Lupine's Diamond (girlxgirl)

Chapter Thirteen

Freya spent the rest of the day working with Kenneth. Besides the aggravated phone call with John, the rest of the day was fairly relaxed. He spoke with Freya on some occasions but mainly tapped away on his keyboard while Freya sat, waiting for her next orders. Occasionally, Kenneth would tell her stories about his family, namely his mother, who had always been his biggest supporter, though she died of cancer only three years earlier. That put a damper on the mood as Freya thought of Juliana. Freya tried her best to question Kenneth around his business partners, to which he happily responded, though he never mentioned anyone by the name John.

"Élaine?" Kenneth asked, breaking the short oath of silence that had taken over the office. "Do you still have family in Paris?"

It seemed like an innocent enough question, but it resulted in inner turmoil on Freya's part. She knew that sooner or later, all these lies would catch up with her and she wouldn't remember them all. Not to mention the fact that she had already told Victoria her mother's name, which meant that information could reach Kenneth's ears. Juliana certainly didn't sound like a Parisian name.

"Oui," she said, knowing that saying no would result in suspicion. Should Victoria tell Kenneth about Juliana—which was unlikely considering how Freya still had her cover job, despite Victoria's knowledge of its falsity—then she could simply say that Juliana was the woman who had taken her in when she immigrated. Simple. "Most left with moi but my grandmère decided to stay. She lived in Paris all her life. You understand?"

"I do," Kenneth replied, turning in his chair to face her. "Do you miss her?" Freya simply nodded, not wanting to craft another lie. "It must be hard not seeing her now." Another nod. "Did you enjoy Paris? I want to bring Victoria there sometime."

Considering that Freya had never actually been to Paris, this made responding difficult. She would have to use the same vocabulary that everyone else used. At least since Kenneth thought that she didn't have a very good grasp on the English language, she could get away with being vague.

"It's beautiful," she said after a moment. "Magnifique some would say."

That would have to suffice. Thankfully, it did, because Kenneth turned back to his computer without any further questions. Freya resumed her daydream, though she found it to be difficult to focus on after Kenneth's interruption. Now that Freya had a moment alone with her thoughts without a daydream distracting her she took a moment to muddle over the identity of the mysterious John that had been on the phone with Kenneth earlier.

Slowly, she drew a list of those that she knew worked for and with Kenneth from what he had told her, and then laid that over with what she remembered from his file. There were a couple that had been in his file that he had not mentioned personally, and yet still no John. Considering that John was such a common name, Freya was very surprised. Even if it wasn't the correct John, Freya expected there to at least be one with all the information she had at her disposal. Maybe she would ask Naja to borrow the file again in case she had forgotten a couple names.

Surely John was in there somewhere. If only she had a last name! Even with just a last name and no first things would have been easier. Perhaps she would have to go through Kenneth's paperwork. That would certainly help her find out John's identity, but it would risk her job to the extreme. Going through an employer's paperwork was something that Freya normally would consult with Naja. However, knowing that Naja would not take over the operation or shut it down all together and inevitably tell Corvus before Freya had any useful information told her that she would have to act alone and without Naja's knowledge, which would be difficult to say the least.

Kenneth pulled her away from her schemes only two more times. Once to ask for another cup of tea, and the second to dismiss her until dinner was ready. He said that he could manage on his own until then. Freya slowly made her way down the servants passageways toward the kitchens where she was given dish duty. Nothing special, but a mundane enough chore to allow her to continue her plans.

The biggest obstacle wouldn't be getting into the study, but rather avoiding Naja. Considering that Naja knew all about the moments Freya had had with Victoria without an obvious reason, Freya knew that it would be harder than she had ever suspected to leave unsupervised in some fashion. If she was lucky, Freya would be able to sneak some of Kenneth's melatonin into Naja's dinner with hope that she would sleep deeply, though Freya knew that there was next to no point. Especially because in some people, melatonin has the opposite effect and with Freya's luck, Naja would be one of those people.

Being back to square one, Freya pondered if Naja would see through a simple lie of going to the washroom or fetching herself a drink. Considering that the washroom was attached to the sleeping quarters, she doubted that either would work. She would have to plan much more thoroughly if she intended to deceive Naja. Perhaps volunteering for the late shift? That might actually work, considering that the late shift was meant to clean the whole upper floor. The only downside would be that Freya would be lucky to get two hours of sleep, though considering her sleep schedule for the past two weeks, she figured that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Would it be worth it to get her hands on the documents though? Freya figured it would. Finishing up the last dish and setting it into the drying rack, Freya made her way over to the daily schedule to see if there was an opening in the late shift. Luckily there was one. Exactly one. That would mean that Naja wouldn't be able to monitor her at all. Things were falling perfectly into place. Glancing behind her quickly, Freya picked up the pen attached to the schedule, the pen hovering over the paper.

If she went through with this now and messed up, this would be the end of her career. Both at the Ambermores' and the Kingdom. But, it was a risk that she was willing to take. The payload that could come from knowing John's identity was too valuable to pass up. Before she could change her mind, Freya pressed the pen to the paper and signed in her name. Now all she had to do was wait.

Sorry that I didn't update! I honestly just got distracted.  

- who do you think John is?

- Will Naja notice what Freya is doing?

- Thoughts on what migh happen (besides 'gay')?

- Are you enjoying this story?

Sorry again!

~Alley