!" he yelped. A pause went by, and he ducked his head, turning crimson. "Ohhhhhh." He looked at the others, then looked back at Heero with fawn eyes. "Oh dear..." "I've called Sally. She'll be here soon." The other three boys sighed deeply with relief and sank into their chairs. They craftily avoided the subject for the next forty-five minutes, playing poker, drinking ale, and talking about 'guy things' until the doorbell rang. Trowa volunteered to answer it, and promptly brought back Sally, in the fern green dress and pompadour hairstyle that had made her distinctive amongst her peers. Upon seeing the four boys huddled around the dining room table with playing cards and poker chips, she wondered if she'd come to the right house. "Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Duo bet a farthing against Quatre's pair of sevens. "Relena's dying." Sally looked at Quatre, who saw Duo's bet and raised him tuppence. "She's not dying, dying." Sally looked at Trowa, who folded with a pair of threes. "She just thinks she's dying." Finally, Sally looked down at Heero and his three kings, which he wasn't about to give up without serious repercussions. Heero, for his part, glared at the others for taking all the simple, non-invasive explanations, then beckoned Sally to bend down so he could whisper in her ear. After he gave her a brief synopsis of recent events, her eyes went wide and she straightened up, putting a hand on her hip. "Are you absolutely certain?" Heero stared up at her in disbelief. "Did you think I was going to check?" The other boys snickered quietly. "Was that the blonde girl who showed up late at the trial? I didn't see her from the front. How old is she?" Sally asked quickly, trying to get her head 'round the situation. Heero looked down at his cards. "Just old enough." "See, she doesn't have any family left, except her uncle, and he's away," Quatre explained. "Her mother wasn't around long enough to explain anything to her, she has a friend named Dorothy who's older, but she's gone for the afternoon, and all the housemaids are, well...out of the house." Duo received two glares from the other side of the table and shrank away. "So, there really isn't anyone she can discuss this with." "But you did tell her what it was, didn't you?" Sally waited in vain for an answer, but all four boys looked the other way. The woman gaped. "You just left her there!?" "You cad!" Duo sneered in Heero's direction. "I have never seen such a despicable display of squeamishness and male cowardice like this in the whole of my career!" Sally yelled, ignoring the remark as well as the scowls being traded under her nose. "That poor girl is up in her room right now thinking she's not going to live to see her next birthday! All it would have taken to ease her suffering until I arrived would be for one of you big, strong, brave men to sit down and explain to her that this is a perfectly normal process and it isn't going to kill her, but not one of you could muster up enough courage to even do that, could you!? No, you just sat here in your safe little male cave and ignored her while you waited for Dr. Feminism to come and save you from your pitiful selves!" The boys were silent, staring at each other fearfully and sinking by fractions of inches further into their chairs. The kitten seemed to be enjoying the after-salmon cabaret and mewed it's approval. "Come on, you," Sally barked, thumping Heero soundly on the shoulder. "Let's go check on the patient." Again Heero looked up at her in a state of well-hidden shock. "What?" "You heard me." She grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet with one arm and a handful of black jacket. "I happen to know you're stronger than you look, so maybe you can set a good example for these boys and help comfort Relena while I sort things out. Don't worry, I'll send you out of the room for the grizzly parts." Sally turned on her heel and stomped out towards the main staircase, leaving a little cloud of dust hovering over her footprints in the carpet. They all looked at Heero mournfully; Quatre poured him another glass of white wine as a bracer, and the butler downed it in one gulp. Duo stood and saluted him as he turned and walked out to meet his doom, and the kitten flicked it's tail for no reason at all. **********Using Otto's money, Treize procured a prime spot in the dining room of the Savoy for them to have a nice, calm, uninterrupted lunch. About halfway through, he interrupted Otto and sent him away. Whether they ate at the same table or not, he was still a servant and was required to do as he was bidden, especially when the Count wanted a private word with Dorothy. "I've gone through all of Lord Peacecraft's paperwork from the last twenty years, and there's no sign of the blueprints," he said in a hushed voice over his boeuf bourgognon. "We need those blueprints to start searching the house properly, or we'll be ripping apart walls indiscriminately for weeks and might never get anywhere." "We're exactly nowhere already," Dorothy observed. "I don't see what the rush is, really. Is a few more weeks, or even months, going to make all that much difference?" "Ordinarily, no," the Count said, "but the servants aren't making it any easier, and they might even be looking for the same thing we are." Dorothy looked up from her crème brulée in a moment of realization. "Ohh, so that's why you tried to have the cook sent away! You think he's after the--" She looked around the dining room and lowered her head and her voice to the same level. "You think he's after what we're after?" Treize smiled and nodded. "Yes, my dear, exactly." A lie, but for his purposes, a convincing one. He couldn't tell her why Duo went to jail without revealing why he wanted to get rid of Heero. He couldn't tell her why he wanted to get rid of Heero without revealing why Heero was watching him. He couldn't tell her why he was being watched without jeopardizing their whole working relationship with fear and suspicion. As far as she knew, he was an ambitious foreign nobleman with designs on wealth and moderate power, nothing more. The truth might have shocked her right out of being his assistant, and he needed her to work on Relena for him. "What we really need to do," the Count continued, "is convince her Ladyship to take that extended holiday in the country that we've been talking about for weeks. She might enjoy a world cruise, even...but I'm trusting you to keep her occupied long enough for me to get my men into the house, find the blueprints...and let whatever happens naturally occur from there." Dorothy nodded, while thinking fiendishly. "And I presume we should take as many of the servants with us as we can? We don't want any troublemakers wandering around and giving away the whole plot while you conduct your search, do we?" Most of the servants, she couldn't care less about; she only wanted to keep an eye on Quatre and look for another opportunity to sink her claws into him, but of course, she couldn't tell Treize about that without jeopardizing her share of the money. She would already have to split it with Lady Une, so losing another portion to Treize in order to buy his silence would thin out the pot considerably. The Count nodded. "Indeed." He took a sip of red wine and studied her face, looking for signs of deceit, but could find none. She was just as adroit a liar as he was. "So this is what we'll do...you keep working on Relena, convince her to take that holiday, and I'll keep looking for the blueprints. There's only the cellar and the attic left, so they must be there." Dorothy nodded back. "And I can be guaranteed of my share for helping you out in your hour of need?" she asked sweetly. "Of course," Treize said, "I'm a man of my word." They toasted success and good fortune, with such exquisite timing that Otto returned only a second later to ask if he was finished being out of the room. They graciously let him sit back down and finish his meal, confident of the plan they had in place. **********Sally kept her promise and allowed Heero to leave the room once the conversation with Relena turned intensely physical. Up until then, the boy had made an honest effort to be kind and understanding towards his employer while the doctor explained what was happening to her body. She noted that his bedside manner wasn't half bad when he tried hard enough, but his pride would be a major stumbling block if he ever wanted to study and become a doctor himself. Since the girl hadn't eaten yet that day, they sent Heero to fetch her a late lunch, during which Sally took the opportunity to go into futher detail, once she felt Relena was ready to hear it. By the time her speech was finished, Relena was no longer crying her eyes out, but weighing the situation thoughtfully, like an adult. "So...this is going to happen every month for the rest of my life?" she asked softly. "Not exactly," Sally corrected, tilting her head to the side. "It'll taper off in thirty years or so." Relena slumped forward. "I don't want to live with this over and over for the next thirty years! I hate it already!" "There, there," Sally cooed, patting the girls fair head, "it's not all that bad. Some good can come out of it, after all...like marriage and children." The doctor felt strange uttering the words she herself had purposely avoided since her own time came, but thought it was what Relena needed to hear. The girl looked up, stunned by a flying thought that hit her right between the eyes. "Marriage and children..." That's it! This is exactly what needed to happen! I understand now! She turned to Sally with a smile and clasped her hand warmly. "Thank you, Doctor. I think I'll be fine now, and I'm sorry to have troubled you for such a trivial matter." Sally smiled back. "There's nothing trivial about it." She collected her things and stood to leave. "Call me right away if you have any other questions that you don't feel you can ask of Dr. Pritchard, but don't ignore him either. He's a well-respected professional, and I expect he's been your family doctor since you were a baby." Relena nodded. "I will." Sally smiled once more and left, leaving Relena alone with her thoughts, which were as fierce and purposeful as they had ever been before. The pieces of the puzzle were all falling into place now, and she saw a glorious new future ahead of her, despite the occasional discomforts she would suffer along the way. I see now why Heero isn't so involved with me as I'd like. I was nothing more than a child to him! But now...now I can offer him so much more. I can offer him sons and daughters, and a whole new legacy that will someday inherit Bridlewood! No other woman in London can give him what I can! It's only a matter of time before he realizes that...but I have to keep him from straying in the meantime. Fortuitously enough for her, Heero chose that exact moment to arrive with her lunch, freshly thrown together by Duo, who preferred to hide in the kitchen rather than hear all the gory details of 'the talk.' He walked in with it silently, put the tray on a raised breakfast tray suitable for putting over one's knees while sitting up in bed, and brought it over to her. He paused at her bedside and they locked eyes for a moment, her gaze being the more powerful of the two, until he broke the contact and set the tray in front of her on top of the bedspread. "Thank you, Heero," her Ladyship granted. "Stay for a moment and talk with me." Heero obeyed, standing in place with his hands clasped behind his back, knowing that 'talk with me' often meant 'shut up and listen'. Relena chose her next words very carefully, trying to achieve a desired effect without giving the game away. "I'm very grateful for how you've helped me today, and now I have an additional task for you. It will be a long-term arrangement, but if you find it to be too much of a strain on your regular duties, we can discuss an adjustment in your salary." Heero didn't blink at the mention of money, since he had plenty to spare with or without this job; he did need the job, though, to stay near Treize, and that meant making sure her Ladyship was content with him in every possible way. "You know now that...that I've changed...and the way the young gentleman of London look at me will also change, very soon. I believe it would have been father's wish for me to wait until a suitable gentleman came along, someone the family could be proud of...but father isn't here. He can't protect me from the world the way I know he would have wanted to...and so I'm asking you, Heero...I want you to stay close to me, to be at my side every time I leave this house and keep me safe from the unsavoury characters that might crop up in the months ahead." She folded her hands and smiled. "I need you to keep the howling wolves at bay." This was a totally different ballgame. Tiny hot pinpricks stabbed at Heero to remind him of what the consequences of this new arrangement might be once he said yes and left that room, but the mission was of the utmost importance, and Relena's happiness was practically essential to the mission. Slowly, feeling an enormous weight lodge itself on his back, Heero nodded. "Whatever your Ladyship desires of me...she shall have." Relena's smile grew, and her lingering doubts finally began to fade. **********Later that evening, when the household had put itself back together and everyone was getting caught up on the latest in-house gossip, Heero finally made it up to his room and found Duo sitting on the bed cuddling the grey kitten. "Guess what!" he said. "Sally came up and took a look at all the kittens while you were busy and told us what all of them are! I mean, boy-girl wise." He leaned over to the twin bed and pointed at the moving balls of fluff. "See, this tan one is a boy...and that splotchy brown one is a girl, the white ones are girls, the one with the black tail is a boy...and this one is a girl!" He finished by hoisting the grey kitten up to ear level and waving it's little paw 'hello' to Heero. The butler only observed that Duo had tied a length of red satin ribbon around the grey kitten's neck, and was getting far friendlier with it than was really necessary. "She's not yours. Put her down with the rest." Duo pouted, but did as he was told. He hated the thought of that little grey one being adopted, but he knew that right was right, and he couldn't steal from Dorothy. When he turned around, he saw that Heero had picked up the thick envelope that had arrived for him off of the writing desk. "Oh yeah, that came for you in the mail today." Heero nodded slightly and opened it. Inside was a wad of papers in numerical order, and he started flipping through them immediately. Curious as the kittens he adored, Duo walked up and poked his nose over the top of the stack and tried to read it upsidedown. "What is it?" "Trial transcript." Duo backed away and went ashen. "Oh...y-yeah? No kiddin'..." It had been a comfortable feeling knowing that Heero never knew the awful things that were said about him in the trial, but now he had it all written down in black and white to browse through at his leisure. "How'd you get that? Sweet-talk the court clerk's wife?" the chef joked with a nervous grin. Heero flipped over the second page and moved on to the third. "Yes." "Oh." Now it was serious. Heero didn't generally use his powers of persuasion over women unless there was something important at stake, which meant that he wouldn't be dissuaded from reading about anything that happened in the trial. He watched Heero read line after line, feeling the knot in his stomach tighten; eventually, the butler got to a page that made him frown, and Duo knew he must have hit on something particularly terrible. Heero looked up. "Where's Hilde?" Duo blinked. "Uh...she and the girls are having a party for Relena in the drawing room..." That wasn't the inquiry he expected, but it only took a moment to realize what it was Heero was after. He threw out a hand to stop the boy by the arm as he turned to leave. "Go easy on her, okay?" Heero paused and looked over his shoulder. "She'll be fine." Duo let go of his arm, and then he was gone. He went straight down the stairs and made a beeline for the drawing room, where all the women of the house were holding an impromptu celebration for Relena's entrance into womanhood. They had asked Duo to bake her a cake with pink frosting, and they all sat around chatting and drinking hot cider and apologizing for not realizing how badly she needed their guidance earlier. Heero stood at the door unnoticed, and used his high-temperature gaze to catch Hilde's attention. She excused herself from the group and went out in the hall to see what the butler required of her. When she got near, he could smell liquor on her, and quickly deduced that it wasn't ordinary cider that was being passed around. Without much of an introduction, he opened the trial transcript to the pertinent page and showed it to her. "Why?" Hilde was only a little tipsy, but didn't seem to see the stark white page three inches from her face. "Why what?" "Why did you do this?" Heero asked pointedly, tapping the page that displayed her testimony. "Why did you perjure yourself on the witness stand?" The brunette blinked and read the page, suddenly remembering that she lied under oath about being at the railroad tracks and being kissed by Duo. Up until now, Heero had no idea that Duo had told anyone about the incident, and found it curious that the one person he would have thought would be infuriated by the knowledge chose to look the other way--more than that, to go out of her way to see to it that the truth was never discovered. "Oh, that," she mumbled, smiling, "it was just the right thing to do, that's all." The white pages went into Heero's jacket pocket, and the two of them looked at each other for awhile; every few seconds, Hilde took another sip of her cider and giggled, making Heero wonder if this was really the best time to be discussing this. Nevertheless, he wanted answers. "He told you what happened...and you weren't upset? I don't understand." Hilde walked up to him, surrounded by a cloud of alcohol, and dragged a sympathetic and tender hand down the side of his face. "Because I love him," she said with a slur. Then, whether it was a side-effect of the drink or a genuine gesture, she curled her tiny, cream-coloured hand around his cravat tie and pulled herself forward, planting a firm, brandy-soaked kiss right on his lips. Heero staggered backwards a step, but the girl would not be dislodged until she had well and truly had her fill of him, for the moment. She released him and stepped away, giggling faintly at how charmingly bewildered he looked, then sauntered back to the party while looking over her shoulder and giving him a very definite 'come-hither' glance. To Heero's swirling, perplexed mind, the exchange made absolutely no sense, but he hesitated to tell the one person in the house who might have known her well enough to decipher her behaviour into plain English; he just wasn't sure how Duo would take it. Backpedalling away from the drawing room and accelerating into a full gallop from there to the foot of the servants' stairs, he decided that Duo blathering about the kittens was more logical than a drunken Hilde, and retreated to his room. He wiped off whatever traces of her lipstick might have remained and vowed to give the situation more thought after a good night's sleep; thankfully, every night spent with Duo translated into a good night's sleep. |
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Next, in Episode Twenty-Seven: For decades, a secret has been locked within the walls of Bridlewood Manor, inaccessible to anyone who couldn't unlock the puzzle of where it was hidden. Treize and Heero find themselves vying for the same prize, but who will reach it first?
I love confusing myself. I love it SO much, it scares me. =^_~= But remember, Mitsugi doesn't do anything without a good reason, so all will be revealed in the fullness of time! Watch my website for the historical notes belonging to this episode: they will include *drumroll* the recipe for tagliatelle primavera! Mmmm, can't you just taste it? =^_~= Next episode is earmarked for November the 22nd, which, according to my handy-dandy wall calendar, appears to be the American Thanksgiving! =^_^= Hopefully, my story is something to be thankful for. *grins bashfully* Ja ne!