Mr Hatch dropped some coins into my hand. "This should be enough for everything, and here is the receipt for the books Reaver ordered, just give it to the man and he'll know what to do. And-"He took out an envelope, containing even more gold inside, "This is your pay, to be spent however you like. I'd like you back by no later than two o'clock."

I nodded. It had now been exactly one week since I had been at Reaver's mansion, and I had successfully found what was remaining of the rebels; Tim and Kidd. I had to wake up at a ridiculous hour to sneak some food and give it to them along with drink. It around eight in the morning and the shops were opening, so I was making my way down to Bowerstone market and pick up a few things for the fool, before sneaking into the rebel's headquarters to talk to Page. "Thank you," I said to Mr Hatch, "I'll be as prompt as possible."

He smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it too much. Reaver's servants don't tend to get out very much; go see friends and buy some things for yourself! I'll cover for you here."

I hurried out of the door into the bright sunshine and smiled. It was going to be a truly fantastic day.

~Third Person~

Barry Hatch closed the door for Miss Emily, and sighed. The poor girl didn't have a clue what was about to happen.

"I thought she'd never find out about the rebels!" a voiced called out from behind Barry. It was Reaver, dressed in a red robe, and hopefully with underwear underneath, although he couldn't tell.

"I don't think we should do this, Master Reaver," Said Barry uneasily.

"Oh, hush Hatch. It's just a bit of fun, and you did your part very well. To think Page would send a spy into my own home… her loss. Soon the disobedient wretch of a princess will be here, and I'll make sure it stays this way."

"… You're planning on killing Emily and Page and marrying Princess Annabel, aren't you?!" Barry cried out.

He had no idea what had really been going on, he'd just thought Reaver was just going to sleep with Emily and be done with it. Although, that theory didn't make sense with what Reaver had been making him do for the past week. Keeping certain doors unlocked, telling her little snippets of information, preparing more parties than usual and prompting her to go into town, it all seemed… odd.

"Oh, Hatch, you are a bumbling fool. I would have shot you by now but you're the best assistant I've had. Of course I am. And I'm having fun with it. I think it's time to call up some… certain friends of ours, and explain our marvellous plan for six days' time."

'Oh, Reaver,' Barry thought, 'one of these days, I'll escape from here, and perhaps be worthy enough for Emily to call me a friend. And then, perhaps one person will be strong enough to kill you.'

Barry walked away to do his daily chores, all the while thinking about what Reaver had asked him to do next, a hideous betrayal. He didn't have friends because of his job, and Emily was the closest thing he had to one.

"Barry," Reaver said, "I want you to kill Miss Emily."

~Normal~

It was unfortunate that even while out of the manor; I had to wear the very short maid uniform. I was going to have SO much teasing from Ben when I got to the rebel's headquarter. After a short trek to get to the market, I was instantly comforted by the feeling of familiarity. There were market stalls everywhere and people milling around and browsing. I wanted to have as much time as possible to talk to Page and the others so I got the shopping done as fast as possible and hurried to the shop which was holding onto Reaver's journals. By then, I had completely used up all of Reaver's money.

By then I had two full and heavy boxes. I sighed, I was going to have to get a carriage home, there was no way I could take all this and walk back. The bell ringed as I opened the door, and an elderly man appeared from the back. I handed him the receipt, and he scuttled off most likely to storage. The store sold beautiful little items like gifts and such.

By the entrance stood a beautiful lute in impeccable condition, and I was entranced, trailing my hand down each curved edge and plucking each string. It had intricate swirling patterns on it that looked to be done in gold. I had never learnt to play the lute. When I asked my Dad if he knew somebody that could teach me, he said lute playing was for beggars on the streets. This was towards the time I left home.

There was a price tag on it; 500 gold?! I look at my envelope- there was only around 100 in there. I stood disheartened until the man came back with two journals that like the lute were lined in gold. I thanked the man and left, wishing for that lute.

I looked at the clock to see what the time was. It had just gone 11, so I hurried down to Industrial. It was the same dull lifeless faces that I passed hurrying down to the headquarters. Several people gawked at my attire; I suppose it was pretty awful. A drunk walked past and tried a hand to my rear, but a sharp kick to the groin stopped him doing so.

I eventually got to the entrance of the sewers, and carefully tried to sidestep around the mess on the floor; Reaver would probably kill me if I messed up my uniform, or ask questions about my whereabouts, both would be problematic. There were several people milling around, a group of men practicing shooting and one man on his own dealing with some serious amount of paperwork. Neither Annabel nor Walter seemed to be around, so I went up to where I had met Page earlier and knocked. "Come in," Page called through the door.

I slowly opened the door and crept in. Page was in adventuring clothing dyed a deep green, it suited her. She turned her head to see who her visitor was, and her expression was a mix of happiness and confusion. "Emily! I'm glad to see you're okay… what's with the clothes? Reaver?"

I nodded. "Reaver, He's been driving me up the wall."

"At least he hasn't shot you yet, I'd call that a good day. So what news do you have?"

"I found where Reaver has been hiding your rebels… but not all of them made it."

Page drew in a sharp breath. "Who's left?"

"Jack Timmins and Kidd Marsh."

Page let go of her breath very slowly, I could still tell that she was relieved that Kidd was alive. Ben must have been right about her liking Kidd. "May Avo look after them for us. Right, we need to plan a rescue. You'll sneak Annabel and me into the manor. Keep Reaver distracted somehow, and we'll do the rest, we shouldn't be long. Then you need to get out. Grab everything in your room and run. When should we do this…?"

"He's having a party in six days, perhaps then?"

Page grabbed some paper and began scrawling down something whilst talking. "It's a plan. I'll send a message onto you in a couple of days' time about exact details. You should be getting back soon."

Picking up the boxes, I began to exit. "Emily," Page said. I turned. "Be careful."

I was out on the street again, checking the time. It was 12:30, so I had to get going if I was going to get a carriage back to Millfields. However a familiar mop of blonde hair through the window of the Industrial pub made me stop, and I thought, 'Quick pint?' I walked in and saw that it was him.

"Ben," I called out.

He turned around and saw me by the front door. "Emily!" he rushed up to me and pulled me into a hug, spinning me around. Once again, I was turning bright pink from the joy of him holding me. Oh Avo, what am I going to do about this? He eventually let me go and grinned. "What are you doing here? And-" He looked at what I was wearing. "Why are you wearing that? Don't get me wrong, if you would wear that at my house I'd-"

I interrupted. "It's my uniform. I finally managed to get out of Reaver's house so I went to go see Page."

He cocked his head. "Oh, did you find the rebels?"

"Yes- oh, well, I found what was left of the five. Reaver killed three of them."

"Not Kidd!"

"No, Kidd is fine, apart from a couple of broken bones. I think you're right about him and Page, maybe there's something going on between them?"

"Oh, but that means I don't stand a chance!" He sighed dramatically. "Alas, Page won't be another one of my conquests…"

I slapped him playfully on the arm. "Ben! A little tact when talking about the rebel's leader may be a good idea!"

He offered to hold my boxes for Reaver and we headed back down to Bowerstone Market, where I could get a carriage.

"So… where's Swiftie?" I asked Ben.

"Swiftie, eh? He said you could call him that?" I nodded. "Last thing I heard, he was searching for more followers for the revolution, but that's a dangerous business. Logan's stamped a staggering bounty price on our pretty little heads."

We walked past the shop where I had gotten Reaver's journals, and the lute was still sat by the entrance. I hadn't realised that I had stopped to stare at it more.

"Emily?"

I shook out of my daydream and caught up with Ben, who had now turned back to see what I was looking at. I pointed to the lute. "It's beautiful," I sighed, "but I don't have the money for it." I walked on, still thinking about that lute. We managed to find a carriage waiting. I remembered that I had used up all of Reaver's money so I pulled out my gold in my envelope, until Ben stopped me and handed over some of his own money.

I sat down next to the two heavy boxes Ben had put down, and looked at him standing awkwardly. "Uh, I guess this is goodbye for now," I said. "Go easy on Page, okay? It must be difficult being a female leader."

"Ah, but of course we wouldn't want our Industrial rebel to back out of our plans now, would we?"

"And Annabel, make sure she's okay too. I'm counting on you." He nodded, before grabbing the carriage door to shut it.

"Stay safe, and get out soon," Ben said, looking worried. "It's no fun without you at home."

And when he said that, I knew that I had fallen crazily, headfirst in love with Captain Benjamin Finn. Every smile, touch, tease, quirk, and joke made my stomach make little belly flips. And the way he said 'home', truly made me feel like I belonged somewhere. I had a home. I hadn't felt like that in years, not fully. And now I felt sick, thinking about going to Reaver's when the only place I wanted to be was where he was, in his little house in Industrial, him crashed on the sofa and me making dinner, like a family.

I truly am an idiot. Somebody should have shot me and put me out of my misery.

However, I hid all my emotions and smiled, "Don't worry; I'll be out of there in six days. I'll see you soon."

The carriage began to move, and I was on my was to Millfields, leaving Ben to get smaller and smaller, as I made my way back to the manor- back to Reaver. We were fortunate to not come across any mercenaries along the trip, so my gun stayed strapped to my thigh, and I enjoyed the stunning views of Bower Lake.

The carriage halted, and I got out with the boxes and opened the door to Lakeview manor.

"Hello? Mr Hatch?" I called out, and he came out of the study.

"Did you get everything?"

"Yes, everything's in there." I handed the boxes over to him. He told me about a couple of chores that needed doing and what to cook for dinner tonight. He then left with the boxes leaving me to start my chores, so I got to it.

~Third Person~

Two days later…

By the time Emily had finished her long list of chores, it was dark, and Reaver was finishing his meal. She took the empty plates (and tensed up when Reaver had another go at her lower-half, he'd had an entire bottle of wine to himself that evening) and made her way done to the kitchen to do the washing up before going to bed with a small glass of the cheapest wine Reaver wouldn't touch.

Barry was in there, filing up a cup with tea. "Hello Mr Hatch," Emily said, "Have you finished work yet?"

"I've done enough for tonight, yes. Oh, I forgot to ask- how was your day out?"

"It was good, I liked getting out of the house."

"Meet anyone special?" He teased, but he saw Emily's face go bright pink. "Aha! There is somebody! Who's the lucky guy?"

She smiled, and thought it would have been best to tell a little bit of truth. "He's… a soldier. We're good friends, but he doesn't know that I lo- like him," she corrected herself. "He carried Reaver's things for me."

"I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon and run into your arms, so long as he's not carrying obscene amounts of Reaver's things again, that could get messy. Did you buy anything with your wages?"

Emily told Barry about the beautiful lute she saw, and how she wanted to learn to play. Barry at that point, ran out of the kitchen, yelling "wait in the study!" behind him. Emily went down, where there was a warm flickering fire roasting away. She slumped in an armchair, sipping some wine and waiting for Barry.

He came into the study, carrying a battered but working lute, and a large grin on his face. "I can teach you a few things if you'd like? I may be a bit rusty."

Emily matched his grin and sat on the carpet by the fire. For an hour they were there, Emily holding the lute and Barry pointing at each string. It was slow going and there were a lot of bum notes, but at the end of it Emily could play a few simple chords.

"Thank you so much Barry!" Emily cried, pulling him into a hug. He laughed, and hugged her back. But there was a nagging feeling in his mind. 'I want you to kill Miss Emily' kept circling in his mind. He knew he couldn't kill her. But if he didn't, Reaver would- and he'd kill Barry too.

Emily went back to her room, and once again there was a letter on her bed. She immediately assumed that it was Page's letter, and it was.

'Miss Emily,

I hope you are well. I have talked to the others, and there had been a slight change of plan. Captain Finn will also –unfortunately- be joining us in this rescue mission, just to make him stop complaining.

We will be at Reaver's manor at two in the morning, and you will open the main door for us. By then Reaver should be drunk and unconscious, so we can go to where Kid our men are and release them.

It should be an in-and-out mission, but just in case bring your gun and sword.

Good Luck.

Page.

PS: Burn this letter.'

Emily obeyed, and after looking at the letter a couple of times, she light a fire and burnt it. So, Ben was coming. Emily's stomach began the belly-flips again, and she struggled to contain her excitement of seeing him again.

~Normal~

"Hey Tim, hey Kidd," I said, before slipping in some food and drink for them. They were looking a little better; they still had a lot of bruises, but they weren't starving.

"Thanks Em," Tim said. That was what they called me now, 'Em'. I liked it, it had a certain ring to it. I sat there and waited for them to finish their dinner.

"You know, I really can't wait for this revolution to be over," Kidd said. "This torture thing is getting kind of boring."

"What will you guys do after the revolution then?" I asked.

There was a long pause, and then Tim spoke up. "The army… I'd like to join up, and be a bit like Sir Walter. You know him, don't you Em?"

I laughed. "He's like a Father to me. I'll introduce him to you one day."

He seemed pleased and excited. "Maybe he'll take me under his wing!"

"What will you do Kidd?"

"Confess my love for Page."

This surprised me. "Really? You're just going to say it to her, you wouldn't be scared?"

"Nah, it'll be like ripping off a bandage. But I think she likes me too."

"I wish I had the courage to do that…" I mumbled. Kidd and Tim had finished their meal, so I took the empty plates and glasses and hid them with the others.

"What about you Emily? What will you do?"

I thought hard about this one. What would I do? I know what I want to do, but I also had my duties. It would be selfish to leave them behind to follow my dreams. To travel, see the world, play music… Or be a maid.

"Emily?"

I sighed. "I am, and will be a maid. That is my duty, and all I will do."

"That sounds lonely," Kidd said.

I sighed again. "It is."

~Authors Note~
Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while since I've updated, I've had one illness after the next.

So I thought I'd let you know about Jack Timmins. Some of you may know, but to those that don't, Jack is in the Fable book Fable: Edge of the world, but that's all I'm going to tell you… Muahahaa… don't worry! Things will be clearer later in the story.

Next up is Reaver's party! Hope you enjoyed this chapter

MM.