Chapter 4
"Thank you again for flying Royal Airways. I hope the flight wasn't too long, and I hope you have a nice stay in London. Please stay seated until we are at the gate, and have a good day." The captain said, just after a bumpy landing. The flight was a total of seven hours, so naturally I had grown quite restless. I think Tristan became quite annoyed with me because I kept squirming. Finally, we were able to get of that forsaken hunk of metal that flies, and I swear, I never want to fly ever again! I'll take a boat back home thank you!
"So, do you know who is coming to pick us up?" Tristan asked from my shoulder, looking around the terminal.
Doing the same, I didn't see anyone I recognized. "Um, maybe we should get our bags first." I suggested shrugging. Nodding, Tristan started following signs to baggage claim. Once there, we hunted around, trying to find the right carousel, but instead, found all the bags from our flight lined up against a wall. "That's odd, why did they do that?" I asked bewildered.
"Because they ran out of carousels." Tristan responded, pointing to a sign above the bags. Glaring at him sideways, I went to retrieve my bags. Even though I'm talking with him now, doesn't mean that I'm all chummy with him yet.
After finding our bags, we walked around a bit, trying to find someone I recognized, or at least a sign with our names on it. After about half an hour, we decided to look outside. Surprisingly, there were about twenty men in black suits holding up signs; one had my name on it. Walking over to the man, I introduced myself and Tristan.
"Hello Miss! Fine day it is. Well, I only have instructions for you, but I guess I could take 'im as well." The man said, with a strong English accent. "My name's Will; I'll be driven' you today. If you would follow me, I'll take you to the car." He was nice enough to take my bags!
"I like him!" I whispered to Tristan, who in turn rolled his eyes. Following Will, I started to cross the one way street.
Before I got all the way across, I felt someone run into me, pushing me to the ground on the other side of the street. "Blood and ashes! What do you think you are doing?" Tristan yelled at me, from where he lay on the ground next to me.
"What am I doing, what are you doing? Why in the world did you push me?" I yelled back.
"I saved your life, that's what! You almost got yourself run over!" he yelled back again.
"What! I looked, there was no one there!" I shouted again, sitting up.
"No, you looked left! They drive on the opposite side of the street here, remember?" Tristan also sat up.
Opening my mouth to retort, I shut it again, realizing what I had just done. Looking up, I saw that he was right. I followed Tristan with my eyes as he ran back across the street to get the bags he had dropped, when leaping after me. Once he was back on my side of the street, he looked at me concerned. "Are you hurt? Other than your pride that is." He asked, helping me up.
"I'm okay." I mumbled. "Thanks."
"Are you coming or not?" Will asked, rolling down his window as he drove up to us. Both Tristan and I stared in shock. We got to ride in a limo!
"Um, yeah!" I said; grabbing my book-bag and helping Tristan shove his things in the trunk, and hopping in.
"So, who is your grandmother anyways?" Tristan asked, once we were well onto the highway. "I mean, she has to be important to have a limo and driver."
"No, she is just rich. My entire family is. We are not important anymore." I responded, the last barely audible. The ride wasn't long, but it wasn't short either. Stepping out of the limo, Tristan and I stared up at the house we had just arrived at. "Wow." I gaped
"I take it you've never been here before." Tristan said. I simply shook my head. "Well, shall we go in?" he asked.
The house in front of us was more of a manor than a house. The outside was stone for all three floors, a circular tower on the right front corner of the house (facing the street), with large bay windows on the first floor, and several personal balconies on the two upper floors. Walking up to the gate, I opened it and continued up to the door. The fence and gate were made of black iron. On either side of the front cobblestone walkway, were gardens. Lush greens and purples, blues and reds.
Before we got to the steps leading to the double doors, which had stain glass windows on either side, the doors opened and three women came rushing out to meet us. "Kitiara, you look absolutely darling!" the eldest said, moving much slower than the others.
"My, how you've grown!" the youngest one chimed in.
"Who's the boyfriend?" the third one asked.
"Hello Nana, Aunt Sophia, Grams; it's good to finally be here!" I said, giving them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "This is Tristan, my body guard, not my boyfriend."
"Well, he should be; he is certainly cute enough to be." Nana said, elbowing me in the ribs.
"Ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you. I hope it is alright that I accompanied your granddaughter here." Tristan said.
"And he has impeccable manners!" Grams exclaimed.
"Lady, you should not be outside without your sweater!" a man called from the open door.
"Well then, let's go inside." Nana said, giving the man a scowl. "That is Thomas, my butler. He thinks he has to baby sit me because I am ninety years old! I may be old, but I can still walk."
Stepping inside, I gasped in surprised for the third time that day, because the house was just so magnificent! Directly to the right was a massive, old fashioned kitchen, running the length of the house; big enough to accommodate an entire staff for a restaurant! On the left was a living/sitting room with a great fire place. This room was conjoined with the tower, and had bay window raping around the curved wall. There were several couches in there, most of which did not look terribly inviting. The foyer went all the way to the back of the house, with large double glass doors looking out onto
a patio and a large garden. In the back left corner, there was a grand U shaped staircase leading upstairs, stopping at both of the upper floors.
"Thomas, please take my granddaughter and her friend to there rooms." Nana said to the man who had ushered them inside the massive house.
"Oh course Lady." Thomas said, bowing slightly. "If you would please follow me." he said, indicating that he meant us.
Shrugging, I grabbed my bags and followed him up the stairs. Once at the top of the stairs, all I could see where walls. "Um, what are all these rooms?" I asked Thomas.
"I guess I should give you a tour so that you do not get lost; pay attention now." he said in monotone. He led us down a hall towards the front of a house which revealed another hallway leading to the side that did not have the tower. "The room in the front right corner facing the house is your Grams' room. The one next to it that occupies the back right corner is your Nana's room. The room that accommodates the tower is your room, lady Kitiara, and the one in-between yours and your Grams' room shall be the young lord's room. The room directly across from it is your Aunt Sophia's room. Now if you will drop you things right here and follow me upstairs."
We did as we were told, and followed him upstairs. What we saw were more walls. "Um, more rooms?" I asked; a rather stupid question.
"This floor is an exact duplicate of the floor beneath us. This floor is where your Aunt Sophia has her office, and your Grams has an extra sitting room, and your Nana has an indoor garden, though I don't see why she persists on coming all the way up here when she can just go out back." Thomas grumbled to himself. Obviously, he takes his job very seriously! "Room above the young sir's room is an exercise room, so you do not have to go to a gym if you wish to work our, or run on a treadmill. The room above Lady Kitiara's room is off limits, even if we knew how to get into it. This house is very old, and since there is no visible way into that room, it was never renovated, so it is most likely unstable. My advise, don't go looking for a way in.
"Thank you for the tour, I believe we can take it from here." Tristan said politely.
"Yes, thanks a lot." I chimed in, hoping that the grumpy man would just leave us alone. He didn't though.
"You are not to wonder outside of the gate. The yard is fenced all the way around the front and back yards, so don't leave or you might get lost or kidnapped. This neighborhood may be very nice, but there are still men who would grab at the chance to take a pretty young girl with them. Your relatives are very busy people, and at certain points in the day, you may not disturb them. Your Nana is a very old lady, and I intend to keep her living as long as I can, so don't go fooling around trying to make her do too much. Supper is at eight, breakfast is at nine in the morning, and dinner is whenever you want it. Tea in the afternoon is at four everyday, and I strongly advise that you not miss it young lady. It is important for a young girl to keep a social schedule regularly, and I'm sure that your relatives will be wanting to show you off to their friends. Now, go down to your main rooms and freshen up, then come to the sitting room to talk with your grandmothers and aunt, they have been up very early making sure that everything is perfect for your arrival." Thomas commanded, turning back to the stairs. Before he descended, he gave one last instruction. "Young man, if I so much as catch a whisper that you have been in Lady Kitiara's room for no matter what reason, I will personally kick you out of this house. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes Sir." Tristan said, rather uncomfortable with the thought of what the butler might do, and how threatening he had sounded. Thomas nodded, and then went down the stairs. "Well, I think we should do as we have been told!" he said to me, and followed the man down the stairs to the preceding level.
Lugging my bags into my room, I took a look around, to check out where I would be living for the next couple of months. My room did indeed accommodate the tower, which I was quite excited about! The rounded walls were encompassed in windows, with stain glass over top of each pain. The picture in the glass was a scene that stretched over the entire thing. The colorful glass depicted an army of dragons fighting an army of men at the foot of a mountain, and halfway up, there was a cave. Inside the cave was a young maiden with long brown hair in a beautiful dress, hands tied to a chain and hook stuck in the cave wall. At the mouth of the cave was a single dragon, facing a lone knight, trying to save the distressed maiden. The scene reminded Kit of all the stories of King Arthur and his knight of the round table going off to fight dragons and save damsels in distress. Underneath the windows was a wide cushioned bench that ran in a curve to match the wall, a nice window seat, with arm rests protruding from the bench, creating three equal segments.
My bed was pushed up against the wall which was the same wall that the stairs were touching as well. It was a queen size bed with a deep red quilt and dark gold colored pillows. There was a burrow on the wall that made a corner with the wall the bed was on, and the end of the curved wall. Across from the bed was a small bathroom with an old fashioned bath tub, toilet, and sink, all made of marble. The walls in the room were a dark midnight blue color, with dark gold trim around the base boards and around the ceiling. I noticed that in the corner of the room next to the burrow, the wall protruded in a box like shape, just sticking out in the middle of the room. Assuming it was for the pipes, I ignored it.
"Nice room." Tristan said from the doorway behind me. Startled, I spun around to face him.
"You shouldn't be in here. Thomas might kick you out." I said sarcastically.
"Oh please, I'm in your doorway, not your room." he responded.
"How is your room?"
"Well, since they didn't know I was coming, I'll have to clean it up a bit. I've already moved a few boxes containing junk and thinks they wanted to save; it looks about the same as yours, just without the tower. My bed is smaller as well, only a double, but I could care less really. The colors are different, but not much. Instead of blue, my walls are dark forest green, instead of gold, I have silver, and instead of red, I have blue."
"Sounds nice, but if you don't mind, I haven't finished unpacking."
"Yeah, I should probably do the same. See ya at dinner, err, supper?" Tristan asked.
Rolling my eyes, I nodded.