Chapter Twenty-Four
Luca and Oliver were up to something. I caught them whispering together at several points during the next few days. Once, I woke up to find Oliver in the kitchens, talking something over with MJ and Luca. Whenever I interrupted them, they always had a story, a quick excuse. They had learned from when Luca and Oliver gave me two separate excuses, and now seemed well practiced in choosing which one to tell me.
"They are hiding something," I muttered to Danny.
Danny shrugged. "If they are, I'm sure it'll come to light soon."
I eyed him beadily. "You know what it is - I know you do. Tell me what you know."
Danny laughed loudly and said, "Finn, I worked for people much more scary than yourself. Do not think me so ready to give up secrets."
"At least you admit there is a secret," I huffed.
He laughed again and left me to ponder Oliver and Luca's secret. I did not understand why it bothered me so much. It was irritating to me, to not know what was happening in the house that I managed. I quizzed MJ, who told me to leave her alone and stop bothering her. I bothered Joseph, who sighed heavily at me and told me to go away. I even bothered Elle, targeting the person I knew to be shyest and most likely to give something away, but she merely hid behind Michael, who told me to stop annoying the rest of the staff.
That evening, MJ, sick of my snooping, put me on scrubbing the big pots. I hated that task, but I got to work, scrubbing each one hard until it was gleaming beneath me. It was somewhat satisfying to take out my irritation on the pots.
I heard footsteps behind me, and wondered who was coming to join me, but then the world disappeared from my vision. I felt strong hands holding me still and cloth being wrapped around my face to obscure my sight. I struggled a little, wondering who on earth was going to such lengths to prank me, but then I heard my brother's familiar laugh.
I sighed and said, "Is the blindfold truly necessary to accomplish whatever you are doing?"
Luca's laugh rang in my ear on the other side. "Yes."
"And what, might I ask, is it necessary for?" I queried, as Luca guided me out of my room and towards the stairs. "I will know where you are taking me; I know the routes around the house."
"I am not concealing the location," Luca laughed again. "I am concealing the vision of the location."
I sighed dramatically, but let him guide me to the stairs. When we got to it, I dryly said, "It would be easier to climb the stairs if I could see."
"Do not make me put you in the dumbwaiter," Luca teased, and slowly he guided me up the stairs without catastrophe. He steered me to the right, so I knew we were likely headed to the dining room.
I suddenly realised that it was a couple of weeks until my birthday. I guessed, "Have you organised a meal for my birthday? That is kind of you all."
"Finn, stop guessing," he scolded me.
I sighed dramatically again, but I did feel touched that they had seemed to organise a surprise for my birthday. I heard the sound of the heavy dining room doors open, and we stepped in together. Luca whipped off the blindfold quickly, and I blinked at the sudden light.
"Happy birthday!"
The first voice I recognised was one I had not expected; Faith. I frowned in confusion as the spry, lean man leaped forwards and bowed with a dramatic flourish.
"Faith?" I asked, still a little disorientated. The dining table was filled with my friends, both old and new; Celeste, holding hands with Alex, the hulking body of Tan looming over Tomas who was grinning widely, holding up a glass of wine. Alais was there with his children, who were excitedly chasing Michael around with identical evil smirks of glee. MJ was fussing over the feast laid out on the table, and Joseph was trying to get her to sit down and have some wine. Elle was sat with Carolina and Ana, who was introducing her to the new friends she had made. Danny was stood with Luca, looking smug at the sight of me being so surprised. And then there was Oliver, who was beaming at the sight of me, sat next to Celeste.
They all caught sight of me when Faith bounded forwards to bow, and cheered loudly, raising a glass to me. "Happy birthday!" chorused the room.
I blushed, embarrassed by Oliver and Luca clearly having planned this for me together. I ducked my head, unsure how to thank them for such a lovely surprise, and Luca laughed loudly. "I told you he would be speechless!"
Everyone laughed, and Faith pulled me down into a seat, handing me a glass of wine and launching into the story of how Oliver came to personally pick them up from the halfway-stop. I felt my heart soar at the story, thinking of King Dubois himself fetching my friends from the station, friends that never would have seen the inside of a luxury carriage before.
"So there we are," Faith captivated the crowd; he was a good storyteller. "A huddled mass of eclectic-looking people, nary a normal individual among us. The citizens around the station looking at us as though we were the very dregs of society."
"Because we are!" Tan lifted his hand and it took me a second to realise he was holding a wine glass, dwarfed by the size of his hand.
Faith lifted his in return. "Indeed we are! And yet, in the distance, we hear the clip-clop of hooves, and I swear by my perfect face, you could tell they were royal horses from that distance."
"Horses are horses," Celeste snickered. "You could not tell a difference."
"You could when they appeared!" Faith continued, unwavering in his confidence. "Sleek, clean horses with that beautiful carriage - and then a second one following! And there in the very next moment, the King himself disembarks from the carriage and opens the door for us. I swear, every mouth in the mile surrounding us was wide open in shock!"
Oliver was cringing a little, and said, "You make it sound like such a dramatic entrance. I just rode up and picked you up."
"It was gallant and true," Faith laughed, catching hold of Simone as she charged past him and putting her on his lap. She grumbled at first, but he jiggled his leg, making clip-clop sounds as though she was on a horse. Simone giggled, pretending to pull on the reins. Faith pretended to stop his leg, saying, "Whoa there, boy!"
Simone hopped off, and Faith barely paused for a second before taking out his fiddle and engaging us with an experimental tune, singing along nonsensical lyrics about Oliver and his many fine attributes.
"Oh, gods," I cringed myself, as Faith began turning the lyrics towards the true love between Oliver and myself. "Please, stop, you have only yourself to embarrass."
"I have not drank nearly enough wine to be embarrassed," Faith grinned, but put the fiddle down. "Now, are you not exceptionally surprised?"
"I am very surprised," I replied fondly. "But I do not know who to thank."
Celeste interjected with, "I believe most of it was planned by your good master and Luca."
I had suspected as much, and grinned sheepishly. "I believe I have some apologies to make about my endless snooping. I am sorry I made the surprise more challenging to conceal."
"You were rather annoying," Luca said, laughing.
"It was sweet, if somewhat irritating, yes," Oliver teased me, and then said, "I hope you have a wonderful birthday celebration... a week or two in advance."
*****
Everyone was incredibly drunk. I was not that far from it. The house was merry, full of laughter and good food. We were stuffed full of everything MJ had cooked us, and it gave me such happiness to see my friends well-fed and joyous. Simone and Phillipe were even allowed to stay up with us, although they certainly did not have any wine.
Celeste had her arm around me, drunkenly regaling my friends at the manor with the day she had found me.
"He was so small," she said dreamily, holding onto me tightly. "A tiny little child, so sweet and innocent, curled up underneath a bridge."
"And then I was woken up rather rudely by another child prodding me in the side," I looked at Faith.
Faith shrugged innocently. "You looked very peaceful."
"I took him back, even though we really didn't have any more room," Celeste murmured, and kissed me on the forehead. "Worth every moment, of course. He slept curled up in my arms, until Tan found us somewhere bigger that was abandoned. We were there for half a year, but in that time he learned a lot."
"Thank you," I nodded.
"Brought in more than anyone else," Tan said gruffly, clapping me on the back.
"Thank you," I said, but blushed at the memories of stealing as a child. "I would say I am not proud of it, but for some of them, I am quite proud of them."
Celeste beamed. "Do you remember the Harrington sisters?"
Oliver, hearing the names, perked up. "Annabelle and Charity Harrington?"
"The very same," Celeste nodded, and then ruffled my hair. "This one broke into their carriage after they had been shopping and stole their jewellery. But to top it off, he also stole their silk curtains right from the carriage windows!"
Everyone laughed, and I hid my face, embarrassed at the memory. Oliver laughed louder than anyone else, knowing that the Harrington siblings were two women that he intensely disliked.
Faith started up playing the fiddle again, and the group dispersed. Sensing a moment of peace, Oliver walked over to me and took my hand. "May I borrow you for a moment?"
I nodded. "Of course you can."
He walked towards the door, ignoring the whistle that Luca sent in our direction, and led me towards the back doors. I followed Oliver into the garden, and squeezed his hand. "Thank you," I said earnestly. "For my surprise, for my friends... it means so very much to me."
He smiled, and kissed my hand. "For you, anything." He then straightened up and said, "But I wished to give you your birthday gift privately."
I winked and said, "I feel I should make a joke."
Oliver laughed, taken by surprise, and said, "No, not that sort of private. That comes later." He took out a journal from his inside pocket and handed it to me. When I opened it, I saw that inside, there was a thank-you note written on every page. I frowned, not recognising any of the names.
"What is this?" I asked, confused.
"A month ago, Alex Lafitte came to me with an idea," Oliver explained. "He was inspired by you, by your tales of your upbringing, by how well you had integrated into the household despite all your struggles. His inspiration only increased when Danny did the same, despite coming from such a horrendous past. He said that he had been too focused on eliminating illegal trade, and not focusing on what happened to the slaves that were freed. Most of them fall into poverty, unable to find work, and many die."
He sat down on a low wall nearby in the garden, and sighed heavily. "And it is not just slaves, it is other citizens, people that grow up with so very little and are never helped. Like your friends." Oliver straightened out his jacket. "So Alex and I decided to do something... well, something that might help."
He indicated the journal. "We have set up a foundation of sorts, a series of houses around the country that take in freed slaves and people that are in the sort of situation like you and your friends were. We will feed and house them, give them education and teach them skills, and hopefully find them work."
I felt my chest tighten with emotion, my throat dry and my eyes welling up. I opened the journal again and read the notes. Oliver said, "Those are notes from the residents of the first house. It is not enough, not yet, but I wanted you to know that you are the reason we opened our eyes to the truth. You are the reason these people will sleep in warm beds tonight, fed and safe. You are the reason they will live."
I could not stop myself. I cried. I cried for every single person in that book, for those that were safe because of the wonderful man in front of me. I cried in happiness for their safety and their future, and I cried in sadness for everyone that had not been saved in the past. I cried for my own past, a child poor and starving, saved only by Celeste and Alais' kindness. I cried for my friends, still living that life, only recently knowing how to call a place home. I cried for other countries that did not have the king that we did.
But more than anything, I cried in gratitude for everything I had, and everything other people would now have.
Oliver held me until my sobs finished, and I whispered 'thank you' over and over, but he shook his head. "No, you may not thank me. I may only thank you. There is much more work to be done before I can even consider my reign as king a good and fair one. Now that Alex has everything firmly in hand, I will dedicate my life to bettering Cafi. And that is all because of you."
I shook my head. "Oliver, I am not the reason you are a good man."
"No, but you are the reason I strive to be a better one," he kissed my hand again. "I apologise for revealing this in the middle of a party, but Celeste was about to have my head. She wishes to excitedly tell you the tales of the house in Madison."
I frowned. "Is she living there?"
"No, but she is managing it, alongside your other friends," Oliver explained, and I felt my tears well up again at the thought of my friends finally able to earn the living they deserved, not forced into stealing things just to be able to eat. He laughed and wiped my tears away. "If you cry much more, Celeste will have my head for upsetting you so."
"These are tears of happiness," I told him firmly, and then said, "I know you wish for me not to thank you, but I want to. And it is my birthday, so I shall get what I want."
Oliver laughed, but relented. "You may have anything you want."
"Then thank you," I said firmly, as sincerely as I could possibly make the words. "Thank you for everything, Oliver. You have made me truly the happiest a man can be. Knowing that my friends are safe, and that I am able to see others follow in their footsteps, makes me so tremendously happy. Thank you."
Oliver kissed me gently, and said, "We should get back - but I would limit your intake of wine. We are heading to a cottage tomorrow, you and I, to spend a week or two away from everything. The carriage ride would be terrible if you were suffering."
I beamed. "I did not think I could be made happier, yet somehow I am."