Chapter Three
Constance was just getting to the front door in the castle to leave, when she heard someone shouting her name. She swiftly turned around and saw Amelia appear in front of her, panting and holding her side as she was out of breath from running.
"Is everything alright Miss Cackle?" Constance asked, feeling a worry start to form she had changed her mind about her working at the school.
"Yes I just…" Amelia said through pants "I saw you listed your address as a hostel" Amelia stated.
"Oh...yes that's right" Constance replied casually.
"Them places are not safe" Amelia said normally as she got her breath back. "Why aren't you at home, where are your parents?" Amelia asked concerned.
"Dead" Constance replied.
"Oh I am sorry love" Amelia replied, feeling awful for prying.
"Don't be, my mum died after I was born and I wasn't close to my dad anyway" Constance replied, realising her response sounded quite cold, but she didn't want to talk about her parents.
"Oh well don't you have any other family? Aunts, uncles, grandparents?" Amelia commented, realising her parents was a touchy subject.
"I have a distant aunt somewhere, but I never met her" Constance replied. "It's fine, I just stay in hostels during the holidays, I am not there much anyway" Constance said, used to it by that point.
"Well I don't like them places, they aren't safe, why don't you stay at the castle? I normally stay the last few weeks just because work piles up before the new year, you will be much safer here" Amelia suggested.
"So just you and I will be here?" Constance responded, her face turning to worry.
"Yes" Amelia said but spoke quickly before she could refuse "But the castle is big, we don't even have to interact if you don't want to" Amelia responded, knowing the place was big enough they could never run into each other.
Constance had just come from an abusive situation, so she was wary of being completely alone in the castle with Amelia, as it would be easy to hide abuse with how out of the way the place is from the general public, but the situation she had gotten out of was a living hell, and it couldn't possibly be worse than her time with Mistress Broomhead. Therefore, Constance nodded slowly.
"Alright, I will like to stay, thank you" Constance said. Amelia smiled warmly.
"Fantastic, will you like some help to bring your things?" Amelia asked her. Constance shook her head.
"No thank you, I don't have much, may I bring my cat?" Constance asked, thinking it had been silly to agree before she asked that.
"Of course sweetheart, once the term starts the place will be full of them" Amelia chuckled. Constance smiled a little then spoke again. "I will go and collect my things" Constance told her.
"Of course, see you soon lovely" Amelia replied, watching Constance leave through the front door. Her chest hurting as she did so. The poor kid was completely alone in the world and had no-where to go before she had even reached her eighteenth birthday. Amelia rushed up the stairs, wanting to make sure the bedroom she would be residing in was as welcoming as possible.
About an hour later, Constance knocked and Amelia opened the door, seeing the woman holding a single trunk in one hand and a cat carrier in the other. She took the trunk and smiled.
"Hello again, did you get everything?" Amelia asked her.
"Yes I told you I didn't have much, thank you" Constance said as she relived her of the weight of the trunk.
"Well you had the tour earlier so, do you want me to show you your room?" Amelia asked. Constance nodded and followed her up the flight of stairs.
"Here we are, it's a little bare but you can decorate it if you wish" Amelia told her, putting her trunk down. Constance lagged a distance behind her then walked to her bed, placing the carrier on the bed.
"You can let your cat out, let them stretch" Amelia commented not yet knowing her cat's gender.
Constance nodded and opened the carrier. Morgana stepped out, stretched then walked to Amelia. Amelia offered her hand.
Morgana took a long time to sniff her, Amelia waited patiently and then Morgana pushed her head into her hand and purred.
"That's odd, Morgana normally blatantly ignores everyone apart from me" Constance replied, having never seen her cat react that way before.
Amelia stroked her gently and smiled "Well I am honoured then" Amelia told her.
Constance didn't know what to make of this. Morgana trusted absolutely no-one apart from her, her cat's trust of Amelia must mean she is safe, but Constance was still wary.
"Do you need help to unpack love?" Amelia asked. Constance shook her head.
"Alright, why don't I leave you to settle in?" Amelia asked noticing she was keeping a large gap between them the whole time.
"Thank you Miss Cackle" Constance responded as she unclipped her travelling cloak.
"You can call me Amelia you know" she explained.
"That would be rather disrespectful" Constance replied simply.
"Well you won't get in trouble if you do" Amelia told her before heading for the door, to leave her to settle in.
"Thank you" Constance said again gratefully. Amelia smiled and left, closing her bedroom door.
Amelia made her way to her office, having some work to do before the new term started, hoping the teenager settled soon.
Constance unpacked her things and spent some time stroking Morgana. It took her almost no time with the little possessions she owned. She yelped out as the pain that was plaguing her bothered her again and she sat on her bed to rest. Morgana looked at her and tilted her head to the side.
"What on earth did the bloody woman do?" Constance spoke out loud "This pain has been horrible since my last lesson with Broomhead" she told Morgana, breathing heavily through the pain that was still bothering her ever since she left college.
Morgana went and rubbed her head against her arm to comfort her. Constance stroked her gently, feeling a little better. After a few moments, Morgana meowed as if she was communicating with her.
"No Morgana, I doubt Miss Cackle would care about my discomfort" Constance said, seeming to understand her cat was suggesting she told her new boss. "That other teacher was muttering I was fussing about period pain" Constance told her cat, revealing she had heard what Skye had said after all.
"People don't like when you make a fuss, no-one is going to show much interest after a while" Constance responded. "After all, in college no-one was there to help, I don't see how it will be any different here" Constance told her cat as she absent-mindedly stroked her.
Morgana meowed at her again and Constance sighed "I have dealt with broken bones and all kinds of injuries before alone, I am not going to burden anyone with my problems" Constance told her. "And don't be fooled, you know how quickly a nice person can turn" Constance told her with a sigh.
Suddenly feeling that usual feeling of dizziness starting to occur, Constance knew she was starting to get to that point of hunger she had been hiding, where she couldn't refrain from eating much longer. She sighed deeply, nervously playing with her hands as she tried to think what she could do. Asking for food was her biggest fear as she knew what price that she had to pay for it.
"I need to go clear my head for a while" Constance said standing up and heading out the door as Morgana curled up on her bed. She headed downstairs and saw through a gap in the door Amelia was busy doing paperwork. She realised she had some time before the headmistress would notice her absence.
She was grateful she had a good sense of direction as she remembered more or less her way around after the tour. She headed down to the dungeons as quickly as she could, knowing once the headmistress realised she was wandering around, she would no longer have a chance to try and eat anything, and her lack of food intake was getting to that point where she started to feel light-headed.