“I don’t–”
A firm yet soft voice answered before I could. “They are welcoming their Lady home of course.”
Okay so I'm ashamed to say I froze. Before us stood a man, dressed to the nines in his shiny dress shoes, a long black tailcoat with pure white gloves. His hair was black and slicked back revealing perfectly trimmed black eyebrows, tiny glasses and a jiggling moustache.
A butler.
Except he wasn't just any butler. No no. He was glowing in a huey white shimmer and flickered. He was a damn ghost!
“Um…what?” I gracefully said as I petted the branches gripping me.
Another branch snuck out and poked at Rí’s face before sneaking around his thick thighs.
The ghost butler bowed low and spoke smoothly, “I am Jerry. The Dark Mountains assistant. I am now and forever more at your service my Lady Darkness.”
What the fuck?
He spoke as if the mountain itself were alive, and Lady Darkness? Yeah, not happening.
He straightened up and before I could blink, he was in front of me. He hadn't walked or ran;he just appeared there. Rí’s unsettled growl had the branches releasing us and sliding back into the darkness.
“The Mountain and I have been waiting a long time for you, my Lady. Everything is as it should be. The fire in the master suite is ablaze and-” He looked down to my borrowed baggy shorts and wiggled his moustache. “-clothing more suitable to you has been pressed and hung up for you.”
Okay what!
He's been waiting for me? Master suite? I wasn’t even going to pretend to know what pressed clothing was. My mind grew noisier as I stood dumbfounded.
“Thank ye’ Jerry. I am Rí, Amayas Mate. Ye’ say ye’ve been waiting?”
At least one of us had it together.
Jerry looked at me when he answered, “Of course. We serve the Dark Ladies, always have and always will. We have been waiting for you since your birth twenty-one years ago.”
“I’m eighteen not twenty-one.”
His moustache wiggled and Rí frowned before looking down at me, a questioning look on his face.
“I can assure you-you are twenty-one. As of yesterday in fact.”
He had to be mistaken. I was definitely eighteen, wasn't I? Could there have been a chance that bitch of a social worker and Lyal forged my foster papers? They had definitely taken the boys from somewhere, so could they have taken me too? Why would Lyal have kept me three more years than he needed too?
“This could be why the Bookkeeper couldn't find ye’ records.” Rí added.
Fuck.
Fuck I wasn’t even eighteen? I could have been free three whole fucking years ago. Three years of extra beatings and violence.
But then…if I had been free, I wouldn't have met the boys.
I was torn in my emotions and I hated it.
“Please, come to the house and get settled in.” Jerry bowed low again before puffing into thin air, leaving behind a small glow where hehad stood.
My stomach hurt, my head was noisy and the black mist in the corner of my eye constantly distracted me and just plain pissed me off.
Every time I tried to catch a direct look at it, it moved with my head. Always out of reach with its swirling mass of blackness.
I looked to the moss-covered stone path, took a breath and followed it.
