Carnations in the Alley | manxman | (Historical Romance)

III - Lonesome & Alone

Morning had yet to arrive, and Kent was still awake.

Lying on his side upon the sofa before the bed offered to him, a bed he was sure was far more comfortable than the furnishing he'd chosen instead, Kent had pulled a thin blanket over himself for warmth. The manor was rather cold at this late hour, and minor creaks in the walls were the only sound that captured his attention as the time carried on.

1:00 AM

2:00 AM

3:00 AM

And so on and so forth.

It was striking 3:30am when Kent sat up on the sofa and pulled the blanket further around himself. When he glanced off toward the window, it was still very much dark outside, and the piercing silence of the house was on the verge of driving him mad. His nights were often far too much of a blur for him to register the silence, and here he was without the company of a sweet burn to distract from the solitude.

Not quite wanting to force himself to remain in this unbearable stillness, Kent stood from the bench with the blanket draped over his shoulders. His feet chilled against the floor, and he neared the window. The night surrounding the house may also be an ocean displaying the vastness of this nocturnal world. It was seemingly endless and so incredibly dark, to the point where one could imagine the world simply faded to black once the sun was out of reach.

The night was a void.

Turning his back on the world, Kent started across the room and into the hall. He took the glow of a lantern with him as he ventured out, down lengthy corridors, past darkened windows, and unoccupied rooms. For a place to be well in order, it didn't quite seem like anyone actually called this place home, especially the other man. While he was grateful to his savior, in no way did the man give off the air of a Gentleman. Was this even his home? Seeming to know his way around it, he had to live here on a daily basis.

With the leading glow of his lantern, Kent made a short passage down the corridor. He peered into different rooms, taking in their furnished and lavish appeal. Most were unused bedrooms, and though it seemed no other besides Edgar called this place home, there was not a lick of dust anywhere. Were there housekeepers in other quarters? If so, with the current time, it wouldn't be long until they rose and began their day of work.

As Kent sauntered into a shadowy office, Kent thought about what would be going on in his household if he were back home. The smell of freshly baked bread typically filled the halls around 4:00am, and the heels of servants could be heard going up and down the halls until the household was awake, and they would enjoy a breakfast together.

The idea of his family gathering around a table and eating a filling meal without him, happily without him, caused a sting to strike Kent's heart. Would they be glad to see his chair was empty? Would his own mother question his father about his whereabouts? Surely she would care. She was a mother.

All mothers loved their children, didn't they? Despite their...flaws?

She was such a sheep, a puppet beneath Mr. Everleigh's words. If Kent's father merely ordered for his mother to forget him, Kent wouldn't be surprised if her eyes passed over him in public.

Coming out of his thoughts, Kent's gaze traveled about the room before stopping on a desk. There was a journal open with scrawled numbers and notes, a brass scale and weights lined in front of it, but what caught Kent's attention the most was the amount of natural gold nuggets sitting in the scale compared to ten grams.

Ten grams was a fortune in itself, and that was only half of the pile since there was still a separate heap on the side.

Seeing that this was likely something he should keep his eyes off of, Kent backed out of the office and closed the door behind him. If even an ounce of that gold went missing, Edgar surely looked like the kind of guy to hunt down the thief and reclaim it himself.