“Patience is a virtue. Boldness is a strength. Friends are a godsend.”
–Raine Silverwind
“You may as well set you’re mind to it, Miss Friday Moore. In a little while you’ll be leaving friend and country to travel the world with two insanely brilliant cryptozoologists. So there.”
Benjamin sat on a crate in the kitchen of the Lion and the Unicorn, stuffing his thin frame with the autumn apple harvest. Friday smiled and approached the window. It was a clear day and she reveled in feeling the sun on her skin. The pale and sickly look that she’d had for some days had gone and her tremors had subsided. And if going back to the life of an orphaned servant at an inn was a little bit dull, she found she didn’t mind.
“But you know, Benjamin, I’m not sure I’m all that I should be for the job. Every time I think about that Dog…” She could not finish the sentence.
“Well, what of it? If you needed some help, that’s no big defect. Surely even the Doctors themselves rely on each other some of the time. And the main thing is that you made it anyway.”
“You are very good to say so.”
He gave her a small, shy smile.
Benjamin had become a regular face in the kitchens in the weeks since their return and, being a fair-haired and handsome young man with uniform features, white, straight teeth, and, it was assumed, a private fortune, even if he was too tall and thin, the two friends had to endure friendly teasing about their being sweethearts from Vera and even Mr. Hays. Anne, of course, was another issue, entirely.
Friday was sure that the young woman thought Benjamin too high a prize to be caught by a dependent. And so, in spite of her prior preference for Geoffrey, Anne always managed to appear pretty and smiling and with dark shining marcel waves, and looking every bit the fashionable woman whenever Benjamin was around. Friday was also sure that Benjamin liked Anne. It might have been the fact that he always sat straighter when Anne was come round. Or it may have been the way his eyes lit up when he saw Anne. Or, Friday laughed to herself, it may have been the fact that, when she’d asked him, he’d blushed profoundly. And though she pitied his poor judgment, she assumed that all the things she’d ever read on the strangeness of love must be true.
Anne came in then in a new deep blue dress. As was her way, she pretended not to see Friday and greeted Benjamin.
“Mr. Davis,” Anne said brightly, “I didn’t know you had come.”
“Didn’t you, Miss,” Friday replied, “Only I was sure I heard cook tell you.”
Anne gave her a sideways look and continued her conversation. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m just keeping Friday company,” Benjamin returned with another shy smile, “until she leaves us for more exciting parts.”
“Have the Doctors already made their choice?”
It was a thing of great interest to Friday, this art of flirting. Anne could seem so interested and even knowledgeable at times on subjects about which she held no interest and no knowledge. She’d seen Anne’s strategies used on Geoffrey. But with him they did not seem to work so well as with poor smitten Benjamin.
“They have not yet announced their decision,” Benjamin said, “But I know they’ll choose Friday.”
“I’m sure you’re too modest. I’ve heard that you were very brave as well. Of course I’d count anyone a hero who dared to go into the forbidden forest.”
Friday was half laughter, half nausea at this display and so she excused herself to check on the linens hanging on the line. There were always those linens. She remembered how she had forced herself to think of them, at the dark time when she had approached the Black Dog. She walked around outside slowly for Benjamin’s benefit, loving the way the white sheets looked in the soft wind. She closed her eyes, enjoying the noise they made as they fluttered to and fro.
“Miss Moore,” said a tentative voice she knew well.
She faced Geoffrey, “How do you do, Mr. Eliot.”
“You looked so peaceful,” he said, “I almost didn’t interrupt you.”
“It is no interruption. I should be doing my work.”
She grabbed a basket and began to take down sheets and fold them with intense focus, not wanting to think about why she couldn’t just stand there and look into his eyes. Geoffrey shifted from one foot to the other.
“I’ve meant to come for a few days now to come and inquire about your health. The college is still alive with talk of the ‘interview’ in the Forbidden Forest.”
“Oh yes, I am quite well. Thank you, Mr. Eliot.”
There was more awkward silence.
“Miss Moore,” Geoffrey began, “I wonder if I might—“
He sighed, uncertain of how to continue. “I am always very clumsy with you.”
“I should be getting to work,” Friday said, turning towards the kitchen again, her safety.
Geoffrey grasped her arm. “Just a moment,” he said. His eyes were dark and serious, “You’re always running away.”
“It isn’t proper for me to be here with you and alone, Mr. Eliot.”
“Just a moment,” he said again.
Friday felt the hand that remained on her arm. It would be so easy, so exquisitely easy to imagine herself in both Geoffrey’s arms, unafraid, unhidden by the sheets that fluttered in the wind. His eyes were demanding that she look into them. She couldn’t help it; she didn’t want to.
“Is it so difficult to tell how much I love you?”
She had not expected this. She shook her head at the shock of it. The words, spoken so softly, were loud enough to her to wake the dead. Her breathing was ragged. The wind took it away.
“No,” she said as she pulled away, “No, you can’t.”
“Friday, I don’t care about family. It’s never mattered to me in the slightest.”
He sought to move closer to her, but she recoiled. Even his touch now hurt her, seemed to burn.
“Friday,” Benjamin called.
Anne was attached to his arm. Friday felt the world spin.
“We wondered what kept you,” Benjamin said.
Geoffrey still glued his intense gaze on Friday.
“Well, good day, Mr. Eliot,” she said quickly and took the sheets in. Yes, there were always the sheets.
Stumble It!
