Chapter Twenty Nine ~ The Missing De Noir

"We spend so much time up there, we might aswell just get it over with and move in." Uncle muttered. Loveday had managed to convince him to let us all take a trip up to De Noir castle. We were stood outside, preparing to climb into the carriage, whilst inside Loveday was fussing over the house.

"Are we all going?" I asked, watching as Mrs Heliotrope along with Wrolfe filled out the house after Loveday.

"That's not everyone." Uncle told me, sighing. Scurrying out the doors after the procession was Marmaduke Scarlett, who was dressed smartly instead of his usual chef whites.

"Marmaduke, you're coming too?" I asked, beaming down at the chef.

"Mistress Loveday thinks I should get out the house." Marmaduke smiled. "So yes, I will be accompanying you on your trip up to De Noir castle."

"Wrolfe's coming aswell." Uncle said, sighing again. "The carriage will be full."

"Stop your whining, Benjamin." Loveday tutted. "Mrs Heliotrope wants to ride up with Digweed and Marmaduke and Maria hardly take up much room."

"I wasn't worried about Marmaduke and Maria." Uncle's eyes lingered on the black lion, who stood by me waiting to climb aboard. "Your father won't be pleased with us bringing Wrolfe."

"If my father doesn't have the common decency to contact then he can just very well deal with Wrolfe. He's not going to bite." Loveday told him, patting the lion's head. I heard a tiny yelp from Mrs Heliotrope and I looked at her to see her staring at the lion with fear in her eyes. I realised then why Mrs Heliotrope wanted to ride up with Digweed. So she could be away from Wrolfe.

We all climbed aboard the carriage, Wrolfe being a struggle as he took up a lot of room inside. I offered to sit by him so he could rest his giant head on my lap. The fact a huge black lion was lying next to me, didn't bother me at all. I could see Uncle's eyes watching Wrolfe with some suspicion. He wasn't scared of him, he was just annoyed that the lion was taking up most of the room. Loveday was blissfully unbothered by Wrolfe's company and stared out the window in wonder. Marmaduke was sat in between Uncle and Loveday, the three of them looking a comical picture. The chef was grinning constantly, excited for his journey out as this was the first time in a long he had left the safety of the house.

I ended up watching the world pass by. It hadn't snowed in a while but there was still some leftovers of snow dotted around the forest. I would miss the snow when it left. I hoped that it would snow again before winter was out.

Movement in the trees caught my eyes. A figure, what looked to be a man, was running somewhere in the forest. It was gone in an instant as the carriage moved out of sight. I leaned forward, trying to get a glint of it again, but there was no movement in between the trees. Had I made it up? I must have been seeing things.

"Everything alright, Maria?" Loveday asked. I turned to her and smiled.

"Yes." I nodded. "I was just trying to see if we were there yet." Loveday smiled, convinced with my lie and told me we would be there soon.

Loveday was right. Soon enough we were pulling into the De Noir gates and into the grounds. When the carriage came to a halt, we all climbed out. Digweed left to put the horses in the stables, Mrs Heliotrope in tow, and the five of us, including Wrolfe, stood clueless in front of the castle. Around Wrolfe's neck, Uncle had tied a rope in an act of a lease. I held onto the end tightly, patting his head lightly.

"We better go in then." Uncle sighed. He and Loveday led the way followed by Marmaduke and I, Wrolfe securely by my side. We headed through the castle, not seeing a single person walk by, which was odd. I saw Marmaduke staring around the place in wonder. I grinned and caught his eyes.

"I've no match to home, but it is very grand." He remarked. When we entered the great hall, that's when we saw the inhabitants of De Noir castle. The room was crowded with, what I guessed to be, most members of the De Noir clan. Mr De Noir sat in his usual spot at the table but, when I looked around, his son was no where to be seen. The room fell silent at our entrance. Which was very unnerving

"Daughter?" Mr De Noir's voice asked. It sounded strained for some reason.

"You weren't expecting us, Father?" Loveday asked, her tone high. Mr De Noir stood up.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Can't I visit my dear father and brother?" Loveday asked innocently. "Why haven't we seen or heard from you since the party, Father?" I watched Mr De Noir's face crumble slightly and he shook his head very slowly.

"I didn't want to tell you, Loveday." He said carefully. "I had hoped to resolve this issue before you could find out." I stepped up beside Loveday, frowning at what Mr De Noir was saying. I looked up at Loveday and saw her face was confused.

"What issue, Father?" She asked. Mr De Noir swallowed hard and then continued.

"Robin's gone missing." I didn't think I had heard him right at first. "None of us have seen him since the party."

"That was five days ago!" Loveday cried. A hand shot up to her mouth.

"We don't know where he's gone. The last time anyone saw him was at the party."

"He was in the forest with me." I spoke up suddenly. I felt all eyes fall on me. "I didn't see him come in after I left him."

"Are you sure?" Mr De Noir pressed. His eyes seemed to be pleading with me. I nodded.

"I'm definitely sure." I told him. "Mrs Heliotrope can tell you also."

"Well that confirms what we already thought." Mr De Noir sighed. "We've sent out search groups into the forest, though we still haven't heard anything."

"But, Father, the forest…" Loveday didn't continue. I knew what she was implying. I think we all did. If Robin was in the forest then he was in terrible danger due to the creature that was lurking in there.

"I know, Loveday." Mr De Noir nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Loveday cried suddenly. "That's my brother, didn't you think I had the right to know?"

"I thought I would find him before you could find out." Mr De Noir admitted.

"What if he's dead? What if we hadn't of come and you found his body?" I felt sick at the thought of Robin's dead body. "Would you have kept it from me then?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"You're the one who's being ridiculous!" Mr De Noir pushed his chair away and scooted us out the room. He lead us all outside until we stood in the grounds again. He proceeded to tell us what they had been doing over the past few days and what they had been doing to find Robin. Search parties had been sent out to scope the area. They had searched the castle, including all the hidden passages, but found nothing. They had sent spies down to Merryweather Manor to see if Robin had been staying with us, but when that was concluded as a no, the spies were withdrawn and were sent on search parties with everyone else.

"We haven't found any bodies on the searches." Mr De Noir told us.

"So?" Loveday asked.

"So, that could mean the creature has been flushed out of the forest. Meaning that Robin is safe."

"If the creature isn't in there anymore then explain Robin's disappearance." I asked. Mr De Noir studied me with an odd expression.

"He could have just gone off to clear his head or maybe he's just doing it to make a point."

"And what point would that be exactly?" Loveday demanded.

"I don't know!" Mr De Noir shouted. "I'm doing the best we can!"

"Then how come you haven't found him yet?" Loveday shouted back. She then collapsed into tears and Uncle comforted her.

For some reason, I couldn't get myself to cry.

Robin was out in the forest somewhere, missing, and yet I wasn't crying. Was something wrong with me? There was a few possibilities to his absence. The one I hoped it would be was that he had gone to clear his head. It would make sense due to the fact I had gone and confessed my feelings for him. But surely it shouldn't take five days? The one most likely though, and the one Robin's Father thought it to be, was that he had been taken by the creature. Which meant he was dead. On Mr De Noir's face was evident tears. He had already wept for his lost son. He had sent the search parties out to find a body not his boy.

But I was unwilling to believe that.

Any moment we would see Robin walking through the trees and up towards the forest, as right as rain, and telling us all he had merely gone for a walk. I would sit and watch the tree line waiting for Robin to appear. Though he never did.

Never once did I see his familiar shape, his hat firmly on his head, immerge from the forest. Once when I thought I did, it just turned out to be the search party returning back from the days outing. Empty handed of course.

Mr Gomez returned back with a search party in an odd manner. He seemed completely exhausted, a great deal more than the rest of his group. His clothes were torn and hung off him quite a bit. His hands and feet were dirtied up. None of the rest of his group were like this. This just made me even more suspicious of the tutor than I already was. I thought about telling Loveday of my suspicions, but she was too caught up with her brother's disappearance to talk.

Why wasn't I? It all seemed too strange to me that I was sat beside Loveday, weeping with her. Maybe I had got it wrong. Maybe I wasn't in love with Robin and I had just made a mistake. I might have just confused my feelings. I didn't know what it was like to love before, maybe I had got it wrong this time. If so I had made a terrible mistake that could have cost Robin's life.

I hated myself so much.

When night fell and all the search parties came back, us Merryweathers were given rooms to stay in for the night. All of which were in the Children's Wing, where we stayed in last time.

Once everyone else had gone to bed, I crept out my room and into the empty one next door. Robin's room seemed awfully strange empty. The only times I had been in it, the De Noir was with me, either lying on the bed injured or rummaging through his chest for respectable clothes for me to sleep in.

I walked over to the chest and knelt down. I opened it and saw all Robin's clothes inside, screwed up and creased. Smiling slightly, I rummaged through, pulling out some clothes and then folding them carefully and putting them back in. I stopped when I found something familiar. It was the shirt Robin had given to me the first night I stayed here. I remember giving it back to him the next day, he looked slightly bashful taking it back from me, his cheeks going slightly red when he studied the shirt before returning back into his room to put it away.

I shut the chest, Robin's shirt in hand and began to change out of my night dress and into Robin's shirt. I kept a robe on as Robin's room was incredibly cold and threw the dress over the back of him chair. With a pause, I walked over and climbed onto his bed. I saw crossed-legged in the middle of it, staring around the room, playing absently with the ends of the shirt I was wearing.

It was then the first tears fell.

I felt them streaking down my face and then they wouldn't stop. It seemed that all the tears I had built up over the day had come to me now. I held my head in my hands and sobbed in the silence of Robin's room.

"I'm so sorry, Robin." I said between tears, a silent hope that he would come back if I did. Though nothing happened. I expected this much. I felt something cold touch my skin for a few moments and I looked down, instantly setting eyes on Robin's locket that hung around my neck. I took it in my palm and held it tight. I closed my eyes and re-said the prayer on the inside.

I had been remembering it over the past few days, so I knew it off my heart, therefore I could give it back to Robin as I thought he should have it back.

After I had said the prayer, I sat in silence with my eyes closed for a few moments. I opened them slowly, hoping that I would see Robin stood at the end of the bed, smiling down at me. Nothing was there. Just the darkness of the room. I let the locket drop and I crawled under the blankets, that hadn't been slept in for so long. I could still smell Robin as I pulled the blankets up over me.

This pained me.

I curled up in a tight ball and closed my eyes. I sat, crying silently, re-saying the prayer over and over again in my head, in a bid to bring Robin back.

A sound in the room startled me. I had been lying in Robin's room for a long time now and I still hadn't managed to fall asleep, though I had stopped crying. I didn't open my eyes, I just lay there listening. It sounded like the door opening and then footsteps. I guessed then it must be Mrs Harper. She had probably gone to check all the rooms and found me absent in mine. She must have guessed where I would be.

Comforted with the thought that it was Mrs Harper, I relaxed. The footsteps came over to the bed and then stopped. Though when I thought about it, the footsteps seemed too heavy to be Mrs Harper. She was only a small woman, these steps seemed more fit for someone much bigger or wearing strong boots.

Before I could react, hands grabbed me and pulled me from Robin's bed.

(A/N) Quite a short chapter, I know. But I'm trying to quicken things up because of the length the stories is getting to. Like I said, I don't want to drag it on too much.

Apologises for the disappointment of the last chapter, I know it wasn't the best. Please bare with me though.

Reviews are welcomed.

-jemlou-