Thanks to Night-World for the amazing cover!! Also, thanks to Pascwalla for the song to the side, which fits perfectly! Some times it's from Rain's point of view, and sometimes it's as if someone is singing to Rain... brilliant.
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Loving Rain - Ch. 16
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I woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside. Stepping out of bed, my hands went up to my eyes and tried to wake myself up because I had no idea what today would hold. I looked around the room, and noticed that the closet had been filled with dresses: all my size. A dark blue one that was neither too bold nor too drab caught my attention, and I changed without any help this time. I also took down my hair and braided it in front of the mirror before hearing a faint knock on the door.
“Yes?” I said, edging towards it. I wasn’t sure who it would be, and I didn’t think I was ready to face Cian after he had so easily broken through my barriers last night.
“Sorry to bother you,” came the muffled voice through the door. My heart dropped upon hearing it. “But I figured that you might want some company today.”
I threw the door open, ready to see what Cian really wanted. Then I noticed that it wasn’t Cian standing there, but his younger brother.
“Oh. Good morning, Gunter.”
“Good morning,” he said, smiling just like his brother did. “So… Do you accept my offer?”
One edge of my mouth turned up a bit, but the smile didn’t fully develop. “I don’t know… it depends on what you have in mind.”
“I was thinking we could walk around town, I could show you all the people to avoid, and maybe we could get into a fight with someone along the way.” He leaned against the door frame, and I vaguely noticed how small he was. He was barely taller than me.
“A fight? Well, I think I’ll have to pass on that. Sorry,” I said jokingly, because I knew that he wasn’t being serious. I wasn’t used to the light manner these boys had, but it was such a difference from Alan’s calm, dark aura that I was shocked. But I guess Alan had a reason to be so deep: he’d been cursed at a young age, doomed to forever be a Beast. Unless I were to change him, but that would mean I would have to go back, and then… Stop, I told myself, focusing once again on the conversation I was having.
“Darn. I guess I could settle for just showing you around the castle, then,” Gunter smirked, narrowing his eyelids in what I took as a way to suppress his laughter.
“How can I refuse that?” I genuinely smiled at him this time. There was something about this place. Or maybe there was just something about the princes…
“Okay,” he said, taking a few steps down the hallway. “Let’s go.”
The first thing that I noticed was that everything on the inside was just as homely as the outside had been. Warm paintings covered the walls, candles were lit everywhere, and we couldn’t turn a corner without seeing people walking around. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or distressed at the large quantity of human interaction we were having.
At one point, near the beginning of the day, we ran into one of Gunter’s friends. He was about the same height as Gunter, but had hair so blonde that it was almost white. When Gunter introduced us, he reached out a hand and said, “Hello, I’m Lynn. You might not have noticed me, but I sit pretty close to Melvin at the table. It’s kind of important, ‘cause the closer you are to the king, the cooler you are.”
I giggled (Again. This was crazy.) and looked over at Gunter, who was shaking his head. “He’s actually not really kidding. Cian gets the first seat, because he’s the successor. Then there’s usually me. Then Melvin, Cian’s future advisor, then Lynn, my future advisor. Then there’s other friends and family.”
Gunter usually sat next to Cian? So I had definitely been in the wrong place at dinner last night. I had been sitting in the seat of a Prince! “Well, I’m sorry that I took over your spot last night,” I told him. “I’ll make sure I sit at the end this time.”
Lynn and Gunter exchanged glances, and then they both laughed. “Nope, I’m pretty sure you’ll continue to sit where you are,” Lynn said when he could finally breathe again.
“What do you mean?” I asked, but they both ignored me and eventually Gunter continued the tour. I was shown to the servants’ quarters (in case I ever needed anything), the ballroom, the kitchen, several rooms just for relaxing or conversing with any other guests (not something I was ever planning on doing. The less I was around people, the better.), the five long hallways made up entirely of bedrooms for all the royal family (except for the princes and the king and queen, which apparently had their own hallway), and finally Gunter led me to a set of large wooden doors that were lined with golden edging.
“This is one of my favorite rooms,” he said, and I could detect the smile in his voice. He pushed the doors open and I found myself inside a library even bigger than Alan’s had been.
The room itself was huge, but there were shelves from floor to ceiling on every single wall. There was only room for one medium-sized window seat at the opposite end of the room, and then the doors. There didn’t seem to be room for one more book. A few desks were sitting in the middle of the room, and soft-looking rugs littered the rest of the floor. I must have expressed some noise of excitement, because Gunter turned to me and simply said, “Yeah, I know.”
I found myself walking over to one of the shelves and rubbing my fingers across the binding of several books. Some of them were old and close to falling apart, and others were new and smooth. I realized that I was holding my breath.
Gunter walked over to where I was standing and pulled a book out. It had a green cover. He flipped through a few pages, skimmed over one page in particular, and then handed the book to me. “Here,” he told me. “Take it, and read it. I think it’d be something that you’d enjoy.”
I eyed him carefully, but still grabbed the book from his hands. Just like in the tower, I would let reading be my escape from this place. At least until I left, which I hoped would be soon. “What is that supposed to mean? ‘Something you’d enjoy?’”
“You just seem like the kind of person that would enjoy a good book. Especially one like that.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just hugged the book to my chest and looked around again.
“Rain, can I ask you a question?”
“Uhm, sure,” was all that I could manage to squeeze out. My heart stopped and I’m fairly certain that my breathing slowed. But I didn’t want to look like I was keeping secrets from the family nice enough to take me in.
“Why are you here? And what are you running from?”
“Those are two questions,” I said, hiding the truth. “You only asked for one.” I was trying to say it in a teasing manner, but instead I was afraid that I just sounded nervous.
“Well, yes, but…”
At that exact moment, Lynn showed up at the doors. “I hate to interrupt, Gunter, but your parents need to see you. Now.” Lynn wouldn’t look at me, and then I grew even more subconscious and nervous. He had been perfectly friendly just a minute ago. What could have happened in such a short amount of time?
Oh no, please tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with Alan. Please, please, please.
Gunter looked at me for a few seconds longer, as if debating whether or not to stick around for the answer to his question. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he turned and headed out. “I’m sorry that I have to leave you here, Rain. But I think you can find your way back to your room.”
“Of course,” I said, a little too quickly. I kicked myself as soon as I said it, sure he would detect the eagerness to be left alone in my voice.
He turned around one last time before he left, and looked straight into my eyes when he said, “We’ll talk later.”
I knew what he meant. I mean, how could I not know what he meant? Somehow, I had to come up with some kind of answer to his question before he forced one out of me, and he was telling me that he wasn’t going to drop it. “Of course,” I said again, and he nodded as if he knew that I knew his words’ hidden meaning. Then he was gone.
I slid down into the floor and sat in silence for several minutes. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I needed to do it soon. I knew Alan, and I knew that he wouldn’t have given up searching for me. Even if Lynn’s strange change in behavior didn’t have anything to do with Alan, this whole situation was risky. He still had several months before he turned eighteen and the curse was locked forever. And besides, my hope was that he thought I would be kidnapped. He was probably out scouring every corner of the globe for me. I couldn’t be that far away from him here, because I had only been on horseback and then on foot. How long would it be before he eventually found me just sitting, waiting in another castle?
So did I risk telling the truth, and see if Gunter and his family would protect me? Or did I lie, and hope that Alan didn’t come searching for me here? Or, the biggest decision of all, should I stay here, or should I leave and stay on the move? If I kept going, nobody would have to know the truth, and Alan might have less of a chance of finding me.
I also had to ask myself if I really wanted to hide from Alan, or if I was secretly hoping that he cared enough about me to come find me.