A/N: Hello and welcome back to Ghost of a Kind! I've cut back a little bit in regards to my editing and rewriting for AO3 recently due to suffering from a bit of burnout, so I put my focus into getting updates out for this fic and The Owlcast, hence why this update is coming a week or two earlier than when I normally aim to update it by. Please don't expect quick updates like this in the future, though. Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that after last chapter's terrible events, this one is going to be a nice little break before the comedic horror that will ensue in the following ending chapter for episode one, so all you'll be seeing here is just Cordelia and Fanny interacting some more. Which I think falls in nicely after the Ghosts sketch for Comic Relief last week. For any overseas fans who didn't see the Comic Relief airing, the Ghosts sketch finally revealed Fanny's chronological age, giving us an idea as to when she was born. And I won't lie... I was laughing when I heard it, because although I've revealed very little regarding Cordelia's chronological age yet (which is likely not going to happen until episode 2), I was shocked and amused at how close she and Fanny are. All of which was completely unintentional, which made it worse. XD But in the least, it gives me something to work with in later parts of the series and also fits in nicely with Cordelia and Fanny in general because of the implications surrounding Cordelia's time period so far.

Either way, thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed and read this story. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. It's nice to finally see this fic get a bit of a boost in attention, as well as already hitting over 600 views since its publication, which is insane. I'll aim to get Chapter 8 within the following month, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this 'filler' chapter and the resolution to Fanny's 'sleep walking'.

Chapter 7: The Guilty and the Grateful

Cordelia wasn't sure how long she sobbed alone for, yet the muffled cries of the guilty Victorian ghost did not last. Approaching sirens penetrated the walls of the bedroom where she resided and silenced Cordelia's wails before long, disturbing the tense and silent air that surrounded the Button Estate even from its current distance. The last time Cordelia recalled hearing the high-pitched and ear-splitting noise, someone had arrived to collect Heather Button's body from the downstairs bedroom she formerly occupied. And now, many months on, they had arrived for Alison, plunging Cordelia back into the murky depths of a déjà vu she did not want to relive.

Once the racket had subsided and the abandoned manor house was swallowed by deafening stillness, leaving her in the company of the distant ticking and occasional chiming of the grandfather clock in the corridor outside, Cordelia refused to move from her bed. She kept her face partially hidden within the confines of her pillow, allowing a single blue eye to keep focusing on the wall to her right to watch the rest of the day go on with the gradually shrinking sunlight being conquered by the darkness seeping in. All the while the tightness in her chest lingered in the company of a sharp ache she couldn't shake, even despite her attempts to bury the front of her body to the point where she wished she could become a part of the quilt. As time wore on, no one from the group of ghosts dared to come and check in with her. Though she was glad of it, as she did not like the thought of the others seeing her in such a state and attempting to pry, it allowed her mind to plague her with repeated echoes of Mike's distressed shouts of Alison's name and vague recollections of his fruitless attempts to rouse her from her unconscious state—the tears refused to fall, yet it did little to stop her eyes from stinging with the urge to cry again at the horrible familiarity the mental sight and sounds stirred within her.

When night-time had descended upon the Button House grounds, Cordelia still didn't stir from her current position, with sleep eluding her at every turn. Her mind refused to settle and relieve her of the guilty thoughts that burdened her, throwing rhetorical questions about Alison's wellbeing and the fate of Button House her way that she was, naturally, likely to not be getting the answers to anytime soon. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus on the persistent ticking on the other side of the door, the grandfather clock's chiming acting as the only reliable source of time that she had at present without having to leave the room. She desperately sought for a distraction that would alleviate her of the negative feelings haunting her, but nothing she did was working. Escape was not an option.

Cordelia curled into a foetal position with her arms hugged to her chest, the emptiness and aches she felt having yet to release their grip on her.

'Hitherto, the ire I held burned brightly. Now, it has been reduced to smouldering embers, much like the remnants of the fire Jane huddled away by after her humiliation at the hands of the selfish Mister Brocklehurst.' The blonde-haired ghost attempted to trace her finger along the quilt, her blue eyes drooping at watching her fingertip phase through the material. 'Oh, what I would give to have that book within my grasp once more! It was but one of many cherished possessions that helped me escape from the darkness in the world. If only I had known how much I had taken for granted by simply keeping it with me for comfort all those years…'

A short time passed and still Cordelia struggled to sleep. She was stuck in a continuous cycle, switching between staring at the darkness concealed under her eyelids and the evening darkness from outside bathing her bedroom, with streaks of moonlight here and there. Her monotony only came to pass at the three consecutive chimes from the grandfather clock echoing in the corridor outside, swiftly followed by the all-too-familiar high-pitched scream of Fanny Button from outside of her window. Cordelia didn't move, though, merely opening her eyes and listening out for the bone-crunching thud of the Edwardian ghost's front colliding with the ground.

'Oh, Lord…' she groaned internally.

The Captain's voice soon rang out clearly after some seconds of silence had passed, shouting Fanny's name as though he were using a religious name in vain.

"Fanny!"

Cordelia sighed heavily and hunched her shoulders, tucking the backs of her hands underneath the cheek she had pressed against the pillow to try to make herself comfortable.

'I should be surprised by this development, and yet I remain unfazed. After all, despite Lady Button's progress today, this is but a small reminder that trauma is a fickle thing. It cannot be completely erased from the soul, even through death.' The Victorian ghost closed her eyes again, her lip quivering ever so slightly. 'But what do I know? My reasons for helping Lady Button were selfish, just as my reasons were for not coming to the aid of the rest earlier today. And look at what has happened: one individual is close to death's door and another's dilemma has remained unchanged.'

Cordelia squeezed her eyes closed tighter and pulled her legs closer to her body, trying to curl her limbs as closely as she could into her body, like she was a tortoise taking cover inside of its shell from a predator.

'Mary was wrong. Oft am I judgemental of them for their selfishness and lack of consideration, but in truth… I am no different.'

A tranquil hush descended upon the bedroom Cordelia occupied once more, with only the distant ticking of the grandfather clock filling in what had been left in the wake of Fanny's screaming and the Captain's shouting. But it wasn't long before the distant clicking of a pair of heels against wood entered Cordelia's ears from the other end of the corridor outside, causing the Victorian ghost to crack open an eye. She frowned as she listened to the footsteps' brisk stride gradually get louder and bounce off the walls the closer they got, attempting to figure out who could possibly be approaching her bed chambers at this ungodly hour.

She was aware that only Fanny, the Captain, Julian, Kitty and herself wore shoes with distinct heels, which was why she'd learnt to differentiate some of the sounds they made based upon the pace of the walker and the specific make of shoe between the five of them. Right off the bat she knew it wasn't the Captain; his shoes tapped and he marched to his destinations, none of which matched the approaching footsteps. She was sure it wasn't Kitty or Julian either, as Kitty tended to skip or sometimes possessed a spring in her step, while Julian took long and slow strides when he walked. And since she was in the bedroom, that just left—

"… Cordelia?" the posh-sounding and snobbish voice of Fanny Button called out to the Victorian ghost in a loud whisper while being muffled by the door, a hint of uncertainty in her tone.

Cordelia didn't answer Fanny immediately, the hands that belonged to speechlessness having seized her round the throat to prevent her from uttering a word. She opened both eyes, squinted at the closed door and pushed her body up into a sitting position with support resting on her left leg, rubbing at her eyes with both hands and repeatedly blinking to make sure she wasn't hearing things.

'And here I thought the chronicles surrounding the wicked witch of the fields had ceased this morn, yet here I sit facing her once more. Surely, I must be slumbering, for I cannot comprehend what twisted magic has been cast to have me conjure such a lucid fantasy inside of my head otherwise!'

Cordelia soon got her confirmation about her situation when Fanny dared to speak again with further uncertainty.

"Are you awake?"

Cordelia pressed her lips together and purposely delayed her verbal response further, choosing to temporarily ponder on why Fanny Button, the Edwardian and elderly noblewoman who had held a strong disdain for her since they'd first met, seemed to have business with her in the middle of the night, let alone looking to willingly talk to her. She was naturally the last person Cordelia would have ever expected to show up to her bedroom at this hour, so her continued confusion was natural, especially as her thoughts drifted to Fanny's… hesitant demeanour.

'Maybe it is not I who has fallen under a spell, but rather the witch who has mistakenly cast it upon herself. She does not sound like the Lady Button who chides my 'deceitful appearance' and 'unladylike mannerisms', after all.' The blonde fidgeted on the bed to adjust her sitting position some, stretching her legs out so she was properly sitting up and facing the closed door. 'Perhaps I should play along in the hopes of uncovering this unusual trick…'

"… I am, yes," Cordelia answered at regular volume, naturally making no attempt to keep her voice down. It was just the two of them in this part of the house, and the Captain's room was too far for him to hear them.

An exasperated huff sounded from the ghostly noblewoman, the words that came after spoken at normal volume. "Then why didn't you answer me sooner?!" she snapped. "You should know it is rude to keep a lady waiting, especially at this ungodly hour!"

Cordelia's eyes drooped with the slump of her shoulders, mentally noting that Fanny now sounded like the one she was used to seeing on a daily basis, meaning…

'There she is: I must be wide awake then.'

"Forgive me, Lady Button," Cordelia replied sarcastically. "But you must understand that given our history, I needed to ascertain if my mental faculties were intact and not hallucinating your presence outside of my bed chambers."

"Hmph!" was the received response from the biologically older ghost, making Cordelia smirk for several seconds at picturing the Edwardian woman's nose scrunching and her lips pressing tightly together, an expression she frequently made when she was irritated. "The nerve! I did not come all of this way to listen to your follies!"

"I am surprised you have managed to find your way at all." Cordelia gave her darkness-shrouded room a quick look between the floor and ceiling. "Very few residents of this house, both living and dead, do not even know that this room exists nor its purpose."

Cordelia heard Fanny release an exaggerated gasp at her words. "Excuse me, young lady, but have you forgotten that I was the lady of this house at one time?! Of course I am aware of every nook and cranny contained within it!" A short pause followed, with Fanny's next words spoken quieter. "Though I cannot deny I did forget this room was here; very rarely frequented this wing of the house."

"Then congratulations, Lady Button!" Cordelia exclaimed mockingly, slowly clapping three times. "You have uncovered the secret of why I specifically chose this room! Bravo, Madam!"

Fanny groaned loudly, the sound of her palm slapping against her forehead echoing from the corridor. "Could you please cease your larks, Cordelia?!"

The blonde ghost let a weak smile slip onto her lips for a few seconds, which soon faded as quickly as it had appeared.

'It is a good thing that Lady Button cannot see me at this moment in time. Poor lady would fall into further hysterics.'

"Very well," Cordelia agreed without the sarcasm to show her compliance. "Then if I may return to the opening subject of the conversation: why have you come to see me?"

Silence fell between the two women for what felt like several minutes, to the point where Cordelia briefly wondered if she had rendered Fanny catatonic with her question. Though, it didn't take long for the elderly ghost to give her answer in a hushed voice, once she'd awkwardly cleared her throat, of course.

"I do not feel comfortable addressing this matter through the door. May I come in? I shan't take too much of your time."

Cordelia slowly shuffled her way off the bed and approached the window of her room, stretching her face close enough to the glass that she could make out her faint reflection bathed in the moon's silver light. Her petite fingers lightly traced one of her cheeks while she scrutinised her current appearance, searching for any visible evidence of her earlier crying. Once she was certain her eyes were not puffy or bloodshot and that any tear-streaks on her skin had since dried up, Cordelia straightened up again and faced the door with her hands clasped against her front.

'As strange as this may be, it is only fair that I give Lady Button the opportunity to say what she needs to. Though, I just had to be sure that such an action would not expose any weakness my eyes have shed.'

"… You may come in, Lady Button," she answered quietly.

Several seconds after Cordelia gave her the confirmation, the Victorian ghost became witness to Fanny phasing through the door and into the bedroom, her hands clasped against her abdomen as they usually were under the little light offered by the moon. But the biologically older ghost barely took two steps inside before she was stopping suddenly and curling her lip with a squint.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed in disgust and recoiled a little, her eyes briefly darting about the room at the varying furniture and other décor. "Did this room always look this way?! I don't remember it being so—" Fanny stopped upon locking eyes with a narrow-eyed Cordelia, prompting the elderly ghost to suck in a sharp breath through her nostrils and hastily avert her gaze to the wall to avoid further eye contact. "… Quaint. I-I was going to say 'quaint'," she stuttered meekly.

'Of course you were,' Cordelia thought bitterly and rolled her eyes, deciding to keep it to herself in order to keep the peace.

Momentary silence engulfed the air between the two ghosts at this, with Fanny keeping her eyes on the wall and Cordelia waiting patiently for her to explain herself. But when Fanny didn't respond or dare to return looking at her, the biologically younger blonde prepared to open her mouth to broach the topic. However, much to her surprise, Fanny beat her to it.

"I, um…" she began in a low voice, her hesitation forcing her to pause and Cordelia to close her mouth. Several seconds went by before the Edwardian ghost loudly sniffed and forced herself to make eye contact with the biologically younger ghost, the tip of her tongue running over her dry lips before she continued. "… I came by to thank you." Fanny saw Cordelia frown and force three blinks at this, prompting her to clarify. "For what you said to me yesterday. I never did give you my gratitude before your abrupt exit, after all."

But all that did was deepen Cordelia's frown, a hand reaching for her forehead to give a rub. Had she just heard Fanny correctly?

"Thank me?" she rasped, struggling to process the words that had left the elderly noblewoman's mouth.

Fanny sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes. "Yes. Please do not make me say it again. You know I hate repeating myself."

"But what, pray tell, did I do to deserve your gratitude?" Cordelia questioned with the twist of her lips, eventually gesturing her hands towards the moonlit glass of the window. "Clearly, my words held no weight, for your nightly trances have yet to cease!"

"And what has that got to do with it?" Fanny retorted with knitted brows, leaving Cordelia's own raising with a wide blink. When the biologically younger blonde didn't dare to respond back, Fanny rolled her shoulders and held her head high. "It is no secret that you and I don't get along. I find you to be unnecessarily deceitful, unladylike—"

"Ahem," Cordelia loudly cleared her throat and held out her palm to signal Fanny to stop talking, the rest of her response spoken sarcastically. "You do not need to list everything you dislike about me, Lady Button. Saying you dislike me is enough."

Fanny gave a nod of acknowledgement and pursed her lips for a few seconds, attempting to ponder her next words carefully. "Well, Cordelia, regardless of my dislike for you and your mysterious habits, it doesn't change the fact that watching you stand up to the Captain and Julian earlier cemented everything you said." She briefly turned her nose up to the air. "And yes, it appears it has done nothing to stop my 'nightly terrors', as Patrick calls them, but that does not mean I haven't gone a step in the right direction to putting an end to them."

Cordelia furrowed her brows and turned her eyes down to her boots, a hand subconsciously reaching for her chest as she took the moment to think through what Fanny had said.

'Now that Lady Button has mentioned it… she makes a reasonable argument. After all, trauma does not simply disappear even with time, as I know very well. The effort to overcome one's obstacles must also be met, and depending on the severity of the damage, one small development isn't necessarily going to magically fix everything. And it would seem that is the case for Lady Button. What she endured both in life and death at the hands of her husband must have deeper roots than we all initially assumed…'

"Hm…" Cordelia eventually hummed and rubbed her hand against her chest. "I suppose I never did think to look at it that way."

"I'm not surprised," Fanny replied while twisting her body partially to face the door to the bedroom with the shake of her head. "You've been too busy giving yourself a hard time over what happened with that girl."

It took a few seconds for Cordelia to process the words that left Fanny's mouth. But once she had, she was gaping and recoiling towards the window with a wide blink, and then another, and then another. She was completely speechless, and why wouldn't she be when she felt like a chameleon whose disguise had been seen through by a sharp-eyed predator bird?

When Cordelia failed to give her a verbal response, Fanny returned her gaze to the shellshocked ghost on the opposite side of the bedroom, raising a brow at her current reaction.

"Did you think I didn't notice the meaning behind your passionate speech to Julian and the Captain?" Fanny questioned after a short delay. She tilted her head and held her nose up to the air. "As confusing and difficult as you can be, young lady, nothing gets past me. You should know that well by now."

This only served to put Cordelia more on edge than she already was with the squaring of her shoulders and a thick gulp, causing a bead of sweat to roll down the side of her forehead (she still had yet to understand how that was possible, seeing as she didn't have a physical body anymore). When was the last time she felt so… exposed?

'And this is one of those times where I am oft reminded of one of the many reasons why I tend to avoid Lady Button's company. For how snobbish and selfish she may appear, her perception is sharper than a butcher's knife.'

A moment of silence fell between the two women as Cordelia averted her eyes, allowing them to droop with the slight bow of her head at the thought that her angry display earlier had put something personal on display for the other ghosts, something she certainly hadn't wanted anyone else to see or know. However, the empty air that lingered was soon broken by loud tutting from Fanny.

"Honestly!" the Edwardian noblewoman said through an exasperated huff. "For all the times you have bewildered me with your behaviour, I never thought I'd see the day you would lose your common sense!"

That caused Cordelia's head to snap up and whip to Fanny with wide eyes, only for them to narrow after a few seconds of shock. "… I beg your pardon?"

Fanny leaned forward a little, exposing her stern scowl to the other blonde under the silver light shining in. "You are a sensible young lady when you permit yourself to be, and you should know better than to blame yourself for the despicable display conjured by Julian today! No one could have foreseen such a travesty, so maybe you should cease feeling sorry for yourself and focus on the good you did."

Cordelia tilted her head to the side with a raised brow. "And what 'good' did I do exactly?"

"Making Julian think twice before daring to go beyond the pale." Fanny righted herself and subtly jerked her head in the direction of the bedroom door. "I saw him sulking by the windows of the common room when they took that girl away. Something you said must have struck a nerve."

Cordelia's non-existent breath caught in her throat at hearing this, her eyes slowly drifting towards the small streaks of moonlight shining into the darkened room. She even went so far as to stick a finger in her ear and give it a twist, just to make sure she'd heard the elderly ghost correctly. The poor ghost was unsure of what she was supposed to be the most shocked at: the fact Julian felt guilty seemingly because of her, or that Fanny appeared to be attempting to comfort her by scolding her.

'… I am no longer certain if I am not trapped within the clutches of a dream.'

Fanny awkwardly clearing her throat returned Cordelia's attention to the biologically ghost, seeing her brushing at the front of her dress with both hands to remove the creases. "Well, that was all I wished to say. I believe I've overstayed my welcome, so I shall see myself out."

Cordelia silently observed Fanny turn around and take slow steps to the door, unable to bring herself to utter a word or physically react for the moment, feeling as though someone had cast a spell of paralysis upon her. However, it was broken just as quickly the moment the Edwardian ghost paused before the threshold and peeked back at the younger blonde from over her shoulder, bowing her head slightly.

"Thank you for listening, Cordelia," Fanny murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "Have a good night."

She didn't wait for Cordelia to respond. The elderly ghost turned away and resumed her stride at a faster pace, phasing through the doorway and disappearing into the night by the time the younger ghost mustered up the courage to say anything.

"Goodnight, Lady Button," she breathlessly bade goodnight to the still blackness and lingering moonlight, remaining stood beside the window while listening to Fanny's retreating footsteps gradually die out.

But once Fanny's footsteps had become swallowed by the deafening silence that engulfed the bedroom and attached corridor, Cordelia's mind replayed their previous conversation like a broken record player, Fanny's words refusing to leave her alone for some strange reason. Even as she eventually moved herself away from the window, even as she climbed onto her bed and settled upon her right side, even as she felt her eyelids grow heavy and droop from the sudden weariness that washed over her, it didn't stop. By the time the lull of sleep was calling out to her and bringing her into its gentle embrace, only one new thought managed to break through at the shocking realisation she had.

She couldn't feel the pains or hollowness in her chest anymore. When had those gone away?

Cordelia couldn't recall when she'd actually fallen asleep. But the next thing she knew, she was slowly blinking her eyes open to the first muffled chime of the eight that usually came from the grandfather clock outside of her room, her blurry vision revealing her bedroom wall bathed in the sunlight of the morning. She never usually had to guess what time she woke up at nowadays. She routinely awakened around eight o'clock every single morning, so Cordelia naturally expected to be met with eight chimes every time.

However, upon hearing the third chime sound, a familiar high-pitched scream echoed from outside of her window, her eyes growing wide and her body stiffening by the time she heard the bone-crushing collision with the grassy ground.

"Heavens above!" she exclaimed out of shock.

It took a few seconds for her to register who the voice belonged to and what had happened, soon prompting the young Victorian ghost to push herself up from the bed and whirl round to stand without another moment's hesitation.

'That cannot be Lady Button! It is broad daylight and eight o'clock in the morning! I can still hear the remaining chimes resounding as I think!'

Cordelia strode straight for the window and squinted at the sunlit garden, pressing the side of her hand against her forehead to give her a clearer view of her surroundings while simultaneously protecting her eyes from the blinding sun. Sure enough, towards the left side where the garden wall was situated, she could see Fanny Button getting up from the grass and dusting off the front of her dress of any dirt and dust, standing in line with the section of the manor house that had two square window covered doors for the room on the ground floor where the late Heather's bedroom was, alongside the bedroom window above it on the top floor that had been Fanny's bedroom both in life and also currently in death.

The blonde ghost was left gasping loudly and crinkling her nose with repeated blinks at what she was seeing, even when Fanny paused with her actions and glanced up at the morning sky with a deep frown on her brow. She appeared just as perplexed as Cordelia was by this sudden development.

'But how can this be?! What trick have my eyes just beheld?!'

Upon ascertaining that she wasn't seeing things and that the person she was seeing was, in fact, Fanny Button, Cordelia shook her head to restore her senses and phased her body through the window to step out into the garden.

"Lady Button!" Cordelia called out to the elderly ghost as she jogged her way over, catching Fanny's attention and causing her to turn around with a visible flinch and wide blink. "What on earth is going on?!"

Fanny rolled her shoulders and flared her nostrils once Cordelia had come to a stop in front of her, straightening out her posture with the raise of her head.

"That is precisely what I would like to know as well!" she replied tightly, her eyes narrowing as they briefly flickered to the sky again. "I could have sworn I had already fallen out of the window last night. Though I vaguely recall hearing three chimes from the grandfather clock outside of my room."

"Three?" Cordelia repeated with a raised brow, her head turning to glance in the direction of the white-framed window that belonged to her room along the back of the house. "But that cannot be right. I heard eight chimes from the grandfather clock outside of mine."

The sound of a familiar voice clearing their throat from behind them prompted the two women to face the ground floor doors with wide blinks, being met with the sight of the Captain standing there with his baton clasped behind his back and his chin tilted up, a smug smile on his lips.

"Hello, Fanny, Cordelia," he greeted jovially, pausing to rock back and forth once on his heels as his eyes looked at the sky for a few seconds. "Lovely morning, wouldn't you say?"

"Captain?" Fanny addressed the WW2 veteran ghost with a slight gape, while Cordelia was soon scowling and placing her hands to her hips, having already clocked on to his cocky demeanour.

He only ever looked that way when he was pleased with himself about something he'd done, which means…

"What did you do?" she questioned, to which the Captain dared to shrug his shoulders and slowly march his way over to them.

"Oh, I wish I could take credit for this, Cordelia, but the truth is, you should be thanking Julian," he answered with his smile still intact, coming to a stop before the biologically younger ghost as she deepened her frown.

"Julian?"

"Yes. His ghostly abilities are resourceful, after all." He paused to give an exaggerated wink. "Especially for turning back time."

Fanny and Cordelia didn't react at first, instead choosing to stare at the Captain as if he'd suddenly grown a second head. But it didn't take long before the pair caught on to the Captain's play on words, causing the two women's jaws to drop at the same time with the exchange of wide-eyed sideways glances. Suddenly, the conflicting number of chimes they'd heard this morning was starting to make a lot of sense.

Eventually, Cordelia managed to break herself out of her shocked spell to face the Captain with twisted lips. "… You had Julian change the time on the grandfather clock outside of Lady Button's bed chambers, did you not?"

The Captain's smile widened ever so slightly at Cordelia's deduction, his chest puffing out seemingly with pride; whether from Cordelia's reply or hearing his own actions coming out of her mouth, the blonde haired ghost didn't know.

"Jolly good answer, Cordelia!" he exclaimed, moving a hand from his baton to straighten out the knot in his tie. "It was a pretty resourceful solution, if I do say so myself."

Cordelia's eyes and shoulders drooped at the confirmation, deciding not to say anything out loud to give the Captain an unnecessary ego boost.

'Though I cannot deny it: that solution is certainly a clever one.' She dared to sideways glance Fanny again, who had since snapped out of her shock and was currently staring up at her bedroom window with a furrowed brow. 'And now Lady Button will not have to endure the Captain's consistent complaining. She is free to endure her nightly terrors without hostility.'

The Captain took Cordelia's and Fanny's persistent silence as his cue to swirl on his heels to face the path leading back towards the house, releasing a contented sigh while walking ahead of the two women.

"At last, things can get back to normal around here!"

The Captain's remark left Cordelia frowning then, while Fanny went to stride after the former commanding officer shortly after. Swallowing back the lump attempting to form in her throat, Cordelia stared up at the back of the manor house shining in the early morning sun, a quiet huff eventually slipping past her lips as the vague recollections of Alison's accident the day before dared to return from the crevices of her mind.

'Yes. Back to your normal.'