His Slave Her Master

Part 9 Trust

"I hardly think this is necessary." I said to Lena's reflection in the bathroom's floor length mirror, looking down at the long baby blue trench coat she'd dressed me in over my navy blue dress and white tights. With that, she also wrapped a cream scarf around my neck, placed matching gloves on my hands, and put brown Uggs on my feet. I looked dressed out of some kind of old fashioned movie, my hair tied into a platt down my back, the top covered by a fluffy cream hat. 

"You'll be surprised at how cold it is outside." Lena said, turning me around to look at her. "Don't want to catch a cold. The master will drown me in the lake."

"But it's the middle of June!" I argued.

Lena busied herself by picking up my discarded night wear and placing it in the laundry basket. "Not here it isn't."

My brow furrowed at her words. "What does that a mean?"

Lena turned back to me with a heavy sigh, placing her hands on my shoulders. "Nothing that you need to worry yourself with as of right now, dear. Now let's go before your hour with the master is up before you've even met with him."

"Can I not just go on a walk with you?" I whined. The thought of having to see him again, after what happened, had me squirming under the ridiculous amount of layers I wore.

"Don't be foolish." Lena scowled, motioning for me to follow her out of the room. "The master calls for your hourly presence right now, meaning you do as he says. No questions asked."

I don't hit old women. I don't hit old women. I had to chant in my head as I sent daggers at the back of Lena's head.

"Now dear, don't scowl, it isn't a good look on you." Lena said over her shoulder as my mouth dropped open in surprise.

Opening my mouth to make a smart retort back, I quickly snapped it closed when we came to a stop before the tallest doors I'd every seen.

"This is the entrance to the house." Lena explained to me. "It's also the passage to the gardens. It's usually locked and bolted to keep out...unwanted presences, but the master had them unlocked for your walk."

"That's, uh, nice I suppose." I said, watching as Lena stared at the doors for a moment before they pulled open.

I decided not to ask.

What I saw on the other side had me nearly fainting. It looked like something out of a fairytale, a winter wonderland, another world. In the distance, great snowy mountains stood proud and tall, the grey storm clouds swirling around their peaks. The road leading to the entrance doors was made from white stone, surrounded by marble statues of different animals, each covered in a thick layer of snow. Strangely, the snow did not touch the road, only the open areas around it.

Lena walked out first and I quickly followed behind, not wanting to get lost in this new world. When she said it was cold, she hadn't been kidding. My teeth began to chatter rather against my will and I was thankful for the amount of layers I wore.

I looked up at the sky to see it was a bright crystal blue, the sun shining down to make the snow glitter. I had never seen anything more extraordinarily beautiful.

Looking behind me as we grew farther away from the house, I saw that it was humungous. Made from white brick, reaching high into the air. It looked more like a castle than a house, if I was being honest.

As we walked, I wondered where we could possibly be. Clearly not England, as it hadn't snowed in years and the climate was nothing like it was here. Which meant, how far from home was I?

My escape may be harder than I thought.

Lena steered left and off of the road and onto a small footpath, this being covered in snow. My boots crunched as we walked, making a satisfying sound as I went.

The small path cut through the snowy ground, past a magnificent fountain that's water had frozen over from the cold temperatures. It was big enough that you could easily go ice skating.

The idea was tempting.

Lena lead me to an open space with a statue on an intimidating looking man in the middle, looking over a river that oddly, wasn't frozen. In fact, the water ran quickly, almost at a dangerous speed.

And looking over the river was him, my master.

Valentino.

"I must leave now." Lena said, pressing a quick kiss to my wind bitter rosy cheeks. "Try to be polite and not anger him."

I smiled sarcastically. "I'll try my best, but I can't promise anything."

Lena rolled her eyes before turning and walking back the way we had come. I sighed, my breath coming out in a great puff of smoke. I smiled, doing it again, harder this time, then giggled.

"What are you doing?" His deep voice said in my ear, causing me to scream.

I turned to see Valentino with a dark eyebrow raised, his golden eyes much dimmer than they had been that night. I shuddered at the memory.

"You are cold." Valentino stated more than asked. "Did Lena not dress you well enough?"

I laughed. "Trust me, I'm wearing enough clothes to dress an entire village. I'm just not used to the cold."

"Ah, because you're human." He said to himself more than me.

"No," I said as if he were dumb, "because I'm British. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but it doesn't exactly snow there. The worst we get would be rain."

Valentino laughed. The sound was pleasant and made my body fill with much needed warmth. "You'll get used to it, I'm sure."

No need, I thought to myself. As soon, I'll be long gone.

Instead I gave him a forced smile. "So you wanted to go on a walk?"

Valentino stood back, letting me notice how he was wearing a long black coat like mine, heavy black boots on his feet and a black beanie on his head. He sure liked the colour black.

"I was actually thinking we could maybe go in the water?" He suggested, giving me a lopsided grin.

I looked down at my clothes. "Like this? Out here?"

Valentino shook his head, still smiling, as he took my hand. I saw how he wasn't wearing any gloves and wondered how his fingers hadn't fallen off yet. I was grateful for the gloves Lena had made me put on, keeping my skin from touching his.

We came to a stop on the edge of the bank, our hands still tightly clasped together. I glanced at Val, then back at the dark crashing water.

"Do you trust me?" He said, turning his golden eyes to mine.

Yes.

"No." I said, it coming out in a hushed whisper.

"Good." He grinned, before pulling the both of us towards the icy water.