"I told you they should have never left the castle! It's freezing out there!"
"If Miranda had found them then they'd be dead!"
"We could have hid them!"
"Miranda always finds everything out!"
"If that's true then how have we slipped under her nose? Hm?"
Ethan rubbed his temples, listening to the three sisters arguing. It was a blessing that Rose stayed mostly quiet in his arms. A few noises of discomfort at most. Unlike the bubbling worry inside of him at how high her fever was.
"That doesn't change the matter of how deathly cold it is outside."
"Just because we would freeze to death doesn't mean Rose would."
"Duh! She's burning up, not freezing."
"It's called a cold, dumbass, and you get it from freezing temperature!"
"Regular humans are so weird."
"Is she gonna die?"
Ethan finally felt the need to speak up. "No, she's not going to die. Are you sure there's no medicine here?"
"Well, we could try—"
"No!" Bela and Cassandra shot down Daniela's suggestion before it could even come to fruition.
Confusion laced Ethan's expression. A hard stare underneath his furrowed brows. The knife incident coming to mind. The girls didn't feel it despite how hard he was trying to glare a warning into their skulls. It was no use, not unless Lady Dimitrescu was backing him up. Speaking of, her footsteps were getting closer. The faint thudding from her tall height.
Ethan liked that part. It made her easy to find. Although the girls paid it no mind until the doors opened and she emerged.
Daniela was the first to speak, trying her luck again. "Mother! Ethan wants some medicine for Rose. I think we should try—"
"No." Lady Dimitrescu's immediate response only made Ethan wonder more what in the world it was.
"Told you." Bela and Cassandra spoke in unison again.
"We have nothing that would be suitable for a human child," She began, sitting in her chair as she addressed Ethan. "Which is why I've summoned the Duke. He should be here shortly."
"Did he mention the cost?"
She laughed, waving him off. It was times like these Lady Dimitrescu seemed more like the rich wine aunt than a terrifying B.O.W. "No need to worry about that, it's a simple expense."
"So…"
"I'll cover it." Lady Dimitrescu put his unspoken fears to rest. It was amazing how just that reassurance of getting medicine made his body relax. Letting himself enjoy it with a deep sigh of relief.
"I wish the Duke had something that would allow us to go outside." Daniela sighed, flopping down onto the couch.
"Why would you want to go out there? There's nothing to do besides messing with the lycan now." Bela sat properly down on the seat across from her.
"Yeah, and even they've been dwindling in numbers." Cassandra joined beside her, laying back with crossed arms.
"I'm curious is all. What does the rest of the world look like outside of the castle?"
"Boring probably."
"Hey Ethan!" Bela called, making him hum in acknowledgement and turn somewhat towards them. "What's it like outside?"
He pursed his lips and with a shrug he answered. "Depends on where you go."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…different countries all work and look differently. Different customs and people."
"Mother, have you travelled?"
"I did, for awhile."
"What was it like?" All three girls turned towards her, their body language interested. Daniela got up, leaning on the couch's edge as she looked to her. The most curious of the three.
Lady Dimitrescu tapped the chair's edge. Gloved finger against wood. All sorts of memories, good and bad, were shifted through. The vocabulary to describe them was just outside of reach. Sitting at the tip of her mind and not her tongue. How would one describe the nights she saw? She'd never thought herself a writer or poet, merely a singer.
"Ethan's right, I suppose."
Said man was trying to imagine Lady Dimitrescu in ordinary society (and failed as he imagined her as she was now). "I never would have pictured you a traveller."
"There is much you don't know about me."
"Then tell, clearly your daughters want to know too."
With a click of her tongue against her teeth and a look along their faces, Lady Dimitrescu sighed. The chair underneath creaked and protested as she shimmed into comfort. "You have to promise not to laugh."
"We won't!"
"No worries, mother."
While Bela and Cassandra swore, she had to point her gaze at Daniela. Earning an I promise~ before she found Ethan, prompting the same and earning a hand of surrender. Fine.
"Back in the day, there was a jazz group named The Pallboys."
"Wait…"
"What?" She was curt as she looked to Ethan.
"Don't tell me you're the Miss D. in Miss D. And The Pallboys."
"How do you…?"
"Mia bought a record and it became one of the most used in the house." Lady Dimitrescu's expression of annoyance quickly morphed into surprise and even pride. "Rose loves it."
"Really now?"
"Mother." Daniela stole the attention, "What's jazz?"
"What's jazz?" By the way she stood and spoke, one might have thought Daniela had offended her, her mother, and her childhood pet.
"I can't believe I've never shown my daughters jazz. What kind of mother have I been?" An action she had to rectify immediately, all but running from the room. A string of complaints and bafflement falling from her lips and growing muffled the further she went. "What's jazz? Should be a crime not to know—"
When her words turned into nothing but distant noise the girls looked to each other.
"Mother did Jazz with men?"
"So weird…"
"Ethan, do you like jazz?"
"Yeah, it was more my thing than Mia's." Another pang in his heart, remembering the good times. Dancing softly in the living room together, laughing, stealing a kiss every now and then before bumping into the table. Then the conflicted feelings of how upset she got when the vase got knocked over and…
He sighed. "And Rose's too. She likes it."
"Is mother good at singing?"
"Why don't you pester her to sing for you?"
"Ethan, don't get them started."
"Why not, Bela? It's an excellent idea!" Cassandra and Daniela's additional agreement only made Bela's disagreement more evident.
"I will have no part in this." She crossed her arms, metaphorically putting a wall up.
"Leave it Daniela, we'll just rub it in her face when she starts dancing."
"No!"
"Maybe she could even teach us how to sing."
"She wouldn't."
Daniela shrugged. "Why not?"
That got Bela, whose eyes betrayed her with excitement. Everyone else could see it written in them that she wanted to join the pester, to dance and try singing.
"Are you nervous?" Ethan saw the writing, not feeling the need to tease but rather the fatherly instinct. "You don't have to be perfect at it right away."
"That's not it…"
"Whatever it is, don't let it hold you back. Nerves, appearances, whatever." As human as they looked, he wasn't about to assume they operated the same. Then again, he never really understood teenagers or young women in general. Best not get stabbed for assumptions.
"What Ethan said!" Bela's words were a little relief he did well. "We won't judge you if you suck."
"Well, we might a little." Cassandra smirked, earning a hit to the shoulder. One she was unfazed by in her amusement.
"If I hear either one of you doing better than me, I'm ripping your throats out."
"You wouldn't."
"Yes, I would."
"No, you wouldn't!"
"I would!"
"Wouldn't!"
"Would!"
"Wouldn't!"
"For crying out loud…"
Rose stirred in her bundle, getting agitated just like her father. The man once more rubbing his temples with their antics. The words telling them to cut it out dying to be said on his tongue.
"Girls!" Lady Dimitrescu beat him to it. The doors opening with her words, likely having heard the bickering long before pushing them open. "Enough or I'm putting these away."
"We'll stop!" They spoke in unison, too distracted maintaining eye contact to notice the way Ethan smiled.
"Good. Now Ethan."
"Hm?" He craned his head up (a motion he'd gotten used to by now).
"The Duke has arrived, he's waiting for you in the merchant's room." Relief flooded Ethan's body then. Knowing the Duke would come didn't ease the worry during his wait. It wouldn't be until Rose was healthy that it would completely go away. The thought of losing his entire family within the week would break him.
Unlike Mia's first disappearance, he'd have the bodies and no hope.
He mentally shook the thoughts from his mind as he stood—fast and impatient—with Rose in hand. Only he couldn't rush off more than a couple steps before Lady Dimitrescu addressed him once more.
"Leave Rose with us. I've paid for more than just medicine from the Duke." There was a specific kind of amusement written on Lady Dimitrescu's face then. One of a gift giver waiting eagerly for the recipient to see their present. Confident they'll like it. "And the young one would prefer rest, no doubt."
"It would be best for her to get the medicine sooner–"
"Come now, listen to mother." Daniela got up, mimicking Bela's tone. The one she often used when trying to mimic her mother's authoritative presence. "Let the baby sleep."
"Not after what you three did." He pulled back when she tried to take Rose from him.
"There will be no knives while I'm around, now go." Lady Dimitrescu had set the record player down on the table and was now waving him off with a hand. Leaving Ethan to sigh and place the babe in Daniela's hands.
"I'm warning you, no funny business."
"I knooow, now go!" She pushed him towards the door.
With that he was left alone. An echo of the door closing through the grand halls and all it's expect craftsmanship. It made sense now why everything was so tall. While he preferred the coziness of a small home, he liked it here more than Donna's home. As he walked towards the main hall, he could hear the beginnings of Jazz muffled from where he came. A little smile on his lips.
It was only when he was alone did he reflect on how his life twisted and turned. The newest surprise: coming to enjoy the company that once frightened and nearly killed him. Even now he'd still call himself crazy. Walking through these halls and beginning to call them familiar. The merchant's room wasn't, but it matched the rest of the aesthetic enough. A rather small room in comparison to the others.
"Ethan Winters! It's wonderful to see you again."
"Hey Duke." He greeted seeing the strange but oddly comfort merchant in his seat. The merchant's room just as fancy as all the rest. "Have I gone nuts?"
"Do you want the honest answer?"
"Not really."
"Then I believe it's best if I don't answer that." Ethan wouldn't say it aloud, but the man's demeanour was comforting. The Duke let him speak with his cynical, tired voice. The one of a man frequently at his wit's end in some form of another and the Duke met it with a smile. A calm one that soothed without losing it's charm.
"Dimitrescu said everything's on a tab?"
"Ah, yes. You needn't spend a penny." He gestured over to a nearby table. "Everything has been arranged in a basket. Inside you'll find the medicine you're looking for, and I've thrown in some diapers, baby food and drink, along with some other goods you might need."
"Heh, she's really paying for it all?" Considering how casually the woman spoke of taking Rose's body apart before, it was hard to picture. Even with how normal she's been to him now.
"It was a very pleasant surprise when she first rang me up. I had expected only one of you to survive this castle and yet here you are. You have quite the luck this time, Ethan."
"This time?"
"Ah, my apologies. I mustn't stay here too long. There's another in this village that has requested my presence, and he's not a very patient man, unlike his partner."
"Are you talking about Chris? You know him?" The only pair he could think of. Praying to god there wasn't another party he was unaware of.
The wink the Duke gave should've been an answer, and it was, at the end of the day. Yet, it still irritated Ethan beyond belief. Cryptic answers were one of his biggest pet peeves, in fact anyone that wasn't straight forward often drove him up a wall. Mia's avoidance slipping into the back of his mind, making him sigh.
"Before you go." He spoke up, stepping closer as if that would prompt a more honest answer. "Since you seem to know far more than you tell me. Is Mia really dead?"
A look of sympathy crossed the Duke's face then. Not giving Ethan any confidence. His words only further drove home the doubt. "I'm afraid only one of you will make it out of this village. If Miranda had her way, it would be neither. Be careful, Mister Winters."
"You're the only one still being cryptic, damn it! Why can't you just tell me?"
"Do you trust me, Ethan?"
He looked between the man and the gift basket. It wasn't the first time the Duke had helped keep Rose alive and well. That, however, didn't build substantial trust. Not enough. "You make it real hard to."
"Do you trust Chris."
He sighed, despite the recent fuck up? Chris has proven to be more trustworthy over the years. Jill helped mitigate the lost faith as of late. "Yes, I do."
"Then wait for Chris to answer. He and his men are looking for Mia now. I suspect…you'll feel more at ease with his answer than my own."
The logic wasn't one he liked, and it scratched at his brain in a less than pleasant way. Only to be unable to deny that he would prefer hearing it from Chris or Jill's mouth than the Duke's.
"Fine." He took the basket under his arms, glancing over the contents before leaving. Pausing at the door to gesture the basket up with a "Thanks."
As frustrating as the Duke was, he still knew to show gratitude towards him. Earning a polite nod, a relaxed smile, and a pleasant "Take care, Ethan!"
Back towards the bedroom he ventured. The closer he got the louder the music became. Distinctly, he could hear Lady Dimitrescu's voice above the muffled music from the record player. One of Rose's favourite songs. Warmth rested on his chest imagining his sick baby being comforted by her favourite music. Lady Dimitrescu's voice as powerful in person as it was on the record. No doubt about it, she was the singer and she was good.
They didn't hear him as he softly pushed the door open. Watching her standing and singing. Flowing free as if she were on stage once more. An adoring crowd in the form of her three daughters smiling and dancing together. Rose rested in Bela's arms. The soothing nature of the music outweighing the fever.
The scene made him pause. Letting it all sink in; he didn't want to disturb it for a little while longer. There was a soft joy that surrounded the room. It almost felt like watching Mia sing as she steadily rocked Rose, during the good times. When they were happy and peaceful.
The feeling of a family.