Moon Guardian

Chapter 12... The Lady With the Red Dress

CyberAlias: I would like to dedicate this chapter to TimMcFarlane... but the internet is so freaking slow that it took me over 15 minutes to upload this... this (insert bad word here) chapter! Tim, thanks for all the votes and support you've given my book. I honestly do appreciate fans like you. :)

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Luna was going outside! Theodore had relented! She’d woken up, that morning of her thirteenth birthday, flung the covers off her body and in a burst of excitement, feeling the ridiculous urge to twirl around her room, she did exactly just that, her light brown hair flew about her person as she opened the curtains.

She was thirteen! She flung her door open bumping right into Emily with great force that caused them both to stumble.

Emily laughed at Luna’s embarrassed blush, “So you are going outside today.”

“Yes!” Luna straightened herself; “It is long overdue, after that one minor incident.” She made the robbery look like a mere stumble on the road.

“Of course.” Emily agreed sarcastically, “A complete overreaction on your papa’s part.”

“It wasn’t papa! It was-”

“And Theodore too.” She tucked a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. Thin eyebrows cocked halfway up to express the amusement she felt at Luna’s reasoning.

“He said we’re going together outside, last time it was Nathaniel that took me but this time Nathaniel wont be here.”

“Nathaniel won’t be here for what?” the very object of Luna’s speculation stood at the doorway, hand folded over his chest.

“When I go outside.” She said, smiling a little when Nathaniel rolled his eyes.

“Will you ever let that little dispute between us pass?” he asked with a small laugh.

She and Nathaniel had argued for over a month when she hadn’t been allowed to leave the house; “You promised that this wont be the last time I go out!” she’d said angrily after she’d been refused several times.

“It’s for your own protection. You were robbed just last week.”

“Nothing bad happened!’ she’d exclaimed, “And they got rid of that awfully heavy pair of earrings. Which!” she’d added, defiantly “I would have gladly given to them had they asked!”

“But they didn’t!”

“Well they should have!”

“Do you realise that… that your situation could have been…” Nathaniel strived for a suitable word, “disastrous?!”

They’d bickered on for over a half hour before Wilson interrupted them with a stern glare.

“Nathaniel,” he’d looked to his daughter, “Luna, what is all this… this quarrelling about?”

After explaining to her papa, he merely suggested that she let it go. Wilson Vancroft was not about to let his only daughter into the terrible world beyond his estate.

But she didn’t. She’d brought it up, accusingly in every opportunity she could in every conversation with Nathaniel.

“Luna, you said that you had finished your lesson work I gave you last week.” Nathaniel held up a page of unfinished work in her face.

“Oh… I lied. Just like you lied.” She’d replied, looking up at him…

This had gone on for over a month before Theodore had stepped in, he’d simply told her, “Be patient Luna. You’ll be free to go outside very soon. Just not now.”