Elemental, Chapter 3

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Issy had been resting in the arms of Aric when they both heard the crash and the scream.

“Oh my God!” Issy said, suddenly panicked. Had Ari been right? Had this all been too good to be true?

“What on God’s green earth was that?” Aric asked.

Issy looked at Aric, a fire of hatred in her eyes. “If he hurt Ariana in anyway so help me God, I’ll kill him.”

Aric realized that the bond between the girls was much stronger than he had first imagined, so he made sure to put the angry girl at ease. “She must have seen a spider or something to that effect. And in the course of her little fright, she must have knocked something over. I’m sure that it’s nothing.”

“How can you be so sure?” Issy demanded. “I don’t know what kind of person Phillipe is but if he hurt her I swear that his death will be carried out by my hands.”

“Such a determined . . . girl, aren’t you. Phillipe isn’t the kind of man to hurt a girl like Ariana. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Issy continued to look at Aric’s face, her iron will being put to the ultimate test. Her eyes flashed with anger, giving them a glint that made them gleam in the low light like a pair of sapphires. “I want to see her,” she said after a long pause.

Aric sighed. “I guess there’s no convincing you.”

Issy folded her arms across her chest. “Damn straight.”

“My, aren’t we the lady,” Aric teased as he walked out of her room.

“What the hell was that supposed to mean?!” Issy screamed at him. But he either didn’t hear her or he didn’t care because he was walking down the hall, laughing.

Issy had no choice but to run out after him, hoping that she could keep up with him so she wouldn’t become lost in the massive mansion. “Aric, wait! Aric, I didn’t mean to yell at you! Please, accept my offer of servitude! I’ll make it up to you! Aric!”

He was on the stairs and he turned suddenly, startling Issy and causing her to trip on the carpet. She stumbled forward and fell into his open arms, her face just inches from his.

“A little personal for the first night, don’t you agree?” Aric said with a smile that made Issy go weak in the knees.

“I-I-“

Aric looked into her eyes and saw fear, love, and hatred. Sensing her discomfort, he gently set her straight. “You certainly are jumpy. Why don’t we see what that little brouhaha in the study was about, shall we?” He promptly turned around and left Issy on the stairs, confused.

“Brouhaha? Who uses brouhaha?” she muttered before running off after him.

* * *

Issy looked into the darkened study to make out the shapes of Phillipe and Ari standing by the window.

Phillipe was facing the door so he was the first to see Issy and Aric standing at the door. “It seems as if we have attracted an audience,” Phillipe chuckled in his French accent.

“What happened?” Issy asked, but before Ari or Phillipe could answer, Aric let out a yelp.

“My antique Egyptian vase!”

“Oh, so that’s what broke,” Phillipe shrugged.

“This is sabotage!” Aric cried, striding over to where Phillipe was leaning against the wall, a smug look on his face.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset,” Phillipe said lightly. “It was the ugliest thing I ever saw in my life.”

“That’s because you’re uncultured in art,” Aric growled, going back over to the door to pick up the shards of terra cotta.

“What happened?” Issy asked.

“Miss Ariana merely bumped it and it fell,” Phillipe explained. “Just a minor accident.”

“Minor accident?” Aric asked, aghast. “My grandmother left me that vase! It was my inheritance from her!”

“Aric, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Ari started.

“It was an accident Ariana, don’t worry about it,” Phillipe sighed. “And your hands will heal and you’ll soon forget about this whole thing.”

“I won’t,” Aric muttered. “And where did you clean her up?”

“In the kitchen.”

“How long did that take?”

“Only a couple of minutes.”

“And what did you do with the pieces that would have been stuck in what I’m assuming were her hands?”

“I threw them away.”

“Phillipe! How could you do this to me! I don’t know how many times I’ve told you how much that vase meant to me! And now it’s nothing more than a pile of rubble. You’ll pay me back.”

Ari blushed. “Aric, I was the one who broke it. If you want someone to pay you back, it should be me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous Ariana. You were nothing more than a pawn in Phillipe’s evil plot to destroy my priceless antique Egyptian vase. And that’s the end of it. Phillipe had the motive to get rid of it, so he’ll be the one to pay me back. No worries my child, no worries,” Aric assured her.

Issy and Ari sighed a breath of relief for different reasons. Issy was happy that Phillipe hadn’t beaten Ari and Ari was relieved when Aric assured her that she wouldn’t have to repay her debt.

Issy glanced at the clock on the mantle and gasped. “I had no idea it was so late!”

Aric looked and shook his head. “Why don’t you two head up to Issy’s room and we’ll send up some soup and bread. And you can have some of that before you settle in for a good night’s sleep.”

Issy and Ari exchanged a look that told the other that they would have to be clinically insane to pass it up. A hot meal and a real bed was just too good to pass up, even for Ari, who wanted more than anything to leave all of the hospitality.

* * *

“Issy, I don’t like it here.”

Issy turned to the gold-eyed child with raised eyebrows. “And pray tell why not,” she said, her tone purely amused.

“They’re being nice to us, really nice. The next thing we’ll know is that they’ve bought us a whole new wardrobe and then I’ll really feel rotten. I don’t like this one bit!” Ari exclaimed.

“That doesn’t answer my question, but I think I know why,” Issy said. “It has to do with that pendant. That one that I still don’t know how you got it.”

“Like I’ve told you, someone gave it to me!”

“Who?”

“Just someone!”

“Are you afraid that this someone will go back to the streets to find you and you won’t be there because there were two handsome strangers who took us in and gave us a home? Wouldn’t that person want to see that you’re being provided for?”

Ari paused. Would he want her to be in this house, where she had a roof over her head and a real bed to sleep in? Or would he want her to be wild and free? Like it was when they met? She shook her head. “Issy, I just don’t like it here.”

Issy smiled and then giggled. “I think that you want to leave because you’re in love with Phillipe.”

“Well I never!”

“I think that’s it! You’re blushing! In fact, you look like a hairy tomato right now. You’re in love with him and you’re afraid that he’s not in love with you so you want to get out before you find out what his true feelings are.”

“Now you’re making stuff up.”

“No, I think that I hit the nail right on the head and you know what? Who cares if they like us or not? We have free room and board so I think that we should make the best of it. And who knows, maybe we can make a little money, or at least save some.”

“Issy, is money all you care about?”

“Ari, it’s not my fault that the world revolves around the stuff. But that’s the way things are, and since I’m the most level headed of the two of us—“

“Whoa, who said that you were the most level headed?”

“Me ‘cause I don’t get into trouble as often as you do. Come to think of it, I’m always bailing out your sorry behind.”

“Ouch Issy, ouch.”

“Just settle down, small one.”

“Do you have to start with the short jokes, again?”

“No, but I could.”

“Don’t even.”

“Fine. But promise me that you’ll give Aric and Phillipe a chance. Please?” Ari bit her lower lip in an attempt to avoid the question, but Issy knew what she was doing. “Come on Ari, at least for a week. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll explain to them that we just can’t stay and we’ll leave. Deal?”

Ari sighed. “Fine. Whatever. A week, and if I don’t like it, we leave. No questions asked. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“Have you not found your pajamas?” Aric asked, coming in with the soup and startling the girls.

“Pajamas?” Issy asked.

Aric set the soup on the table and walked over to the giant wardrobe and opened it up, revealing a blue flannel nightgown and a black flannel nightgown. The blue one was Issy’s size and the black one was Ari’s size. “Yes, your pajamas. You don’t honestly think that Phillipe and I would have you sleep in those rags. Put them on, they should be about your size.”

He dismissed himself, allowing the girls to change.

“I don’t like this,” Ari said, holding the flannel nightgown in her hands as she sat on the bed with a sigh.

Issy was busy feeling the soft material beneath her fingers. “It’s going to be better than the past six years, I can guarantee you that.”

“But still, all of the hospitality,” Ari protested.

“Little one just put the gown on and come to bed. We’ll sleep together tonight. Safety in numbers,” Issy said with a wink.

Ari looked at Issy and then decided that sleep would be a good idea. It had been a long day and she felt a little better knowing that the older girl would be right there sleeping next to her.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Ari woke to someone calling her name. “Ariana . . .” a haunting voice called from the wind.

“Wha-?” Ari asked, sitting straight up and looking around the room. “Is someone there?”

The room was still and in the silvery moonlight, she saw nothing but the furniture and the sleeping girl beside her.

“Run away . . . ,” the voice said.

Ari turned to the window and stared at the moon. “Oh Gods, that’s beautiful.”

Issy stirred and the rolled over, taking half of the covers with her. Ari tugged until Issy finally loosened her grip and Ari sighed. “Covers hog.”

Issy made a noise like a cross between a moan and a groan then murmured in her sleep. “Aric . . .”

“Silly lovesick little girl,” Ari chuckled softly. Ari leaned over and gently kissed Issy’s forehead before sighing herself. “I can’t stay here.”

She slid out of bed and gently walked across the floor, in hopes that she wouldn’t wake her sleeping companion. She slipped off the black flannel nightgown and then slowly and quietly put on her corset and skirts. She tied the hip wrap around the coins in hopes of muffling their clinking song and then grabbed her cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. She took one last look at Issy, sprawled on the bed, looking as if she had been born an aristocrat, and smiled fondly. “Good-bye love, we’ll meet again.”

Issy rolled once again and Ari knew that she had to leave or else she’d never get away. She had to find the one, the one who had given her the pendant and she needed to know why he had left her alone in such a dark, cruel world, where people like Aric and Phillipe were one in a million.