Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or 'At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum'

Chapter 3

The Bills Of Mortality

"You idiot!"

Aster dropped the coal-black loaf on the floor and then pulled out a rough brush and water. He threw half the water onto the cooking counter and shoved the brush into his careless cousin's hand, glaring at him threateningly.

"That's the third one today!" he growled. "Get the counter cleaned up now!"

"It's not like I meant to burn it…"

"I don't care, Jaden. You did burn it and that's all that I care about. Just get that cleaned and then go out and play or something. Leave the one who does all the work around here to do yet more work!"

Aster stomped over to another counter and began violently kneading dough, so that it looked more like he was punching it. Jaden flinched slightly at his cousin's anger and scrubbed unenthusiastically at the blackened counter. Aster could be such a moan when he got unhappy, and right now he was.

Jaden didn't get it. Aster was worried but he was as focused as ever - while he was worried and so had burned three loaves of bread, given two customers more change than he'd had to and noticed only once they'd left, and spilled water all over the floor of their shared room at the back and been sent out to the water well to collect more. What was wrong with him?

Oh yeah, that's it.

Jesse Andersen.

Ever since he'd met him three weeks ago, he couldn't get the blue haired male out of his head. Jesse was in his thoughts during the day and in his dreams at night. He didn't want to think about him any more. He was sure a guy like that was respectably into women and probably had a girlfriend that he planned to marry. Either that or he had a fondness for whores, like someone else Jaden could mention.

While Jaden had been thinking longingly about the bluenette, Aster had been visiting nearby whorehouses and paying money for things that Jaden didn't want to know about. Aster had said that he had to have his fun while it was still possible - and indeed Jaden knew what he meant.

The previous week they'd heard the big news that had terrified them - the King and his court were leaving London because of the plague. Their departure signalled the start of the plague, and the knowledge that they were gone caused many of the titled or rich people in London to start leaving, too. Everyone who could get out of the city was thinking about journeys and suchlike. Many rich people had houses in the country, where they were going to stay until the threat of plague was gone.

It was being said that Certificates Of Health - which had to be signed by the Lord Mayor of London and were very difficult to get - had to be obtained if a person wished to leave the city. If a person had no Certificate Of Health, the guards at the gates into London would not allow them to leave and would make them turn back and return to the city.

Not just that, but no matter where Jaden went now, he was seeing the signs that the plague had begun for true.

There were fewer people of quality than there had been two weeks ago, and most alleys and lanes had a house or two that had been shut up and the people inside locked up for forty days, because someone in that house had the plague. The church graveyards were beginning to swell from the amount of bodies, and funerals never ceased. In some parts of the city, the cousins had heard, bodies were collected on a cart - the Death Cart, it was named - in the night, and were thrown into the graveyards with no care, and that corpses no longer had a grave to themselves but had to share with others.

London was becoming a very scary and dangerous place to be, and Aster was mighty sorry that they'd come.

Jaden, however, found it exciting to be so close to such a large amount of danger - he couldn't believe it! He'd never been in danger before so it was all a new, exciting experience for him. His month or so in London hadn't been at all pleasant, but there was one thing that kept him from being sorry he'd came, and it wasn't the thrill of being in the dangerous city. It was, of course, his daydream bluenette.

Aster and Jaden glanced at each other nervously as they approached the recently posted Bills Of Mortality. Aster blocked it from Jaden's view as he read it, and then he turned and grabbed his cousin's arm, hurrying him away from the crowd.

"What? Why'd you do that?" Jaden moaned unhappily. "I didn't get to read it!"

"It said almost two thousand!"

"Two thousand?" Jaden gasped, feeling his body suddenly go cold.

"And almost five hundred dead of 'other causes' which could mean people are paying to have their family members deaths recorded as fever or suchlike, so that the plague name isn't on the family and the rest of them aren't shut up!"

For the first time, the brunette was afraid. Truly, terribly afraid. Two thousand deaths in a week! The plague … it was so close. It could have killed people that he might have known otherwise!

Unable to speak, Jaden turned and fled, leaving Aster to make his way back to their shop alone.

Jaden tore through random alleys and lanes, unwilling to believe it. Two thousand! He was aware that he'd run into a richer part of town and was almost relieved that he saw no enclosed houses - but he wasn't rich, it could get him! And Aster! Hell, the plague could get anyone that it wanted. No-one was immune, and there were so many cures prescribed by so many doctors that nobody knew what to take. None of them were sure to work and people were sometimes found dead clutching whatever trinket or medicine they'd hoped would save them.

Jaden kept running full speed until he slammed into another person, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Ouch …" Jaden grunted, and then gasped. "Hey, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going …"

But he stopped talking, because the other person - the one he'd knocked down - was presently getting to his feet and offering Jaden his hand. Jaden grinned with true happiness as he took his hand and got to his feet.

"Thanks, Jesse" he grinned. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, Jaden" he said simply.

So he remembers me, Jaden thought.

"So what were you running from, exactly?" Jesse asked, curious. "You were going at some speed there."

"Yeah, I'm a fast runner." Jaden sighed sadly. "I just read the Bills Of Mortality. Have you … have you read them?"

"Yeah. Two thousand, huh?"

"Do you think it's true?"

"It's sure to be" Jesse muttered, somewhat sadly. "The authorities won't lie about the plague deaths in that way. They might say less have died than actually have, but they'll never say more are dead. It would look bad on them."

Jaden didn't reply, for he'd glanced away from Jesse's green eyes to look at his surroundings properly and had noticed that they stood in front of the largest, grandest house he'd ever laid eyes on. It was five stories high and very wide, a magnificent white building with blue and gold around the edges, and a huge amount of grassy area - what a garden that would be - surrounding the house. It included its own water well, which explained why Jaden had never once seen Jesse getting water for the house - or any servants that he knew to be from Mapleside Manor, and he knew now more than one. Several had come in at one time or another to his bakery shop and every one of them had, in an off-hand manner, said they worked in that house. It was probably even more stunning inside than out.

"Eh, Jaden? What are you staring at?"

"The house…" Jaden said, still in awe of the grand building. "Do you live in there?"

"Only as a servant, Jay" Jesse laughed. "Our living quarters are quite simple, really. The actual house is amazing, though. You've never seen so many expensive things that nobody actually uses in your life!"

"I guess not."

"Hey, Jaden? Nobody's actually in right now, except the mistress and she's stuck in bed sick" Jesse said, winking at the brunette, who blushed. "Want to come in and see some of the house?"

"Go into Mapleside Manor?" Jaden gasped. "But … what about your master and mistress? Won't they get angry with you?"

"Nah, they won't know. The other servants are all off somewhere else, it's basically a day off for everyone. The master's gone out with his brother and the mistress is very ill so she can't get out of bed."

"When you say ill, Jess, do you mean that she's…that she's got plague?" Jaden asked fearfully, his body cold and the words tasting of ash. If Jesse became shut up in a house of plague …

But Jesse only laughed.

"It's not plague. Plague would've taken her by now. She's been ill for three months."

"What is it that ails her?" Jaden asked, somewhat relieved.

"Childbed fever. She had a baby three months ago and she's not been the same ever since." Jesse shrugged. "She's very pretty, though."

"Your mistress?"

"What? No, I couldn't ever see her like that" Jesse laughed. "She's an attractive woman, no doubt, but I don't look at women like that." He paused, having realised what he'd basically admitted and then shrugged. "No, I meant the baby. She's called Victoria, but I always call her Vicky. She's the spit of her mother, but very pretty for a three month old."

Jaden ignored the 'I don't look at women like that' comment and continued to talk about the Truesdale family, seeing it as his best way to get to know Jesse.

"So how many are in the Truesdale family?"

"You've heard all about their wealth, then?"

"Yeah" Jaden said softly. Everyone knew.

"Well, there's Lord Zane Truesdale and his wife Lady Alexis Truesdale, and they're my employers. The master has a brother, too - Syrus Truesdale, I think his name is, though he's rarely here. And of course, there's the master and mistress' two daughters, Louisa and Vicky."

"And do you see them all?"

"Mainly the master, because he's who I run errands for concerning the wardrobe and all that" Jesse said, shrugging his shoulders again. "The mistress is attended by a maid usually. A good friend of mine, actually. Blair."

"Blair?"

"She's the mistress' personal maid. We're good friends. Blair looks after the mistress when she is sick and otherwise she looks after the children. Each child has their own nursery maid, but because Vicky is so young and because of the plague, they've not got a maid for her yet." Jesse smiled slightly. "Blair and I take turns looking after her, though, so it's all good."

"You take care of a baby?"

Jesse laughed at his friend's expression.

"Sure do. I know, it's generally a woman's job, but times are hard with the plague."

Jaden couldn't help but laugh with him.

"It's weird, Jess" he said suddenly. "I've only met you once before and yet … I feel like I've known you all my life."

He blushed, realising how it must have sounded.

"I know. It's the same for me" Jesse said quietly, his eyes looking away from Jaden. Then they looked back and he smiled. "But come on, let's go inside. I'll show you some of the house. And the baby, if you want."

Jaden wanted nothing more.

Please R&R