Chapter Six

Kunzite caught up to Mina and watched helplessly as she threw herself against the door relentlessly, tears streaming down her face and her voice going hoarse from screaming so much. When he couldn't stand watching her torment anymore, he rushed over and pulled her against him, holding her flailing wrists and pinning her to his chest.

" Mina stop!" He said into her ear.

" You bastard! You bastards! Let me in! Let me go to her!" Mina screamed, frantically trying to wriggle out of his hold.

" No Mina, I can't"

" I know you have a key. What are they doing to her? Let me go!"

"I can't. Stop and just listen to me for a minute will you?"

" NO! I've got to get to her."

" You can't! Just listen to me. Serena's in the best hands now, she's being helped through this, soon she'll feel no pain." Kunzite said. Mina went wild.

Rini skipped up the steps into Lord Darien's manor. The day was bright and sunny and everything seemed right in the world. By society standards she was no beauty, but her joy in life made her popular and created a beauty in itself. She was the type of person who could always find something good to say about bad weather or terrible styles of clothing, not to mention people. Today she was dressed in a flowing pink dress, that floated around her ankles and flew out when she twirled. her eyes sparkled and her face pinkened when she saw her guardian talking with his secretary in the hallway. Twiddling a flower in her fingers, she tiptoed up to him and threw her arms around his waist.

" Good day my lord." She said, peeking around his muscled form and looking into his face.

"Rini." Lord Darien said, tilting his head slightly in greeting.

" Ah, let me guess, business?" Rini asked.

" How did you know?"

" You've got your 'not now, Rini' look on your face. Don't worry I'm off, I've got a date for a stroll around the estate." Rini said.

" With whom?" Lord Darien asked.

" That's for me to know and you to find out about." Rini said playfully, heading off down the hall. She knew perfectly well her guardian would know before she reached the end of the hallway. His secretary, Andrew, was a fount of knowledge, and knew everything before it even happened. Andrew and Darien had been friends since they were little. Andrew lived away from the estate, unlike most of the other hired servants, and knew just about everything that went on in the village. Rini loved to go to him and ask him to tell her all the local gossip and stories of when her guardian was young. Twenty-seven, in her opinion, was old. t was from him she had learnt that Lord Darien had run into a brick wall when he was seventeen and broke four toes on his left foot, and that the day he turned 20, he got himself so drunk, he ended up cuddling one of the pigs in the pigpen all night, thinking it was his favourite dog, Hunter. Hunter was still around, although slightly older and slightly more arthritic. He was a pure bred cocker spaniel, Lord Darien helped into the world and was the smallest of the twenty-seven dogs kept on Lord Darien's estate.

Rini walked into her bedroom, to find a half dozen bouquet's of flowers sitting in various vases around the room. Since they hadn't been there when she left the room earlier that morning, she could only assume they had been recently delivered and went in search of a card. She found one in the second last bunch of flowers. it read:

My Dear Little Rini,

I know you have felt I have neglected you in the last couple of weeks, and I know you would have liked to have visited your ancestral home this spring. I'm sorry that I have not been able to take you and hope these flowers will help you to forgive me. They are from your mother's garden and have been picked only this morning. May they bring you memories of your home and make you feel at home here.

Darien.

Rini sat down on her bed and re-read the card. She felt tears sting at her eyes and quickly wiped them. She lifted a bloom up to her nose and inhaled the intoxicating perfume. Many of the flowers were Lilies, her favourite kind, but the rest were roses and carnations. Her mothers pride and joy, protected and nurtured over the past few years by a dedicated team of gardeners and herself when she visited every spring. She regretted not being able to go this year, but recognised the importance of Lord Darien's business and so did not complain. She missed her parents and wished they hadn't been taken in that accident. She wished she could still live where the memories of them were still the strongest, but law and circumstance prevented it and instead she was forced to live here. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't home. She loved Lord Darien like an uncle, but she missed her parents. Oh well, there was no point in lamenting their deaths now. She put the flower back in the vase and headed over to her wardrobe, ringing for a maid as she passed the bell.

Lord Darien flew across the countryside on his Fleet footed gelding. He searched the horizon for any sign of Rini and her escort. A total of nine had ridden off from his front door, and he had passed 6 of them on his way, and Rini wasn't one of them. Had she taken one of her female friends with her, he would not be in such a hurry now, but she had not, her two current companions were both male and both very young and energetic. Heaven knew what they would be getting up to at that moment. Rini was an innocent, likely to fall for any cunning persuasions two experienced, young men might try on her. Panic made him dig his heels into his horse's sides and urged it to go faster. He suddenly saw on the horizon the silhouettes of three riderless horses and pointed his horse in that direction. When he reached them, he saw their riders lying on the grass at the edge of a pond, Rini standing over them. Darien jumped down and stormed over to them, shocked to find that the two men were curled up, moaning in the grass.

" What the hell is going on here?" He asked, looking straight at Rini.

" Nothing that hasn't been handled My Lord." Rini said.

She looked down at the two men at her feet.

" I trust you two can find your own way home." She linked her arm through a bemused Darien's and turned him towards the horses.

" Are you going to tell me what happened?" Darien asked as they rode back towards the manor.

" Those two gentlemen just got a little too close for comfort, so I sort of showed them which way away was." Rini said.

" How, may I ask?"

" Oh, Andrew showed me a few easy moves to protect myself with in case I ever found myself in a situation I didn't like."

" Really? I'll have to have a word with my secretary." Lord Darien said.