A Secret Hidden From You

Chapter 4: In the Dark Shadow of the Full Moon

Author's Note: Hi everybody! Thank you to the people who reviewed and read the story! I'm glad that the story still interests people :P Well, I believe that the story will begin to pick up now that it's going into part two and three.

Two months ago, Matthew was a stuttering nobody. A boy from a different country, taken to be a slave. Miraculously and luckily, he was bought by what could be considered a nice owner. Now, only after two months, he was able to befriend that master and go from being a nobody to a beloved servant that Francis trusted and cared for, but not in that loving, tender way, or so Matthew believed. With where he was now, no longer the stuttering, extremely shy boy, Matthew was genuinely grateful and happier than he had ever been.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Mr. Bonnefoy! It's eight o' clock now! It's time for your breakfast!"

Matthew knocked a few more times on Francis' bedroom door just to make sure that he heard his wake up call. Matthew then went to the kitchen, passing one of the other servants who would wait at the base of the stairs. Grabbing the plate of food that the chef left out, Matthew placed the plate at a spot on the table in the next room. He found a nice comfy chair at the table, sat down and waited for Francis. Ten minutes later Francis still had not come down and his food had gotten cold. Worried, he ran up the stairs and pounded on the bedroom door a few times. When there was no sound of movement behind the door he decided to bang on it a few more times. As he was about to hit the wood, the door was suddenly thrust open revealing a pale, tired looking Francis.

"What is it?!" Francis snapped.

"S-sir, y-your b-breakfast is r-ready."

When he finally took the time to collect himself, Francis realized that he was talking to Matthew and immediately felt bad for snapping at the boy.

"I'm sorry Matthew. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm really tired and I tend to get moody when I'm tired. Let me just put on my robe and I'll walk down with you."

"OK. Take your time Mr. Bonnefoy."

When Francis was ready, the two walked down to the dining hall. As the other passed through the light of the luminous chandeliers, Matthew noticed how pale and lifeless Francis was. He had dark bags underneath his eyes and the ocean blue sparkle that was so familiar to Matthew was gone. The color was replaced by a washed out foggy blue. Matthew could see how pale Francis was, but as he studied the other even more, the pale color looked more and more like a the grey, dead color a corpse gets after a while… Believing that what he was seeing was just due to the bad lighting, Matthew tried to let his suspicious thoughts go.

"Maybe Mr. Bonnefoy is catching a cold. That would explain the bags and odd skin color." Matthew thought.

Sitting at the dining table, Francis slowly began to eat his now freezing breakfast. Giving up rather quickly, Francis put his fork down and turned to face Matthew.

"Matthew, can you go down into the gardens and pick for me twenty four red roses?"

Matthew nodded.

"Thank you. There's a parasol and a basket with a pair of scissors in it in the other room. When you are done, you can place your basket on this table. I'll have someone come and get them."

"OK."

"When you are done with the task, you can have the rest of the day off."

Matthew nodded happily.

"Now, Matthew, if you will, please wake me tomorrow morning at the normal time. I'm going to go back to bed."

"Alright."

Matthew watched as Francis got up and left the table. Oddly, he saw Francis go down a different corridor from the one that led back to the foyer and staircase.

"Strange…Maybe he had to do something. But…Then again…He made it seem like he was going to rest…" Matthew thought as he made his way to the back room.

When he got there, he saw the parasol and the basket on the small table by the door. He went to the parasol and picked it up. He then opened it and placed it over his head, inspecting how well it covered his body. Satisfied that it covered him well enough, Matthew picked up the basket, opened the door, and went into the garden.

Matthew decided that he would take his time to gather the red roses and explore the gardens as he went. With the umbrella offering him his much needed shade, Matthew found the first rose bush. The flowers were in bloom, even though it was only early spring, giving the green bushes splashes of color. Matthew bent down and deeply inhaled the scent of one of the roses. Taking the pair of scissors out of his basket, he cut the stems of three pristine roses, placed them into his basket, and went to find another rose bush.

By the time Matthew had eighteen roses, he had circled the whole mansion perimeter. While he searched for his last six roses, he decided to look farther out on the grounds near the gazebo and the pond. When he got there, Matthew gazed into the clear, blue waters of the pond. Fish came and warily eyed him. Some of the more adventurous ones stuck their heads out and gaped at him with their open mouths. Giggling softly to himself, he reached out a thin finger and tapped one of the fish on the head. At the contact, the fish quickly dived and hid itself. Again, Matthew giggled at the fish' antics. Suddenly, the fish scattered as a shadow appeared on the surface of the pond. Confused, Matthew turned around from where he was squatting, moved his umbrella a little and found the angry face of Lovino glaring down at him.

"You!"

He pointed a finger at Matthew and walked even closer to him. Flustered, Matthew stood up, almost dropping his parasol and leaving the basket with the roses by the pond. Grabbing the front of Matthew's suit, Lovino pulled him close to his face. By this time Matthew was shaking in fear of the other boy.

"I'm still angry with you."

"I'm sorry!" Matthew cowered.

"Really or are you just saying that?"

"I don't even know what I did wrong!" Matthew wailed, trying not to get hurt.

"Don't know! Don't know?! You ditched me two years ago when we were first brought here. I had to work all by my self in the blazing sun while you were off god knows where!"

"I'm sorry." This time Matthew's response was a heart felt apology. He wasn't thinking about anything other than trying to save himself the agony if he had stayed out in the sun that day he tried to escape.

"I guess I could forgive you. It has, after all been two months. By the way, my name is Lovino. I don't think we told each other our names when we first met."

"Oh…I'm Matthew." They sat together on the bank of the pond, relaxing and just enjoying each other's company, for a few minutes.

"Say Matthew" Lovino stated, "What have you been doing these past two months?"

"Mr. Bonnefoy changed my job since I can't be out in the sun too long. Now I work as his personal servant."

"That sounds like fun…I guess. Better than pulling weeds all day."

"Yeah…" As Matthew was beginning to fully relax, he spied the basket of roses sitting by the bank a few feet away from him. "Shoot!"

"What! What's the matter?"

"I'm supposed to get twenty four roses for Mr. Bonnefoy. I got totally sidetracked! I'm really sorry Lovino but I have to get back to work."

"Ok Matthew. By the way, if you have some free time today, do you want to hang out with the other workers tonight?"

"Sure, I have the rest of the day off later."

"Ok. Just come down to the kitchen at five."

"See you then Lovino!"

Matthew grabbed his basket, griped his parasol, and ran off towards the nearest clump of rose bushes. Unfortunately, the nearest bush was really close to the house so that meant that he had to run quite a way, all the while keeping his umbrella over his head and the already picked roses in the basket. Though he had already went around the mansion looking for flowers, he didn't pick all of them, that way the bushes would still look nice. He ran up to the nearest bush, which was conveniently close to the front door, and found six roses that looked good enough. Quickly putting them into his basket, he made his way to the front door and went to the dining hall to place the basket on the table. Satisfied with his job and weary from his time outside, Matthew made a mad dash to his room on the second floor.

Once in his room, he changed out of his clothes and grabbed his alarm clock. He set the time so that it would ring in three hours at four thirty. Looking at the clock, he realized that he had been out in the sun for two hours.

"No wonder I'm tired. I haven't been out of the house for two months." He set the clock down on the nightstand and climbed into his bed, quickly falling asleep.

When Matthew heard the persistent ringing near his head, he blindly groped for the clock, wanting to cease the loud noise. Finally finding it, he turned the annoying thing off. Sitting up in his bed, he let out a large yawn and stretched, cracking his back in the process. Matthew then got up and made his way to the dresser in his room. He opened it and looked for some casual clothes but realized that all he had were work clothes, since he was unable to go into town. After a few minutes, he decided on wearing the work clothes he had worn before taking his nap.

Leaving his room, Matthew walked down to the kitchen. As he descended the stairs, he spied Lovino leaving the corridor that led to the servants' quarters. "Lovino!" Matthew yelled catching the brunet's attention. Matthew waved and ran down the stairs.

"Hi Matt. Before we meet the others I want to tell you that I didn't tell the others that I invited you. I'll have to introduce you to everyone."

"Ok." With that said, the boys went across the foyer and into the kitchen. Lovino showed Matthew to a door he had never noticed before. He could hear voices coming through the wood and see the light through the gap between the door and the floor.

"Hey everybody!" Lovino said as he opened the door.

When Matthew walked through the door, he could feel the four pairs of eyes on him. He resisted the urge to hide his reddening face from the staring eyes. "Everyone, this is Matthew. He got the day off today so I invited him to join us in our game tonight." Matthew waved sheepishly to the other boys.

"Hi" he said in his quiet, shy voice.

"Matthew, this is Kiku," he said pointing to an equally shy looking boy. Matthew nodded to him, recognizing him from two months ago. "That older boy next to him is Yao."

"Hello aru!" He gave a small wave in Matthew's direction.

"The boy next to Yao who looks like me is my brother Feliciano."

"Hi Matthew! Do you like pasta? I like pasta! I can eat pasta everyday!" The boy had practically jumped at Matthew, startling him.

"Alright Feli, I think he gets the point! You like pasta. Please, for everyone's sanity sit down and calm yourself!"

"Ok!" Feliciano ran back to his chair and sat down, smiling and looking as if he didn't scare Matthew's soul out of his body.

"I worry about you Feli. Sometimes I think that you have the attention span of one of the squirrels I see outside. Anyway, Matthew, that's Antonio sitting next my brother." Matthew turned towards Antonio, saw him smile, and give a small wave. "So, now that we're all introduced, let's do what we came here to do, play cards!" Matthew went to the table and sat in between Antonio and Kiku while Lovino sat between his brother and the other side of Antonio. "Today we'll be playing Pope Joan."

Matthew had gotten so into the card game that time seemed to fly right by. When he looked at the clock on the wall he noticed that it was eleven thirty. "Oh wow! It's already eleven thirty."

"Dang, alright everyone, it's time to head on to bed. We have a long day tomorrow" Yao ordered. A chorus of "Awwww man"s followed the statement. Lovino gathered all the playing cards on the table, placed them into a box, and put the box into his pocket. One by one, the boys left, leaving Matthew alone with Yao in the dark room.

"Good night Yao, and thank you and the rest of the guys for all the fun tonight."

"No problem Matthew aru. Feel free to join us anytime aru. We usually play every Thursday aru."

"Ok. Thank you again." With that, Matthew left Yao alone in the kitchen.

He moved through the dark rooms to the empty and black stair case. Its glamour and shine were gone with the light that usually shown above it. As he climbed the stairs, Matthew could have sworn he saw a shadow move from the mysterious corridor he had discovered when he had found the room with the paintings. The shadow moved from the corridor, across the foyer, and towards the kitchen. Shaking his head, Matthew turned around and continued up the stairs. He tuned and went down the hall to his room. As he passed a window while going down the hall, he noticed that it was uncharacteristically uncovered; the curtains had been drawn back. The full moon shown through the window and Matthew was bathed in its light. Though the moon was beautiful, the shadows that were prevalent on the surface reminded him of the shadow that he had seen earlier. Matthew hoped that Yao had made it to his room and was alright, he had just left him there alone.

When Matthew reached his room, he quickly changed and prepared for bed. After he finished, he lay down and covered himself in his bedding. He just couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious shadow. Somehow, before he began to drift off, he convinced himself that the black thing was just a figment of his imagination. However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't explain away the feeling of dread that hung above his head.

Yay! Another chapter! Well, now that we lost in the first round of CIF basketball, I have a bunch of free time. I'll probably be able to update and write more chapters more frequently now :) Well stuff about the chapter...I was trying to find a card game that would be around in the century that the story takes place in and Pope Joan caught my eye. Maybe it was the fact that it has the word Pope in it... I just thought it had a cool name. Has anyone every played it? As you know, please review, criticism is always welcomed especially if some parts don't make sense. I've reread it so many times that the sentences just blend together and seem to make sense even if they don't. So review and I'll be able to fix them. Oh and before I forget, if there are any grammar mistakes drop a review. I'm really bad at grammar so grammar review is greatly appreciated. Ok, I'm done rambling.