I'm Normally Perfect (re-upload)

Chapter Thirteen

Next morning I awoke with loads of new ideas for my story and arranged myself at the table in front of the fireplace in my room. At eight there was a knock on my door—it was the shorter of the two maids and with a tray. She wasn't much older than I, with light brown hair just to her shoulders and freckles over her nose.

'Would you care for breakfast, miss?'

I stood, unsure of the proper way to greet her, 'Oh, um, yes, please, thank you.'

'Where would you like it, miss?'

'Uh, anywhere is fine.' I gestured vaguely at the available surfaces in the room.

She placed the tray on the table, 'I'll collect it later, miss.' She curtsied and I curtsied back.

'Oh, um, I mean. Thank you, Constance.' Yes, Catherine, you are a moron.

She gave me a small smile and turned to leave.

After I'd finished eating I set back to work on my story, which now had two maids as the secondary characters. My character, Margaret, liked the both of them. Now all I had to do was figure out where the person based on Babs, Deb, came into it. As I was pondering that, there was a knock at my door. When I answered Alex stuck her head in the door, 'Did you sleep well?'

'Yes. You?'

'Oh, yes.' She stood in the doorway, a tiny smile on her lips.

'What?'

'You look rather dear, tucked up in your seat that way, in your jim-jams, sleep-logged.'

'Thanks. I guess.'

'What are your plans for the day?'

I gestured to my notebook, 'I was going to sit in the gazebo and write. What about you?'

'Paint for a while. I'll probably go for a walk after lunch, would you care to join me?'

'Okey dokey.'

We took lunch on the back patio. Anthony occasionally flicked sharp glances in my direction. Alex seemed to be silently rebuking him during the course of the meal; perhaps that's what kept him quiet. As we were finishing up Cate came barrelling around a corner and dashed straight for us. Alex dabbed the corners of her mouth and placed her napkin on the table before lifting the dog onto her lap. 'What's the matter? Something after you, Little Bit? Or do you just want to come along for the walk?'

Anthony perked up, 'You're going for a walk?'

'Yes, Cate and I were planning on a stroll through the woods. I thought I'd show her some of our favourite trails.'

His mood deflated, 'Oh.' He gave me the gaze of death and I occupied myself with scratching Catherine the Great.

With lunch completed Alex and I set out for the far west end of the grounds, Cate zoomed around our feet, sniffing like a dog possessed. Once we were ambling along a path in the forest I got up the nerve to reach over and take Alex's hand, checking from the corner of my eye that it was ok to do so. She squeezed my hand once and didn't let go. We continued in silence for the better part of an hour, and when we came out again we had traversed the entire length of the grounds and were far beyond the east side of the house at the back end of a fenced area for horses. We followed the white wooden fence back toward the house.

Once we were back at the house I retrieved my notebook from my room (which I found on the first try and without assistance, yay me!) and spent the rest of the daylight hours in the gazebo, ensconced in the world of my story. Judith, Alex's character, was a wealthy woman who lived in an enormous, rambling Victorian house and employed two maids, Christine and Lea, and who at the beginning of the story hired someone to organise her horribly dishevelled library, Margaret, my character. I was trying to write it without dialogue, as I was a big fan of silence, and had figured out the use of handwritten notes to get around the necessity of speaking. Everyone liked one another just fine and got on splendidly—they simply had no reason to speak to one another. Deb, Babs' character, would come in for reasons I still hadn't worked out and be loud and disruptive and the young women would off her with Judith's implicit consent. As I didn't care for bloodshed they'd probably poison her. As the sun went down it also became quite cold and the wind picked up, it looked like we'd have another storm. I huddled back into the house and changed into something warmer, it seemed colder inside that out. Supper was less agonising the second night. Constance didn't offer wine to me. Alex and I conversed and she spoke with her brother as well, but he and I did not speak to one another. After dinner, Alex led me to the library to show me an antique chess set there and we played a game by the light of a fire. Once my usual beating had been taken we sat back in the low leather chairs and relaxed. Clem ambled in and plopped down by my feet.