Chapter Twelve Wake Up Call

It seems that everyone is so determined to wake me up rudely because when I woke up, I first smelt food. That was what probably woke me. It was a wonderful smell. I thought it was probably bacon and eggs, and extremely mouth watering…so much so that I had drool dribbling down my cheek. I, however, thought I was waking in my own house. When I realized that the light was on the wrong side of the bedroom, I opened my blurred eyes to see where I was, only to have my vision covered by a shadowed face.
I screamed and swung at the person and hit him with a loud smacking sound.
"My gods, woman, I haven't even done anything to you, and yet you smack me! I even have food, but if your gunna be smackin' people, I think I won't give it to ya." I was confused for a few moments. I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision and saw Leo off to the side of the bed with a plate of food. My stomach growled and I realized he was actually eating the food that he had in his hand that was originally for me.
I got up with out saying anything and walked to him. He had a fork full of (I was right) ham and eggs, and yes ham and bacon are the same to me, same animal, right? (As the toucan guy said, "Always follow your nose." If I ever have to do that, I don't think ever I'll be misled.) He didn't eat it however, because, I think, he was wondering what I was doing.
I took the fork from his hands and ate the bit of food that was on the fork. "Yummy," was all I said before I grabbed the plate from his hands. I walked over to the bed, sat down with the plate and fork and started to eat the food.
Leo had the look of astonishment on his face and I fought to keep my face strait. (If there is one thing I can do well, it's keeping my face strait in funny situations.)
"Anything else you would need with that, your highness?" He said sarcastically.
"Some milk, and on the double." I looked at him, and snapped my fingers impatiently. I think he thought I was serious.
He was about to walk out the door when I had to stop him. "Do you think I'm serious?" He turned around and I stood up, setting the plate on the desk next to the bed. "If you think I'm serious, come here now and let me smack you again. Do you ever have any fun anymore? You know, like jokes. The ones that make your stomach hurt. The ones that make you haha and hehe." He looked grave. "My God, you don't." I said in astonishment.(I'm starting to think that if you have a serious part in the rogue, you start to either: A) forget how to have fun or B) loose you mind. )
"I have plenty of fun. I don't know what you're talking about." He said it like he was trying to defend himself even though I don't think that was what he intended. He changed the subject by rubbing his face where I guess I had hit him. "You really do have quite the arm. I'm glad I wasn't in that man's shoes that grabbed ya last night."
"You saw that?" I was a little embarrassed.
"Are you kidding? I heard it. You must have broken his nose along with some other face bones. But that's only a guess from all the blood comin' out of his nose and mouth. Half the blood on the shirt I was wearing last night wasn't mine." That brought back the image of when Leo broke the man's neck last night. I know that snapping a neck doesn't leave blood, but I was still reminded of it.
Thinking of cloths, "Hey," I looked around. "Where is my dress?"
"I hate to brake it to ya, but that under dress is now part of my rag collection. It has blood all over it. As for the over dress, you might be able to dye it another color." He went to go grab it. It was on a chair in front of the window.
When I looked out of the window, I saw the daylight. It hit me. " Leo," I sounded shaken up.
"Yes?" He looked over at me, calm looking.
"What time is it?"
"Why, it's probably two hours, maybe three after sunrise. Why?"
"ts Friday, right? I know it is. I got to get to work!" I went in a panic when I realized I was going to be late. I had no dress I couldn't go outside. I had nothing to wear and I would have to be at work in about twenty minuets or so. "Leo, I have no dress to wear!"
"Now that puts you in a predicament, now doesn't it." He sounded so calm. He even looked it. He walked over to his chair and sat down slowly, crossed his legs, and propped one elbow on the arm of the chair, and held up his head with his thumb, and first two fingers
"Why are you so calm! I'm gunna be late and I..." I walked around looking for something, anything to help me, but walk isn't quite the word, it was more like pacing frantically around the whole room. Leo got up and stopped me, literally. He picked me up and tossed me onto the bed.
"You panic too easily. Stop that! If your gunna be in a the rogue, don't panic. Panicking only gets you killed…I know." He started to walk out of the door.
"But, but, but..." I was mumbling. I stopped when he pulled out a dress of crimson and black. It was of a totally different fashion then I wore. It was an underskirt (the crimson part) and the bodice was black. But is wasn't quite a bodice. It was like a corset that didn't have shoulders. It just tied under my breasts. It was more of a shapely thing. It had three places where it had to be laced up.
"Now, do you really think I would have forgotten about you having to a respectable working job?" He handed me the dress. "Now get ready or you really will be late." I walked away with my mouth open. I was kinda angry that he didn't tell me he had a dress for me, but, then again, I was happy that he had one for me at all.
I went into the closet to change. I had the nightshirt I was wearing off when I looked through the crack in the door. (There is always a door I find here that never completely closes.) I saw him with the fork full of food, leading it dangerously close to his mouth.
I covered my chest and pocked my head out of the door. "Don't even think about eating that, buddy." I said it with clenched teeth that had the same amount of venom as a King Cobra. I must have startled him, because he jumped a little.
"Oh, yea? And what are you gunna do about it?" He retorted, when he swept the startled look off his face. "I bet you got nothing on and I could run with this food right now if I wanted."
"Don't tempt me, little man. I will run out of this closet, cloth or no, and I will have that food! I'm dead hungry and I'll fight ya for it if I have to." I stuck my fist out of the door, and shook it at him. And as venomous as I was sounding, I was actually trying to get a smile out of him, and it actually worked! In all light, it worked.
He gave up. "Fine, you win." I'm sure he was thinking of the man from last night and the jolt he got this morning. He set the food down and started to stare at me.
"Oh." I said. I forgot I was still only behind a door with only a shirt covering my chest. I closed the door and got dressed.
Remember I said there where three places to tie it. Damn fashion. Well, there are two places in the front and one in the back. I couldn't reach the one in the back, so I called for Leo. He wasn't in the bedroom, so I went looking for him. It was a small house so it would have been pretty easy to find him. Right? Wrong.
He was actually outside saddling Zenith when I found him. "Tie me, please." I pleaded like a child. He did, and I fussed about how hard he was pulling the whole time. I finally settled with how he did it and figured I would get it fixed at the Dove. I ran inside and grabbed my apron and the plate of food.
Leo was already mounted on Zenith when I got out. I handed him the plate and he took it looking at me oddly. I just looked at him and said, "What, never heard of take out." And extended my hand for him to help me up. ( Haha, inside future joke. Aw, and no one to share it with. This is no fun.)
Once we were up and going, he asked me what take out was. I told him what it was, sugar coated so he didn't know the real truth, of course. He said it was weird and he would never understand where it came from. I wasn't going to compare the differences, all though I had thought about it just to confuse him.
When we got to the Dove, he tied Zenith up with the other few horses and went in saying I had eaten his food and he was hungry. (Hey, he gave me the food, right? I mean, he stuck it in front of my face and tempted me. So rightfully it was mine whether he intended it for me or not.)
It's odd, we were almost killed by who knows who for some unknown reason, and we were laughing and acting like it never happened. That is, until we saw George. (So rouge-ish.)
We both greeted him, and I asked him how everything went with the foreigners. He said he got them all and asked me why I didn't go home last night, looking like he was suspicious of me and Leo. He also gave me the same look when he first saw me in the dress. Well, it was more directed at Leo, but whatever. ( Whoa, weird. Me and Leo? NO way. Cute, but still, no way)
I laughed. "Do you think I was with Le...Atreyu last night? Like that?"
"Well, it kind of looks like it." He was playful enough, but behind the mask he wasn't all buttercups and daises.
Leo spoke up. "Gwen, why don't you let me explain everything and you get to work before you get in trouble." I nodded and walked away.
When I saw George look at me in concern, though, I went back.
"You don't have to be here, Gwen. I can handle it." Leo said.
"Naw. It was an attempt on my life as well as yours." I looked over at George, who looked a little concerned after the words attempt, my, and life were all used in the same sentence so casually. But I continued like I didn't see his look of concern. "So you got all of the foreigners? They're all accounted for?" He nodded.
Leo looked very thoughtful, "Then they must have been someone else. They probably had a reason for attacking us. But why? I don't think I have done anything to offend anyone lately, have you Gwen?" I shock my head. (Who do I have to offend? A roach for being under my bed. Well, I don't know, those two last night could have been roaches. Ugly enough, at least.)
"Well, maybe they're after me. You said they didn't kill Gwen right away." George looked at me. "Did the man have his knife out when he had a hold on you?"
I thought about it, recalling all the bloody details and the horror of what happened last night. "No, he didn't."
"Then he was after me, most likely." He looked at me. I mean really looked at me. He took my arm and pushed my sleeve up to revile bruises that had been made by the man that grabbing me off of Zenith, and my struggle to get away.
Leo looked at my arm, and then at George, "You don't want my ear for lettin' harm come to her, do ya?" He was serious. Deadly serious.
George thought about it. "Forget it. It's like a favor to get bruises. Toughens ya up." An almost sigh of relief came from Leo. "But next time..." He looked at Leo. "Buddy 'ol pal..." he paused again, then smiled, flashing a white grin, "Your gunna have to get me a pretty dress like hers too, got it." Leo was relived again, thinking it was going to be something serious. We all laughed.
"It really is a nice dress. Mother will be jealous. How did you get the right size? Is it a One-Size-Fits-All dress?" We both nodded.
"That reminds me, Gwen." George looked thoughtful. "Mother said that Laura will only need you till about a little after dark tonight."
"That's great," Leo said. "I can teach you today, instead of tomorrow." He was talking about teaching me how to ride a horse, but George didn't know what he was talking about.
When George looked at us suspiciously, I told him of our plans. He laughed then said, " Your gunna learn how to ride? I've got to see this. Are you gunna go to the meadow?" Leo nodded. "So I'll met you all there. I'll go tell mother everything. I'll see you two at dark, and I'll bring the torches to the meadow." With that he was heading for the door. But before he walked, I could hear him mumble, " I love teaching them in the dark." And he chuckled as he walked out the door.
"Well now," Leo said looking down at me.
"Yes...?" I dragged the word to make it a question.
He took in a deep breath, then sat down in the closest chair he could find with a big plop. "I guess I'll have the biscuits and gravy, heavy on the gravy." He snapped his fingers impatiently, mimicking me form earlier in the morning. He smiled a wicked smile to let me know that he probably was going to be rude or picky about his food because I ate his food earlier. (I will once more defend myself in saying that if you put food under my nose, I find it as an invitation to eat the food. So I did what my stomach told me. Eat.)
"Oh, I'll have your extra gravy, and I hope it gives you a heart attack." I said under my breath but loud enough for him to hear, then I walked away.
I went to the cooks and gave them the order. They complained about having to make gravy first thing in the morning and I told them I would be glad to relay their thoughts to the customer. (Leo) I went to the back room and looked for Lili. I asked around for her and the ladies said she was out sick. Pity, she is the only one who keeps me happy here. She brings a sense of joy to everyone. Without her, all the women are a little more cross.
I was going to ask her to retie me, but settled with asking Betty, the other washing woman. She is a larger woman who said she has had five children (and she looks like she is on the way with another). She untied me and started to restring. She only did the back. She said the front ones were fine. However, she was pulling a harder then Leo was.

As Betty was tying me, I commented, "Hey, Betty, my ribs don't go that far in." I said, trying to breath.
"Deal with it. Your wearing the dress, wear it right." Needless to say, the rest of the day I fought to keep myself from fainting. ( But I was complimented by a lot of the people who I served today. Some of them gave me a look of disgust, because they thought it was stolen. What could I say? So I just smiled the sweetest smile I had at them, and walked away to do my job.)

I served Leo who was particularly finicky with his food. He either asked for more gravy or more pepper or orange juice. But I didn't give in or lose my nerve. That would have made me lose the obscure game that was being played. It was a game of temper. I won. (Needless to say, Leo kept asking for pepper. Then more pepper. Then salt. When he said he needed more pepper, I over did it and he finally said there was too much pepper. I told him to deal. He wouldn't argue with the tone in my voice.)
Before he left thought, I asked him if he could relay a message to George to come take me to Laura's house so I wouldn't be kidnapped or anything. He said he would. However, when I got off, I didn't get George. I got Anastasia instead.
"How are you, Anastasia?" I asked nicely
"Fine." She replied oddly enough, nicely also. But with out skipping a beat she said, "George said he would met you later, where ever you two are going. I'm going to walk with you instead of George today. He couldn't spare a moment. He said he might see us on our way there, though."
"Oh. Okay." And we started to walk.
We mostly walked in silence. It was rather annoying. We were about half way there when A spoke. It made me jump a little.
"So, are you and George close?" She made it an innocent question.
"In a way." I was trying to keep my mouth closed as much as possible. If things went ill in Carthak, I wouldn't have wanted to be the one who supplied her with information about George.
There was a short pause.

Then, "So, who is that guy that I see every once and a while with George. The brown haired man with, what color are his eyes? I can never remember the color. They're always changing."
"That's, umm, Atreyu. He's a man of George's. And I can't remember his eye color. I haven't really looked at them." I lied, kind of. It is hard to determine the definite color. Like she said, they are always changing.
"How could you miss them? And not to mention his body. He is like a god himself. I would kill for some one like him." She made an okward pause in conversation. " George isn't that bad looking either." She stopped talking, thank God. It was making me feel weird with her talking about the men like that. I mean, she's gunna be gone soon anyway, right? Why is she talking about men like that? She probably has them at her disposal at home, like she seems to have here already. ( Or maybe she has already disposed of them all, and got bored of the game there.)
She resumed her talking though, on a different subject. "So, what are you two doing later?"
"I'm going to..." I didn't want to say it but I had already started and I couldn't think of anything to day. "I'm going to learn how to ride a horse." I said cheerlessly.
"You mean you can't? You poor thing." She looked thoughtful. "When I came here, I asked who you were and they said 'George's friend'. They never said you were part of his rogue. But you are now, aren't you?" I reluctantly nodded. (Why am I so negative about this woman? Alone from being a little self centered, she has only been nice to me, aside from the glares she gave me when I first was getting to know her.)
Right then she pulled a dagger out on me. (Oh!) I jumped back as quick as I could, then herd a voice say, "Good reflexes, Gwen."
It was George. Anastasia look on her face went from serious, to playful, and put her dagger back. "Hello George. Gwen was just telling me how you adopted her as part of your rogue. I was testing her, as a fellow woman, she must know how to defend herself. She has good reflexes. Good job, Gwen." She patted me on the back.
"What are you doing here, George?" I asked, curious.
"I was grabbing your riding cloths to give to you."
"George," Anastasia said, "Can I watch Gwen while she learns how to ride. I could offer womanly help. A man rides very different from a woman. I don't want her to ride like a slob. It's the least I could offer."
George thought on it a minute. "Sure, I guess. Do you mind, Gwen?" I shook my head, still a little shooken up about the dagger incident. "Good. We'll come pick you up at six and see if we can't find a place to learn." I knew that we couldn't go to the meadow now that A was coming. We would have to go somewhere else.
We all walked the rest of the way to Laura's house. When we got there, both kids and the dog came running to me.
"You sure have a way with those kids." Anastasia said.
"It's one of my good qualities, I guess." I said, and picked Colby up. "And have you been a good boy?" I asked him. He said yes. "Then I'll just have to find you a sweet and give it to ya now, wont I." He smiled a big toothy grin, for as many teeth as he had, while his eyes glinted in the afternoon sun, and bobbed his head back and forth.
I looked back at George and Anastasia . "Well, I'll be safe here."
"We'll be here at dusk and keep you company then, okay? You won't mind a little company now, will ya?" It wasn't one of those questions that you answered. I just smiled and said good-bye, and they were off.
I felt a pull on my dress. When I looked down, I saw Christine. " I've been a good girl too. May I have some sweets?" She grinned at me with her missing left big tooth. ( That was a new addition…or subtraction…?)
I looked from Colby to Christine. I sighed, "Look at those huge blue lamps of yours," They really were big. (I can't remember where I heard the expression of using lamps as eyes, but I'll remember soon or never remember at all.) I rolled my eyes at her, "Where is your mother's cooking book?" Then her face lit with joy and Colby started bouncing in my arms.

" Mother's cooking book is lovely, Gwen!" Christine said excitedly. " Wait 'till you see it. It's very pretty. The pictures at really, really good. My great, great, great, ummm, how many grates did I say?" She only gave a few moments thought to the questions she asked, then continued, " Great grandmama started it with pictures, and marks." I wondered at what she was saying, but was side tracked by a bounce on my right hip.
I directed my gaze at Colby, "Hey! If your gunna have so much energy like that, I don't want to give you sweets. I want you to be good, both of you. If your not, I can take the food home with me." I put Colby down and lined them shoulder to shoulder, and looked at them sternly. " Be good. I don't want too much horse play. Do we have an agreement? " They both bobbed there heads.. "Good." And the invisible contract was signed and sealed. All three of us went into the house to start on the sweets we were going to make.

Get ready for the next chapter. Its gunna blow you away. I cant believe I thought of this. It's crazy.