I have made a few changes to chapter ten and now the whole conversation to do with Karen's Father and Dante makes sense so I apologise for the confusion. Here's chapter 11, please R & R

Chapter 11: Rumors

A week had soon passed and everything was going well with Elli, but Dante felt as though he was betraying Karen, he felt so bad, yet when he was with Elli, the feeling was gone and he just wanted to hold Elli and play music with her. Karen was herself around him, open and kind hearted, Elli was closed to many people and was too shy to show affection to anyone other than her family, or what was left of it, but she showed him affection and it made him feel less alone and more wanted that there was someone that was closed like he was that was doing their best to open up and struggling as much as he was.

Dante did the chores for today and went outside to see how Night was holding up, he had to take special care of Night nowadays, now that Race Day was approaching. The horseracing Festival was on the 18th of Spring, while Thanksgiving Festival was on the 14th. It was already the 10th and he was already planning to make cookies for Elli.

During the week Duke, the owner of the Aja Winery, had crossed paths with Dante at the shopping centre and Duke had asked if Dante could find a worker for him. Duke had said that lately the Aja Winery was not getting to harvest as many grapes as they used to be able to; this was because Duke was getting older and was having troubles with the collecting of the grapes. Dante had agreed because Duke was nice to him when he had arrived over a year ago and gave him the benefit of the doubt even though he was new to the town and had not had the time to prove he was a good guy.

It didn't take long for Dante to find someone, now all he had to do was go and see him and see whether he wanted a job or not. The person Dante had in mind was a new guy named Cliff; he hadn't been here as long as Dante, but Dante knew that Cliff was running out of money because he didn't have a steady job.

Doug's Place was the name of the inn in Mineral Town, and that was where Cliff was staying. Dante walked into the tavern to find the common room filled with the regulars (Duke, Won, the Mayor, Harris, Ann, and Doug the innkeeper). Dante went up to the second floor where the guests' rooms were allocated. Just as Dante had suspected, Cliff was in his room eating.

"Hey Cliff, sorry to barge in like this, but I think I've got a way for you to get rid of your money problems" Said Dante grinning to himself. Cliff jumped up out of his seat as fast as lightning, and with his mouth full of food he began to speak.

"Really, you really mean it, how?" said Cliff, the food beginning to drip onto Cliff's shirt.

"Well…The Aja Winery is looking for an extra hand to tend to the grapes and help harvest them so that they can fill their orders on time this year" Said Dante merrily.

Cliff thanked Dante a million times before hugging him quickly and exiting the inn, no doubt to go talk to Duke's wife, Manna, about the job. Seeing as Dante was at the inn he thought he might as well go downstairs and catch up on the latest gossip…yes, the thought even scared him, but sometimes there were a few things you needed to know that you could only find out from people around town. Right now Dante was particularly interested in finding out about these Sprites that he had briefly heard about. Dante was not much of a gossip so when he got downstairs he just simply took up a chair and listened to what the people were saying, they were so wrapped in their conversation that they didn't even notice him.

"You know how Karen left, right, well I hear that Doug has saved himself about 3 kegs of rum every month since she left, and Duke said before he left that his profits have declined severely since she left" Said a voice from amongst all the others trying to talk over them.

"I heard it was 4 kegs, she was such a big drinker, her mother and father are real worried about her" Said another voice being drowned out by the others.

"Big drinker, she could out drink most of the guys here, I heard that's why she's on vacation, cause she was beginning to send her father broke" Said yet another voice Dante could not hear properly.

"That's not what I heard…I heard she left cause she was getting a bit frisky with some guy that wasn't Rick…" The voices yakked on, but Dante did not want to hear anymore, he left as soon as he could get to the door.

Karen would not be a big drinker, she couldn't be, it was just rumours getting to him. He had seen Karen have a bit of wine once, before she attempted to take her life, gosh, it seemed like a lifetime ago. But surely Karen did not drink all the time and continuously.

At least, that's what he hoped…

Author's note of thanks

Thank you to my reviewers, your reviews have helped me to decide on the rest of the storyline, so cheers! Thanks and please R & R for further chapters.