14.
18 years ago...
~ Arthur was riding his newest prize. A beautiful black creature he had named Penelope. She trotted along the woods with nimble ease and seemed to read his mind as all he had to do was shift slightly in the saddle to make her change pace.
Dom had found her from a breeder and sent her to the castle as a surprise.
Penelope had taken to life at the castle and grounds well and if he had showed her, she would have won prizes.
As it had been for the past 130 years, Arthur had kept to himself as best he could. Hardly ever leaving the castle's grounds. He rode daily and always alone. His cousin Dom was in the city with his wife Mal and their grown children; James and Phillipa.
He had been lonely in the castle, with Eames and his daughter Grace in Europe for past few decades, but he had always been lonely.
~ A twig snapped and Penelope startled and threw him.
He barely remembered to roll as he hit the hard ground. Such a fall might have kill another man, but sadly, didn't kill him.
He was laughing as he picked himself up. Penelope was stepping cautiously away from him. Her big brown eyes looking frightened.
"It's alright." He said to the horse. "Come back."
He had to smile at his own complacency. He hadn't been thrown from a horse since his Calvary days. And that had been in battle. Penelope whinnied nervously and edged away from him. The creature scared or playing games with her rider.
"I think your just looking to break my heart." Arthur said as he gently coaxed her back to him.
A twig snapped again and the horse shifted anxiously.
Arthur turned and saw what was causing her distresses. A figure, covered in dirt and mud stood still on the trail in front of them. The child was barely four or five and his arms and legs were too skinny and his clothing torn and ragged.
"Hello?" Arthur said to the phantom. Half of him frightened it might fly away. An unknowing sense that this thing before him wasn't right.
"I'm hungry." a voice chirped out of the child's mouth.
Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a ghost, or evil spirit. It was just a lost, frightened human being.
"What's your name?" He asked the child. "Where are your parents?" He asked when he didn't respond.
"I'm hungry." The child spoke again. The only words it seemed to know.
~ The child was filthy. Covered from head to toe in a coat of mud. Arthur lifted the innocent up on Penelope, who didn't like the idea, and re-mounted. With the thin, muddy creature sitting in front, Arthur kicked Penelope into a canter back to the castle
~ He was glad Dom came with supplies every two weeks or more. Arthur enjoyed gardening and the kitchen gardens had given him plenty of vegetables, but the weather was turning colder and he knew they wouldn't keep longer.
Not that he needed to eat. His diet was mostly from habit.
"Eat slow." he warned the messy child as it gobbled toast and peanut butter. Slurping down milk and greedily eating everything Arthur put before it.
"Where are your parents?" Arthur asked again.
The child didn't answer. Only looking at Arthur with unusually big brown eyes.
~ After the child finished eating, Arthur took him upstairs for a bath. The coat of mud was bothering him. He didn't like a mess.
He ran a hot bath and the child watched him, very interested. It wasn't till after he started helping his guest undress that he realized mud had disguised a little girl, not a boy.
Pushing away the slight embarrassment at the situation, he sat close to the tub and carefully washed free the dirt, twigs and mud from her long brown hair. The little girl wincing as he had to comb the snarls from her hair, but didn't complain.
"Are you going to tell me your name, little lady?" Arthur asked gently as he dressed her in some of Phillipa's old clothes. The little girl was far too skinny and her legs and arms were cut up from the forest.
She said nothing as she played with one of Phillipa's old dolls.
~ What to do? He couldn't go to the police. They would ask questions. Who was he? Archibald Blunt? That identity was in his 60's by now and the authorities wouldn't buy the ancient driver's license he had when he had bought the Rolls. The man's picture on that driver's license was Arthur, but it was issued over 40 years ago and he looked exactly the same.
He could drive the child to a hospital and leave her there. Wait outside till she was found. He didn't want to do that. The quite little girl was sleeping peacefully in the old nursery. A nursery that had been vowed would never be used again.
~ "Arthur?" Dom's voice came over the phone. "You never call, what's wrong?"
"Dom, something's happened. I need your help." Arthur said.
~ "Keep her? Are you out of your mind?" Mal had asked. Dom's wife was still stunning at 65. Her husband, Arthur's first cousin Dom, didn't look a day over 36. Even though he was much older then his wife.
"Why not?" Arthur said hearing the child rustle around in his closet. It was raining hard outside and the little girl loved to play in his closet. Coming out in his old tuxes and shoes smiling at him. She amused him at her play.
He surprised even himself that he had allowed her in his closet. He never let anyone in there.
"Why not?" Eames repeated with a sarcastic laugh. "Haven't you been paying attention? Don't you remember Drews? Don't you remember my boys? Hell, James and Phillipa are going to have to start passing as Dom's older brother and sister soon."
Arthur glared at his other first cousin. Eames and his daughter Grace had hurried back from London at the news of what had happened. Things like this just didn't happen at Blackwood. Certainly not to Arthur.
"I know all that, Eames." Arthur grumbled.
"Well, I think it's splendid." Grace said. She was just as old as Mal, but contained none of the self restraint and poise Dom's wife held.
Grace had always been youthful and it seemed unfair she was surrounded by old men trapped in young men's bodies, when she was a young woman trapped in an old woman's body.
"Gracie, you will never know what it's like to watch your child grow old and die before you." Eames said to her. Her father looking healthy and barely into his 30s.
"Papa, I respect your suffering over the years, but your lucky to have loved someone. Arthur has no one. He's all alone in this horrible place." Grace argued.
Arthur wasn't listening to them. He heard the child come out of the closet and smiled to see her clumsily walking in his Union Calvary coat, complete with the hat that covered her head.
He laughed at the precious sight. The little girl seeming very pleased she had dressed herself so well.
"Ariadne, are you ready to fight the rebels?" He asked teasingly. She grinned and nodded. His hat flopping down further on her head.
"Ariadne?" Mal asked.
"It's what I've been calling her." Arthur said kneeling down to meet the child's eyes.
"More of your Greek mythology?" Grace teased with a little smile.
Ariadne smiled at Arthur and held up a richly tasseled sword he had used in the war. Mostly for decoration and formal ceremonies, but it was still sharp and deadly.
"Ariadne! Give me that!" He laughed prying the weapon from her little hands.
"Your letting her play with swords now?" Mal almost shouted at him.
"Forgot it was in there." Arthur grumbled as Ariadne looked worriedly at him. "I'll put it up."
"Arthur, you know that we need to find her family." Dom said soothingly.
"I know that she was in those woods for a long time. There are no news of a missing child fitting her description. The land is too big for her to have wandered from the main road."
"Arthur." Dom said more sternly.
"How would we explain ourselves to the police?" Arthur said picking Ariadne up with one arm. The little girl with the long brown hair smiled at him. Silently putting his old Calvary hat on his head.
He looked over her contently.
How could he let her go?