Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 13: Avarice

As soon as the carriage left the back entrance of the town hall at sundown, Luna and Vincent cautiously rushed over to the high fence. Vincent immediately assumed a casual position, pretending just to be walking by as Luna hid behind a shrubbery next to the fence.

"You're sure it's that place?" Vincent asked as he passed her by a second time, stopping while pretending to wipe dirt off his coat.

"Annarósa said it was behind a shrubbery next to the fence to the backyard. It doesn't get more specific than that," Luna whispered loud enough for him to hear. She looked back at him. "You know you don't have to pretend to wipe dirt off. You could, I don't know, actually wipe it off."

Vincent eyed his coat. It had indeed taken a turn for the dirtier, much like everyone's clothes after recent events. Luna and her family had gotten to change into other clothes however while Vincent didn't. His eye twitched, but he did as Luna suggested.

"I can't seem to find a loose one," Luna continued and tried to yank yet another bar from its place in the fence.

"And there are supposed to be three of them," Vincent reminded her.

Luna pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked around. None of them looked different than the others, so she shook a bunch of them harshly.

"Screw that then, so is there another shrubbery?"

Vincent pointed to three more places, and Luna groaned.

"It's a big fence, my Lady," Vincent said as he wiped some actual dirt off his boots.

"Yes... Yes, all right but..." Luna stopped to think for once. "Annarósa said she and Elvie had used to sneak out through there, and that's also how they got away from there a while ago so... It shouldn't be visible from many places."

Her gaze darted between the potential places, seeking out the most likely hiding place and proceeded to sneak away towards the side facing the smallest street.

Vincent nodded in unexpected approval and followed her cautiously, still pretending they didn't know each other, which in fairness was a reasonable act as Luna dove into the bushes again.

"I think this is it!" she called out, a little too loud. "Yeah I can loosen one here, and... I think this one too. Come here and help me!"

Vincent soon sat down next to her inside the bushes and began loosening the three bars Annarósa had told them about. Fortunately for Luna, her current dress wasn't quite as poofy as her previous one and it proved convenient for crawling through the gap in the fence.

She was greeted by a ghastly, neglected garden. No one could've been here for months. As soon as she got up from the ground the two of them tried to move as stealthily as possible towards the windows. This proved surprisingly easy as most of them seemed to be covered up by curtains or thick fabrics. Some of them had even been nailed shut.

"Uhh, so... Which window do you think?" Luna whispered, instantly dismissing the ones with wooden boards covering them.

Vincent looked around.

"One of these I suppose." He gestured at the ones in front of them on the backside of the building.

"Nothing more specific? Where do you think the guards are?"

"At the front. Probably in the entrance hall guarding the basement door." Vincet looked at the covered windows. "They're also trying to keep up appearances, I should think. I mean, pretending like they're active around there so the townspeople don't suspect how few they are. A bunch of angry people could manage three guards without much blood spill so..."