Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Cuddling the Book Villain

I wasn’t really sure how to pass the day. After all the book jumped from plot point to plot point. Annalise had a lot of hair brushing and yearning looks out the window. I apparently just had anxiety. And the only person more anxious than me around here, was seemingly Victor.

I could tell the birds had triggered him. Not only because he continually mumbled about them throughout the day whenever he popped up. But he also seemed bent on trying to bring them up with Bearon and Robin. I came across him arguing with them in the dining hall near lunch. Bearon had a disgusted look on his face as Robin had the same Stoney expression she always did. “My lord I do not intend to prepare you the dead pheasant for lunch,” Bearon was mumbling.

“It seems such a waste to leave them rotting in the garden,” Victor replied.

“I’m sure we could find some way to help rid them for you another way,” Bearon had hissed back.

I hadn’t meant to creep up on them. But the fact that they had actual conversations when I was out of the room was too delicious for me. I now wanted to know how everyone interacted when they didn’t know I was listening. My stealth skills were quickly betrayed however by my own inability to keep my mouth shut as I stepped on something that crunched. I immediately let out a yelp and felt the eyes of everyone but Robin flock to me.

“My lady,” Victor said enthusiastically, “are you ready to go?”

I looked down to see another dead bird under my foot. I’m not even sure how I hadn’t seen it. And now I was too disgusted to even process what was happening. I let out a loud series of gulps and groans as I tried to extricate myself from the bird body. Bearon and Victor seemed just as surprised as I did at the sight. I finally couldn’t take it anymore, “why is there a dead bird in the house?”

Robin turned flatly towards Victor, “would you like me to prepare this one for supper my lord?”

“Oh lord no,” I replied as I started backing up to head out of there.

“How did that get in here my lord?” Bearon was saying as Victor responded even louder, “why don’t you tell me how that got in here?”

I somehow how wandered into Victor’s study. It was a nice quiet place to escape them for a bit. I went to pull a book off the shelf. Despite having floor to ceiling book shelves filled with books in here it was strange only a few actually seemed to have titles. I flipped it open to find something even more surprising, an essay by Euclid. I couldn’t help but wonder, did Victor enjoy reading Greek mathematician’s work on geometry? For some reason that seemed very out of character for him. I went to set it back and nearly screamed at what was awaiting me behind the books. “There’s another dead bird in here!” I yelled.

Victor had somehow appeared behind me. He was completely wide eyed. His facial expression seemed to read a million different emotions before he sighed. “Gross,” he mumbled.

Bearon was standing in the door way with a smug expression on his face, “what was that my lord? That sounded a bit out of character for you.” Were his hands paws? For a minute I swore they looked a bit fuzzy.

“Tell Robin to prepare something for Annalise and I,” Victor replied, “we’ll leave for town tomorrow. She’ll need a cloak.”

Bearon nodded as he turned to leave. Suddenly he was back. Victor however looked unusually frazzled. He walked over to the dead bird and proceeded to gingerly pick it up with a handkerchief. He went to search for the bin next. I watched him return to his favorite chair after and proceed to slump. He placed a hand over his head as he rubbed his face. He seemed to be searching for something to say. I expected a “sorry you had to see that my lady.” But instead was met with a look of pure crippling depression. I figured it was time for me to talk first.

“You like Euclid?” I responded.

“I’ve had a lot of time to read a lot of things,” he replied.

“I didn’t expect you to be such a scholar,” I replied.

“Elementary geometry is hardly scholarly my lady,” he replied, “I should hope you be more impressed by something more advanced. Unless you take me for a fool that is.”

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Was that a line from the book? It sure sounded like it. I realized I was standing there blinking at him for longer than I had intended. “Not at all my lord,” I replied.

He sat up, “not at all what?”

I could feel the anxious feeling in my chest. It seemed like every time we veered off plot we generated another dead bird. “I don’t take you for a fool my lord,” I replied. I hadn’t meant to audibly sigh but I definitely remembered that line being in there for some context. Victor chuckled as he sat back in the chair.

“Feel free to spend the evening as you please, we’ll plan to leave early in the morning,” he said.

I flashed a thumbs up as I turned back to him. Suddenly I wanted to find more dead birds, at least they weren’t goats. If we were going in the morning I was about to come across a massacre tonight. I was supposed to go from finally trusting this man and even considering him a potential love interest to being terrified he was going to suck my blood. Annalise had milled about during the day and at some point ended up outside at night after hearing a strange noise when she found the bodies. “Victor, my lord, I uh, really don’t want to find any dead goats,” I said.

I turned back to see he had raised an eyebrow, “me neither.”

He slowly stood up to walk towards me. “Shall we spend the evening together than?”

Well this was definitely not in the book. “Sure!” I replied. He indicated towards the massive rows of books lacking titles. “You want to spend it reading together?” I replied.

He smiled as I went for it. I grabbed the first text I could find and plopped myself near his feet to flip it open. Victor slowly stood to grab something himself and gingerly sat down behind me. For a moment I swear I felt him lightly pat my head. I let myself rest against his leg as we hung out there together. This was definitely veering off course, but honestly he seemed happy about it. I could practically feel Bearon looming from the doorway. I probably should have paid his angry stares a bit more heed, but all I wanted right now was to enjoy this brief moment of dead-animal-less peace.

I wasn’t even sure what I was reading, and I hadn’t even noticed myself lightly dozing off as I rested against Victor. But the next thing I knew i was roused by the distant sound of thunder and soft pitter patter of raindrops at the window. Victor was staring at the window in horror as something shrieked in the distance. I shook myself awake as I tried to stand. Both of my legs were now officially asleep and I proceeded to tumble directly on to Victor’s lap. He caught me without removing his eyes from the window. “I know I know, we need to go check it out,” I groaned. Just like it had happened in the book. “But you’ve been with me the whole time,” I reassured him.

I struggled to a stand as he lightly took my arm. He was staring at me with a very strange expression on his face. “This is the first time…” he muttered.

I may have ruined the moment, “that someone has sat in here and hung out with you like this?”

I could tell by his expression that we weren’t on the same page at all. He smiled as he bent forward to lightly kiss my lips. I don’t know what he had been intending to say but I felt him cup the back of my head as he went in for a deeper kiss. Strangely the weirder I was, the more this man seemed to be falling for me. We walked towards the dining hall next arm in arm and I nearly jumped as we passed the looming figure of a bear by the door. It took me a minute to register, was that Bearon again?

Two plates sat on the table with some sort of strange soup. “It’s probably cold,” Victor mumbled as he pulled us towards the entrance to the garden instead. I couldn’t agree more, after the events of the day I too wasn’t hungry.

The entire house was unusually dark and quiet as we stepped into the garden. Victor was supposed to watch me from the window from this part. He seemed to know this too. He nervously looked back towards his bedroom window upstairs as he clung to my arm. I could sense his unease increase as we stepped on to the garden pathway. I tried to diffuse the tension. “You saw the bear too didn’t you?” I asked.

He laughed, “I’m not afraid of bears my lady.”

“What are you afraid of?” I replied.

“The flower dying…” he mumbled.

I wanted to ask for more details. But I knew book Victor was very limited in what he could say whenever I pushed too much I was limited by the same constraints. “Do you ultimately accidentally kill the flower?” I replied.

“I would never,” he answered.

There was another flash as we both looked down the path. “Lightning,” he muttered.

“I’m supposed to walk down that pathway by myself aren’t I?” I replied.

“Supposed to?” he replied. He didn’t seem to want to move from where he stood. “It’s supposed to not rain today. And honestly I don’t know what happens if you don’t go check,” he muttered.

“No goats?” I replied, “would that be so bad?”

He seemed to mull this over for a moment. “Look as long as I’ve got you here, I’m not scared,” I said confidently as I could.

He grinned as he pulled me in to kiss me once again. I threw my arms around his neck as we stood there. It wasn’t supposed to be raining, but we had both started to get soaked. I jumped as another flash of lightning and corresponding boom of thunder sounded in the distance. Victor grabbed my arm to pull me back into the house as he started laughing. “What’s so funny?” I replied as he indicated for us to jog towards his study.

“The window,” he replied. I looked to see a pile of dead birds just outside. These ones were black in color. I’m sure that was supposed to symbolize something but at this rate I didn’t care what. “At this rate we’ll have no birds left on the property,” Victor giggled.

He shut the doors behind us as he entered his study and proceeded to start up a fire in the small fire place. “Do me a favor,” he said as he began to unbutton his shirt next and throw some pillows near the fire place. He indicated for me to sit by him as he propped himself up there by the fire, “dry off here with me.”

I nodded as I began to pull my dress over my head and was pleased to see my slip underneath was still dry. I plopped myself next to him and felt him wrap an arm around me. It felt really nice to lay there on the pillows with him and let him curl around me. In fact it would have been incredible romantic had I not noticed another dead bird on the windowsill. “The longer I spend with you, the more attached I feel,” Victor mumbled as I felt him lay down next to me. It felt almost like a line from the book. But for some reason, I got the impression this one was an honest comment. He wrapped an arm around my side as he buried his face into my neck. “Please don’t leave me,” he muttered.

I heard heavy footsteps outside the door as what I could only assume was bear shaped Bearon trudging by us. There was an audible, “I thought I told her not to trust him,” from the door. But Victor didn’t stir as he nuzzled me. He almost seemed asleep himself.

“Victor?” I asked as he proceeded to utter a soft “mmm?”

“Does Bearon know more about this world than you or I?” I replied.

“Mmm,” he replied. I couldn’t tell if it was a yes or no. And I also didn’t get a chance to ask. The next thing I knew he had started to snore. I tucked myself under his arm as I tried not to think about what it was I was doing there. After all here I was enjoying cuddling the book villain in my underwear in front of a fireplace surrounded by dead birds and a raging thunderstorm that wasn’t supposed to happen. But in hindsight maybe I should have let myself enjoy it. Because little did I know then, all that was in store for me the next day… was trauma.