“I'm not crying.” I smiled at Robert Fox. “And even if I was, it would be tears of joy. How long until we reach your house, dearest?”
Don’t gag, don’t gag.
“It will take some time. Perhaps you should try to sleep a little, my dove.”
“I will do that.” I promptly closed my eyes, although how anyone was supposed to sleep with all of this jolting was beyond me. I peeked very briefly through slitted eyelids, to find Robert Fox staring at me, and quickly shut them again.
Dammit. Don't forget, you've married this man. Does that mean... It's the wedding night... Ugh.
I repeated this several times before he finally looked away, having apparently not noticed me fractionally opening my eyes. As soon as he began to gaze out through the window, I whispered, “Stats.”
So all I could do was pray? Great.
Opening the information panel on
, I discovered that this ability temporarily boosted a random stat for all party members. It was practically useless at this level, being limited to a single use per day, with an active time of five minutes.
Looks like I'll have to grind.
As for my attributes...
Except now I knew that Endurance would slip back down to 7 soon.
If only I could see Robert Fox's attributes, I would be able to have some idea of how strong, or more likely, weak, I was.
“We're here, my love.”
I jolted awake. To my surprise, I realised I had actually fallen asleep, in spite of the uncomfortable ride. I stumbled from the carriage into Robert Fox's arms, and found myself looking at a rge building, perhaps what was called a manor house. From where I stood, I couldn’t see the far ends of the building, just multiple gss windows and an ornate front door.
At the front door stood an elderly woman dressed in a worn old dress and apron, a servant, most likely. She was twisting her hands in this apron anxiously.
Robert Fox nodded sharply to her as he passed. She curtsied clumsily, like an afterthought, her cloudy eyes fixed on me. She opened her mouth but no words came out.
“What do you want, Leah?” Robert Fox asked brusquely.
“Uh... I... Are y- y- you the new dy?” Leah stuttered her way through the question, looking tired and annoyed by her own struggle.
“That's right,” I said pleasantly.
“N... Nice to meet you, Lady. Shall... I run a bath, Master?”
“You haven't already?” Robert Fox looked even more irritated. “You're getting senile, aren't you?”
“I...” Leah's face suddenly brightened, as if remembering something good, but that expression nervously disappeared again. “There was... an issue, Master.”
“An issue?”
“Downstairs. I apologise for not preparing the bath, but there was such chaos...”
Robert Fox sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Very well. My dear, please go to bed before me. I have some matters to attend to. Leah, see that my new wife is well-cared for, understood? If there's any word of compint...”
“Yes, Master,” Leah said humbly, her greyed head bowed. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her, as well as a rush of gratitude that it seemed tonight would not be the night that the marriage would need to be consummated.
Robert Fox stalked into the house and rapidly disappeared.
With a deep breath, I followed. Or tried to.
Leah stood squarely before me.
“Get... No... Get away! You’ve got to go!”
“Name.”
At my whisper, a box popped up.
“Why are you stopping me, Leah?”
“I- I- I- I can’t say. I can’t say!”
“Are you afraid someone might harm you if you do?”
Leah shut her mouth tightly.
“Your master?”
“Master Fox is a wonderful person,” Leah replied immediately. “He is a perfect master, diligent and handsome. I have no issues with Master Fox.”
Wow. Talk about a canned response.
“I understand… But where…” I looked around me. The manor was surrounded by what appeared to be acre after acre of dark woods. Only one road led in and out, and that was the one that I had travelled down in the carriage, which was now gone. “I guess… I could walk?”
As if. Besides, I needed to find out Robert Fox’s secret, and I wasn’t going to do that by walking off into the woods and getting attacked by a wild animal or dying of hypothermia.
Leah didn’t seem to have any answers either. Clearly she just wanted me to leave, but then what? I tried again.
“Leah… Can I at least stay inside for tonight? Will anything happen to me if I do?”
“… Tonight will be… safe…”
“Safe?”
Leah shut her mouth tightly and bowed me inside.
The interior of the manor was moodily dark. The numerous lit candles did little to brighten the dimness. I looked around nervously, wary of something jumping out at me from shadowy corners. Nothing did.
I thought I faintly heard a scream, but it was so distant that I could have been the wind, or a dog howling, or simply my imagination. I strained to listen but the sound never came again.
“This way,” Leah murmured urgently, leading me up a huge staircase, lined with blood red carpet. The bannisters were carved with faces that stared at me as I climbed. Paintings of long-dead lords and dies followed me with their eyes down the halls. I felt sick.
Carrying a candlestick, Leah showed me into a rge bedroom containing a four-poster bed with heavy velvet drapes. My feet met something soft and a sprang back with surprise; I had stepped on a bearskin rug. The taxidermied head of the bear gred blindly at me from the floor.
Leah began to back out of the room. “I will run a bath for the dy.”
“Leah!” I didn’t know what I was going to say, exactly. I fumbled for words. “That’s… fine. I’m too tired for a bath. Um… What time… When should I get up in the morning?”
Given the circumstances, it was an absurd question. Leah’s expression was one of panicked pity.
“Any time, Lady.”
“I… see. Uh… Can I just… walk around… the house?”
“Yes, Lady… Just… not the celrs.”
Oh. Great. Celrs. Underground bunkers where bad things always happen.
Maybe I hadn’t imagined I heard a scream after all.
Should I wait for the others to arrive? Would they be able to find me?
Or would I be murdered before that?
In any case, did I want to just sit around waiting for something to happen?
“Thanks, Leah.”
Leah bowed silently and left the room.
I watched the flicker of the single candle Leah had left for me. I must have stood there a long time; when I became aware of what I was doing, I was cold and my legs hurt.
I crept to the bed and y down on top of the covers, simultaneously wishing to crawl under them and feeling repulsed by the idea. The rest of the night passed in fits and starts of unsatisfactory sleep. I didn’t dare snuff the candle.
As the morning light filtered through the thick gss windows, I sat up on the bed. In real life, a night of terrible sleep such as that would usually have me dizzy and disoriented, but I felt retively well. I wondered if it was the effect of my Endurance stat.
The question now was, could I get into the celrs without anyone noticing?
Or maybe it should have been, did I want to?
I had no idea when help might turn up, if it did. I also had no doubt that every night I spent in this pce meant that I was increasing my chances of dying. And potentially being taken to bed by Robert Fox.
He was a handsome man, but the thought made my skin crawl.
The corridor outside the room was cold and dark and silent. It was now light enough, however, that I became aware that a thick yer of dust coated everything. Were there no staff here? Was Leah the only one?
Speaking of Leah, I couldn’t see her anywhere. I retraced the path we had taken st night, tiptoeing close to the walls, as if that would help me hide. I was wearing a pure white dress. I was practically incandescent in the gloom.
I made it back to the entrance hall without seeing a single person. Once there, I looked around at the various other doors that led away from it. So where to now?
As I stood contempting each doorway in turn, I thought I heard a sound outside the front door.
I froze, listening intently.
Again. It was the sound of someone testing the door handle. Then the sound of someone swearing.
I rushed to the door and hissed loudly, “Jesse?”
“Maria? You’re alive! Can you open the door?”
No. The door was locked and the key nowhere to be found.
“Dammit. Is there a housekeeper who would have the key?”
“The only staff I’ve seen is a woman called Leah… I don’t think there’s anyone else here other than her and Robert… and…”
The scream in the celr.
“And?”
“Do you know what fairy tale this is, Jesse?”
“Your friend Bee-Bee suggested it might be Bluebeard.”
“Bluebeard? Wait, where’s Poppy? And the others?”
“Bee-Bee, you mean?”
“Right, right…”
“They can’t run as fast as me or travel so well at night. I left them a trail so they could follow me. They’ll be here in a few hours.”
I could only trust that she was telling the truth.
“What’s this Leah person like?” Jesse had an unusual accent, one that, like that of the man in the tutorial, I couldn’t pce.
“She seems to be on my side, but she also seems to be terrified. I’m pretty sure Robert Fox would kill her if he found out she was helping me. And I’m sure he is going to kill me.”
“Right, Bluebeard is a story where a man keeping marrying girls for their dowry and then kills them so he can marry again. Some variations have him eating the girls. He usually has a gang helping him.”
“… Great.” I felt light-headed. All my senses screamed at me to escape. “I guess we’ll have to get into the celrs and find evidence for the game to say we’ve passed the scenario.”
“‘We’? I have to get in first.”
I doubted Leah would let yet another person in. We would have to find some other way.
“None of the windows open,” Jess was continuing. “They’re all fixed panes. Maybe there’s a servant’s door or something… Oh shit.”
“What?”
“There’s people coming, and it’s not your friends. You’d better hide! Go!”
I looked around frantically and dived for a dark corner of the entrance hall under the main staircase, hoping sincerely that no-one would come looking around there. For several minutes, I waited in silence, my heart trying to climb out of my throat.
Where were they? What was going on? Was Jess telling the tru-
I heard the sound of the front door creaking open, followed by the sound of multiple male voices.
“- going to meet the new dy?”
“Not until tonight.”
“Aw, come on boss!”
“Didn’t you have enough st night?”
“It’s more exciting when they struggle. Last night just got me started.”
“We agreed, nothing during the day.”
“Then what’s this all about?”
“An appetiser.”
A discordant chorus of harsh ughter followed. I edged one eye past the curve of the stairs to look.
A group of men were headed for one of the doorways, carrying a white bundle that looked unpleasantly like a person wrapped in a cloth.
It wriggled.
It was a person wrapped in a cloth.
Before I pulled back, a figure walking at the back of the group caught my eye. They had their hood up, but unlikely the others, they would occasionally gnce around, and I caught a glimpse of their face as they turned.
Jesse?
Throwing caution to the wind, I waved frantically.
She caught the movement. Without a pause, she slipped sideways from the group as they passed the doorway. If anyone turned, they would not see any trace of her.
Within moments, she was by my side.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” My voice wavered. Embarrassed, I cleared my throat, but Jesse put her arms around me. She had a reassuring hug, and she smelt pleasantly of wood.
I chewed my tongue and tried not to cry.
“I’ll follow them, okay? I’ll see where they’re going. You can stay here.”
“That’s dangerous! I’ll come too.”
“You’re cold and shaking. It’s not a good idea.”
I breathed out sharply. Come on, Endurance stats.
“I’ll follow you. You shouldn’t go alone.”
Jesse hadn’t let go of me. It was starting to get embarrassing. Her embrace tightened momentarily, then she released me.
“Alright. Let’s go.”