Okay, so I know this chapter is a little cliché at parts, but I just had to do it. For the plot.
Chapter 14 –
After dinner, Elizabeth and Erik were quickly ready to go upstairs and continue working on the cast list, but instead they were convinced to sit with the family in the sitting room and talk for a while.
Erik was only half listening to what was going on. He heard a few things about both kids' schools, and about David's business. Elizabeth talked a little about the school. He didn't even notice when David had asked him to go into the other room with him for a drink, and felt embarrassed when the man had to repeat it.
"Sure," Erik replied. He looked to Elizabeth, and she looked as bewildered as he felt.
The two men reached the other room and sat in silence for a minute as they drank. Finally David spoke. "You must know, Erik, I was quite surprised when I found out you were staying here with my sister."
"Yes, it is a strange arrangement, isn't it? Well, when I originally got the job she offered to let me stay here for as long as I like or until I found another place suitable." Erik replied slowly, unsure of where this conversation was really going.
"The thing is, Erik, that my sister means a lot to my family, and we all would just like to know that she is safe." Mr. Bennet replied, equally slowly, but Erik knew it was for different reasons. "We don't want to see Elizabeth getting hurt. Right now I am unsure of what your presence in her life is. Yes, you work for her, but it is more than that, I'm sure. I am not sure the exact position you are in with my little sister right now, but it seems to be leaning towards more than just friendship. I do not need the details about your relationship with her, but I will tell you that whatever your intentions are, if you hurt Elizabeth, you will hear from me. Elizabeth does let her guard down very easily, and she has a hard time getting close to people beyond friendship. There seems to be something between you and her, and I just want you to know that if you have no intentions to have a proper relationship with her, do not let it get any farther than this."
"Mr. Bennet, I assure you that whatever the relationship between Elizabeth and me is, it is not a romantic one. We are friends. I also promise you that if ever the relationship did increase to something else, I would have absolutely no desire to hurt her in any way."
"That's very good news. Now I'll let you and Elizabeth go back to whatever you were working on," and he motioned for Erik to go.
They went back into the sitting room and stood in the doorway. "Do you want to get back to work now. Elizabeth?" Erik asked.
"Sure." she replied, and they went up to the study. On the way. Elizabeth's curiosity got the better of her. "So—what did my brother want you in the other room for?"
"A drink, that's all." Erik replied.
"You're a horrible liar, Erik. What did he want?"
"First of all, I am a very good liar; you just seem to be able to catch me when I do it. And second, he just wanted to talk a bit."
"About what?" she asked in a rather loud outburst.
"If you must know, David wanted to know what my intentions toward his sister were."
"Oh, he didn't—did he?" Elizabeth asked, immediately turning bright red. "I'm sorry, Erik, I had no idea."
"It's fine, I survived, didn't I?"
"Of course you did. Now, let's get to work."
The two went back into the study and began to work on the cast.
Elizabeth woke the next morning looking up at the ceiling. She soon realized it wasn't the ceiling of her bedroom; she looked to her right, and saw her desk and remembered that she and Erik had been working in the study the night before. She must have fallen asleep on the couch. She wasn't in the mood go get up so she just snuggled closer to the pillow she was sleeping on.
"Comfortable?" asked a voice from above Elizabeth's head.
She turned her head around, and realized that the pillow she had been using was in fact Erik's lap. She sprang up instantly and managed to knock heads with him. She hit her forehead hard into the side of his mask, moving it out of place a bit, and Erik sprung up and turned around to put it back in place. Elizabeth still sat on the other side of the couch holding her head and groaning. She was still only half-awake, but she did see Erik's reaction. Erik turned around and looked at Elizabeth, who sat holding her forehead. He couldn't help but laugh at her. "Sorry." was all she could come up with to say.
"A little jumpy are we this morning?" Erik asked with a grin on his face.
"That's not funny, Erik, I was a little bit surprised to wake up like that."
"Apparently."
"What time is it?" Elizabeth asked knowing it was probably still pretty early since there was no light shining through the curtains on the windows.
"It is six-thirty."
"And how late were we up last night?" she asked, still massaging her forehead. The cold hard mask was not something she enjoyed smashing into.
"I'm not sure. Very late though, I assure you." She just nodded.
"Are we done?"
"We are far from done, Elizabeth; we still have many, many hours that you will fall asleep on my lap from working so hard."
"I already apologized, Erik, I didn't mean to fall asleep in your lap."
"I know, but when you did fall asleep I continued working, and I came up with the finished list. I think you'll like it."
"Probably, considering you're the teacher, not me. My opinion doesn't count, only yours does."
He smiled and sat back down. "Your opinion always counts. If it didn't I'd have done this in my room without you. Most of it we decided together, but I did the last few touches."
He handed her the list for the first Story.
Cinderella
Cinderella: Caroline Henson
Prince Charming: Andrew Billings
Fairy Godmother: Brianna Carlson
Stepmother: Julie Barns
Stepsister #1: Jennifer Billings
Stepsister #2: Emily Dulairier
Elizabeth didn't say anything abut Cinderella. She liked the casting.
Erik gave her the Frog Prince Casting.
The Frog Prince
Frog Prince: Fredrick Henderson
Princess: Hattie Caldwell
"Erik, don't you think we need more Characters than just two?"
"No, we don't, the only other Characters in this story are the girl's family and we don't need songs for them, they can be played by Dancers." he told her
He handed her Hansel and Gretel.
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel: Andrew Billings
Gretel: Jennifer Billings
Evil Witch: Aurora Walker
"This one only has three!" she protested
"There are only three important Characters in Hansel and Gretel."
"Don't you think they are a little old to be playing little kids?"
"Don't you think Julie's a little young to be playing the old Stepmother in Cinderella?" he replied.
"Fine, give me Sleeping Beauty."
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty: Julie Barns
Prince Charming: Jimmy Davis
Evil Fairy: Aurora Walker
Good Fairy #1: Jennifer Billings
Good Fairy #2: Caroline Henson
Good Fairy #3: Brianna Carlson
"I like it, what's the next one?", she asked.
"So much for your opinion not mattering, and it's all about what the teacher thinks."
"Well, I'm not trying to tell you to change it, am I?"
"Here's Little Red Riding Hood." He handed her the paper.
Little Red Riding Hood
Red Riding Hood: Emily Dulaurier
Wolf: Andrew Billings
Grandmother: Hattie Caldwell
Hunter: Jimmy Davis
"Oh, Erik, this one is cast perfectly!"
"Hattie won't want to be a Grandmother, but it will be good. This one is Snow White. You'll like this one."
Snow White
Snow White: Aurora Walker
Prince Charming: Jimmy Davis
Witch: Jennifer Billings
Dwarf #1: Andrew Billings
Dwarf #2: Julie Barns
Dwarf #3: Hattie Caldwell
Dwarf #4: Fredrick Henderson
Dwarf #5: Caroline Henson
Dwarf #6: Brianna Carlson
Dwarf #7: Emily Dulaurier
"It's the whole class." Elizabeth replied after reading it.
"I know, I think we should do it as a finale, because everyone will be in it."
The Last paper was Rapunzel.
Rapunzel
Rapunzel: Brianna Carlson
Prince Charming: Fredrick Henderson
Witch: Jennifer Billings
"They're really good, Erik."
"Thanks. I was thinking we could narrate each one and have songs for the Narrators, but then I decided that it would be too many Characters for each person. We'd need one or two more students to do that." Elizabeth nodded.
"So what order do you think we should put them in? I agree that Snow White should be last, that one would make a good finale. The dances could have many dancers in it, because of all the characters. I think we should open with Cinderella."
"I like that one being first. Then Hansel and Gretel, because we don't need to put all the princess stories together." He nodded.
They talked out the order for a few more minutes and came up with:
Cinderella
Hansel and Gretel
Sleeping Beauty
The Frog Prince
Little Red Riding Hood
Rapunzel
Snow White
"I'll send the list to everyone else and see what they think." Erik nodded.
It was nearing eight o'clock, so they decided to leave the confines of the room in which they had spent the better part of the day before.
When they got to the dining room, there was a small breakfast waiting for them. It wasn't as fancy as the last two days' breakfast but it was still good.
"Well, well, well, looks like you two made it out of that room for a while." David said with a smile.
"We finished casting the play." Elizabeth replied happily.
"Good. What do you have planned for today, sister?"
"I'm not sure. What would you four like to do? I'm open to suggestions."
"I'm not sure, we did the town yesterday. It's not very cold today, so we could just take a ride around the forest." he suggested.
"We're going horseback riding?" Amelia asked as she rushed into the room.
"Do you want to?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, it would be so much fun. Could we invite Caroline? She has a horse and she likes riding."
"What about Caroline?" Daniel asked, as he and his mother made their way into the room.
"Okay—no one speak. Do you guys want to go for a horseback ride, and, if so, do you want to invite Caroline?" Elizabeth said, slowly. Everyone was silent. "You can speak now."
"Yes." Amelia replied, and everyone else nodded.
"All right, I'll send word down to Caroline's home." Elizabeth said as she turned to go find some stationary. "Oh, Erik, do you want to come?"
"I think I'll stay here."
"Don't even think about going over the cast lists. You'll go crazy if you do." Erik nodded.
After everyone was ready and Caroline was over with her horse, they set out. Erik stood and waved to Caroline, who had begged him to come. He told her that he'd tell her a secret when she came back, and she was quiet again.
After a little while spent riding, the kids decided to go ahead and leave Elizabeth, her brother, and her sister-in-law behind.
"So, little sister, how are you?" David asked curiously. He was looking at her strangely, and Elizabeth couldn't read the expression.
"What do you mean? I'm fine, David."
"I know, but there are a few things I'm wondering about." he replied with the same look.
"If you'd like to ask about Erik, go ahead. There is nothing there more than friendship."
"Yet he lives with you." Jane added.
"He came to stay with me when I first gave him the job as the vocal teacher. He had nowhere to go, and after a couple of awkward days we were really comfortable with the situation. As far as I know, he's going to stay permanently."
"Are you sure it's nothing more than friendship? The two of you seem very close." David asked.
"Erik and I just get along very well. We fight a lot also, but when we work together and don't annoy one another, we have fun and enjoy each other's company. Why do you care so much about my relationship with Erik? Don't pretend you don't, because I know you asked his intentions last night."
"Partly because I don't want to see you get hurt. He seems like a really nice man and you seem to get along really well, but who knows? Mostly it's because we don't want to see you end up alone later on. I know you're happy with your life at the school, but don't you think there might be more than that? We'd love to see you married with children, and we know that you'd like that too."
Elizabeth opened and closed her mouth a few times but she didn't know what to say. Thankfully, she was rescued by the kids in front of them. "Come on, Father, we want to get there before the day is over." Amelia complained.
"All right, we're coming child, don't worry." he replied and the three hurried up a bit.
Elizabeth stayed silent the rest of the ride, thinking about what her brother had said. She knew she didn't want to end up alone, but a relationship aloneseemed so out of the question. Besides, she hardly wanted a relationship with Erik of all people…right?
I have a few more- comments yay!
Light barrer -Thanks for the comment and I'd like to know what you didn't like about the chapter because I would love to be able to avoid problems like that in the future
Christy Day - Thanks again for the comment it's always great to get nice reviews like that.
Harem 98 - I do like giving Erik a sweetside, yes it does make him more perfect, but also more human, I don't believe that people couldavoid being sweet at least onetime in their life, especially one that he might be enjoying, cause I believe he'd like it atElizabeth school teaching. SO yes, tehre will probably be more sweet Erik moments.
Eleniel of the Stars - Thanks I like my characters being sweet and nice, and I am glad you mean that in a good way, and Erik has to have his sweet momemts here and there.