A Fiery Dalliance

IX

"The handicap of deafness is not the ear; it is the mind." Marlee Matlin

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IX.              

Perrie screamed, tossing the breeches in the air as she turned around, barely registering what she saw as she was so surprised. Seconds later, the breeches landed on top of Perrie's head, and that was probably fortuitous, as they acted as a blindfold.

"What is the matter with you?" she shouted accusingly, her body facing the door while her eyes were clamped shut. "You cannot just walk about unclothed! You have a privacy screen for changing!"

Behind her, Perrie could hear the sounds of Joe scrambling for what was inevitably clothing. She could hear the draping of fabric, as though he had pulled the linens from his bed to make himself decent.

"You wretched little imp!" Joe seethed. "I have a whole bedroom for privacy! I am not walking about unclothed. I am not the one in the wrong here. What sort of urchin does not knock on a door before entering?"

Perrie could feel that her cheeks were scarlet with embarrassment, and she knew entirely that Joe was right. She ought to have knocked. She also knew that Joe would be feeling ten times as badly as she was, as she had now embarrassed him twice in one day.

Was now the right time to apologise?

"Get out!" Joe ordered forcefully. "Or are you determined to gawk at me like a lunatic with ... what are those? Are those my breeches on your head?" He scoffed angrily. "Is your father aware that his eldest princess is certifiably insane?"

"I am not gawking!" Perrie shouted, keeping her head firmly facing forward, her eyes still shut.

"Yet you are still standing there!" retorted Joe exasperatedly. "Move! Get out! Go away! Are you misunderstanding me? Or was English not one of the languages you learned in your fancy school?"

Perrie hissed with frustration, not at Joe, but with herself. She had already felt dreadful for her behaviour that morning, and now she had just made things infinitely worse. "I mended your breeches!" she cried out, lifting the breeches up off of her head, all the while keeping her eyes closed. "I ... I am terribly sorry for hurting you this morning, Mr Parish. Mrs Hayes is also trying to clean your boots, but if I have ruined them, they will be replaced. I hope you can forgive me." Perrie threw the breeches behind her and heard them land on the floor a short distance away. "It was never my intention to ..." What was she trying to say? "I do have a heart, you know. I don't like to see anyone upset, even you. I am sorry to have been the cause." Perrie dared to open her eyes, but only to look forward so that she could hurry towards the door. "And I am sorry for barging in on you like this. But I would encourage you to use your privacy screen just in case I ever need to return anything else that I have spoiled."

With that, Perrie opened the door and slipped out into the hallway, closing the door securely behind her. She then hurried away, moving faster than she ever had done before, to put as much distance between herself and Joe Parish as she could.

Perrie worried that she had made things permanently worse, and it was terribly frustrating at how much she cared. Mrs Hayes seemed to think that Perrie didn't hate Joe at all, which simply wasn't true. She did hate him.

Perhaps she just did not want him to hate her.

Wretched little imp. That was certainly a new adjective before his favourite pet name. Taking a breath as she hurriedly walked down the family's hallway, Perrie then safely shut herself inside her own bedroom, and leaned backwards against her own door. She would certainly find out at dinner that evening whether or not he had forgiven her.