Disclaimer: I do not own Inkheart or any of it's characters, Cornelia Funke does. I own Katherine 'Kat' Levingston, her mother Illene Levingston, Dr. Inglestone, his son Alexander Inglestone, and the Baroness.

Kat was still in shock she had just seen the guy with the limp, and he wanted to marry her? Talk about a shot gun wedding...She didn't even know the guy! How the hell does this guy know me? Unless that Basta and his pal Flatnose let little limping guy walk along with them while throwing me in to that animal housing...Still I wasn't awake! She was deep in her thoughts and had been for a while the last thing she had trully remembered noticing was Dustfinger getting his hands burned while trying to grab one of the books out of the burning barrels. She heard gasps followed by clinks, tinks, she jumped as she came out of her thoughts and back into the real world.

She gasped as golden and silver coins fell from the sky as if there were a rain shower, a coin rolled up and bounced against her sandal. She stooped down and grabbed it quickly and looked at it; Holy Jumpin' Jehosafats! These are...British coins era seventeen hundreds...The same kind that are sitting in the 'Piece of History' Museum...

"That belongs to Capricorn, though it's good to see you'e only just met him and you are already loyal," a male voice with a coarse accent exclaimed; Kat froze and stepped back a little, the guy with the limp. What did albino guy..Er..Capricorn call him again? Cockerell.

"I-I," Kat stammered, she looked behind her to see Mo, Meggie, and Eleanor had walked only a little ways away. Kat's heart suddenly dropped, I'm only a stranger, he's done enough nice things to help me. I need to show that I have a back bone...Though I need to do it carefully so I don't wind up getting my head shot off. "Actually, I was intending on keeping it as a um...Good luck charm."

"Ye better not be like Basta just when I got permission to have you as my wife. Basta is supersticious enough, afraid shadows will eat him; afraid a black cat shall make his so-called-luck worse. You are never to be supersticious, give me that," Cockerell sneered, grabbing the coin from Kat's hand he limped over to a sack another black jacket was holding while scooping coins and gems into, he dropped the coin in. "However," he smiled, "Capricorn was gracious to let me keep this ring that Silvertounge read out," he slipped it onto Kat's finger. Kat paled and looked down at it, it was a small golden ring that fit so well it was as if it had been made for her; in middle of the ring was a green emerald, holding the emerald in place were two small carefully carved golden dragons.

"Thank you," Kat replied, she had intended to stand up to the man, but after remembering how Basta treated Joy...How he hit her...The small display of anger that Cockerell had shown was just enough to convince Kat to be good. However, in back of her mind she was still trying to find a way to escape.

"Leave the small change for later, everyone back to your seats," Capricorn ordered, not once raising his voice. Kat shuddered, Creepy how they all listen to him without him having to raise his voice... Kat still wondered if she had walked into the Twilight zone, or am I in a room filled with aliens and 'engaged' to an alien?

"Kat?" Joy asked softly, walking over to her, "Capricorn has asked me to teach you the do's and don'ts of the village sort of speak," she smiled a little, though her dark brown eyes looked so sad, "after the next readings, I mean...Kat, I have to admit, I'm unhappy I did not know Cockerell would ask to marry you, I'm so sorry. I know what it's like being married to...One of Capricorn's men. It is not easy, it's a constant struggle each and every day. Please, feel free to speak to me whenever you can, we can help support each other." She smiled.

Kat nodded, "Thanks, um...Basta...Is he Capricorn's son or something? 'Cause Capricorn really only talks to him, or from what little I've seen. But still."

Joy looked over at her husband, and Kat followed her gaze it was obvious he had heard Kat's question, since he looked proud and he was smiling. Well isn't he just a bundle full of pride? Kat thought to herself.

Joy looked back to her, "no, he's Capricorn's second in command, in other words he's the leader of the black jackets. It is best never to cross him...What he does with that knife," she shuddered and put her hand on her arm as if remembering the knife on her. Kat didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that Basta abused her and raised his knife to her, and by the way she was holding herself, he probably cut her more than once...That poor woman, she doesn't deserve being here...Married to...She glanced at Basta and masked her disgust with fascination, that.

"Onto the next story, Silvertounge," Capricorn ordered, though it sounded as if he were simply talking about the weather.

Gee, underneath all that ritzy suit and all this, he must be bored outta his skull or something. He should really look into being a weather man, though they'd have to use some kind of make up or someone would think he was part of a storm moving in... Kat thought to herself.

"The next book?" Eleanor exclaimed, "he's read this treasure out for you-"

Mo put his hand on the woman's shoulder and shook his head, he sat down as Basta walked over and put his hand onto Meggie's shoulder with a less than friendly smile. Kat's heart went into her throat, if he hurt Joy the way he did, he could easily kill that poor child! She stepped forward, but it was Joy who stood beside Basta, took his hand and kissed it.

"Let her be with her father, Basta," Kat heard Joy say softly to Basta, "he's terrified of losing her, he will read to keep her safe. Let her sit with him, they both need eachother."

Basta let Meggie sit down and hug her father's arm.

"Did you know Meggie that the Arabs say..." Mo's voice started, Kat didn't hear what he was fully saying when she yelped in surprise as an arm wrapped around her waist.

Capricorn's colorless eyes focused on her, she felt as if a blade made of ice had just pierced through her stomach. Cockerell was standing beside her, eyes wide, his face looked somewhere between angry and embaressed. Capricorn's eyes left her and went back to Mo.

"Don't ever do that again," Cockerell growled in Kat's ear.

Kat nodded, "I won't, I swear, I'm sorry, I was just surprised; I'm not used too-"

"Cockerell, come stand up here where you belong," Capricorn exclaims, "cut the tounge out of anyone who interrupts Silvertounge. That includes your fiance's tounge as well."

"Yes, Capricorn," Cockerell exclaimed, bowing as he walked past Capricorn, dragging Kat with him. Kat swallowed, her mouth and throat felt as dry as sand paper...I'm never going to live through this, this is way to hard playing the obedient future little misses. I can't do this much longer, I miss taking my photographs and being free...Not caged. What does Joy feel like though? She's obviously been here for a while, and I've only heard the begginning of a complaint out of her not even a full one. I would have never acted like this a few days ago, well a few days ago I could have never imangined two suited men trying to kidnap me either.

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Illene Levingston took her Black Berry out of her purse and dialed her daughter's cell phone number again, it rang nearly eight times before her answering machine message came up, again. "Hey, this is Kat Levingston, I'm not near my phone right now. Leave your name, number, and message and I'll get back to you." BEEP.

"Katherine Katie Levingston, it's..." Illene glanced from her steering wheel to her dashboard, "three o' clock in the afternoon and you still haven't called me back! Where are you? Honey, are you in some kind of trouble, please...Call me." She pressed the red button on her Black Berry and shoved it back into her purse that sat on the passenger seat of her small silver SUV. Worry burrowed in her heart, she knew something bad had happened to her daughter, she had called the police and had as much luck with them as Kat had. Only they had told her that Kat was probably out taking photographs somewhere, or partying or something and to give it a few days, she'd show up. Illene wanted to reach through the phone and strangle the police officer and shout, 'That is my baby! I know my baby! She's no partyer, she's not irresponsible! Don't you tell me somethings not wrong when I damned well know there is something wrong, not only did she tell me it's a mother's intution! Aren't you a parent? What if she were your child, what would you do?!'

She took a deep breath as calmed herself down somewhat, she had to be calm to meet this Dr. Darryl Inglestone who was thinking of donating his summer home and everything in it to the Southerin Italy Making History Foundation. The summer house had once been the home of Baroness Patricia Langeslo in the late eighteen hundreds, everything in the man's summer home was exactly the way the baroness had left it. The summer home, the doctor had told her over the phone, is where he went when he wanted quiet, and a place where he could escape from everything, including electricity. He was retired now, and in his late sixties, he had his wife, children, and grandchildren to think of now.

She lowered down the visor and lifted the plastic lid that covered the mirror. She looked at herself, her face was in the shape of a heart, her chin a bit pointy, she had green eyes and dark brown hair. She looked at herself, she was a mess, her hair that she had put into a bun earlier that morning was slowly coming down; her dark blue eye shadow was smudged, her mascara was smeared into small rivers from tears of worry about her daughter. The only thing that had survived was the pressed powder, the blush, and her rose colored lipstick. She took down her hair and let it fall around her, she checked the clock, it was three o clock and the doctor still hadn't shown up yet; she figured she could quickly fix herself up before he pulled up. She finger combed her hair, twisted it tightly and curled it into a bun, she let the black octopus clip hold it in place.

She cleaned the make up off her face, she didn't wear foundation, she only wore the powder. She quickly reapplied it, after doing so for 'many winters' as her husband would have said, she was an expert. She sucked in her cheeks and applied her blush, she put a small band of blush on the sides and tip of her nose to bring it all together. She let go of her cheeks and applied her dark blue eye liner, then her eye shadow, her mascara, and finally her lipstick. She was capping up her lipstick when a dark blue mini-van pulled up and parked.

Illene climbed out of the car and smiled, "Dr. Inglestone?"

"No, I'm his son," replied another man's voice as he climbed out. The man was much younger, maybe only a year or two older than Illene herself. She gasped, he was gorgeous, he had short black wavy hair, dark brown eyes, and stood at least six foot two inches tall. He wore a black suit, over the suit he wore a brown trench coat. "Detective Alexander Inglestone," he smiled.

She brothe in for a long moment, the good Lord had sent her a blessing? Hopefully it wouldn't blow up in her face. "Ah...Your father was intersted in selling-"

"Donating," replied Alexander with a smile.

"Ah yes, donating, the Baroness Langeslo home..."

"Yes, he is and here are the papers, the key, the whole nine yards, it's yours," Alexander replied, handing her a vanilla envelope, Illene took i.

"Ah..Wait..When is a person offically a missing person?"

"Why?" Alexander asked, then paused, "Miss...ah.."

"Illene, Illene Levingston," Illene replied.

"Might I ask whose missing?"

"My daughter...Katherine, though I call her Kat," she replied, "I heard from her last night but I haven't heard anything from her at all today. She had run into some sort of trouble..." Illene paused, "she went to a village the Southern Italy's Making History Foundation sent her to take pictures of. She called me saying the village wasn't abandoned and...And that she had heard a man threaten another man's life. She was terrified yesterday when she called me. I...I've been trying to call her all day, it's not like her to not call back."

"I know the village you're speaking of, maybe she's in a dead zone?"

"No, she would have called me as soon as she got out of a dead zone. I know my daughter don't tell me-"

"Easy, easy," Alexander replied, "have you called the police in that area?"

"I have but they tell me to give it time she'll show up."

"The police down there...Are..." he paused shaking his head, "well...Their not very good at what they do, I'll leave it at that. I don't know what good I'm going to be able to do, but I have a friend that works down there. Your daughter heard somoene threatning to kill someone else which puts her as a witness and endangers here, from now she's a missing person that needs to go into protective custody."

Illene sat down in her car as Alexander grabbed a walkie-talkie from his car, she cried in relief, help the police were finally helping her.

"Mrs. Levingston, what does Katherine look like? Do you have a photo of her?"

"Yes, yes, I do," Illene replied, taking out her wallet she took out the picture Billy, Kat's boyfriend, had taken of her and handed it to him.

"Don't leave yet," Alexander exclaimed, "can you get some time off work to go down around where your daughter dissapeared?" He asked, "my friend, Detective Charlie Raggonli works down there and ol' Charlie's an old time cop, so he won't blow this case off."

"I can get as much time off as I need off, I'm the president of the foundation." Illene replied.

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Kat walked with Joy down the side walk, she had a pair of new clothes in her arms: a black jacket, a white blouse, an ankle lengthed black skirt, a black leather belt, ankle lengthed one inch black boots, a cameo that matched Joy's, only instead of a rose she had a light blue Perriwinkle flower to stick in her suit jacket's button hole.

"It's alright to be afraid," Joy said softly.

"I know," Kat sighed, "I just feel...Ashamed of myself, giving in so easily and quickly, I should be braver and stand up to that bastard-"

Joy looked at Kat, "you're doing what you can to survive. Standing up for yourself is good, I will give you that, but don't do it so much that you anger Cockerell into abusing you...He's not Basta, but I've seen his temper, it's far from pretty. Just cooperate, and be his silent support, after a while he'll start doing a few things for you, don't push it though. Whatever he does for you, he'll choose to do on his own, let him do it on his own."

Kat nodded, "were you afraid when Basta asked permission to marry you?" She asked.

"Basta did not need permission to marry me," Joy replied shaking her head, "Capricorn offered me to him. He agreed and since then I have been married to him. I shall you from experience, it will be rough and hard, but I learned to love my Basta, maybe...If all fares well you shall grow to love your Cockerell?"

"Talking about me are we?" Cockerell's voice asked, Kat fought back from tensing as he walked up beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist. He took a handful of her hair and inhaled, "you smell wonderful," he commented, letting her hair fall, "even Resa is not as pretty as you are." He looked over at Joy, "Basta's lookin' for you."

"Thank you," Joy replied, then paused, "Cockerell, please be easy with her and let her dress in private. She deserves that much."

"Joy, you are in position to be telling-"

"She asked you!" Kat exclaimed, Joy gave Kat a horrified look and shook her head no.

Cockerell slapped Kat so hard Kat stumbled back, she blinked back tears.

"Don't you ever speak against me again," he sneered.

"I'm sorry," Kat apologized, though inside she was far from angry, inside she wanted to strangle and slap the crap out of Cockerell and shout, 'Hey! Ya like that? Do ya? Huh? That's what your doing to me you jack ass!'

"I'll forgive you this time since you don't know much about anything around here," Cockerell replied, putting his arm around her waist he led her to his home. Kat looked around, Cockerell's house resembled Basta's, only the dresser was in worse shape, two drawers were falling out, and the mirror had a spider web shaped crack on it. The bed was slightly smaller than Basta's; on top of the dresser instead of bricks there were photographs of burning houses, beside the photos there was a burnt roof shingle.

"Like my collection?" Cockerell smiled, "we've burnt nearly fourteen houses so far. At least that is how many burns I have been on. Basta's afraid of fire, so he 'supervises.'" He laughed, "go on into the bathroom and change."

"Thank you," Kat replied.

Cockerell grunted, "I think I'll like having you as a wife. Like how your voice is small and soft, ya don't find that quality in women in this world very often."