Chapter 6

Disclaimer/Apology: You know what's coming. I haven't updated in forever and a half and I'm fully aware of that. Sorry. A bit of scary stuff in here and I'm sorry, but I did rate this PG-13 for a reason. If this is at all reassuring, it gets worse. Oh, erm, I guess that didn't help. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed up until now. Enjoy!

Lizzie and Joshua sat at opposite ends of the carriage. She was staring resolutely out the window, the red velvet drapes drawn around her to mask even her back from that man's stare. It was still unnerving even through the fabric. Their excursion to the city had failed miserably. In fact, the only good that seemed to have come out of the entire trip was that she had seen her family for two days. She smiled as she remembered her first re-encounter with them. She had been riding in the coach next to Joshua when they had drawn up to the small cottage that her family now owned. It had seemed smaller now, after living for so long in the splendor of the Beast's castle. Lizzie had been watching it like a hawk, searching for some movement within. She had smiled, seeing the curtains twitch aside as she had dismounted. Her youngest sister, Gabrielle, had run out the door barely three seconds later. Lizzie sighed, losing herself in the memory.

"Lizzie!" Gabrielle crowed happily, running in a most unladylike manner towards the carriage and embracing her sister almost before she had fully exited the coach.

"Hello again, Gabrielle," Lizzie replied, trying to get catch her breath as the very air from her lungs seemed squeezed out.

"Lizzie, you're back! I can't believe you're back," Gabrielle nearly squealed. "And in a coach and four no less!" Lizzie sighed. Why is it that she never remembered quite how annoying her siblings were?

"You look so beautiful," Gabrielle sighed with a superficial jealousy that Lizzie was used to ignoring before she leapt off onto another topic entirely. "Tell me everything!"

"Everything?" Lizzie asked in disbelief. "That would take too long."

"Well, tell me the important things, then!"

Lizzie raised an eyebrow, surprised at how much younger than her Gabrielle suddenly seemed. It was strange coming home after having been away for so long. And everything, while very much the same, seemed so different. Perhaps it was she who had changed.

"And what," Lizzie inquired, "Do you consider to be vital?"

Gabrielle sighed. "What do you think, Lizzie? Princes, Dukes, Barons, Men! Have you met a dashing young lord who will come and sweep you off his feet?"

Lizzie started giggling uncontrollably. "I wouldn't call him dashing," she managed to say while laughing.

"I heard that," came a voice within the coach. "And I have no plans to sweep you off your feet, so you can forget that idea as well."

Gabrielle clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Lizzie, are you married?" she demanded.

Joshua and Lizzie were practically in hysterics from the question.

"No, I am not," Lizzie finally managed to choke out. "Joshua and I are simply friends. I am helping him to try and find his niece who was kidnapped."

Gabrielle's eyes went wide. "Really?" she breathed. Lizzie nodded.

"Now, if you would allow me to go into my own house, we can sit down and talk like civilized people."

"Ignore me, then, thank you," Joshua called from the front of the coach where he was unhitching the horses.

"As you wish," Lizzie retorted and, taking her sister's elbow, steered her inside before she could develop any misplaced sympathy for Joshua.

"You're letting A LORD unhitch a carriage?" Gabrielle managed to squeak out once they were inside.

Lizzie shrugged; she hadn't actually thought about it.

"Mon Dieu, Lizzie, how could you? He'll never want to marry you now!"

"And thank goodness for that," Lizzie said arrogantly, indicating very clearly that the conversation on that topic was at an end. Gabrielle acquiesced meekly.

"So, where is the rest of our family?" Lizzie asked.

"Papa went to town to buy more wood," Gabrielle said. "And Jacquie went to visit her fiancé."

"Jacquie's engaged?" Lizzie nearly yelped. Gabrielle smiled happily.

"Yes, to Gerald, the bookkeeper's son!"

Lizzie sat down the stool in surprise. "Isn't that exciting?" Gabtielle asked her, not really waiting for an answer.

"Engaged," Lizzie murmured to herself. "Jacqueline, engaged!"

Gabrielle prattled on for a good long time about everything new that had been happening. Somewhere in between a list of Gaston's latest exploits which Lizzie had completely ignored and a parroting of the town's latest gossip, which got much the same response, Lizzie looked up and saw Joshua leaning on the doorjamb.

"Come in," she mouthed to him, motioning the young man into the house.

"Did I miss anything thrilling?" he drawled, sitting down in the chair she indicated. Lizzie smiled.

"Hello, Lord…" Gabrielle said about ten minutes later, finally noticing Joshua's return. She jumped to her feet and curtsied awkwardly.

"Joshua," he answered, rising to his feet, taking her hand and kissing it. "Simply Joshua."

Gabrielle smiled back at him. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," she replied, her eyes flickering to the mask on his face as he let her hand fall and they both sat back down. Lizzie was impressed; displays of tact from her sister were a rare event.

"Gabrielle?" came a familiar voice from outside. "Whose horses have suddenly taken up residence in our stable?" Lizzie leapt to her feet.

"Papa!" she called excitedly, streaming out the door to go and greet her father.

That had been the best moment of the last two months. She had missed her father terribly in the castle. His advice had always been helpful and he had been her metaphorical and literal shoulder all her life.

Looking out the window of the coach as they trundled home, Lizzie wished fervently that she had her father there with her. Or that she had never left her small cottage on the edge of the village. But she had gone, after two days of near bliss, she had left with Joshua for the city. And it had all gotten worse from there.

"Lizzie," came a voice from the other side of the coach.

"Go away," she answered mechanically.

"Where?" Joshua inquired dryly.

"Jump out the carriage," she retorted, "I don't particularly care."

"Still upset, I presume?"

"Astute observation."

"There's no need to be mean," he said mildly.

"Excuse me?" Lizzie nearly yelled. She extracted her head from among the curtains with considerably less grace than she would have liked and turned to yell at Joshua. "Remind me again who spent at least an hour shouting last night?"

"That would be you," Joshua retorted. "I only spent three quarters of one."

"That's because you spent the last half an hour using that quiet voice that makes me feel like you're about to pull a dagger on me!"

"I was not about to pull a dagger on you," came the immediate reply. "The only thing I had in there is a sword."

"You can be so reassuring sometimes."

"You are impossible, Lizzie. Absolutely impossible."

She didn't bother replying to that.

"Look," Joshua said, trying again to have a civil conversation. "Could you, for one minute, stop acting like-"

"Like what?" she hissed, whirling around. "A child? And by what right do you treat me as one? I'm a human being, not a plaything."

"You're being unreasonable," said Joshua with a sigh.

"This isn't unreasonable," Lizzie retorted. "Unreasonable was your reaction last night."

"When I found out you had put him on the list because you were, and I quote, 'possibly betrothed to him!?' That was not unreasonable."

"Joshua, I don't care anymore. I found out he's dead, that's the end of it. Now will you please be quiet; I'm sick of arguing."

He was yelling something back, but she wasn't paying attention. She had found out the hard way that Joshua had a passionate hatred of Lord Andrew Gilld. A hatred that he refused to explain. But his descriptions of the man had been, well, lurid. She shivered and wondered if this was truly the man her father had been planning on having her marry. It didn't matter anymore, though. She couldn't marry someone three years dead.

Lizzie and Joshua had hoped to reach the castle that night but did not and so, for lack of any alternative, they were forced to impose on a poor farmer who was the only settler for at least five miles. Joshua had paid him for agreeing to their requests; which Lizzie grudgingly admitted to herself was far more money that he needed to have given. It was after a simple, skimpy dinner that Lizzie realized what she wanted to do. Joshua had gone to the hayloft to sleep and Lizzie found herself glaring at his retreating back; wishing for even a word of acknowledgement.

"Our agreement is obviously over," she muttered to herself, wrapping her cloak around her and stepping outside to look at the moon. She stared up at it, her eyes full of unshed tears; tears she had been holding back for the past twenty four hours.

"It's not fair," she whispered to herself. "He shouldn't be allowed to be so wonderful and so horrible at the same time." She would never have admitted it to him, but she knew that, deep down, she had been trying to use Andrew to make Joshua admit that she mattered to him. It had, unfortunately, backfired spectacularly.

The pounding of hoof beats snapped Lizzie from her reverie and she looked up in surprise. A horse was galloping up the path, his rider clinging to him with the fear of both being caught and of falling off. The man was obviously not a proficient rider, though Lizzie could tell little else about him. Behind the first horseman rode another. The latter sat easily in the saddle and was galloping as fast as the horse would go to catch up. The second was easily the better rider and would soon catch the first man. Lizzie ducked down so that she was barely visible behind the fence and watched with interest to see what would happen, if anything did.

The first horseman drew closer and Lizzie could see that the beast he rode was exhausted. The sweat on its flanks gleamed in the moonlight and it was foaming at the mouth. Its rider urged it on, hitting it with the whip and screaming for it to run faster. Lizzie shut her eyes and tried to place the voice. She knew she had heard it screaming before, but she couldn't remember where.

The hoof beats grew louder and Lizzie opened her eyes. She gasped in shock as she caught a glimpse of the man's face. As soon as she did, she could immediately place the voice.

"Face it, Joshua. You have his blood" The words rang in her ears as she remembered Maurice yelling them at Joshua. And now he was here, riding like Satan himself was giving chase. Lizzie didn't particularly have any strong feelings for or against Maurice, but she was still tempted to wave him in and at least try to help him. There was, however, the obvious problem that he was running from something and whatever that something was, Lizzie had no desire to invite it in.

The other rider was still gaining on Maurice and Lizzie watched with horrified fascination as he raised one empty hand in the air and laughed. She had half expected the noise to be an evil cackle of triumph, but it was far more similar to that of an average man with a loud, deep, belly laugh. The moonlight glinted off something now held in his hand and Lizzie's eyes widened in shock for it had not been there before. He drew the hand back and threw the deadly knife he had been holding. It struck Maurice in the back and sent him sprawling from the horse onto the dust of the path without so much as a shout.

Lizzie was too scared to actually scream, but a small whimper of terror burst from her mouth. The man on the horse heard it. He spun towards the noise and Lizzie, tears streaming down her cheeks from fear, curled into small ball like a fetus and tried desperately to hide.

"I know you're there," said the rider, his voice low and dangerous. "Elizabeth Leroux, you cannot hide from me."

Lizzie gasped.

The man dismounted, a feral grin spreading across his features. Lizzie cowered even closer to the ground, wishing that he would, somehow, not find her. Her prayer went unanswered.

He knelt down next to her, hiding behind the wooden slats.

"Hello Lizzie," he whispered, his eyes glowing.

She screamed.

Joshua sat up bolt upright in bed at hearing that sound.

"Lizzie!" he hissed, shoving his feet into his boots and racing down the stairs, stopping only to grab his blade from where it was resting by the door.

"Don't be frightened," said the man, taking hold of her hand and pulling her almost gently to her feet. "Or have you forgotten me already?"

Lizzie shut her eyes and forced the words out of her mouth. "Hello, Andrew."