The Bodyguard (Book 1 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

Mrs. James' home was the only property for miles.

So naturally, the quiet would make itself at home by surrounding it throughout the night. The arched shaped willow trees nearby, allowed their long tangled hair of leaves to sway in the direction of the wind during the cold nights. And it wasn't very often, but the quiet would be interrupted by a plane high up in the sky soaring over.

However, with the event that occurred only a week ago, the quiet seemed to seep under the doors and windows to asphyxiate the house entirely.

There were moments of laughter, but they felt so forced and uncomfortable, the cheerfulness disappeared rapidly. Not even Adam's usual annoying humor could lighten the room long enough to last a whole hour.

The moment those six words came out of Nathan's mouth, they stopped Mara's heartbeat. She had to keep herself busy to keep from falling into her constant daze from those horrible, heart wrenching words repeating over and over in her head.

At every moment, she would offer her assistance to Mrs. James with the meals and cleaning. Mrs. James' eyes widened the first time Mara had come in and raised her shoulders shyly and asked what she could do to help.

Mrs. James had been alone for so long, she was used to running everything on her own. But she had to admit, that at her age, she could use the help.

So Mrs. James happily obliged and would beam brightly as she would show Mara how to cook, bake, and clean. Mara complained not once, to Mrs. James surprise, and dove herself into what task she had at hand to keep her thoughts from straying.

Mara kept her hand holding firmly to the rather large red bowl filled with batter as her other hand gripped tightly to the long wooden spoon as she stirred it in a circular motion. She felt the bangs that had gotten longer fall into her eyes and just as she would snap her head to the side to sway the bangs aside, she'd look down and they would fall right back.

She was alone in the kitchen at the moment.

Mrs. James was outside in the large shed where she kept the washer and dryer; she insisted on washing everyone's clothes because she felt like a mother that she never had the chance to be when her husband was alive.

Mara kept her eyes on the batter and raised her shoulder, turning her head slightly to rub her cheek against the now dirty sleeve. She didn't mind getting dirty. It just made her feel accomplished that whatever it was that she was doing was getting done right.

"Something smells delicious!"

Mara's eyes lifted to find Adam had walked in with Rory, beaming as usual. Adam sat at the table and leaned his torso over it after pulling in his arms near his body, grinning, "I also see someone delicious." She couldn't help but give a small smile which was enough to satisfy Adam but to Rory, it was annoying.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head as he, too, sat down at the table.

Rory nodded in agreement, "But seriously speaking, it does smell delicious, Mara."

Mara was back to stirring the batter and nodded gratefully. She placed the bowl down and went over to the stove and opened it.

When she had first attempted to use the stove, Mrs. James was rushing about and pointed to Mara, "I'll be right back, dearie. Just turn on the stove to three hundred and fifty degrees so that it can warm up before we put in the food to cook."

Mara stood there a moment and blinked a few times, unsure of what exactly was a stove.

She was never allowed in the kitchen for the fear of her blowing herself up or something of the sort, so the few servants she had would bring the food to her.