Page 19 of Waking Roslyn

“Would you like to tell me what the problem is?”

I shook my head. “No problem.”

He remained seated but drummed his fingers on the wood table as he studied me. “So, you are breathing heavily and crushing the fabric of your skirt with your fists because everything is just fine?”

I looked away and cleared my throat, trying to loosen the grip of my hands on my skirt. What should I say? What could I say? “There was a…man that came to see Lord Rockwell.” I crossed my arms over my stomach, hoping to trap my hands into submission. “I don’t wish to meet him.” It was honest, but not too honest, and I hoped it might convince him to help me.

“Did he do something wrong?”

His concerned tone made me look up at him. “No, not…not just now. But I have met him before, and I do not care for his company.”

“Do you need a place to hide?”

“No, of course not. I just need a place to be away from them for the time being, some place where they might not know to look for me.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “So, you need a place to hide.”

Hm. I realized that was exactly what I had described. I let out a sigh. “Yes. I suppose so.”

He smiled, and the sincerity of it struck me. He wasn’t smirking or being flirtatious. He was just being kind. “That shouldn’t be too difficult,” he said as he stood up.

“If you believe that,” I said, barely managing to keep my train of thought as he rose to his full height, “then you must know some secret of this house that I don’t.”

“Come with me” was all he said as he crossed to the other side of the kitchen. On the far end of the same wall that that the door was on, there was a small table, which he pushed aside.

I approached, curious. “Crouching beneath a table wasn’t what I had in mind.”

He looked up at me and grinned, then pushed on the wall behind the table with his shoulder. It swung open.

I studied it for several moments, stunned. Then I looked back at the door I had used to come into the kitchen. This room was at the back of the house and was rather long. Things suddenly clicked into place. We lived in the new wing, but obviously, this kitchen had once been connected to the old wing, the original manor house.

“Hopefully you don’t mind a bit of dust,” he said, gesturing through the doorway.

I was eager, both for the distraction and for the opportunity to put more space between myself and the man from Saldine, so I hurried to go where he pointed. “I don’t mind.”

I proceeded into the darkness a ways, then turned and looked back in time to see Johnny grab a lantern and follow me before closing the door behind him.

We walked side by side, staying in the ring of light created by the lantern as we walked down the wide, black corridor. The silence started to feel awkward.

“This is the old wing,” I said in an attempt to break the tension.

“It is.”

“The cook mentioned that it was all closed up. It seems a waste though.” I looked up in time to see his mouth pinch.

Then he nodded. “It is a waste.”

He didn’t say anything more, so I cast about for another topic. “The cook is your mother?”

“Yes, she is.”

“And your name is Johnny?”

He chuckled a little. “My mother calls me Johnny. But I go by John.”

“It’s good to meet you, John. I’m Rose.”

“I know,” he said simply as he opened a door to the right and led me into a room full of furniture hidden under sheets. He walked over to what had to be a couch and set the lantern on top of a table that sat in front of it. “Here,” he said, bending to pick up one of the corners. “If we lift this off carefully, it won’t raise the dust too much.”