joji

The function was held to celebrate the return of a Man whose name Carol later learnt was Colonel Henry Blackthorne. He had just retired from the military and was looking towards a life of relaxation and the comfort his hard earned money would provide for him and of course his children's as well. If the East wasn't so teeming with Beans, Carol would have thought it to be the perfect place to retire after reaching the age of seventy.

Carol stood at the corner of the room. it appeared to her that she was the wallflower of the occasion, carefully observing the women and the men, the dancers and the couples being affectionate towards one another and of course the old spinsters trying their utmost best to win the Colonel's eyes but their wrinkled skin and throaty voices could do them no good. A man such as Sir Blackthorne, Carol thought, would prefer a woman much much younger than he was, a woman's whose laughter still rang loud, a woman whose breasts were still full, a woman such as the tiny red haired girl who the Colonel had been staring at from afar.

The girl had on a very yellow dress that made her red hair look harmonious. Her creamy skin glowed under the dress and her freckles added a childish look to her face. Carol thought the girl was a little more attractive than a seventeen year old should be but it was just a personal thought. Men stared at the girl with lust in their eyes, they stared at her exposed chest and her small wrists and her nape but only the Colonel had the courage to walk up to her. It was his party anyways.

Carol carefully observed the look on the girl's face, the red haired smiled at everything the colonel said to her and nodded a few times and while the Colonel and the girl thought no one was looking or no one was paying any attention save for the guards, Carol watched the old man and the child escape the party through a side door. It was in this same moment that a man who looked older than his age walked up to Carol with a curious look on his face.

"You look every bit like her" The man said and tried as much to match his height with hers. The man was a short man, two heads shorter than Carol and with a stomach that made his ill-fitting suit look like they would rip. His buttons could not hold well from the pressure his big stomach exerted on them.

"Who?" Carol frowned, trying not to look disrespectful as she stared down at the man. 

"Your mother, of course" The man moved away from her front to her side "you are the spitting image of her, although a lot taller than she was"

"You know my mother" It was a statement. Carol was not interested in discussing any member of her family with anyone. And especially not her mother.

"Everyone knows your mother" The man answered and then added with a smirk "Every man knew your mother, she was the most generous with her body"

"Excuse me?" Carol hissed loudly "why on earth would you say such thing and especially to me?" She did not want to cause a scene. She refrained from raising her voice. "I do not know what is wrong with you and neither do I care to know but please the next time you see me, I want you to pretend you did not" She started to walk away but he grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. 

"Forgive me, lady" He said "I do not mean to sound offensive but you are half the topic of discussion on everyone's lip, asides the colonel, that is"

She tried to pull away from his grip but the man had an advantage with his weight "I am very capable of causing a scene, I do not mind giving everyone something to talk about" She told him.

"Ah" He smiled and released his hold on her "I only came to get acquainted and speak with you but It seems I do not know my ways"

"If you say so" She said with a curt nod. She remained rooted to her spot, only to hear what else he had to say.

" I was a friend of your father's" The man said "My name is Howard Langton, I would think that you should know me, we have met a few times when you were a child"

"My memory does not serve me well" Carol told him. Steeling herself for what else he had to say "what is your main purpose for speaking to me, Sir Langton?"

"A dance will begin very soon, would you like to dance?" He asked.

"No."

"Very well. How about a walk through the garden? The colonel has very large grounds" He said.

"No."

"Okay" Howard nodded "A conversation then."

"Is that not what this is?" She frowned "A conversation?"

"If this is a conversation" Howard answered "Then the word conversation had lost it's definition."

"Perhaps it is partly your fault, you should never start a conversation with the most dirtiest talks on a person's mother" She hissed.

"My wrongs" Howard grinned, showing off a good set of white teeth. "I was never taught proper manners as a child"

"That is no excuse. The society itself, bestows manners on a person." Carol groaned "is there anything else you would like to say to me? In advance, please know that I am not and never willing to engage in any exercise with you"

"I think that will not be so in the future" He grinned again as if hiding something.

"You might look a lot like your mother "Mr Howard said "But you have your father's features. I see tiny details of his on your face. I miss him terribly"

"you must have been good friends with my father" She said, trying to engage with him out of politeness. "Seeing that you miss him so"

"We used to drink together every weekends, his death was a big blow" Mr Howard did not sound grim "I blame it on your mother" He added and Carol could only stop herself from scowling, she never fancied her parents and especially her mother but she wouldn't stand to hear someone blame her mother for the death of her father. Her father, in her defence, had died of a fever. That was all.

"Your mother did not treat him as a wife ought to treat a husband" Mr Howard continued "Your father, who was my friend, would complain a lot to me concerning her. She rejected him the bliss of his marriage"

"It is not your position to be the judge, you did not hear from my mother's side" Carol defended.

"She drove him to drink" He said "She drove him mad. She drove him to his grave"

"My mother left him" Carol said "If my Father was very wise, he would have moved on, he neglected his children, he drove himself to drink because after everything, he realised he could not keep a wife nor a family. He was a failure at being a father and a husband" Carol was firm with her words "His ignorance drove him to his grave"

"You shouldn't say such about the dead so that their soul might rest in peace" Mr Howard smiled and his smile confused Carol, she wondered why he smiled and thought that he should not be smiling at all, he should not be smiling at what she said. He should be reasoning, he should be understanding her words. He should realise that her mother was not to be blamed for the death of her father. He should, if one thing, not be smiling.

"I should leave now, Sir Howard" Carol bowed in respect "if I said your presence was refreshing, it would be a terrible lie"

 

"I am not a very good companion" The short man grinned "My wife left me as well because of this"

"Yet you are alive and not buried under the soil" Carol smiled meaningful. The man smiled in return.

"I can hold my liquor" Howard said and bowed back in respect, and then walked away, saving Carol the effort to find another comfortable place to be and leaving her standing once again, alone.

Howard Langton was not the only one who had wanted to make an acquaintance with Carol Margot, but he was the only one she had, although it was hard to admit, enjoyed speaking with. The rest of the men who had came to speak with her had only talked about the weather, talked about the Colonel, commented on her beauty and asked if they could come over to her house for brunch and she had politely declined telling them she was a little crowded with activities but wouldn't mind having them over in the farthest future and of course her uncle had scolded her for such a thing, telling her she ought to move on and start a family and it wasn't until Carol was sitting outside the hall on a bench that she realised the same thing her uncle told her was the same thing she had said to Sir Howard concerning her father.

Her father had drowned himself in alcohol ever since his wife, Carol's mother, left him and Carol was beginning to think she was doing the same thing although this time she wasn't drowning herself in alcohol but in solitude. It had been fourteen days, if she was very sure, that she found Edward Beckham on her bed with another woman and in those days, she had excused herself from the world. It was comparable to drowning oneself in alcohol. Sighing and stretching her legs, Carol leaned back on the bench to let the evening breeze seduce her into sleeping.

A few minutes later, she opened her eyes to meet total darkness and to discover that she had been asleep the whole time, she could no longer hear the sounds of people dancing in the hall to music or the loud laughs from the old women and in a frightful four seconds, fear enveloped her. Would it be possible that her uncle would leave her, stranded in a place she knew naught about? That he should think she could find her way home. Getting to her feet, she calmed her mind, if her uncle had indeed forgotten about her then perhaps there would be someone kind enough to help her get home. A man, who would, in exchange ask to visit her home the next day. She would say 'yes' only, of course to get home and in the days that would come, she would dismiss him.

The walk back to the hall was not an easy task, Carol wondered how far she was away from it and how many steps she would have to take to get to it. The colonel indeed had large grounds and not until a good minutes of walking around in circles did Carol realise that she was lost. Not in the city, or in the East but in a man's yard! With only the moonlight to guide her and almost surprisingly, a burning fire coming from the shadows. Carol wasn't unnecessarily scared, she chanted the lord's prayer in her head for if it were a bean, she might no doubt be in danger but if it was a human, well, most humans were kind.

"Should that be you?" She heard a voice call from the shadows, it was the voice of a human as it didn't have that croaky tone to it as the beans had "Should you be Miss Carol Margot, niece to Sir Price"

"Yes!" Carol yelled her answer "Yes, it is I, Did my uncle send you to find me?"

"No" The man answered, his voice lower than earlier as he got closer to her "Your uncle, I'm afraid has gone to make merry. Sir Langton, says you came this way and might need help to find your way back" The man was no longer in the shadows and was now standing a feet away from her, even in the dark night and of course with the help of the burning fire coming from his candle, Carol could see his eyes glow as he stared down at her. She was used to it, in college where she wore revealing clothes, she had been looked at lustfully by men and women who fancied other women.

 

"Sir Howard" Carol asked to confirm "He used to be a friend of my father, is he still present in the hall?"

"Unfortunately, he is long gone" The man answered "My father, however, does not mind having you stay a night in our home. It is quite improper to have a woman such as you out in the night. There are dangerous beans and beasts on the loose if I were to let you go home at this hour."

"I will very much like to stay the night" Carol nodded and the man led her back the way he came.

"If it was daytime" He said "You might have found your way back to the hall but at night, I did not think it possible as the electricity is not very reliable and the light bulbs are yet to be fixed"

" It is partly my fault for moving so far away from the hall." Carol nodded.

"And am I permitted to ask why you would leave the hall? Was the party not to your liking?"

"I liked it too much that I had to leave" She said, tongue in cheek "Do you think it odd?"

"I think it perfectly normal" The man laughed softly under his breath "I do not fancy parties as well, I had to attend because it was my father's welcoming party"

"Oh"

"I left after the hails" The man continued "Sir Howard found me while I was directing the servants. I would do him any favour"

"Who is he to you?" Carol asked "Sir Langton, who is he to you?"

"A father? An uncle? A man who took the place of my father while my father went away to join the military" The man answered "He oversaw my schooling and of course, those of my siblings. My family owes him a lot."

"He claims to be a friend of my father's" Carol said "Can you tell me a thing about Mr Howard?" 

"A thing, you say?" The man asked and she nodded in response. "If it was just a thing you wanted me to say" The man continued "I would say that Mr Howard is very eccentric"

"Is that so?" Carol nodded in understanding "He has his ways, does he not?"

"Yes, but he is the kindest of all the men there is" The man stopped walking as they reached a large gate that led into a mansion. Through the opened gates, Carol could see that the walls were made of brick, aged and weathered by the elements. Small grotesques were perched on the ledges, their misshapen features adding a touch of whimsy to the otherwise imposing structure. Gargoyles leered from the rooftop, their wide-eyed faces seeming to watching her from below with curious eyes. The building lookrd more grandeur when they passed through the gate. The entryway was adorned with a massive stone doorframe, carved with intricate designs. It was a sight to behold, and Carol could barely contain her surprised, it had been ages since she had seen such an old building.

"It belonged to my grandparents" The man behind her said "it's quite something is it not?"

"It is very grand" Carol answered as they climbed the four cases that led up to the entry. "You have lived here all your life?"

"Not entirely" The man smiled "I attended a boarding school throughout my education life and got my degree and masters in the South. I came here only for the holidays"

"The South?" Carol asked "What did you read?"

"Political science" He answered " And a little bit of architecture"

Carol nodded "You would rather design buildings than be a part of the public system, would you not?" 

The man smiled as they walked through the hallways, candle lights lit the halls and the man had to place the candle he held on a holder nailed to the wall "I would not want to discuss that. It is quite late miss Margot" He said "I will introduce you to my father in the morning and have you sent back home tomorrow, as soon as it is possible"

"I appreciate" She gave a curt nod as he led her to a room in the above floor. "I do not know your name sir, you did not tell me"

"Hans" The man answered "Well it is Hansford" He chuckled "But the name Hansford make people wonder how I was born. To let you know in earnest, miss Margot, I was not born beside the river only that my mother chose such a name because she thought it would fit me nicely"

"It does" Carol smiled "It does fit you nicely, You look a lot like a Hansford"

Hans stood up straight to his full height, towering over her a little and with a raised eyebrow, asked "And do tell me what a Hansford looks like, Miss Margot".

"Well" she said, placing her hand on the knob of the door he said was to open to her room. They were no longer in the dark where the only thing she could see were his eyes. There were candles lit up in the hallway and she could clearly see that he had brown hair and very broad shoulders "A Hansford such as you, has a striking appearance" She said "With broad shoulders" She added "Deep blue eyes filled with novelty and the grace of a workman"

He frowned "I look like a workman?"

"You look like you do a lot of heavy lifting" She corrected. She was referring to his arms and his legs giving off a muscular look through his clothes.

He cleared his throat and said in a much lower tone "I do a bit of exercising and sometimes I dally with a building team"

"Architecture" Carol gasped as she opened the door "You do some building as well?"

"I love the art" He answered "I apologize for I cannot rouse a servant to prepare you a bath, we are quite strict with their work hours"

"I understand" Carol nodded "it is only for the night, I will be gone by the morning"

"Of course" He said and before he could say his goodnight, she had gone into the room and had closed the door. Hans Jeremiah Blackthorne stood Infront of the door wondering how he had so easily told a person a secret he had kept to himself for years.