Chapter Eleven: The Revelation
The air was soft and cool, and moonlight spread over the enchanting garden.
The tawny lord sighed happily, and wrapped one arm around his fiancé's shoulder. "It truly is a magical night, isn't it, Louise?"
"Yes," she commented, but her voice was strangely hollow.
Baron looked down at her sharply. "Darling? What's wrong?"
Those beautiful blue eyes began to overflow with tears, and the lovely white cat buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him longingly. "Why?" she cried. "Why don't you love me?"
Baron's heart nearly stopped in his chest as he hugged the feline and kissed her soft ear. "I do love you," he assured her firmly. "Why on earth would you ever doubt that, darling?"
Her clawed paws, which had not begun their change, took a dangerous hold on his shoulders. "Then why haven't you kept your promise to me?!" she demanded, her eyes still overflowing with tears. "Why haven't you remarried by now?! You promised me our children would have a-"
Baron gasped as he jumped out of his covers, his blood running cold. He put one hand over his chest to steady the irregular heartbeat.
"A nightmare," he muttered to himself, looking around his bedroom in the dim light of dawn. Almost of their own violation, his green eyes trailed up to the portrait of his beloved wife. It could have just been the dim light, but her china blue eyes seemed sorrowful.
Baron groaned as he slipped out of bed and threw on a bathrobe. "I haven't married yet because I haven't met a woman worthy to finish what you started," he said aloud with a note of finality, gazing at the portrait. "I will keep my promise when the right one appears."
Why did his heart still feel like a block of ice? He sighed tiredly, and headed for his bathroom. A hot shower would do wonders.
Suddenly, a bit of movement from the window caught the tawny feline's eye. He stopped in order to get a better look. His green eyes widened in disbelief.
Despite the fact that the two had stayed up the night before to finish polishing the stair banister, the Yoshioka siblings were up at the crack of dawn, perhaps involved in an old tradition.
The two were standing side by side, slowly rotating and extending their arms in unison as their feet moved around in an equally slow pattern.
Baron bit his lip, wondering where he had seen that exercise practiced before…
His doubts were suddenly dashed as Hashi flashed an evil grin, and quickly jabbed his hand towards his sister's side. She jumped and twirled in the air before landing a good five feet away, her entire body lowered to the ground like a tiger about to strike down its prey. An equally evil smile crossed her lips, although there was no true malice in the gesture.
Completely shocked, Baron watched as his two housekeepers began sparring, their movements nearly as quick as lightning. Haru seemed to almost impossibly bend over backwards to avoid Hashi's fist while at the same time throwing him over her head. He rolled safely, and jumped back onto his feet so that he could turn and attack again.
Absorbed in the aggressive dance, Baron leaned closer to the window and rested his arms on the sill so that he could rest his head on the cool glass. His breath almost immediately fogged over the sparring match, causing the feline lord mutter under his breath and quickly rub one sleeve across the glass so that he could see again.
But it was already too late. Hashi had somehow landed solidly on the soft dewy grass, with his sister's shoe firmly planted on his chest. There was a surprisingly gentle smile on her lips, which easily showed through as she spoke softly to her brother. Baron squinted his eyes, to get a better idea of what words her lips were forming.
"…too fast, Hashi. That's always a trap you need to watch out for."
Hashi grimaced as he took the arm she offered him, and got back on his feet. "Sorry about that, Sis. I'll work harder."
She beamed proudly, and kissed his brow while hugging him close. "That's enough practice for today. Baron should be waking up soon, and it'll be a little difficult to explain just why two ordinary peasants know how to fight like this."
"We could always tell him the truth," Hashi offered as they walked back towards the house.
Baron could just make out his sister's reply before she moved out of his line of vision.
"But would he believe us? I'd rather not take chances with this job, thanks all the same."
The orange and cream cat stayed by his window for several minutes, completely stunned. "Just who are you two?" he whispered. "What is it that I wouldn't believe?"
ooOoo
Hashi frowned at the sugary water angrily. "For crying out loud, why won't it boil?!"
His sister looked over at him and laughed while stirring a blue-spotted batter with a whisk. "Why don't you go make sure that the kittens are up?" she suggested. "Tell them that breakfast will be ready by the time they get dressed and down here?"
He grinned, and ran for the door while his sister put her whisk carefully aside, and ladled spoonfuls of her strange concoction onto the hot buttered frying pan in front of her.
The door creaked open again. Haru looked up through her glasses to see Baron walk through the kitchen door.
She smiled at him from behind her glasses before turning back to the blueberry pancakes. "Good morning, Baron. Did you sleep well?"
The tawny lord took a minute before answering. "Well enough, Miss Haru. And yourself?"
She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the pancakes. "Pretty good. Are you going to be staying home today, sir?"
Baron shook his head, and walked up next to her. "I'm afraid that King Herald needs my assistance today. May I ask you something, Miss Haru?"
"Sure, fire away." The dark human started flipping pancakes.
Baron took a breath. "Why did you come to work for me?"
She looked over at him, slightly alarmed by the question. "Well, the owner of the Dragon's Breath Inn didn't need more helpers, and he said that you'd probably hire me on the spot for my looks alone."
He cocked his head at her. "Beg pardon?"
"'Only plain girls need apply'," she reminded him, flipping the last pancake. "Besides, if I didn't try to get you to hire me, Hashi and I would have needed to sleep in a gutter again."
"What?!" Baron asked, incredulous that his sweet-tempered nanny would stoop to that.
The bespectacled human shrugged again as she sliced an orange open and started crushing it in a special contraption for juice. "We've had to do that a couple times since we were orphaned three years ago. It's hard to find a decent job that can feed both of us, and I didn't want you to hire me out of pity."
He stared at her again, making her feel a little uneasy.
She doubled her advances on the orange pieces, trying to ignore his gaze. "I enjoy working for you, Baron. This is the first job I've found that can provide for me and my brother, while at the same time enjoying the work. You're a good man- or cat," she added hastily, "to work under. We're happy here." Sniffing the slight burn coming from the stove, the human girl immediately dropped the oranges in order to stir the sugary water and add a bit of maple for flavor.
She could feel Baron's eyes on her, as she flipped the perfect pancakes onto a plate, and start the next round of fluffy treats.
"Why were you orphaned?" he asked softly.
Haru's heart froze, with memories of that terrible night. "There was a fire at the bookstore," she said finally. "We lived above the shop, and our mother was sick in bed. Father was already dead by an accident two years before. Hashi and I were out getting medicine for Mother, and when we came back, the house was in flames. Some friends managed to keep us from going in to rescue our mother. We couldn't stay in that town afterwards, so we left."
As she put the pancakes on the beautifully set table, she suddenly felt Baron's hands on her shoulders as she was gently, but firmly, turned around to face him. Despite the feeble protection her thick glasses gave her, Haru suddenly felt very defenseless against those mint-green orbs, which glowed worriedly.
There was something strange in his gaze, almost a tight worry over something she couldn't quite place. The more Haru looked into those deep, glorious eyes, the more she seemed to fall into them, almost like she was going into a hypnotic trance that she may well never break from.
Although the brunette knew that her feline employer meant her know harm, and probably never would, her heart began to pound a frantic warning from his strangely gentle touch.
"How did the fire get started?" he asked persistently, unwittingly snapping her out of her silent trance.
Haru's breath gave a shudder with memories of that night, and of the dancing flames that had consumed what was left of her life in the village. Slowly, she reached up, and gently took Baron's hands off of her shoulders, not used to being touched by anyone except children.
He seemed a little surprised; over his hands or her reaction to them, the brunette couldn't say. Whatever the reason, Baron's hands came down to his sides, almost to his back.
"I have my suspicions, but that's all they are," she said finally. "The authorities didn't give us a clue as to why it happened. Not that it matters anymore. Even if we knew the reason, it wouldn't bring Mother or the shop back. All that's left is the future. That's always what's left."
Baron nodded his gaze warm and compassionate, though still slightly worried. Haru managed a small smile, and poured the maple syrup into a more attractive container and placed it on the table.
"If I can make sure that Hashi has the happy childhood I had, then my debt to Mother and Father will be rep-"
The door burst open, and Lily seemed to fly through the air and attach herself to Haru's waist, completely free from her usual ladylike demeanor. "Blueberry pancakes?!" she squealed. "You're the best, Haru! Good morning, Father!"
"Good morning," Baron managed to say, feeling strangely disappointed, although he knew that it wasn't over his daughter's behavior. Elly ran in next, followed by Hashi as he laughed his head off.
The reason for the human boy's mirth became clear as Thomas hopped into the kitchen while trying to tie on a shoe at the same time. He grimaced at the laughter from the adults before finally sitting down at the table to finish the shoe-tying.
Baron let loose one last chuckle as the family sat down for breakfast and started passing the steaming pancakes around the table as Haru flipped the next batch to keep it from burning.
"Can you stay home today, Father?" Thomas asked hopefully.
Baron sighed as he monitored Elly's syrup pouring technique; particularly the amount. "I'm afraid not today. But I have made it clear to both majesties that I'm going to spend the entire day with all of you tomorrow."
His three kittens gave a whoop of delight as the tawny feline's eyes were drawn, almost magnetically, to the slim human woman flipping the next batch of pancakes onto a fresh plate.
"You'll watch them, won't you, Haru?" he asked, trying not to sound too worried about it.
The brunette looked over at him for a moment, and smiled. There was a slight trace of irony to the gesture, one that wasn't lost on the feline lord. "Trust me, Baron. Anyone that tries to harm your kittens will have to go through me first." She bit back an equally ironic laugh while placing the plate between Hashi and Elly. "I may not look like it, but I can be pretty intimidating when I set my mind to it. Your children are safe with me; you should know that by now."
Baron smiled with relief, and sipped the fresh tea she had prepared for him. It wasn't like his, but it was still surprisingly good. "That's all I needed to hear. Thank you, Haru."
Perhaps without realizing it, he had dispensed with the usual 'miss' when addressing her. Haru noticed, though, and she couldn't help but wonder if there was some significance in the loss.