Bridlewood Manor

by Mitsugi

BACK FROM THE DEAD! (1-2-1) The ongoing saga of a Japanese spy and an American waif, thrown together in a tapestry of espionage, romance and murder in London of the early 1900s, with the fabulous Peacecraft estate as a backdrop for their adventures.

33. Fare Thee Well

*makes a grab for the Kleenex box* ....slight angst!!

Disclaimer: My New Year's resolution is to write a good disclaimer! ......right after I lose ten pounds, clean out my closet, buy the Brooklyn Bridge and achieve world peace. The pilots and Peacecrafts below aren't mine, and that's a crying shame.

Suggested Font: Times New Roman
~~~~~~~~~~

Episode Thirty-Three: Fare Thee Well "Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you." ~Richard Marx January 11th, 1902 Relena stared out the window at the street, lightly populated with socialites out for a brisk winter walk and the occasional horse-drawn carriage. A well-dressed couple in a Daimler motorcar rolled by, two of her neighbours who were famous for having the very latest and best of everything. That could be Heero and me in a few months' time...that will be us. I won't settle for anything less, and anything that gets in the way will disappear. She watched the motorcar like a hawk as it putt-putt-putted down the road and out of sight. I want one of those. When there was nothing left to look at, she turned and pranced out to the front hall, where she was fortuitously bumped into by Otto. "And where are they this morning?" she asked dryly. Her posture was regal and her eyelids were at half mast. She meant business. "They've gone to the vet, m'lady," the house steward said in a disinterested tone. "Apparently they found some stray cat wandering around the estate, and they took it in...for a checkup...I suppose." He finished with a sheepish shrug that almost suggested guilt at allowing lowly servants to enjoy such a decadent indulgence as owning a pet. Relena wrinkled her nose. "Stray cat...how common. Just what Frederick wants in the house, too, another feline. Well, as soon as they get back, make sure they understand that they're not to keep it in the house, or Anna Maria might be upset." She tugged at the thick crochet shawl around her shoulders. "Is everyone packed?" "Yes, and the excess baggage is going out on the 12:40 train." Otto clasped his hands behind his back and shuffled his feet. "M'lady...I understand that Arthur's staying behind to tend the grounds, but I've counted the train tickets again and again, and there's one missing. Is someone else staying?" Relena stood there and fluttered her eyelids; she learned how to do it out of a magazine, with Dorothy's help. "Yes." There was nothing more that she was obligated to say about it, and so she walked away. Only a moment later, the front door opened and the missing persons returned. One was holding a little gray cat bundled up in a plaid woolen blanket, and the other was nursing a slight scratch wound on his hand. One was smiling, and the other was not. "You were such a brave girl today, weren't you? Yes you were! Does it still hurt, snookums? Has you got a boo-boo on your paw-paw?" one said while tickling the cat under the chin. "No need to gush over my injuries," the other deadpanned. "Aw, you know she didn't mean to scratch you, she was just scared of the needle!" While Otto watched and rolled his eyes, Duo brushed snow off the blanket keeping little Shadow warm and nuzzled her soft fur. "But she's all better now...aren't you sweetie?" Shadow purred, confirming that, despite a harrowing experience at the veterinarian's office, all was well once again. "Master Heero," Otto said gruffly, "although you are no longer a member of the staff, her Ladyship would like me to remind you that it does not give you license to go gallivanting all over the city whenever you feel like it. Your responsibilities are here, now more than ever." "Perhaps she'd like to tie a string around my wrist and yank on it whenever she has another china pattern for me to look at," Heero said with a glare as he took off his coat. "And she also asked me to tell you not to keep that...animal...in the house. There's far too much wildlife in here as it is without you two adding to it." Duo took immediate offense, tucking the kitty bundle under one arm and perching his opposite hand on his hip. "I'll have you know she's halfway to being a pedigree 'animal', and now she's got papers to prove it!" He pulled a little typed card out of his inside coat pocket and held it up indignantly. "See? 'One blue Turkish Angora mix, aged three months. Certified for showing in the mixed breed category of any cat show in the Commonwealth of Great Britain.' Deal with it." Heero smirked inwardly. Vets didn't usually give out certificates like that without signatures from the owners of the sire and queen who parented the cat in question, but even in the outer fringes of the medical profession, money was a great motivator. Otto ignored the boy and walked over to Heero, removing an envelope from his own coat pocket and handing it to him. "This came for you while you were out." There was nothing else he was obligated to say to either of them, and so he also walked away. Heero frowned at the handwriting on the envelope, hesitating. "I might need a drink before opening this," he suggested. Looking concerned, Duo followed him down to the kitchen, where they let Shadow out of the blanket and onto the kitchen table. The chef put a bottle of gin on standby as Heero sat down and tore the letter open, emotionally deflated. "I had to inform Jeffrhyss that I was being relocated, even temporarily. I don't think I really want to know what he has to say about it." "Well...what's the worst he could do?" Duo's eyes were suddenly filled with intense worry, and Heero couldn't possibly tell him that the only people who might have known that were long dead. Instead, he quickly put on a slipshod mask of indifference. "He wouldn't do any permanent damage to me. I'm far too valuable for that." It was probably true. He dove into the letter, and after only a few lines, Duo could sense a cloud of melancholy hovering over the table. "How bad is it?" he asked. "Bad enough," Heero answered. "He's following me to Hampshire." He studied the enclosed map to his Lordship's new bunker on the Isle of Wight and frowned, showing the page to Duo. "And from the look of this, he'll be even closer than he is now." Ever since Heero's weekly trips to check in with his master began, Duo had a very uncomfortable feeling about what was going on, but he knew better than to just ask. Heero had always wanted to keep him as far from Jeffrhyss as possible, so Duo just had to accept that the less he knew, the better off he'd be. He put on his own cheerful mask that deftly deflected all rays of unpleasantness and smirked. "Hey, at least if you're late getting back, at that distance I could send a carrier pigeon to tell you when dinner's ready!" He followed that brilliant revelation up with a series of arm flaps and birdie chirps, the silliness of which finally forced a small smile out of his sullen companion. Having had enough bad news for one day, they carried their cat upstairs to finish packing for the long journey ahead. ********** "You must come and visit us in the country as soon as you can," Relena said, shaking Wufei's hand daintily. "It just won't be the same without you around, and you play such a good game of backgammon! I'll miss you very much." "Just name the time and the place, and I'll be there!" Wufei said with his most charming smile. "It has indeed been a pleasure working with you, m'lady." He kissed her hand, and with one final wink, donned a thick white coat and left through the front door. Relena lingered a moment, thinking about all the work he'd put into the rooms he redecorated, and walked away with a smile, shutting the door behind her. Outside, Wufei was thinking about how well he blended into the snowy landscape whenever he pulled the hood up on his pure white coat, but he knew it didn't make him totally invisible. He went directly from the front step into the front garden, stepping between the sleeping flower bulbs and ducking below the windows. A few quick jumps, and he was around the corner and counting windows, looking for the one he left slightly ajar. He was nothing but a black and white blur when he leapt back inside, but he was still two rooms away from the safety of the drawing room, and his hidden wall niche where he'd be spending the foreseeable future. There was, however, a major obstacle between him and the cone of silence--voices coming from the drawing room. "Relena's all excited about seeing the old family home again. I've never seen her so happy." A girl's voice. The snobbish one. Dorothy, he thought. "Well, here's hoping there's enough there to keep her occupied for as long as this takes," a man's voice replied. Definitely Treize. Wufei crouched down by the doorway of the room across the hall and paid even closer attention. "Now, you know what to do, don't you? I'll come down with you all and stay for a week, two weeks at the most, then suddenly get called away on 'business'. By then, my men will have already completed a full survey of the house, and we'll have a makeshift set of blueprints to work from." "Sounds like you've got the easy part," Dorothy whined. "I'll be snowed in with Lord and Lady Muck for the rest of the winter, don't forget!" "Yes, well..." Treize paused, and Wufei could only guess at the action, but there was a rustling of cloth and a soft click, followed by a gasp from Dorothy. "I'm not expecting a smooth ride myself." "Good grief...that thing's not loaded, is it!?" "It most certainly is," Treize said calmly, and the rustling of cloth repeated itself. Wufei guessed correctly that the hidden object was a revolver. "Relena's decorator, the one that followed us all the way from Hamburg..." "Yes? What about him?" Dorothy waited for him to clarify, without success. After she thought she recognized the dark-eyed boy from somewhere, Treize had confirmed him as the railroad porter who was so obstinate back in Dover, but he left out the part where Wufei held a knife to his throat and swore revenge for...something. As far as the Baroness knew, the lad just followed them around hoping to leech off of their class and superiority. Dorothy grew impatient. "What!?" "He's not a decorator, or a simple spy," Treize said smoothly. "He's an assassin." Dorothy clapped both hands over her mouth to keep from screaming, and Treize used the conveniently-placed silence to elaborate. "To be perfectly honest, I've known for some time. I just didn't see much purpose in telling you...until now." The Baroness sputtered and fumed, enraged that her partner would endanger her well-being so carelessly. "What were you doing, keeping this from me!? All this time he's been...a-and I've been...and he could have...oh!! You're just horrible! What if he'd kidnapped me for ransom!? What if--" "If he was going to do anything to you, my dear, he would have already done it," Treize declared firmly. "Nothing personal, but as far as targets go, you rank slightly below a Cornish game hen with one wing and a limp. I'm the one he's after, but you don't need to know why. The only reason I saw fit to tell you at all is that I want you to inform me if he starts nosing around in Hampshire while I'm here working. I strongly suspect he'll be following us there today, but he wouldn't dare kill me with so many witnesses or he would have finished me off long ago. No, he's waiting until I'm alone, and it will seem rather suspicious to him when I disappear suddenly. Don't give him any information, but telephone the manor at once when you see him." Dorothy whirled around and crossed her arms, with her nose in the air as far as it would go. "That's all I am to you, isn't it!? A lookout!" "Nonsense," Treize said with velvet in his voice. He walked in front of her, positively glowing with his most seductive smile, and grasped her lightly by the chin, tilting her face up even further. "You're a very pretty lookout." She did her best to ignore him, but he saw through it much too easily; his charming smile morphed into a smirk, and he released her, walking casually from the room. Once he was gone, Dorothy shuddered in anger, clenching her fists into little white-knuckled clumps of fury, but when she finally composed herself, there was an odd sense of balance coming to the whole situation. Alright...so he's been keeping secrets from me. I've been doing the same, haven't I? There's no telling how things would change if he knew about the Winner tontine...no, I'll just have to put up with his secrets, if I have any interest in keeping my own. Confident that she was still doing the right thing, she composed herself, smoothed out her platinum blonde locks, and padded lightly out of the room. The drawing room was empty, and the corridor was vacant as far as one could see in either direction. A white and black blur slipped across the hall, dashed through the drawing room with the silence of a prowling panther, and was safely inside the wall, all within ten seconds. ********** Relocating even a diminished household from London to the countryside was no small undertaking, especially in winter. The Hampshire estate had a full compliment of household items, including all the furniture, kitchenware and knickknacks a family could want, but there was still all the clothes, shoes, toiletries and valuables to consider, not to mention diverting the mail, postponing the newspaper, and cancelling several bottles of milk. The full wardrobes of every family member had been going out in shifts on the train, starting with Relena's impressive dress collection and winding down with the servants' uniforms. Heero and Duo would be among the last to have their belongings transported, and they sat up in their room sorting everything out on the bed, what little there was; combined, everything they owned or were granted the use of by their superiors took up less room than Relena's hatboxes alone. Still, they were both going out with more than they came in with, and Heero was puzzling over how to fit it all into two suitcases and a carpet bag. "Whoa...do you really use all these?" Duo asked, holding up one of the strange items that made Heero's luggage unusually heavy. It was an enormously thick book of street maps encompassing most of Europe. With it, he could pinpoint almost any city block or country lane in more than a dozen nations, if necessary. "On occasion." Heero could scarcely believe that he was so comfortable and trusting with Duo that he would allow the boy to rummage through his small arsenal of top-secret supplies, but it was a strangely pleasant feeling all the same. He reached out to the bedside table and picked up one of the colourful metal watchbirds perched there. "We'll need something soft to pack these in," he said, handing it to Duo. The chef smiled and took the little bird from him, stroking its wings and beak as he loved to do. Traditionally, they were supposed to have been on the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, but Duo had preferred to leave them where they sat, watching over him and his closest friend as they held each other in the darkness. "These were the first presents you ever gave me," he mused quietly. "Man...I thought you were such a jerk the first day we met." Heero shrugged. "I was." "You wouldn't give me any help in the kitchen, even though you knew I couldn't read any of the cookbooks, you smacked me around, called me an idiot..." Duo smiled. "Well, you still do that, but I've come to think of it as a term of endearment." "And you still snore," Heero countered, "although I must admit, it doesn't bother me the way it used to." "Must not, since you haven't pulled a gun on me lately," the chef taunted. "Geez...feels like it all went by so fast. How long has it been, six months?" "Seven." "Mmm." A pleasant fog of memories floated between them as they each replayed their personal highlight reel of how they both changed since their first meeting. Heero knew without asking that he had changed the most, and he didn't want to go back to the way he was. Twelve years of his life had been given over to an existence that he didn't even know was miserable until recently; now, he had a bit of money, a bit of freedom, a safe home, some friendly acquaintances...and best of all, a little braided bedmate who kept him warm at night, and made him feel wanted during the day. There were still wrinkles to be ironed out, but on the whole, life was good. Duo seemed to be reading his thoughts, something he liked to do at least twice a day. "Otto says the country house we're going to is even bigger than this one, so it might have more space for the servants...do you think they'll make us take separate rooms?" "They can't make us do anything," Heero declared, sensing the lack of confidence in Duo's voice. "Yeah, but...you're not staff anymore..." He was getting dangerously close to the subject of Heero's engagement, and while he didn't feel threatened by it, he really had no desire to talk about it either, and so changed the subject. "You know, that night you yelled at me for reading your mail and ended up chasing me all over the attic? I was that close to running away and never coming back, but honest to God, being chased was a blast! I didn't realize how much I enjoyed it until later...you really should chase me more often." Duo hugged his knees to his chest, hiding his face a little as he smiled at Heero. "I'm glad you caught me." Heero smiled back; he'd had severe doubts about Duo in the beginning, but things couldn't have turned out better. "Come on," he said, "let's start carting all this downstairs. You take the cases, and I'll go find a box or two for the rest." "Right!" Duo jumped off the bed, took Heero's suitcases, and trotted downstairs merrily; it was all so thrilling, going with such a large group of people to a place full of natural wonders and open spaces, and he could barely contain himself. Goodbye, yucky, dingy city with your filthy streets and gas fumes...hello clean country air! As soon as the snow melts, I'm taking Heero on a nice, long walk in the woods, and maybe we'll-- "Are those Heero's things?" a girl's voice asked as soon as he reached the front hall. Duo cringed a bit. It was Relena, standing amidst a veritable forest of crates and trunks that had yet to be transported. She wore a posh lace dress, a posh air of superiority to match, and was looking at him very strangely. "Yeah, he's upstairs packing up my stuff right now." He set the cases down, turned around, and began walking away with the intention of putting as much distance between himself and the girl as possible, but he didn't get far. Relena strode quickly forward and stopped him with a firm hand in the centre of his chest. He looked up slowly, shocked at how fast she'd intercepted him. "Uh...something wrong?" Relena removed the hand, scratched the side of her nose, and rubbed her fingertips together, thinking. "Duo, the train tickets are sitting on the mantle in the parlour. Would you get them for me, please?" Duo blinked. "Sure." He might not have liked her personally, but he liked to be helpful, and went very obediently to the parlour to fetch the tickets. He brought them back in a neat and tidy pile and held them out to her. "Count them," she said. Duo thumbed through the tickets, separating them one by one. "There's, ermm....eleven." "Thank you." Relena took the tickets and walked away. While she put the stack of one-way passes in her purse and donned her crochet shawl again, Duo stood puzzling, his eyebrows knit as he did some quick mental math. "Wait a sec...there's you, me, Heero..." Relena swung around to face him with a snake's smile, delighting in the perplexed expression the boy wore as he counted off the family on his fingers. "...Tro n' Quat...Beth, Hilde, Doris and Elsie...the Count, the Baroness, Otto...and Arthur's staying to look after the grounds...that's twelve! You're short one ticket!" He rather expected some display of panic from Relena, however small, but she just stood there, grinning. A heavier-than-usual application of 'Charming Charcoal' eyeshadow to her upper lids gave her a winsome but somewhat sinister appearance. "Well, what are we gonna do? Shouldn't someone call the station and find out if the train's full yet? Shouldn't there be a contingency plan in case of emergency? Shouldn't...shouldn't you be blinking or something??" "Every person who is going to Hampshire is being given a ticket," she said, walking very deliberately up to him, still displaying that reptilian grin. "But you're not going." "......what? Why!?" She just about giggled at the pasty gray colour he turned, running a finger lazily up and down the lapel of his brown tweed jacket. "It's very simple, Mister Maxwell. Heero is my fiancé. I am responsible for him. You are a bad influence. By taking him away and leaving you in London, I am thereby removing that influence." "You can't do that!" Duo huffed. "And anyway, I don't know where you get your silly ideas, but--" "I'll save you the indignity of lying, since I know you have a moral objection to that, if nothing else," Relena spat. "I saw you force yourself on Heero at the party on New Year's Eve. You can't hide your disgusting habits from me anymore, because I know what you are, but as long as you have Prince Edward's signature on that piece of paper in the drawing room, I also know I can't get rid of you without causing a scene in the newspapers...so I'll make you a deal. I get to rescue Heero from your depraved, immoral attitudes, and you don't get fired." Duo stretched up to his full height and squared his shoulders, to remind her that he was an inch taller and several pounds heavier. All that protein and working out with Heero paid off; he was no longer a stick insect. "First...you don't know jack about who or what I am. That's for God to decide. Second, what do you figure you're gonna do for food out in the country without me around? Order out from a bed and breakfast? Forage for nuts and berries? Swipe the neighbour's cow and portion it out to the staff one steak at a time?" "We have plenty of workers on the estate," she countered, not the least but intimidated, "I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding one of them to cook for us, and if not, there's always Elsie. Besides, Uncle Treize is sending some workers here to clean this place professionally from top to bottom, and they'll need to be fed, so unless you want to leave of your own free will and take your pathetic chances in a country with twelve million impoverished and unemployed, you have no choice." Duo bristled and looked away, fists clenched and neck muscles straining with rage. It took an awful lot to make him angry, even on a bad day, and the only thing that saved Relena from a fierce and extraordinarily painful hair-pulling worthy of the Spanish Inquisition was a set of approaching footsteps. Heero walked up from the servants' stairwell, having just missed the tail end of the exchange, balancing a box on his right shoulder with one arm and toting a carpet bag with the other. He slowed down when he sensed what could only be described as bad vibes. There was something decidedly odd about the way Duo and Relena were looking at each other, Heero thought, but his first duty was to deposit his cargo safely with the rest of the luggage bound for Hampshire. Relena scrunched up her nose at the dusty old carpet bag from the attic in particular, picking it up gingerly like an oily rag and presenting it to Duo. "Is this yours?" Duo glared with the heat of ten thousand hells and took it from her. "Yes, miss." "Well, take it back upstairs, and anything else of yours that's gotten mixed in with our things." As the scowling boy picked up the box as well and started away, Heero looked back and forth between them frantically. "Wha--...where are you...what's going on?" Relena snatched him expertly by the arm and began marching him towards the opposite hallway, stroking his cheek. "Don't worry, darling, he's not coming anywhere near the country house. I've taken care of everything, and now I'm going to take extra special care of you." Heero didn't even waste his energy glaring at her, he just twisted violently out of her grip and ran after Duo. Relena recoiled from his forceful retreat that could have sprained her delicate little wrist if he'd been the slightest bit more careless about it. "Heero! Come back here!" she shouted, but it was no use. Oh no...it's even worse than I thought. Oh, my poor angel... Heero caught up with Duo at nearly full gallop and jumped in front of him. "What are you doing?" Duo slowly stopped and looked up from the floor, his ashen face replete with mournful resignation. "I can't come with you." He tried to shuffle past Heero with his meagre belongings, but Heero would have none of it. Still much stronger than his student, he grabbed him by the arm, backed him up into a random games room, and shut the door, now glaring at maximum intensity. Duo dropped his parcels dejectedly and stared at his shoes. "You can't come with me just because she says so?" "Look, she's...really got me cornered. She threatened to toss me back into the gutter where she found me. I can't let that happen! I swore I'd never go back to that life!" "Then you can stay at the pub until I come back." "And how long's that supposed to be!?" Duo hollered, finally starting to match glares with his teacher. "You yourself told me that you can't come back until June or the end of your mission, whichever came first! I'm supposed to give up the only paying job I'm likely to get to go sit in that pokey little room for six months with no books and no company? At least if I stay, I'll have Arthur to talk to!" Heero's glare softened. "Then I'm staying too." Before he could finish the phrase, Duo was already shaking his head. "No, Heero...you have to go. You have to keep an eye on Treize or..." His amethyst eyes filled with a pain that had lingered with him since Heero visited him in jail. "When I was cooling my heels downtown waiting for my trial, and you were in that little village up north...what did Jeffrhyss do to you?" Heero stiffened from the neck up. Forget it. I can't tell you what happened to me because of our impromptu holiday, not ever. You wouldn't be able to forgive yourself. "Nothing." Duo squinted sympathetically and took a step forward. "Heero...this may come as a terrible shock to the part of your brain that controls spying and subterfuge and all that, but...I can tell when you're lying." He could see, written all over Heero's face, that he was in a state of slightly embarrassed shock over that one. Obviously, nobody had ever told him that they could see right through his deceptions before. It just didn't happen. "I know that guy did something to you," Duo continued, "and I know you haven't been completely right since you started going back to him once a week. He's a total control freak who can't stand the thought of you having your own life apart from the mission, can't you see that? If you defy Relena and stay here with me, you'll be missing out on perfectly good surveillance time while Treize is smokin' his cigars eighty miles away, or worse, she could throw us both out of the house, and then you'd lose Treize altogether! Your mission could be a failure! What would Jeffrhyss do to you then, huh!? Ground you for two weeks with a smack on the wrist? Nuh-uh, I don't think so!" Heero looked down. He couldn't argue with any of it; further to that, all the times in the past when he had called Duo an idiot, even in his thoughts, were showing him up very badly now, for the boy was remarkably intuitive and intelligent, more so than even Heero had given him credit for. Duo crept closer, hugging himself tightly, almost so hard that he couldn't breathe. It was torture, being so close and knowing they were about to be ripped apart. Duo ached all over to be held, but he wouldn't dare ask Heero even for that simple comfort; it would have made their parting ten times as difficult, he reasoned. "So...anyway...Treize is sending some goons to case the joint. Somebody's gotta watch them, so it might as well be me, right?" There was a certain logic to it, Heero was loathe to admit. "Right." A depressing silence fell upon the games room as the boys realized this was their one shot at goodbye. They wouldn't be able to do it properly on the front step, not with the whole family watching from hired carriages parked a few yards away. That thought flitted back and forth across the unspoken bonds they shared, and at the same second, they reached out and embraced each other, committing every sensation to memory, to sustain them through their separation. "You take care of yourself out there, okay?" Duo whispered. "...and you keep up with your studies," Heero whispered back. Cold set in around them as they gradually let go. Duo hoisted up his belongings while Heero opened the door, and they each walked away down separate paths. ********** There was quite the production happening at the farmhouse by the mill wheel outside Cloverderry Glen, and no one seemed to know why--or at least, no one seemed willing to tell Noin. The underground chambers beneath the humble country cottage were being cleaned out, to the last speck of dust, and a crew of no less than twenty people were assisting in the work. They spanned the ages of thirty or so right down to little children of ten or twelve, and they all ignored Noin purposefully as they marched up and down the stairs carrying boxes and books and crates and papers, all wearing the same bland rags. From a well-cleaned-out corner, Lord Jeffrhyss stood and supervised, balancing on his peg legs without the help of his cane, and watching the disassembly line for any signs of slacking off. Noin was told to pack her things, for she would be accompanying his Lordship on whatever journey he was about to undertake; the penalty for disobedience was, as always, giving her secret to the news agencies to toy with until Noin's family, and the family of the young man she loved as well, were bereft of their golden reputations. She had to agree, for her love's sake, and was milling about in her tiny cell, putting her things back in her suitcase and putting on her gray cotton travelling dress. She was lucky enough to have a small shoebox window at the top of the outside wall, and if she stood on the bed, she could see the same people again, loading all the mysterious trinkets and charts into strange boxes on wheels, hardly fitting to be called coaches. The people weren't rushing or anxious, they simply...moved...like puppets on a wire, showing no fear, joy, curiosity or fatigue. A welcome sight flitted past her frost-edged window, and she cranked open the tiny pane of glass to call out. "Professor!" she beckoned. A few feet away and facing the opposite direction, Professor Giorgenson, decked out in his village idiot costume and puffing away at his pipe, paused in his strolling and looked around. "Hm?" "Down here!" Giorgenson looked down, then crouched and examined a half-dead weed with great interest. There had been a small wave of unseasonable warmth in the area, just enough to melt the thin layer of snow, and a ladybug was crawling languidly across a dark green leaf sticking out of the crusty ground. "Why hello there, Miss Ladybug," the mushroom-haired eccentric said, "what are you doing out of your nest? It's going to get cold again soon, did you know that? I did, because of the way my shoulder blades are seizing up. Blasted arthritis..." ".....behind you, Professor." The curious man turned around and crouched at Noin's window, pulling his spectacles down a notch to look at her. "Good gravy! What enormous ladybugs they're making these days!" Noin laughed, a rare treat, and one that always seemed to find her when Giorgenson was around. He knew it was hell living with Jeffrhyss, and liked to bring a little sunshine into her existence whenever he could, but today, she had serious issues on her mind. "I need to talk to the professor right now, can you find him?" she said with a smile. "Well, I'll certainly try, my dear." Giorgenson paused, coughed, scratched his head, and smiled, stuffing the crazy side of his personality in the closet for a short while. "What can I do for you?" "We're leaving, and he wants me to go with him, but he won't tell me where we're going," Noin explained quickly, knowing the real professor was intelligent enough to fill in the blanks. "My...gentleman friend...won't know where to find me if I don't know myself, and that's assuming Jeffrhyss will even let me write to him anymore! Nobody wants to tell me anything, if we're leaving the country, if we're ever coming back--" "Now, now, don't get yourself worked up," Giorgenson said in a soothing tone. "I was planning on following him anyway, so you just leave it to me. I promise I won't let you out of my sight, and if you have any secret correspondence to dispatch, well..." He mimed licking an envelope and putting it under his straw hat. "Never thought I'd be reduced to ferrying love letters, but there you are." Noin sighed with relief. "Thank you." "Anytime you like, Miss Ladybug," Giorgenson joked, rising creakily from his crouching position and tapping out his pipe. He looked around at the drones buzzing around with boxes and shook his head, not liking the lack of any human spark in their eyes. "I just don't know...he always does this, and it never gets him anywhere. A total exercise in futility! What he needs is a change of vocation, not location. Ah well...he wouldn't listen to me anyway. Never did, never will." He stretched his arms out lazily, gave a Noin a wink for luck, and wandered away, reciting to the deaf ears of Jeffrhyss' workers. "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time!...." Noin watched him fondly, greedily soaking up as much of his quizzical ways as she could before he disappeared altogether. He had said once that he admired her for not going completely crazy in that underground bunker, and she wanted to tell him that it was partly his unpredictability that kept her sane. Love for her soldier could only help her so much, bravery in the face of inhuman control could only help her so much...what she really needed was to laugh, and the mushroom-haired man hadn't failed her yet. ********** Right after lunch, there were three carriages waiting outside, being laden down with the last of the luggage. Treize, Dorothy and Relena were in the first carriage, Otto, Quatre and Trowa sat in the second, and the housemaids occupied the third. Coaches and horses combined, the parade still wasn't as long as the front property line of Bridlewood. After securing a few extra boxes under the seats of the second carriage, Otto could honestly declare that there wasn't one more stitch that could have fit in their hundred-foot caravan. He stepped back out onto the icy road when the last traveller exited the house with all the excitement of a prisoner being led to his execution. Relena was all smiles until the front door of the house opened, and an unwelcome tag-along popped out. "Heero! Wait up!" The boy stopped in his tracks and turned around, hoping for a last-minute reprieve. Duo jogged down the steps in his white chef's uniform with only his spiky brown hair to make him stand out against the snow. He had something in his arms, a bundle wrapped in a tea towel. "I brought someone to see you," Duo said, lifting the top flap off the bundle he carried. A furry face peeped out and meowed. Shadow had made a special trip out to see Heero, and he finally had a reason to smile as he reached up and scratched her a bit behind the ear. Duo cleared his throat. "I want you to take her with you." ".....with me? But she's yours..." "No, she's ours. It says so on her little card." Duo quickly gave the kitty bundle to Heero and rubbed his arms; the cold was getting to him. "I wrote down what she likes to eat and put it inside with her catnip mousie, and her papers are in there somewhere too. I just think...you're going to need her more. I'm used to being alone, and so are you, probably, but you have, like, no coping skills because of your warped upbringing an' all. When you get lonely, just give her a cuddle and I guarantee you'll feel better. Now get in the coach before I turn into a frozen chefsicle!" Along with the gift of a small friend to take his place, he gave Heero a classic Maxwell smirk, a slice of optimist pie that the recipient was truly grateful for. Shifting Shadow to his left arm, Heero reached into his inside coat pocket and quickly produced a little brass key with a tiny horse's head engraved into the thumbpiece. He pressed it into Duo's palm covertly, trying not to let anyone see. "That's the key to my room at the Muddy Nag. I'll keep the spare key just in case, but I want you to make use of it whenever you need to. Catherine's been paid up until April." The pair stood still for a while, exchanging whole heart-fulls of words and wishes using only their eyes. "....go on, baka, get back in the house before you freeze." They traded grins; Heero resumed his course to the lead carriage, while Duo fled for the warmth of the manor, causing much confusion among some of the spectators. "Why's Duo going back inside?" Quatre wondered sadly. "Don't tell me he's not coming!" Trowa shook his head in bewilderment. "I don't know what's going on. Maybe he's going to clean out the pantry and follow us or something..." In the third carriage, Hilde plastered herself against the window, rapping on it furiously, but all she got in return was a wave and a sad smile from Duo as he slipped back inside the house. The lead carriage also has some questions bouncing around inside it before Heero completed the short walk down to the street. "Relena, dear," Treize ventured, raising an eyebrow at his impetuous niece, "you're leaving the cook behind?" The girl shrugged. "I can do what I want with my staff, can't I?" Treize sighed and sat back, glancing at Dorothy, who sat on his right. Just what my men need, that braided disaster zone bumbling around and getting in the way. It would be a pity if they had to kill him...his chocolate rum truffles were excellent. As Heero stepped into the carriage, three pairs of eyes were magnetized to the fluffy package in his arms, but as he settled in, looked each one of them in the eye and let Shadow out of the tea towel, cuddling her with more kindness than he had shown any of them, they closed their mouths. Dorothy desperately wanted to know where he found the cat, with such soft, thick, luxurious fur as to rival Anna Maria's, but Heero didn't look in the best of moods, and pestering him just then could have proved fatal. Except for two handfuls of space where Shadow squirmed around, purring and pawing with an air of contentment, the temperature inside the lead carriage dropped about twenty degrees, its occupants freeze-dried by Heero's soulless glare. At last, the time had come to leave the hurly-burly of London behind. Three sets of reins were given a firm snap, and three sets of hooves stirred into motion, pulling the coaches away from 145 Whittington Place. With both hands against the glass, Duo stood at the front room window and said another silent goodbye to his friend.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next, in Episode Thirty-Four: Separation takes its toll on Duo and Heero so much that fate must intervene, not by bringing them together, but by distracting them with peculiarities they never would have expected. Treize sends his workmen to Bridlewood, but none of them know they're being watched from within the walls; Heero's had about all he can take of pre-married life, and strikes an unusual deal with a visiting stranger to buy back his freedom.

I hope you all had a nice holiday! =^_^= Hungry for more Bridlewood? Good! Mark down January 19th for Episode 34! I gotta split, dinner's on the table! Baibai!