Rose and the Thorn (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 13

Chapter 13
Patrick
Rose had been avoiding me. Every time I would enter a room she was cleaning in, she would quickly say, "Sorry Sir, I'm done."
Since when did she ever call me Sir? Something was going on and I couldn't help but think it was my fault.
But all I wanted to do was touch her. I have gone so long without it and now that's all I wanted to do. Touch her.
I walked down to the Servants' Hall to Rose's room. This time I knocked. She placed the book down on her lap. It was a different book.
"What happened to the last one?" I asked leaning on the doorframe. I found my eyes wondering her body.
"What are you doing here?" she asked quickly. I watched her body tense as if she wanted to curl into a ball. What have I done differently to make her look at me like that?
"You've been avoiding me," I stated.
"No I haven't," I looked at her catching her lie, "Okay, maybe I have."
"Why?" I asked.
She sighed, "I don't know. What we did the other day..." she trailed, "I can't screw this up Patrick, I just can't. I need this job."
"Why, why do you need it?" I saw the look that I've seen in the mirror a thousand times. She held a secret.
I sighed as I knew what I should do, "Come with me."
"No, Patrick. It's my day off. I just want to stay here," her face showed fear but her eyes sparkled with want.
"Come on Rose, I promise it will be worth it."
She groaned and placed the book down, "fine."
I turned back remembering that she wouldn't be able to wear that singlet.
"You might need a jumper."
She groaned again as she searched through her bag for one.

We walked the edge of the woods as the harsh wind cut through the fabric of my jacket to my neck. In a couple of weeks it will snow. By the damp muddy ground and the still trees giving away the signals.
Rose seemed more relaxed out here. I couldn't believe it was more than a week ago that we had fought and she had run to the hills. That seemed such a life time ago.
Back then my blood raged with the need to argue with her. Now my heart beat with the need to be near her.
"Okay, so these are the rules. Each of us will ask questions, and if the person thinks the questions are too close to the truth, they don't answer the question."
"And if I don't want to play?" she asked.
"Then you miss out the chance of getting to the bottom of why the curtains are closed."
I could play her like a violin. I knew what made her mind tick.
"Okay, well you made up the rules so I should go first. Were you always alone?"
I sighed. Have to answer truthfully.
"No. Did you like New York?"
She shrugged, "Yes and no. I loved it when I had no place to go. But I don't think I could go back. Did you have a family?"
"Yes, a father, a mother and five younger sisters."
Her eyes grew wide at the thought, "Five, that means there's six of you. Oh my God your poor mother." My heart clench when she said 'there's'. It's 'were' now.
"Why wouldn't you go back?"
I thought she would say that it was too close to the truth, but instead she said, "I guess I've changed. This place really does something to you."
Tell me about it.
"What are their names?"
"My parents' were John and Rebecca. Then there was Adelaide, Bethany, Carmel, Danette and little Easter."
"Wow."
"Do you like it here?" she stopped at the question. My heart raced as if out of all the questions I'd asked that one was the most important.
"I love it here."
I felt my body go limp with relief. If she loved it here, then maybe she would never leave.






Chapter 14
Rose
After our walk the other day, Patrick was a like a different person. He was freer and walked as if something was off his shoulders.
But he had been right. I had been avoiding him. Only because he made me think of the person I would rather forget.
Kobey. He had been my boyfriend for years. He was the reason why I went to clubs. Why I would drink. Why I felt so little. Why I hated bruises. The story of my father wasn't the only reason why I felt America.
I walked up the stairs, struggling to lift the vacuum. I stopped to catch my breath then moved up to the East Wing.
I stopped at the sound of music. I placed the vacuum to the side and walked down the hall. The sound of the piano filled my ears as the sweetest tune played. It sounded like that music in movies. When all help is lost and then magically they fix whatever the problem was. I peered through the door to one of the darkest rooms in the house. A shadow of a shiny black grand piano sat in the middle of the room with Patrick's back to me.
He looked like the dark could swallow him but the music kept him out. I had never seen the hurt inside him till now. Like it hurt him to play but yet he still went on.
"It's beautiful isn't it," Jenson said peering behind me. I had grown use to him sneaking up on me.
"It's nice to hear music in the house again."
"How long hasn't he played?" I asked knowing the answer.
"Five years."
I shut my eyes feeling overwhelmed with his sorrow. I bit my lip to stop the tears forming in my eyes.
"Something horrible happened to his family, didn't it?" I asked.
"Yes."
Air escaped from my lungs as he finally gave me a real answer.
"They died, didn't they?" I asked.
"Yes."
I could feel my heart break into two.
Have you ever had your whole life ripped out from underneath you just in a course of a night?
Why do you think I close the curtains?
I have my reasons.
One day he had his family and the next, he didn't.
"I think you can clean another part of the house, today" he said. Clearly he didn't want Patrick to stop playing. Neither did I.


Patrick
The keys followed my every demand. Music resembled every thought in my mind. The piano cried out of tune but still I played on. It hurt but I played on.
The sounds of my sisters' laughter filled my mind as I thought about a memory.
"Patty! Patty!" Cried Easter as she ran to join me on the piano stool. Her little fingers pressed random keys as I kept playing.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Hiding. Adelaide and Bethany are fighting."
"What about?" I sighed. What else is new?
She shrugged, "I don't know. I ran away. They scare me when they fight."
I hit a wrong note and she giggled, "That was a bad one."
Her little hands covered her cheeky smile.
I started to play Mary had a little lamb. When I had finished I asked, "Do you know that song?"
She nodded.
"Will you sing it for me?"
I started to play it again, "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb, um..."
"Its fleece was white as snow." She giggled as she remembered.
"Easter!" Adelaide's voice echoed the halls.
"Hide me," she said almost jumping out of her skin.
I looked around the light room. Light shined everywhere. She could easily fit anywhere.
"Um okay, behind the curtains," I told her. She nodded and ran behind the curtains. I played to mask the sound of her feet running on the carpet.
"Patty, have you seen Easter?" She asked peering through the door. Not quite in, not quite out.
"No and can you stop trying to make her choose between you and Beth. She's three."
"Exactly, meaning she can still be controlled."
I stopped playing and turned to look at her.
"What."
"Look Pat, you're the heir of the estate nobody can ever control you. We get nothing."
"You do. You can be whoever you want to be."
"Not heir," I looked at her and sighed.
"Fine, whatever. Just leave Easter alone."
I started to play again but she still didn't go away.
"You have a way with her, you know that right?"
"Yeah. It's because I don't bully her. She hates feeling small. She just wants to fly. And she doesn't need you or Beth to pull her down."
"How come you were never like this with me?" She asked.
"I was, you just can't remember."
She groaned and stormed away.
Now I sat in one of the darkest rooms of the house, alone. Mainly because so many happy memories were in here. Easter hiding, Mother teaching, Father read and me playing. Back then not much mattered. I went along my days with dreams of becoming a writer, knowing I will end up running the estate.
I thought life back then was uncertain. Boy was I wrong. I barely know if I can get up in the morning. If it's a good day or a bad. I never seem to know.
"I've always loved you're playing, Sir," Jenson said behind me. I realized I had stopped playing in my thoughts. I was now in the dark room, with no one but Jenson.
"I remembered when you were little, we could hardly get you off it."
I wanted to laugh as I tried to remember that.
"Your mother always wanted you to do something with music. She thought you had such a gift."
He moved to the piano so I could see him.
"She was the one that taught me." I remember her carrying me to the piano room and her sitting me down on the stool. She played while I watched her. Instantly falling in love with the piano.
"She only had time to teach you. After she had Adelaide, she just didn't have time. Too busy raising the children that they didn't have time for in previous years." I nodded realizing the huge gap between Adelaide and me. Eight years waisted.
"I miss her," I admitted. I had always thought that when I did, my life would come crumbling down. But it didn't. It stayed the same.
"You look like her."
I quickly shook my head.
"No, the girls did. I didn't."
"You all did. You have her blonde hair, blue eyes. Your father was very jealous that you didn't look like him."
"Well he got control of everything else. I had to fight to go to UNI," I said bitterly.
"He wanted you to run the estate. It's all he ever wanted."
"But he never thought about what I wanted."
"Yes, but I don't think you would be the strong man you are today if it wasn't for him. How many people can live through what you did and survive it."
"I'm still damaged, Jenson. I want to be sick every time I think about that night. I want curl away every time I think about what I could have down. I never go near the dining room and I keep the house in a shadow."
"Maybe so. But you can still get up in the morning. You can eat. That's a long way you've come since that first year."
He left me with that thought. That first year I barely even remember. I remember the hollow empty feeling. It was like I was dead. I wanted to be. But now I wanted to live. It was just finding how to.