Saving The Pirate (Book Two)

62. Changes In Castle Life

"What happened" was in the form of something red smeared, or rather, painted on a wall in the throne room. In big red letters, it spelled, "Hector, Hector, not as sweet as nectar."

There were multiple errors in the rhyme. The 'a' in nectar was spelled with an 'o', and there was no punctuation or lowercase letters. It was messy, and it was angry. This was out of hate.

"What is it?" I asked to no one specific, looking horrified at the mess.

"There waz no trace of any paint. Suzpicions lead to some zort of animal blood, but no corpsez are found yet. Whoever did thez certainly doesn't want to be found," Jack answered, crossing his arms.

"Any leads? Any sort of ideas on who this can be?" Christopher asked. His mother shook her head.

"Nothing yet. This hasn't ever happened before that I can remember."

Christopher came closer to the wall, inspecting it closer. "Why is this still here? Why wasn't this removed before you came and got us?"

Jack sighed. "We were hoping you two had an idea of who could do thez. Has either of you seen this sort of handwriting anywhere?" Both Christopher and I shook our heads, just as puzzled as everyone else. 

Jack scratched his chin, thinking things over before finally saying, "I have also failed to mention that because of thez, his majesty is taking extra precautions. To keep everyone safe, some bedroom changes are going to have to be made, I'm afraid."

That piqued everyone's interest.

"Of course, due to relations, Diane and Anne will be sharing a room. Tristan, you can share with me or with-"

"Yer fine, mate. Besides, Gata loves ye, and I follow where she goes," Tristan said with a crooked smile, scratching Gata behind her ear, to which she replied with a meow. 

"Is thez alright with you, Christopher?" asked Jack. Christopher glanced at Tristan and gave the smallest smile.

"Yeah, that's alright. That cat don't like me anyhow. I see no point in trying to mend a relationship that simply isn't there."

"It's doesn't, dear. That cat doesn't like me anyhow," corrected Diane with a soft, motherly smile that was meant to be kind but just annoyed Christopher.

"Yes, Mother."

***

Settling into a new room meant my clothes were moved. It also meant that I lost Cora, who probably didn't even know what happened to me. I would have to talk to her later to explain my absence.

Diane's room was equivalent to mine in size and structure, but what was different was that her bedroom looked lived in, very lived in. Clothes were thrown about the place, hanging from the bed and the wardrobe door, and tossed onto the vanity and then some. The bed was unmade, there were books and little trinkets misplaced. It was as if there was never a maid, almost like she didn't want one.

"You can have the bed, dear. It may come to surprise you that the floor is comfy in a castle.," Diane said, with a chuckle. She went to pick up a shirt that was hanging off of the bed. She blushed. "Apologies, I don't have a maid. I mostly believe in doing it myself, but as you can see, that's gotten out of hand.

I smiled, shyly. "That's alright. We all can be messy at times, although it amazes me how your son made it without me for so long after seeing his room for the first time."

There was an awkward pause, and I was beginning to think that I made a mistake bringing up my job and Christopher when Diane smile another motherly smile. "Christopher never did like picking up after himself. When he was little, I always made him pick up his toys to put back in his toy chest, but he gave this little fit about it. It was the sweetest thing. Does he still do that?"