Breakfast was a cold and quiet affair. Victoria avoided eye contact, and Victor did the same. After their discussion the previous night, neither wanted to be angered in front of their hosts. Lucy looked up and smiled at the couple every so often as her mother hummed placidly into her porridge. Just as Victoria was about to stand up, her cousin's lilting voice halted her.
"Oh, Victoria, I was thinking, perhaps you and I ought to go to the graveyard, you know the one with the really fantastic view of the ocean? You remember?"
"I remember," Victoria said with a smile.
"Well, it's just been so long since you and I went there. I mean, Mina and I go there all the time now. I suspected you might like to spend some time there."
"That sounds lovely, Lucy."
-X-
The icy ocean waters slapped playfully against the rock of the cliff safely far away from the two young ladies as they made their way arm in arm down the rows of graves in the picturesque graveyard. It was a beautiful spring morning made all the more beautiful by the ominous rain clouds on the horizon. The wind's innocent playfulness began to border on downright violence as it threatened to free Victoria's hair from its docile bun and whipped gaily through Lucy's, which was down about her lovely face.
'Too lovely,' thought Victoria. 'Any girl who finds that sort of loveliness in the glass is bound to turn out bad.' They walked quietly for an oddly long time, but in spite of Lucy's uncharacteristic silence, Victoria was still surprised when Lucy burst out.
"Oh Victoria, I'm so sorry!"
"Whatever for?" Victoria was suddenly worried. How terrible could a deed be to warrant an apology from Lucy?
"Well… your marriage." Ah, yes.
"What about my marriage?" Victoria inquired.
"Well, it was…"
"Arranged?" Victoria finished.
"Yes, arranged." Lucy sighed, as though relieved that she hadn't had to finish the sentence. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I would have done if it had been me. I would have been so ashamed." Victoria bit her tongue for a moment
"Ashamed to be married to Victor?"
"I well, I didn't mean that…"
"Or ashamed to have had an arranged marriage?" Lucy didn't know what to say. "I love Victor very much, my dear cousin, and I am certain I would have loved him had the marriage not been arranged. Besides, it was all very… necessary." Lucy covered her mouth in horror.
"So it was all true, everything that everyone was saying about your family?" Victoria looked away; "Well" Lucy said comfortingly, "Well, dearest, at least there's some sort of title attached to… it…?" Victoria said nothing and Lucy gasped again.
"Lucy, I already told you, Victor and I are very much-"
"You mean-"
"Very much in love. The titles mean-"
"No titles at all? And to marry the nouveaux riche on top of everything else! So dreadful."
"The titles mean nothing to me!" Lucy looked pityingly at her cousin. "I love Victor, and nothing can take that away from us. The titles mean nothing."
-X-
Victor stepped tentatively into the stable, awkwardly knocking on the large wooden door.
"Hello? Bone- Mr. Bonejangles?" He stepped further into the stable and absentmindedly brushed a few raindrops from his hair, looking in all the hidden corners where "Mr." Bonejangles might be concealed.
"Victor, how nice to see you!" Victor started. There was Bonejangles, at the very end of the stable. He had constructed a sort of throne out of the hay, and was now reclining in it. Victor felt odd walking in on Bonejangles like this, almost as though he were encroaching on some holy rite. "Whatever's the matter my dear man!"
"Well, I…" Victor could find not the words.
"Victor!" said Bonejangles soothingly reclining further back in his throne, "tell me about your problems."
"I just, came here to see if you were getting along well. With the horses."
"With the horses," Bonejangles repeated. Victor nodded distractedly, a half smile on his face.
"Yes. The horses." There was a moment in which Bonejangles regarded Victor skeptically from atop his throne and Victor looked as though he were trying to decide on the most polite way to leave.
"Victor" Bonejangles finally said. "Even you are not that distracted and miserable under normal circumstances. And I hardly even know you. Now are you going to go back out into that rainstorm, or are you going to stay here and tell me what's wrong?" Victor opened and closed his mouth as though unsure of how to begin.
"Well."
"Yes?"
"Um…"
"Spill it."
"Victoria got …" Victor gulped, "cross at me last night."
Bonejangles laughed.
"Is that all? Wow, and here's me thinking that something's really wrong."
"No! No, you don't understand!" Victor said angrily, and then he softened, "Victoria and I never argue. Never. This is the first time we've ever disagreed on something."
"And it won't be the last, I can assure you that. If you think otherwise you know nothing about marriage." Victor looked sadly at his feet and Bonejangles spoke up again, suddenly sorry for his flippant tone. "Well, are you going to tell me what happened?"
Victor looked up. "You're sure you want to hear it?"
"Eh, I have all the time in the world," he tipped his hat, "No, seriously, I do." Bonejangles shrugged. Victor smiled and took a deep breath.
"Well," he began, "Victoria became very cross at me last night." Bonejangles eyed Victor. "I didn't do anything! All I suggested was that maybe her cousin has changed in the past two years and that maybe she's not so bad. Victoria didn't exactly say anything cruel, she was just… very cold to me after that." Bonejangles looked away as though he himself was cross about Victor's comment. "I just don't know what to do!" Victor finished desperately.
"Oh, Victor… Victor, Victor, Victor. You really know how to tick them off don't you?"
"I- I suppose so." Victor said absentmindedly, "Wait, what?"
"Well, you're not exactly… how shall I say… smooth with the ladies."
"Oh? Oh." Victor's face fell.
"Yeah I remember with Emily. Man, 'I would never marry you' that was… classy" there was a hint of real anger behind Bonejangles' words; Victor grimaced.
"You heard about that?" Bonejangles laughed, a chilling bone-rattling sound, which made Victor flinch in spite of himself.
"Of course I heard about that. I was once the primary man in Emily's death. Until, of course, you came along." Bonejangles looked away. "You know there are many a 'groovy young man' out there who would have loved to have been in your place. And what do you do? You botch your chances with her." Bonejangles' eye rolled over to the other side of his skull. Victor shuddered. "But no matter," Bonejangles continued, "if you had married Emily, you'd both still be down there. Together. And I would be forced to see you two together every single sunless day for the rest of eternity, and without suicide as an option…" Victor suddenly felt very guilty although he wasn't exactly sure why (the poor young man was far from intuitive).
"Yep," Bonejangles finally concluded, "no one was closer to Emily than I was. Not even Mrs. Plum." Bonejangles laughed again and it sounded just as bone-chilling as before, but worse, as the sound was now filled with a mocking sadness. There was another pause and Bonejangles looked away from Victor as though unable to bear the sight of him any longer; the conversation was over. Victor inclined his head politely towards 'Mr.' Bonejangles and respectfully began to take his leave.
"Would you like my advice Victor?" Victor stopped in his tracks and whirled around, the skeleton was looking at him again.
"Pardon?"
"Would. You. Like. My. Advice?"
"Y-yes, I would." Victor said eagerly. Bonejangles twirled his hat in his hands and looked over the top of it at Victor.
"Don't screw this up Victor. I've seen you and Victoria together. You were meant to be together. It's obvious. That's why Emily was able to let go. Love Victoria; trust her. If your wife says that her cousin is evil, don't question her. Consider Lucy guilty until proven innocent. Most importantly (and this may be difficult for you to understand) trusting Victoria's judgment is especially important when it judges another female."
"I don't understand why, I've-"
"Don't worry about it, I didn't think you would understand, but the point is that you must always trust Victoria's judgment especially when it regards another woman. Personally, I can't imagine Lucy being as terrible as Victoria describes, but then," he chuckled, "I'm not married to Victoria, now am I?" Victor opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a lilting sunny voice.
"Oh yes Victoria, do get yourself a nice hot cup of tea, you're completely drenched! We wouldn't want you catching a cold, now would we?" There was a light response, presumably Victoria's which Bonejangles and Victor could not discern, Then Lucy's crystalline voice cut through.
"Oh don't worry about me, I just have to stop by the stables for a moment." Victor and Bonejangles looked at each other wide-eyed with horror. "I just have to visit my little Pearl and make certain she's taking this surprise storm well."
Victor and Bonejangles leapt into action. Bonejangles bounded nimbly over his throne while Victor tried to spread the hay over every bone of the dead man's body. He was just spreading the final clump when Lucy opened the stable door.
"Oh, Victor," she gasped in genuine surprise.
"Hello," Victor said, "just… checking on the horses." He glanced pointedly at the two brown, spotty horses belonging to himself and Victoria, "Yep, still here. Well, it was lovely seeing you, Miss Westerna, but I'll just be going in now, and you should really get yourself next to the fire… you're completely sodden. Yes, these surprise April showers are just dreadful." Lucy watched him as he passed.
"Victor," she said calmly, "you're covered in hay." He looked down at his soiled suit as though this were complete news to him.
"Why, yes I am!" He said in feigned surprise, "Good day Miss. Westerna."
"Please, call me Lucy." Victor nodded curtly.
"Lucy then."
"Why are you covered in hay, Victor?" Lucy persisted with a smile.
"Well…Lucy, I suppose… I got in on myself… when I was… checking the hay."
"Checking the hay? Whatever for?"
"Oh, just to make sure that it's the proper sort and not the… not… proper sort. The awful sort, I mean." Lucy raised an eyebrow,
"'The awful sort'?" she asked, Victor nodded earnestly, "and what's so awful about it?"
"Well, it has these … um… and it's … er… you know awful. The horses won't touch it." It took all Bonejangles' self restraint not to leap out and help the poor lad. It was all a morbid game, and Lucy was winning. "Well, Lucy, lovely talking to you, but, I really must be-"
"Do you like horses?" Lucy asked sweetly.
"Well yes," Victor said with a smile, taking a step towards Lucy. Bonejangles needed nothing more to tell him that, yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt Lucy had won.
"I love my Pearl." Lucy smiled winningly, and made her way to a beautiful white horse "I've had her since we were both very young. She's a little past her prime now, but I love her very much. I come out here every day to talk to her" Bonejangles could see the girl was fibbing, but Victor was easily intrigued. He had to concede, this girl was a smart one; she was able to quickly discover Victor's love for nature and use it to her advantage. "Isn't she lovely?"
"She's beautiful," Victor agreed, and the horse, was indeed beautiful. It was easy to see why it's name was Pearl, she had a lustrous pearlescent coat, which positively gleamed with its meticulous grooming; the horse was the stuff of fairy-tales. Victor made his way towards her home stall and stood next to Lucy gazing at the magnificent creature.
"You can probably pet her, just make sure she can smell your hand as you do so."
Victor flattened his hand near Pearl's nose and laid the other hand on her head. She shook her head and made Victor jump before she leaned her head into his still raised hand. Victor laid his hand on the stall door and laughed, still petting the beautiful Pearl.
"All right, then, your turn." Lucy said with a smile.
"My…?"
"I've told you my greatest passion. What's yours then?"
"I like to draw… animals, and plants. I like plants." Victor said lamely, "And the piano. I'm rather good at playing the piano."
"I love the piano!" Lucy cried.
"To listen to…?"
"No, I love to play the piano, I'm taking lessons, but I'm not very good yet."
"Really?" Victor said in mild surprise; he had assumed that all women held the belief as Victoria's mother, and so never allowed their daughters to play piano, but apparently not. "How long have you been taking them?"
"About three months." Lucy said assuredly. Pearl made a sound rather like a contented sigh and the two young people looked at her. Lucy laughed, "She rarely lets people other than me pet her. Normally she gets very indignant."
Victor laughed, "Then why did you allow me to touch her if there was danger involved?"
"Well," Lucy said defensively, "she never minds if the person petting her is someone I like, and I must say Victor," she placed her tiny white hand on top of his where it rested on the stall door. Victor looked at it in confusion and drew it away, "I must confess that I like you very much."
"Well, Lucy, thank you for introducing me to Pearl." Victor smiled at her and began to walk out of the stables.
"Oh Victor, I just want you to know that I think it terrible that you were roped into a marriage with someone like my cousin." Again, Victor was stopped dead in his tracks. He whirled around and took a step towards Lucy.
"Excuse me?"
"I know the sort of person you are, Victor," Lucy rushed up to him, "you are trying to break free from the bonds of proper society, become your own man… Victor, I can tell you right now that my cousin is not the right one with which to do this." Victor looked away.
"I see." He said unable to think of anything else to say. He looked back at her in time to see Lucy's face very near his and registered what was happening only in time to feel her lips pressed feverishly against his. This wasn't right. This wasn't Victoria, and it wasn't right. In a single swift movement he had pushed her away and was halfway across the stable, trembling with a violent emotion he could not put a name to.
"How dare you," he said, "I am a married man!"
"As are most men, Victor," Lucy shrugged carelessly, "your morals are far too austere. Men with morals never get any enjoyment out of life."
"Regardless of what you may think, Miss Westerna, I am very much in love with my wife, and if I am to go 'breaking the restrictions of today's society,' as you said, I will do so with her by my side. Good day." He spun on his heel and stalked out of the stables slamming the door behind him.