Et Velle Et Perficere
Disclaimer: Don't own POTO… I do own Jeremy though.
Chapter 1: The Black Butler Plays On…
Two young girls sat huddled together on a low wall overlooking the sea, both wearing bright purple blazers, grey jumpers, chequered summer blouses, and grey skirts. It was early Sunday afternoon and both girls, having returned from Mass, had collected their lunches and sat to eat them on the wall by the old Crimean cannons.
When Christine had gone back to her room briefly between Mass and lunch, she had walked in just in time to catch the phone ringing. It had been her mother phoning to tell her that her father had just gone off to collect another foster-child. Christine wondered vaguely how long the boy would be staying with them this time, if he would still be there when she got home, and how much of her parents attention he would take up. She didn't like feeling jealous – it wasn't expected of her – so she never told anyone, that is, anyone except Meg…
Meghan Giry was Christine's best friend and fellow full-time boarder at Garron Tower – they were two of only seven full-timers (five girls, two boys) and had such a strong friendship because of it. Meg and Christine had known each other all their lives just as their parents had known each other all their lives before them. Meg's father had died when she was a toddler, so she and her mother, who was a teacher at the school – the only female teacher who boarded, in fact – lived there solely.
Meg and Christine had been talking about the summer holidays – both girls could not wait to have a break from regular school life but, especially, Christine wanted to see her parents again. They had also been talking about Christine's new foster-sibling, Erik, as her mother had called him.
"So, do you think he'll be coming to school with us after the summer?" Meg asked.
"Well, Mum did say he was about our age and that they expected him to be with them for awhile, so, you never know… but I hope they don't have him that long."
Meg shook her head and nudged Christine's shoulder gently, "Oh, Christine, you always say that but you end up missing them when they're gone."
Christine's silence told Meg all she needed to know and she stood up, brushing the crumbs from her skirt before pulling Christine up with her. "Come on, let's go and see if we can't find Raoul – he'll cheer you up."
"Alright, fine, but I have to be back by half three – I've got my singing lesson, remember? And you, Meg Giry, have to practise your dancing before tomorrow," Christine said insistently before heading up the slope towards St. Patrick's Boarding House.
Meanwhile, in the Music Department in St. Joseph's, a solitary figure sat at the concert grand, playing quietly to himself a piece he had learnt as a young boy at the very school he, himself, now taught in. Jeremy Harper-Matthews was middle-aged and the sole male master who boarded full-time, apart from the priest, of course – but he lived separately and they weren't very close. He found it was lonely sometimes up there with so few people about. As such, he would often spend hours in the music rooms each day losing himself in the music of the great classical and baroque composers. Sometimes, in fact, if he felt like it, he would go all the way across to the other side of the school and up to the old music tower in the west wing of the castle. There was an older, grander piano up there with a more beautiful and purer sound. There was also a ghost…
The Black Butler – named so because he wore only black – was head butler to the Marchioness who lived in the castle many years ago. Apparently he had died suddenly and, as such, had no idea he was dead. Lonely and disturbed, he retired to the only place he found solace – the music tower – and scared off any who would dare enter his domain, forcing the Music Department to be relocated to St. Joseph's – the old stables and junior boarding house. Seemingly, the Black Butler was thought to be responsible for the lilting piano music that drifted to other parts of the school from the music tower and Jeremy was not about to quash that belief – he rather enjoyed the privacy it gave him.
Needing no incentive further than that thought, he stood and left the sound-proof rooms of St. Joseph's to head towards the tower.
As he stepped out of the courtyard towards the school's main road, he noticed the two girls walking in his general direction and changed his course slightly. Catching up to them and standing between them, he linked arms with both Christine and Meg. "So, how are my two favourite girls today, then?" he asked sweetly.
"You'd have to ask them that, sir," Christine replied and Meg giggled.
Spending three quarters of the whole year together, he and the girls were rather close and knew each other very well. Though he tried not to have favourites, he tended to get on better with Meg and especially Christine, who was like a daughter to him, than he did with the other boarders. He even had a nickname for Christine as he'd been so taken with the entrancingly bright colour of her eyes when he'd first met her – he had, since then, firstly because he had not known her name and secondly because he thought it suited her, called her 'Blue Eyes'.
"Always a ray of sunshine now, aren't we, Blue Eyes?" he teased.
"Are we?"
"Oh, ignore her, sir, she's just in a strop about her new brother," Meg laughed.
"I am not in a strop! And he is not my brother!" Christine said, perhaps a little too loudly.
Meg pretended to whisper to Jeremy behind her hand, "See what I mean?"
Christine scoffed and unhooked her arm from his, quickening her pace so that she was ahead of them.
"Oh, now, come on, you can't be angry with me, Christine… what did I do?" he asked as innocently as he could manage without laughing.
"Look at the pair of you," Christine muttered, turning away from them again, "as though butter wouldn't melt…"
"Now, now, Blue Eyes, I'll behave," he said as he caught up to her and linked arms again, dragging Meg with him and lifting his full-length master's robe away from his feet so he wouldn't trip. "Look, I promise, I'll stop. Now," he said when he'd gotten his breath back, "what's this about a new brother?"
"You know that my parents are fosterers… well, they're getting another boy to look after today."
"And how do you feel about that?" he asked, more seriously now.
"What can I say? Either way I'll be going home soon and that's a vast improvement on this place. I mean, literally, we're the only ten or so people stuck up here with nothing for miles around us except acres and acres of forest, mountainside and sea for most of the year… Doesn't it bother you that you live practically all year with a priest, seven teenagers, and several dozen sheep?"
"Oh, the frank and unclouded musings of a child…" he laughed, completely happy again.
"Less of the child, sir," she smiled lightly.
"But, of course. So, apart from feeling sorry for yourself, what are you the two of you planning to do today?"
"Pile up what I did yesterday," Christine answered. Meg just laughed…
When they reached the front doors of St. Patrick's, Christine and Meg let themselves in before heading up to Raoul's room on the top floor and knocking on the door. Mr. Harper-Matthews had just excused himself and gone off in the direction of the oldest part of the building as the girls had made their way around the corner and out of sight.
After a few moments, Raoul pulled the door open and ushered them in as he held the phone to his ear. "I know, Philip… yes, Philip… yes, I know, Philip… Look, I said I would… yes… but… I know… alright, fine… bye…"
In the meantime, Christine took a seat on his bed and Meg sat in the only chair near the desk, both of them looking highly amused.
"Well, I'm glad you find it so bloody hilarious," he said, "I'll be sure to repay your sympathies in turn."
"What was that about?" Christine asked, looking far more compassionate towards him and squeezing his shoulder gently as he sat down next to her.
"My brother, Philip, says that, if I don't do well in my exams, I can expect to be disowned and not allowed into the family business." Raoul came from a long line of successful barristers and was, therefore, expected to become one himself in due course.
"Oh, is that all," Meg said, far too cheerily to suit Raoul's mood, earning a glare from both him and Christine. "Hey, look, I don't mean to sound unsympathetic… but I am so that's how it comes across."
Still receiving glares, Meg decided that she'd far rather leave them to it and excused herself.
"I can't help thinking that, maybe, I'd prefer that, too," Raoul sighed.
Christine didn't quite know what to say so she settled for rubbing his back soothingly and letting him talk. But, instead of continuing, Raoul went off on another track completely and asked Christine something she had not been expecting. "So, did you think about what I said?"
Nervously, she withdrew her hand from his back and moved to stand by the window. "Raoul, I'm sorry, I've been concentrating so hard on my exams… I know it's a lot to ask but if you could give me time until they are over…"
As she trailed off, Raoul sighed, dejectedly, "Of course, Christine, I'm sorry if you feel I've pressurised you… I know things have been difficult lately for all of us but I really want to go out with you… I know we'd be perfect together. Say you'll think on it…"
Christine had already been thinking about it for a month now since he'd asked her the first time… she knew it was unfair to ask him to wait another couple of months until she was sure but she also didn't want to make a terrible mistake. What if they weren't perfect together and they made each other unhappy? And what would happen if they split up? – that would be one friendship totally down the drain and she wasn't sure she could bear that. She also wasn't entirely sure of how she felt about him – she knew she loved him dearly as a friend but she didn't know if there was anything more or if there ever could be. She was still so young that she didn't wish to rush into anything that would surely end badly for everyone involved. Childish though it was, she had always imagined that she would know straight away if she loved someone – that she would feel so strongly for them that being parted would physically hurt. And, though she knew it was too much of a fairytale to ever occur, subconsciously she was waiting for her Prince Charming so that she might never have to let go of her dreams.
Walking back towards him determinedly, Christine knelt at his feet and clasped his hands in hers, "I swear, no matter what my answer is, I'll have it for you by the time the bus comes to collect us a week on Friday, so long as you swear that we will stay friends in spite of anything. Can you agree to that for me, Raoul?"
"That's all I want, Christine, of course, I can agree to that."
Bored, Meg was walking towards the main building and front lawns, in search of the Dog's Grave where Lady Vane had buried her beloved dog with a headstone larger than most humans would get. It was a great spot to sit, surrounded by the trees, and spend some time on one's own.
As she passed through the archway below the music tower, she could have sworn she heard a piano playing above, and she shivered unconsciously. The Black Butler played on and Meg wondered, vaguely, if, when she died and was propping up the daisies, if she might be dancing across fields somewhere, still practising when there was nothing else left to do…
Quickening her pace and whistling to herself to drown out the piano, she skipped ahead, purposely avoiding the grass so she would not be shouted at by the caretakers, should they happen to be in one of the rooms above – one need only do that once – and stopped suddenly…
She could hear laughing before the piano continued again. Breaking into a full run, Meg passed the golf course and Smoker's Hut to the old wooded area beyond. Maybe, she should learn not to interfere where the ghost was concerned…
Remembering her initial reason for being there, Meg walked more leisurely towards the grave. Yes, it was about time somebody visited Urisk in his grave, after all, the last person who'd known him had died more than a century ago. He must be lonely, she mused. Perhaps, he, too, would be out there somewhere playing in the woods as though nothing had truly happened and he were still alive…
Reaching the headstone at last, Meg strained to read the inscription as it had faded and chipped away over time. With a little effort, however, she managed, and read aloud:
"Here Urisk lies and let the truth be told
This faithful dog was blind, infirm and old
Deaf to all else his mistress' voice he knew
Blind though he was, his step to her was true;
So strong an instinct by affection fed
Endured till Urisk's vital spirit fled.
Stoop grandeur from thy throne ye sons of pride
To whom no want is known, nor wish denied.
A moment pause, and blush, if blush you can
To find dogs more virtue than in man;
And share, 'midst all your luxury and pelf'
One thought for others out of ten for self .
Up above, in the creaky old music tower, Jeremy stopped playing – he could have sworn he'd heard whistling just then. Perhaps the Black Butler had come to reclaim his tower at last… he laughed heartily.
Beware the thirteenth step…
What a load of codswallop, he thought as he continued to play.
A person could scare themselves senseless, he reflected, if they listened to all the rumours and all the little noises that are inevitable in a building so old. Still, best not hang around too long… just in case.
Forcing himself not to hurry, he flipped the lid back over the piano keys and re-covered it with the old sheet before leaving, perhaps a little too quickly to be composed, through the secret door in the storeroom.
Back in the main building again, Jeremy sighed and headed for the Music Department – it was time for Christine's lesson and he was just glad he'd left when he did or he would have most definitely been late.
You are good for something yet, old friend, he thanked the Black Butler in his thoughts.
As he walked further away, unaware of the dust all over the backside of his black robe, he could have sworn he'd heard laughing and a piano…
The Black Butler plays on…
© Copyright of CrawfordsBiscuits, September 2005