Page 3 of The Fae Girl 1

I stared out at it, in truth I wasn’t exactly the ‘outdoors type’, I’d much rather be curled up inside with a good book but something about that expanse, something about those trees felt different. It was if they were calling to me. Beckoning me.

I blinked, wondering if perhaps I was going mad. If perhaps the absurdity of all of this had tipped me over the edge.

A small cough behind me told me Bates was back with tea. I smiled as I followed her back into the main suite room.

“I trust everything is to your liking?” Bates asked as she poured the tea through the strainer.

“It’s perfect thank you.” I said. It was more than perfect. It was unbelievable.

“I’m happy to hear that. Perhaps once you’re done with the tea I can give you that tour and bring your belongings up?”

I nodded eager to see the rest of the house. Eager to see every inch of this place. I’m sure I could have just insisted we do the tour now but I didn’t want to offend Bates, not after all the trouble she’d clearly gone through.

So instead I sat, taking big gulps without making it look obvious. Hoping she didn’t notice the wince as the tea burnt my mouth.

* * *

I walkedfrom one room to another with my mouth ajar.

With every step I took I swore I’d smacked my head and fallen into a dream. How was this house mine? How had my life gone from such emptiness to this?

I bit my lip to swallow the excited giggle that threatened to give me away. Bates was walking ahead, giving a little information on each new room. A little history to it. A little history to a family I’d never even met.

By the time we’d finished the tour my head was spinning. Bates disappeared off to start preparing dinner. Apparently she was cook and housekeeper. I wondered how on earth she managed a house this size all by herself.

Maybe I needed to sort out more help, I’d definitely need cleaners.

I let out a snigger. I sounded like lady of the manor. I sounded like I had an idea of how I was going to live here, when in reality I was still dumbstruck.

Bates ate with me. We made small talk.

Perhaps she could see my head was somewhere else and that I was exhausted.

After she left for the night I walked the silent hall up to my suite.My suite. Yeah, I was never going to get used to that.

I ran a bath, poured a ludicrous amount of bubbles into it and then sat staring out the window to where the trees were illuminated with the setting sun, just as I knew they would be.

I think this was my favourite view. Those trees. Something about them did something to me, stirred something in me. I let out a low breath as I realised they were my trees now.

Everything around me, everything I could see was mine.

Iwoke with the duvet wrapped so tightly round me it felt like I was suffocating, fighting to get it off until finally I was free. Laying back, my heart still racing, I tried to get my head together.

I was here. I was safe.

But every time I closed my eyes I was back again. Back at the school. And they were all there.

I gulped feeling the familiar lump in my throat and refusing to give into it. Refusing to let the panic win. After all I wasn’t the same Alice anymore. I was New Alice. Better Alice. I might still be an orphan, I might still have no family but finally I had some control over my life.

I got up, put on the ridiculous silk robe Bates had laid out for me and stared out the window, willing myself to be distracted, to stop thinking about it.

But it was futile. Pointless.

I shook my head, forcing myself to move.

And quietly I crept out of the room, out into the hallway beyond, stalking the corridors, as though this house might itself be a balm for all my hurts.

I don’t know how long I wandered. How far into the house I really got but eventually I found myself in the main drawing room, with the doors wide open, staring out into the distance. Once again lost in the sight ofthosetrees.

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