Tommy and the Monster

Chapter Fourteen

 Things changed after that one morning. To start, Lady Floor stopped asking Tommy to marry her every night. That was a bit of a relief to him. But they began to spend more time together, besides having supper together every night. They would often sit out in the garden together, or go walking through the castle. By now, Tommy had gotten lost and found his way again enough times to know where everything was in the castle.

 Tommy tried asking Lady Floor about her life before the curse a few times, but she didn't say much about it. Her mother died when she was still very little.

 "That's the same thing that happened to Roy," he said. "His-

 "-father died. I believe you told me that story once. But I did not have a loving mother and stepfather as he did. My father was disappointed to not have a son, so he married again. Neither he nor my stepmother spent much time with me, so besides a governess and whatever other staff was around, I was left to my own devices. I never liked any of my governesses very much, and I don't think they liked me. I must have been a strange child."

 "And that was it?" Tommy asked. "You spent most of your time alone?"

 She shrugged. "I never had any other children to play with. My father and stepmother never had any. By the time I was sixteen, they were both dead, and there was no one pass my father's title down to but me. And I believe you know the rest of that story."

 "But what did you do when you a child? Wasn't it boring being alone all the time?"

 "Sometimes. But I would read to pass the time. Why do you think I moved the library to one of the larger rooms of the castle?"

 After that conversation, they began spending some more time together in the library. Tommy had been in there a few times before, but he had never paid much attention to how many books were stuffed onto the shelves.

 "Have you always had this many books?" he asked.

 "Not always. When I inherited the castle, I began collecting more, anything that sounded interesting."

 "Have you read all of them, then?"

 "By now? I believe I've read of them twice."

~~~~~~

 After a few weeks of this, Lady Floor came into the dining room and said in a strange voice, "Tommy. How was your day?"

 "It was all right, thank you," he answered. "Is something wrong? You don't sound like yourself."

 Instead of sitting down in her usual place at the other side of the table, Lady Floor sat down in the chair to his left and turned it so that they were eye-to-eye.

 "I looked into my mirror," she said, "And I saw something."

 "What, something bad?" he asked. "Is it one of us?"

 She shook her head. "It's your brother, Roy. I'm afraid he's taken ill."

 "He's ill!" Tommy cried. "But he's been alone at the farmhouse! Who's going to look after him?"

 "Your friend Simone has been, and his neighbor Thomas has dropped in a few times to check on him. I don't know what's wrong with him, but it must be something serious."

 Tommy shook his head. "I don't know what it could be? It couldn't be some kind of plague, could it? Thomas told me once that a few years before we moved to the farmhouse there was plague outbreak. Simone's mother died, and many other people."

 "I don't think it's the plague," Lady Floor said, "But he is ill, and I think having you there would help him a great deal."

 "But I can't go back."

 "There may be a way around that." She held up a ring. "Take this and put it on your finger. Tonight, before you go to bed, turn it over and say that you wish to go home to see your brother. When you wake up, you'll be there."

 "And to get back?"

 "Turn it over again and say that you wish to return here."

 "How long will I have with Roy?" Tommy asked.

 "You'll have a month. Make the most of it when you go, Tommy. I don't know if you'll be able to go back again."

~~~~~~

 Tommy looked down at the ring. It was silver, with a black stone set in the middle. He had no idea where Lady Floor had gotten it from, or how it was going to take him to see Roy, but it didn't matter to him so long as he did get there.

 He turned it upside down and said, "I wish to go back to the farmhouse, to see my brother."

 With all this excitement, it took him a while to fall asleep. When he did, he was back in the place by the stream, with the woman in the blue dress.

 "You're leaving," she said.

 "Only for a month. I'll come back, promise. I just want to go home for a while, and then I'll back."

 She nodded. "Then enjoy our month back home, Tommy. You'll certainly be missed here."