So Chapter 7 was extremely short but I just wanted to give you a peak at what Elder Rueben is about. This chapter is going to be fun as it gets exciting and things start to happen. I am sure you will be surprised at a few things in here.
Enjoy <3 Vote and comment if you like it!
Chapter 8
I skipped up the stairs wanting to stop and visit Gloria on my way. I had to tell her how wonderful Shayde was. I promised her I would fill her in on all the details when I got back. Besides, I needed to make sure no one had stopped by asking where I was at.
I knocked on her door. She answered, reaching for my hands pulling me in. " Tell me! Tell me everything!" she giggled dragging me over to her bed as we plopped down. I filled her on everything, well... almost everything. I wasn't going to give her exact details. I blushed to myself at the thought of what Shayde had done to me.
She told me that no one had been asking where I was, so I had actually pulled it off. No one knew that I had left the castle to go riding with Shayde. Well at least that is what I thought. I skipped down the corridor towards my room. I was so happy, today had been the best day ever!
When I got to my bedroom door, I noticed that the door was not fully shut and what I seen when I pushed it open made my mouth drop. The tulips that I had received where crumpled up on the floor and my room was destroyed. My bed coverings were laying on the floor. My pillows were sliced open and feathers were everywhere. My dresser mirror was covered with my favorite lipstick and on it was written, " Leave!" . That's when I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Everyone began to emerge from their rooms and others came running up the stairs to see what on earth the scream was for. My hands over my mouth, I just stood and stared as the entire castle began to congregate behind me. Elder Rueben was the first of the Elders to arrive.
"What in the God's name has happened here?" The look of bewilderment and worry apparent on his face. "Who did this?" Angrily Elder Rueben looked over everyone's face. I was trembleing, Elder Rueben reached over and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. As much as I hated the thought of him touching me, I welcomed the comfort at the moment. Tears began to trickle down my cheeks. "Don't you worry your little heart my Dear, I will make sure we get to the bottom of this." He demanded that everyone return to their rooms and that he would be in to talk to each and everyone of them. He lead me into his office down to the level below us and waited for me to describe what and how I had found my things.
Through tear filled eyes and my crackling voice, I explained that I had found it just as It was after returning from Gloria's room. Which was the truth honestly because I had just left her room. He just didn't know that I hadn't been there the entire time."I don't understand why someone would do this to me. I never hurt anyone." I lowered my head. How was this possible? Why? I just could not understand what I had done to someone that they would try to scare me, apparently wanting me out of the castle. Elder Rueben sat next to me allowing me to cry upon his shoulder. "I will make sure we get to the bottom of this. That I promise you." lifting my face he continued. "You do trust me that I will do this for you, don't you my Dear?"
Elder Rueben was being so nice to me. I thought maybe I should tell him that I had honestly no idea about the courtship when I had accepted the flowers. But he was being so nice to me and his embrace was quite comforting. I decided that this was not the best time to tell him. "Thank you so much Elder Rueben. You are being so kind to me." With a creepy grin he replied, " Just Rueben Dear and don't you worry things will be just fine." A shiver ran down my spine and I stood up.
"I think I should get back to my room and clean up the mess. "With a small bow, I dismissed myself. "Thank you again for your help." I hurried away from him, hoping that he wasn't getting the wrong idea from the hug.
As I sprinted up the stairs I ran into Shayde outside my bedroom door. He was standing with his mouth wide open in shock. He was furious, it showed on his face. "Who did this Sweetness?" I ran into his embrace, wanting so much for us to be back on the blanket and none of this to have ever happened. I looked up at him, "I don't know. I stopped by Gloria's when I got back and when I got to my room this is the condition that I found it in. "
"Sweetness, we will make sure we figure this out. But until then let me help you clean this mess up. " He walked forward and began to pick up all of the trashed items. "I will make sure we get you some new pillows and stuff. "
I opened my closet and what I found was quit disturbing. All of my gowns were ruined. Whoever done this had slashed each and every single one of them. Gasping I reached for them. "Oh no my gowns."
Shayde came over and grabbed my arm. "Issy, we will find the person who did this. I will have our seamstress come up to see if any of the material or anything is salvageable and I will make sure she starts making you new gowns immediately. Don't you worry that pretty little face of yours." With all the bad things I was finding he still managed to put a smile on my face. I reached up and placed a kiss on his lips. "Thank you Shayde. I don't know what I would do without you."
We finished cleaning the room and the servants began to bring in the new bedding and things. Out of all the things, I was so very glad they did not manage to break the picture of me and my father. Shayde had convinced me to stay with Gloria until they figured out exactly who was the person behind the destruction of my bedroom. Elder Rueben had been questioning people all day but had yet to figure it out. No one could understand why anyone would want to scare me like that , i guess whoever it was did not want me at the castle any longer. Well I had a big surprise for them. I did not scare that easily.
The next couple days went by pretty normally. No one had come to any conclusion as to who was behind the incident. We decided that it was ok for me to return to my room. There had not been any more weird things, so whoever it was must of gotten the idea that I was here to stay. I was glad to finally have my own bed back. I mean, it was nice to do the slumber party type thing every night but Gloria was a bed hog. I kept waking up with her leg draped over my entire body and I was almost always damn near falling off the bed. Ivan had came almost every night to hang out with us. His stutters were getting less and less. The only truly bad part was that I really hadn't gotten any time to hang with Shayde.
I returned to my room and everything looked perfectly normal. However , I was still was having little flash backs of the way I had found my room. I shivered, I was just going to have to get over it. I wanted my own space back and I was not going to let some weirdo scare me out of my own damned room. With determination set in my mind. I closed and locked the door behind me.
I ran myself a bath and decided to relax a bit. I had been spending my days in class and late evenings chatting with Gloria and Ivan. I was quite exhausted. The stress of all the things we had to remember and I was trying so hard to seem as normal as possible with everything that was going on.
I had two people who thought I had excepted their courtship and obviously some weirdo stalking me. It was a chore every day just to avoid Elder Rueben, especially since he was my first class of the day, every single damned day. With a sigh, I stepped into the tub. Mmmm this is nice.
I was laying there and I must of drifted off to sleep. I was standing next to Ivan and he was chatting with someone that I had only seen briefly around the castle. For some reason I could not make out what they were saying but it was apparent that Ivan was upset. He was throwing his hands up in the air and lines of frustration appeared on his face. It was like I was having a silent dream. It was quite odd actually. I walked around to the front of Ivan trying to read his lips or something. I was not sure but I think he just said Isadora?A few moments later I think he said death.
Startled, I woke up splashing water out of the tub onto the floor. Well that was the oddest dream I have ever had. My water was still warm so I decided to stay in the bath a bit longer. The water was so soothing to me. That is when it happened again.
I was standing next to Shayde and he was speaking to some older guy that I had never met before. The man he was speaking with was the scariest man I have every seen in my life. He appeared to be around 40 years old and was yelling at Shayde about something. But of course like the last one all I could do was attempt to read his lips. Only this time I couldn't even get a single word out of it.
I stayed silently watching until abruptly there was a knock at my door. I was a bit shaky and taken back by my odd dreams that I had. I shouted, "One moment please." With hair dripping and wrapped in my new bathrobe I answered the door to find one of the servants standing with an envelope in their hands. "I am here to deliver this envelope, sorry to disturb you miss." They quickly handed the envelope over and disappeared down the stairs.
Hmm, I wonder what this is. I closed the door behind me, being sure to lock it. Silently I was hoping it was some kind of invitation from Shayde. I quickly opened it up, inside it was a small note. "Meet me by the pier at 7pm tonight. I have a surprise for you." it was signed, "yours truly." It had to be Shayde because he was the only one that I was interested in and he knew I was interested in him. I was so excited. I began to plan for the evening. It was 4 pm so I decided to rummage through my new dresses, finding something beautiful but not too fancy.
I didn't join everyone for dinner because I was just too excited to eat. I made sure to take extra time on myself because I wanted tonight to be perfect. While everyone was downstairs eating I had taken a walk in the flower garden, picking a few flowers on my way through.
I returned to my room to begin working on my hair. I curled every single piece of hair on my head. I twisted it and puled them loosely on top of my head. Throughout my hair, I place all of the flowers that I had picked while I was walking below. I knew my hair was masterpiece, it took me a total of 2 hours to do. Now I had just one hour to finish getting ready. I danced around my room, humming to myself as I did my make up and got dressed in my casual summer dress. It was color rose and it fell just below my knees. I knew it may be chilly so I grabbed a shawl out of the drawer. I threw on a pair of flats because it had been raining all day for the last 2 days and the grass was sure to be wet still.
It was 20 minutes before 7 and I didn't want to be late so I grabbed my things and headed out the door. I was sure to lock it this time and skipped down the stairs. Luckily I didn't run into anyone from my classes or anything. I wasn't sure I wanted to explain to them where I was going. It was none of their business. I checked myself in a full length mirror that stood next to the foyer before I headed out. This is going to have to be good enough. Not too shabby, not too shabby at all I thought.
The wind was blowing quite hard as I walked towards the pier that was on the west side of the castle about ¼ of a mile away from the castle. Along the walkway there were candles lined up that lead the way in the right direction. He really had went overboard this time. He was a keeper. I walked along excited to be able to spend an evening with Shayde. I could see in the distance a table and two chairs on top of the pier. Odd how the wind wasn't blowing the candles out. However, Shayde was no where to be seen yet. Strange, I walked up the table and was running my fingers along the beautiful table cloth when a voice came up from behind me.
"I am so glad you came. I was not so sure that you would," he said against my neck. He was standing right against me. Confusion began to enter my mind. That was not the voice of Shayde. Oh no... I was worried and almost scared to turn around. Who in the ... I slowly began to turn around, I was face to face with.... "IVAN?" my voice went loud. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"Oh, I see you did not know it was me who planned this.. GREAT!" he said sarcastically. What the hell was he thinking, of course I didn't think it was him, but I could see the hurt on his face. "Well if you must know, I was one of the people that gave you the courtship tulip." He lowered his eyes.
"You did WHAT?!" I was flabbergasted. "Ivan I had no idea, honestly." I looked at Ivan and he was a handsome little guy. "Wait where is your stutter?" I stared at him. As I waited for his response I took a moment to look him over. Ivan would be a great boyfriend. He was sweet, considerate and he even looked handsome tonight, in his own cute little way.
"I have been wworking with Gloria for the last week. I wanted to surprise you." He sounded so sad. I reached over and gave him a huge hug. "Well that's great! I am so very proud of you Ivan." A small smile crossed his lips. "Yes I was a bit taken back because I had no idea you were into me like that but this is so beautiful Ivan, shall we have our dinner."
He was trying so hard not to stutter, "You mmean you will still have ddinner with me?" I nodded and he pulled out my chair. "I am sorry I am not who you were expecting Issy." he told her, feeling a bit jealous. I could see his eyes looking me over, showing lust in his eyes. Whoa that is kinda weird I thought. "You look beautiful as always Issy" Ivan told me, making me blush just a bit.
"Ivan I really did not know who it was going to be, so it really doesnt matter who it was tonight. It is beautiful and I am truly glad I am spending it with you." I wasn't lying to him. Ivan was an amazing guy and he would truly make some girl very happy one day. I just wasn't so sure it was me.
The entire evening went pretty well. Even though deep down I was really disappointed that it wasn't Shayde I was with instead of Ivan. He was the next best thing that was for sure. So I made them best of the evening. We chatted on and on about home and our classes. I confided in him about how much I missed my father, my home and my favorite horse. He told me he missed his best friend. He was actually grew up in the city so he got close with one of his neighbors kids and they did everything together.
We talked about our God powers that we were still growing into. In our classes we were learning how to channel our energy and focus on our abilities that we already had. The known abilities that I had was mind reading, everyone knew that if they weren't an Elder and didn't shelter their thoughts I could hear them all. Sadly, I had known of that ability since I was 3 and no new ones had shown themselves to me, at least none that I knew of. Ivans power was the ability to move objects with his mind and this even included the snow of winter. I was intrigued and asked him to give me a demonstration.
He got up and began to channel his energy with his hands,his palms were facing the ground. I could see little sparks ejecting from his fingertips as he channeled. When... he made me and my entire chair slide across the docks, damn near falling into the water. "Holy shit Ivan!" I was impressed. "That was amazing." He glowed with joy at my interest in his ability. "I can move lots of things, once I am fully trained I will be able to move any kind of huge object and make the winter months be as beautiful as they deserve to be."
After a few moments of going on about his ability, he wanted to see how mine worked. However that meant he had to open up to me. "Ok, Ivan if you want this to work you have to be able to trust me and quit blocking your mind. I know we are all taught to close our minds to everyone but if you want to see how it works you have to let that go for a moment. "He looked nervous but he nodded and I sat in front of him. Focusing my energy with my eyes. As I got deeper in concentration my eyes begin to turn the color of amber, I heard Ivan gasp at the sight. "I can see you are thinking that I'm kind of scarey and that I'm beautiful."I focused harder, " That you want to place kisses all over my......" I stopped myself before going on, my cheeks turning a bright rosey pink. Yeah thats a good spot to stop. No need to embarrass either of us any further. "Sorry about that Ivan, Like I said I can not focus on one thought or memory. They just kind of come to me." He smiled, his cheeks red with embarrassment.
"That is the sexiest thing I have ever seen Issy. Did you know that your eyes turn red when you begin to focus " he asked me?
Of course I knew because the Gods had been visiting me once a month for my entire life, trying to help me get a grip on my ability so that I wouldn't go nuts. Its a real pain in the rear when you walk down the street and can hear everyone's thoughts. "Yeah I know, I had to get trained for my ability at home before I came here. It was really hard for me growing up because humans can't control their emotions or thoughts. Every where I went they just screamed at me as I passed them. " I explained, " I literally fainted a few times when I went into town. That's kind of why I didn't have any friends besides the ones at our ranch."
He looked me sadly, "I am sorry Issy that had to be so very hard." I nodded and we continued to chatter on. Ivan was so easy to talk to. I really did like Ivan, and if Shayde wasn't the one for me then he was definitely my second choice.
I smiled at Ivan. "Thank you for tonight Ivan. It was so beautiful and I had a great time." He glowed back at me. "You are welcome Issy, I hope we can do it again." I blushed and told him it was about time to head back. "I will walk you to your room."
We got to my room and I gave him a hug goodnight. He leaned into give me a kiss and I moved away. Blushing, I opened my door and walked inside, leaning my back against the door. Wow what a night!
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So what do you all think? I feel so sorry for poor sweet Ivan. He is just so crazy about Issy. What do you guys think will happen next?
I tried to be careful of any typos and stuff but I may have missed some. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter because it was truly a lot of fun for me to write.
If you enjoyed it please comment and vote. I appreciate it.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED -- Brenda England