Farraway Mist ?A Wattpad featured story?

Chapter 9: Surprise Arrivals

A few days later found Scout settling into her new life. She spent her days happily puttering around the marvelous library, pulling books out and sorting them into piles, based on subject matter, author, publication date, and the like.

"How do you even know to put these two together?" George asked curiously, picking up two squat volumes and looking at the spines.

"They're both about Italian Renaissance painting," Scout explained, glancing briefly at the books he was holding as she walked by.

George got a whiff of the shampoo she used, which smelled like honeysuckle, and lingered about her head and shoulders.

"How do you know that?" he asked, following her to the rolling ladder, and watching as she climbed it. He looked at her trim and tidy ankles, which were at his eye level and seemed very dear indeed in her little pink non-skid tennis socks with the ball on the heel. "These aren't even in English."

Her voice came from above his head as she searched for something, sticking her head between the books. "I took some languages as part of my major, it was a requirement."

He swallowed. "Some languages? How many?" He thought for a moment. "And which ones?"

Silence, then, "Aha! I knew you were up here somewhere, you fucker." More silence. "Hm? Oh. Um, French, German, Italian? Um, Latin, of course. And Japanese."

"Japanese?"

Scout climbed down, giving George an eyeful of a toned and white and glorious tummy between her Rolling Stones T-shirt and stretch pants as she did so. She was holding a slim volume with a map of Africa stamped on the cover.

"Well, that wasn't required for my major like the others," she admitted with a grin. "I took it on a lark one year, kinda crammed two years of coursework into one year of free elective time?"

"A lark?" George repeated in awe. "Jesus, Scout."

She turned to him. "What? I like languages, I like words." She shrugged. "And it really helps with my English, too, you know?" She looked at him inquiringly.

"I don't notice where you need a lot of help in that area," George said drily.

"Well, there's a reason for that," she responded with another smile, already engrossed in the book she was holding. She didn't even notice the admiring way George looked at her.

Sunil poked his dark head around the side of the door.

"Delivery truck coming up the drive, Mr. Wilder," he announced.

"Good morning, Miss Scout," he added cheerfully.

"Good morning, Sunil," she responded, smiling at him.

"You need anything, Miss?" he asked hopefully. "Can I bring you some tea? Or some biscuits, like?"

"No, thank you, you know we have a rule about food or liquids in this room, anyway, right?" she responded, not unkindly.

"Yeah, I know," he replied sheepishly. "Still, just thought I'd check, you know?"

Just then there was a kind of scuffling noise in the hallway, and Alfred's countenance appeared next to Sunil's. He was carefully holding a cup of tea, with two cookies sitting in the saucer.

"Brought you some tea, Miss," he called. "With sugar, just how you like," he added, pleased with himself.

"You suck up wanker," George and Scout heard Sunil say accusingly to Alfred sotto voce.

Scout laughed, shaking her head, as George rolled his eyes at her so the boys couldn't see. She set the book down and walked to where the two young men stood.