Chapter 3

It was dusk when Erik and Isabelle arrived at the Giry Cottage. When Erik saw it he thought "cottage" was not the right word for the house he saw. He imagined a small two-bedroom home, but this had to be a 5-bedroom mansion. Erik heard Isabelle gasp when she saw the house, and glanced over and saw her eyes wide in awe. The house was very beautiful and looked, as though servants must have been keeping it in order.

Once they arrived at the front of the house, a servant opened the door before Erik had even helped Isabelle dismount. She bowed gracefully and introduced herself.

"Good evening, Monsieur, Mademoiselle, my name is Gertrude," the young woman said. She was very young, sixteen, perhaps, with red curly hair, and emerald colored eyes.

"Good evening, mademoiselle, my name is Erik Destler," Erik replied, then glanced at Isabelle, and didn't know how to explain her. Isabelle however had an idea of her own.

"And I am Isabelle Fraser, Erik, is my second cousin," she replied simply.

At that moment a man came from the carriage house and offered to take the horse and put it in a stall, Erik helped Isabelle, and thanked the old groom. The groom said it was his pleasure and introduced himself as Jonathan and then excused himself.

"Let me show you to your room monsieur, we will have to quickly prepare one of the guest rooms for your cousin, and I shall ask for a bath drawn for her, since it appears there was an accident," Gertrude said.

"Thank you, and could I please have some salve and clothe for my cousin's wounds, we had a horse accident on the way," Erik asked, as Gertrude ushered them in. Erik thought to himself that she appeared a nice young lady, she did not ask about his mask, nor the battered state of Isabelle.

"Of course monsieur, I shall get that right away," she replied. Gertrude led them up the stairs and to a guest bedroom, and gave him some clean, hot water, cloth, and salve, and told them to call her if they needed anything more.

Once she left Erik and Isabelle alone, he instructed Isabelle to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Hold still a moment, I am going to wipe the dried blood and dirt of your face, it may sting the cuts," Erik stated. He carefully put the wet cloth to her face and wiped away the blood and dirt smudges that covered her face. She winced when he touched her nose.

"Your nose is broken, I shall have to set it back into place, it will be very painful, I warn you," Erik said, she simply nodded and closed her eyes. Erik carefully gripped her nose and with a nasty crunch straightened it out again. Isabelle whimpered as more blood came from her nose, and tears made their way from her closed eyes. Erik quickly put the cloth to her nose and wiped away the flowing blood. She was breathing very heavily and shaking, which worried Erik.

"Shh, it's all right, take deep breaths through your mouth, you'll be just fine," he told her, trying to calm and distract her from the pain he asked her questions about what she liked to do.

"Do you like painting or drawing?" He asked with patience. She took a deep breath and replied,

"Yes, I do, but I am not very good at either," she said and attempted a smile, Erik noticing, gave her a gentle smile, and pulled away the cloth from her nose. The bleeding seemed to stop and Erik wiped away the fresh blood from her face.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"It was no trouble, mademoiselle-"

"Isabelle," she interrupted, "we are after all cousins now."

"Isabelle," he repeated, "I shall ask the maid to bring you some clothes for you. I shall return once you're dressed and clean, to finish dressing your wounds." She simply nodded as he turned to leave.

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Erik slowly made his own way around the house, waiting for Isabelle to finish cleaning and dressing. He entered what appeared to be the library, and found it very handsome, with a lot of dark wood furniture, a large desk, and many books. He was looking at the books when he heard a knock at the door.

"Yes?" Erik asked as he turned around to see Gertrude standing in the doorway.

"Monsieur," Gertrude answered, "I came to tell you, that dinner is served for you and mademoiselle in the dining room, your cousin is waiting for you to finish dressing her wounds, and then you can make your way to the dining room."

"Thank you Gertrude," Erik said. He made his way slowly to the foyer, and up the grand staircase, and arrived at Isabelle's bedroom door. He knocked on the door, which opened immediately. Isabelle had put on a simple blue dress, and tied her thick, wavy brown hair back with a matching ribbon. She looked very pretty for

someone dressed so simply.

Isabelle smiled as she let him in her room. He had changed into a simple white button up shirt, and black trousers. He had her sit on the chair near her vanity, and started cleaning the wounds on her arms with medicine. He heard her inhale sharply when the medicine touched the opened cuts. After he put the medicine on, he put the bandaging on the deeper and bigger cuts, once he finished that task; he stood up from the stool, and offered her his hand.

"Gertrude said dinner was waiting for us in the dining room, would you like to join me?" Erik asked.

"Of course," Isabelle replied simply, accepting his offered hand. They made their way to the dining room and ate in complete silence. Once they finished eating they bid each other goodnight and went to their own bedrooms.

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Once in his bedroom, Erik thought about Isabelle, it was sad to him that her parents were taken away so cruelly, and that she was now alone in the world. He thought she was very pretty. She had beautiful thick, brown hair, pale skin, and such a strange color of green eyes; they reminded him of pictures of oceans he has seen. She seemed very shy, but he assumed it was from the sudden loss of her family.

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Isabelle sat at her vanity studying her very bruised face. She had a deep cut along her jaw line, around her eyes and nose were turning purple from her broken nose; she had a small but long cut along her temple to her jaw. She looked like a mess, and was very ashamed at her appearance when she first arrived. Her nose was very sore, and it hurt to blink her own eyes. Erik had cleaned the cuts and treated her very kindly, like a father would treat his daughter if she fell down. She was a little curious about his mask, but never mentioned it, or looked at it. She thought he was very handsome, and looked about thirty, he had dazzling green eyes, and a very powerful air about him. Isabelle realized it was getting very late, and she put on her nightgown and went to bed.