TALE AS OLD AS TIME
Chapter III
First Impressions
"What's going on here?" A male voice asked over Lily's screams, it was James. "Who are you? And what the hell are you doing in my castle?"
"I'm Mark Evans' daughter, Lily. You meet my father a few days ago."
"Yes, and I asked him for his dog. What are YOU doing here?"
"You asked for the first living being that greeted my father home and that was me. To honor his debt he sent me."
"Pettigrew!" James yelled suddenly. "Go and get Lady Anabel, tell her to come here right this instant."
"Lady Anabel, your highness?" It was well know in the castle that Pettigrew feared Anabel, but then James shot him a hard look and Pettigrew went out running.
"Very well, Lydia…."
"It's Lily."
"Whatever, apparently your father is a very crazy man, I can't figure why he sent his daughter instead of a dog, as I requested."
"You said first living being, not the dog specifically. On these cases one must speak clearly or gets into trouble. My father is a man of honor, that's why he didn't lie and because of the same sense of honor he taught me I didn't ask him to. For my father's life I'll pay any price."
"I sincerely doubt women in general know the meaning of words such as honor"
"James, don't be so sour." The voice of a girl interrupted. "And we do know the meaning of "honor" just that you don't tend to be around with women of the type who know, but that doesn't give you the right to generalize."
"I'm the dammed prince regent of these lands I can do whatever I please."
The girl roller her eyes. "Whatever, for what I heard you asked the 'first living being' yada yada yada … the point is that if Lily and her father would have died they would have cursed their own lives."
"How long have you been listening, exactly?"
"Uh, since you walked in, actually. Anyway, is obvious that you don't want Lily to stay but under the circumstances she will have to remain with you for a year at least or something terrible will happen to both of you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, but if you don't believe me ask Remus when he comes, he's the expert."
"I'll ask him. Meanwhile I think you shall stay in the castle, Linda."
"It's Lily."
"Right. Anabel please set her in a room and see that she has everything she needs, apparently she didn't bring anything."
"For what I heard, Pettigrew didn't even let her say goodbye to her dad, how did you expect her to bring something?"
"Are you determinate to piss me off today, cousin?"
"No. No more than usual I mean."
James was about to explode. "Laura, you can go wherever you want within the castle, it will be your home until I can untangle this mess, but you can't leave the castle grounds. Other than that if a door is closed you aren't welcome." James said, trying to control himself. "Anabel will help you if you need something, or you can ask for it to Mr. Potts, the housekeeper. What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because my name isn't Laura, or Linda or Lydia." Lily answered, "Its L-I-L-Y. Do you need me to write it down for you?"
"Watch it, L-I-L-Y." James was beginning to hate Lily and he could tell it was rather mutual.
"As you say…er… how do you want me to call you?"
"You can call him James, everyone does." Anabel said. "Now come, I'll show you to your room. Anabel took Lily's hand and started to stir her towards the living room and the staircase.
"Whatever as long as I'm not near to that bitter… I mean James." Lily said, turning her back to James and hitting him with her red hair as she passed by his side.
Once they were out of earshot, James said: "That woman must be the most unpleasant over the face of the Earth. And she's going to be friends with the second most unpleasant woman on Earth: my cousin. ARGHHH!" James exclaimed. "PETTIGREW!" he yelled next and the shot man came scrambling away.
"Your highness?"
"Call the messenger I need to send a letter." James answered shortly, he was SO going to ask Remus in Anabel had said the truth; he was willing to do anything to get rid of Lily, that was for sure.
"This will teach me to don't ask things of strangers in the forest! Now I'm stuck with her for a YEAR. Great, great, great!" 'Though you must admit she's rather pretty, with that fiery red hair and she's smells really nice. And her eyes… we had never seen eyes as green as those." James thought. "No, no, no, no," he said out loud. "Women are nothing but trouble, no matter how pretty they are. So just forget it!"
An image of Lily turning her back to him and sweeping him with her red hair flew to James' mind. "DAMMIT!" James swore.
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"I'm so happy to finally have another girl in the castle!" Anabel was saying. "It gets so lonely here sometimes." Lily took her first good look at Anabel; she was a pretty girl with long chestnut hair and hazel eyes. "How old are you?"
"Um. I'm not nineteen yet, put I will be soon."
"I'm eighteen, and I don't like it very much having to live with James, but Mother asked him to take care of me or something like that, he doesn't like me very much either."
"Who? James or your mother?"
"Both." Lily said. "Mother things I'm… what's what she says… oh yeah: 'Obnoxiously independent.' And James hates women in general, he had this girlfriend a few years ago… almost got married… it's a long story, I'll tell you later."
"In my town everyone thinks I'm weird." Lily confided. "My sister is convinced I'm a freak."
"I think we'll get along just fine. And just James calls me Anabel; by the way, you can call me Nan." Anabel said, "We are here." She added, opening a set of double doors. "This will be your room, mine is across the hall, James is at the end of it and the two rooms at each side of James' are usually occupied by his friend when they are here… which is all the time. So. What do you think?"
"That it's bigger than my house." Lily said in wonder, walking in and going over the nightstand. "This is everything I brought since I had it with me when that Pettigrew arrived." Lily said opening her bag, from out of it she pulled the book Mr. Colbert had given her days before and from inside the books she pulled three little drawings: one was of her whole family, even her mom before she died; the other was of her and Cynthia and the last one was of Lily and her dad last Christmas. Then she pulled out a little, ragged toy-plushie-bear. "That's all."
"Now that you're installed." Nan said. "Let's go and get some food."
Nan and Lily became fast friends because, as Nan had said, the castle was a very lonely place not to have a friend, and they did have things in common. James avoided the pair like a plague; he had something Nan called "Panic of Women."
A week after Lily arrived some other visitors arrived too.
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End of Chapter 3
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Notes:
Sorry for the delay!
Nan is one of my favorite characters, I hope you like her. In the next chapter Remus and Sirius come for a visit.
Next Chapter: Reality Check.