"See you're doing great," Miles snickers as I struggle to stay on the horse. He whips Delilah much to my discomfort. I understand that he needs to control the animal otherwise it could buck me off or something but it was still a bit old fashioned and violent.
"Who taught you to whip the- ahhh!" I panic as I nearly fall off, "Horse?" I finish my sentence as I re-centre myself on the saddle.
"Quint," Miles answers simply.
"Is he like a horse trainer?" I ask as I continue to trot on the circular sand track.
"Yeah, but he practically looks after the whole property as well as us. He taught me and Flora how to ride when we were very young. He's cool," Miles says.
"When will I meet him?" I say but I couldn't resist..."Also, Flora and I," the need to correct him was strong even though I know it makes me sound like a shitty little know it all.
"Really?" Miles says sarcastically as he grabs the reins of the horse and starts to slow Delilah down, which I was struggling to do myself.
"Well you can probably meet him now," Miles says looking towards the house, well estate I guess because his family is rich and there is SO much land, I should know, I ran on it and my lungs nearly melted.
"Yeah ok," I agreed. Miles helps me down from the saddle. My feet make a loud thud as they land on the earthy, dusty ground.
"You did pretty good for your first time on a horse," Miles remarks.
"Er Thanks," I say awkwardly, suddenly finding it amusing somehow that the guy who practically bullied me for years is teaching me how to ride a horse.
Miles and I are walking around the building, through dim hallways, up carpeted stairways and through cobwebbed doorways. We hear a pair of footsteps coming quickly towards us. I turn around and see Flora running down the hall with a doll and a bright little smile on her face.
"Hey Flora," Miles says, crouching and smiling at her.
"Hi Miles," Flora says out of breath in her cute little squeaky voice.
"Can we show Issy the Koi pond, please Miles?" Flora begged, grabbing his arms and dramatically begging him.
"Yeah, let's go. We were just looking for Quint but Issy will probably see him at dinner anyway," Miles laughs as he stands up straight again and looks at me, deep into my eyes. Flora holds his hand which causes half of his body to tilt to where Flora was tugging his arm, he still keeps eye contact the entire time
"Come on Miles," Flora whines as she tries to drag Miles down the hallway so that he walks faster. I break the eye contact and pretend like there wasn't serious tension between us, this will be on my mind all day. Maybe he does have feelings for me, we could be a thing, like a couple but with cute banter and nothing cringey like public displays of affection.
I hear heavy footsteps trudging behind us, I anxiously look back since I could tell it wasn't fragile, light footed Mrs Grose or Miss Jessel. I see a dark figure, long black hair, toothy grin, sly eyes and tall, slumped frame. I unintentionally grab onto Miles' arm and grip it tightly. Now he probably thinks I'm scared and weak, ew.
"Miles," I whisper.
"Mm?" Miles hummed as he stared at me confused, startled by my sudden out of character gesture. He looks behind us and lets out a loud chuckle. Okay then...? Oh it's probably Quint, I pictured him like Hagrid from Harry Potter but he is more of a Snape mixed with Sirius black kinda vibe.
"Hey Quint," Miles says high fiving him, I stand there uncomfortably. Flora smiles up at Quint but not the way she would with Miles or Miss Jessel.
"Hello Miles, Flora," Quint nods a greeting to both of them in his low, voice that sounds like he either smokes or has sand in his windpipe.
"And who is this?" He says obviously referring to me.
"Your girlfriend?" Quint smirks, jokingly.
"Uh, no, just a friend from school, I guess," Miles says hurriedly, he definitely likes me we can all tell Miles.
"He was joking Miles," I say, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah I know," Miles snaps at me.
"Then why'd you get all defensive?" I say, trying to provoke him to spill about his clear inner crush on me.
"I was not being defensive, I was explaining to Quint how we know each other," Miles says, giving me a dark look which I simply mock by replying with a sceptical "Mhm."
"Well I must be off, you three have fun, I'll see you later Miles," Quint shoots me a horrifyingly creepy wink before continuing to walk past us haughtily.
"Well, you've met Quint," Miles states, probably trying to get past the awkwardness through another unintentionally awkward conversation.
"Yeah, so...the Koi pond?" I say in an attempt to make the conversation about going to the Koi pond rather than the creepy ass, overrated, middle aged man I just met.
"Yeah, let's go!" Flora says impatiently and excitedly.
We are walking outside in the garden and through what honestly feels like a forest of trees, branches and prickly weeds. The tree branches curve into a cool sort of archway which leads to what I can make out as a massive, circular, greeny-brown pond. As we get closer I notice brown decaying autumn leaves which are scattered in no particular pattern on the surface or slightly submerged in the musty water.
"Here is the Koi pond," Flora says with a big majestic sweeping arm motion which is slightly funny to me since it's almost like she is introducing me to a literal pond.
"It's beautiful," I say as I squat at the edge where the stone meets the water. I stare in wonder at the big Koi fish gaping at me as they glide slowly through the water.
"We can go to the field If you want, you love the field don't you Flora?" Miles says casually with his hands in his pockets. His gaze is flickering between Flora and the centre of the pond which has a bunch of Koi fish swarming around something that is probably food. I soon notice to my horror that they are all picking apart a very much still alive, smaller koi fish which had blood seeping from its gills and half eaten fins.
"Yep let's go to the field, " I agreed quickly since I didn't want Flora to see what was going on.
"Ok," Flora says as she starts skipping in the direction of what was probably the field as Miles called it. I smile at Miles who has yet again shown evidence of not being a complete idiot. Miles rolls his eyes at me and walks faster away from me. I start to pace quicker to catch up with Flora who wraps her little hand around my much larger one. Just as we get to the field, which is way more beautiful than I expected, Flora motions for me to come closer so that she can whisper something to me.
"This is Miles' favourite place apart from his room, but don't tell him I said that," She says secretively before giggling and running off to dance in the long grass.
I smile to myself as I look at Miles who is standing a little distance away, back facing me, arms firmly by his sides, breeze slightly too harsh as it blows around his dark curls. He is staring at the grass dancing around, he seems chill. I don't want to disturb his peace by talking to him so I just stay quiet and walk slowly towards him.
I stand next to him and stare at the flowers of all different shapes and colours which sway in the wind alongside the thin, overgrown grass blades. I bend down and lightly touch the delicate petals of a little purple, blue and yellow centred flower. I admired it for a few minutes. It is positioned amongst a whole bunch of the same kind, each swaying in the wind next to the long blades of grass. It would be lovely to paint a super detailed painting of it, up close with the grass in the background, fresh, clear dew drops and perfect gleaming sun rays.
I see Miles' head turn towards me in my peripheral vision and quickly look at him. We share a nice moment of eye contact, his eyes light up very subtly. No one would have noticed it unless they were me since I was the one standing here, staring into his brown eyes, eyes that don't look away from mine for what should be an uncomfortable amount of time but isn't.
"Can you guys stop gazing at each other," Flora pipes up as she hugs Miles from behind, the top of her head only reaching his lower back. I chuckle nervously and Miles just looks at Flora and says "Aw but Issy was enjoying gazing at me."
"Was I now?" I say, raising my eyebrows at him.
"Yep," Miles replies smugly.
"You wish," I retort, childishly.
"Mrs Grose told me that if we go outside we need to be back for dinner and it's getting dark," Flora rolls her eyes whilst grabbing Miles and I each by the hand. We start to walk as we try to keep up with Flora who has a strong hold of our hands as she skips and sings to herself loudly.