Discover L (Book 2) | Editing |

~~ A Problem Shared ~~

L didn't doubt they could handle themselves, though having to because of their staying at the inn was more the problem.

"Besides, it could be very lucrative to be able to say we boarded the Keeper on her travels." Lowell added with a cheeky grin.

L could tell it wasn't their angle in all of this but she wouldn't mind if they did.

"So long as you say it after we're gone, I don't mind," L smiled.

Lowell chuckled, "I like her, she's got a better sense of humour than the last Keeper that stayed. Remember him, Brigitte? Right grumpy old s-"

"Lowell, shush," Brigitte quieted him.

But L's interest was piqued, "You knew a previous Keeper? How? When?"

Brigitte frowned at Lowell, shaking her head as she looked at L.

Her expression was grave, "I'm sorry, my husband can get a little carried away, he shouldn't have mentioned it... It was a long time ago, at least a century... before, the extermination."

L felt her insides tighten and she looked down at her hands. The use of the word extermination felt like it belonged to a different event; she'd never thought about the wiping out of the Keepers in that way before. But now that she did, it made her feel sick to her stomach, it was an extermination, of her whole species. They'd all been wiped off the face of the earth and they'd never be coming back. All except for the possibility of her parents, and in that thought the tiny spark of hope she'd been keeping alive all this time began to flicker.

She felt a hand intertwine with hers and peered up at Bryce, he looked concerned for her. The room had fallen silent, except for the crackling of the fire.

"If you've had a Keeper stay here before, how come L doesn't seem to know who you are?"

Robbie, as ever the best ice breaker and reliever of tension. L smiled at him when she felt the atmosphere begin to shift.

Brigitte smiled at her husband and arched a brow at Robbie, "How do you know she doesn't know who we are?"

Robbie smirked, side glancing at L, "Because I know L, when she suddenly gets a flow of information about someone, she just blurts it out. I think she enjoys the shock on their faces."

L narrowed her eyes at him, not that he wasn't a little bit right but she didn't need him telling people that. He chuckled at her reaction however and Brigitte frowned at Robbie, as though she didn't know what to make of him. She eyed her husband momentarily and both shrugged, apparently neither seemed to have an answer to their unasked question.

"We, also, like to keep a low profile. We regularly change our names, our appearances, only letting on to regulars so they can come back to stay."

"Kind of like Edra," Nyla remarked, speaking for the first time.

"Oh, you've met Aunt Edra, how is she?" Lowell asked.

"Aunt?!" L, Robbie and Nyla all asked in surprise.

"Yes, she's my Aunt, why is that such a shock?" Lowell looked thoroughly confused.

L couldn't explain why, but she had never considered the possibility that Edra had any family, though she had no reason to think otherwise. Apparently she knew less about Edra than she previously realised.

"She's fine, I think," L answered hesitantly, remembering the last time they'd spoken with Edra. "But if you're not actually Lowell and Brigitte, who are you?"

L pondered whether she'd know them by their real identities, if they'd hosted Keepers before then there was bound to be knowledge about them in there somewhere.