The Raven's Keep Night had fallen quickly over Castle Greystoke. Many of the staff had begun to drift off to their rooms as Maria snuck Jamie down to one of the servants entrances, "Are you sure you cannot stay the night?" Maria asked with pleading eyes. "I'm sorry." Jamie apologized as she placed her hat upon her head. It was not to say she did not want to stay, she just worried profusely about the lord finding her there in the morning, "I have to work in the morning. I can't let my boss down and your father wants his paper first thing, so I can't just miss that or he may get suspicious, now would he not?" She gently stroked the girl's cheek with the back of her hand, "I'll be back tomorrow night. I promise." She declared with a smile and a wink of her eye. Maria's eyes dropped to the ground, ashamed that she kept thinking of herself and not Jamie's safety, "I'm sorry. I just feel so lonely without you." She admitted timidly. Jamie's hand moved to Maria's chin and raised her head so their eyes met, "As am I." She admitted with a smile, "I love you." She softly kissed the girl softly on the lips, then parted and disappeared into the night before Maria opened her eyes. Maria let out a sigh and touched her lips as she leaned against the frame of the door, "I love you too." She whispered lovingly into the night air. She stood there for a time taking in the crisp night air and gazing up at the stars with love in her eyes. "Maria?" Her father's booming voice suddenly came from behind her and she spun around to see him standing at the door across the hall, "I think we need to have a word together." Maria glanced at the path that Jamie had only recently disappeared down and bid the girl a silent prayer that she got out unnoticed. Jamie slipped passed the night guard through a door in the wall further down the road that Maria showed her long ago. Jamie found if she kept close to the trees along the edge of the road the guard could not see her as she travelled back to town. She almost did not care if she was spotted. She felt like she could walk on air and her heart was with overfilled with love. Noticing that she was far enough down the road to be out of sight of the castle she quickened her pace and ran down the hill back into town. She did not stop until she arrived in the heart of town where she entered a quaint little café called The Raven's Keep. It was a place where many of the town's artists linger after a not so fruitful day of creating. She wove her way around many tables to a bar that took up the left half of the room. Behind the bar stood a tall woman with brown hair wrapped up in a bun upon the top of her head and a long apron covering an even longer dress that was a rich burgundy colour with white lace trim. The woman looked up from the glass she cleaned to greet Jamie with a pleasant smile. "Well, if it isn't our esteemed playwright." The woman boosted as she set the glass down, "Where have you been young lady." She playfully scolded. The Raven's Keep was the only place that Jamie let down her guard about her true self. The company of other artist made her feel more comfortable and she trusted them not to let her secret out, for many of them were the type to bend the bounds of gender like herself. "Evening Ma'am." Jamie greeted with an equally bright smile. She pulled out a stole and jump up to sit upon it. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Victoria?" The woman demanded giving Jamie a stern glare, "You have lived here long enough to remember that." Jamie took off her hat and set it on her lap, "I'm sorry it just doesn't feel right seeing as you are the owner of this place and all, ma'am." She muttered in embarrassment. The Raven's Keep served not only as a Café, it was also a home as well as a haunt. The top two floors above the café had been converted into single bedrooms and gave a place for many weary artistes a place to rest their exhaust minds and Jamie had been living here since she left home. Victoria seemed to have no quarrel with her activities, or looks, and gave Jamie a place to stay out of the rain and toil over her writing. She appeared to be rather keen about the idea of keeping Jamie's secret and on occasion would playfully tease the girl. Victoria let out a sigh, "Just because I take your rent doesn't make me some kind of royalty." Victoria corrected Jamie, "I told you to think of me as a concerned and overbearing big sister." She said with a laugh and ruffled the girl's hair. "Oh! Which reminds me." Jamie reached into her pocket and pulled out the gold coin, "Here is my rent, ma'am" She handed the coin to Victoria who stared at it in awe. "My lord, Jamie." Victoria took the coin from the girl's hand, "I knew you were mixing with some high class people, but this is unreal." She watched the way the candlelight reflected off the coin in amazement, "You know this is good for half a year's food and lodging." "I guess I have simply impressed the good Lord Greystoke enough, ma'am." Jamie said with an uncaring shrug, "He is simply a generous man is all. It is his wife you have to look out for." Jamie stated with a shutter at the memory of the only time she ran into the woman. Lady Clara Greystoke was a tall, elegant woman that held an odd manner to her. Clara was an unusual kind of lady, an eccentric inventor of sorts, always intrigued in the workings of the mind and body as well as a keen interest in unorthodox science. Maria once told Jamie that the woman was known to labour the long nights away in a basement lab. All Jamie knew was that her eyes looked dead and felt like they could pierce her very soul. The woman's very gaze gave Jamie nightmares from that day forward and she wished to never stumble upon that woman's path ever again. Victoria leaned across the counter to look Jamie in the eye, "Is newspaper delivering all you are up too?" She asked fearfully, "Tell me the truth now. They are not doing strange things with you up there, are they?" She interrogated the girl. "I tell you. I am fine, ma'am." Jamie stated nervous by the way Victoria stared at her, "I'm seventeen now. I have been on my own for four years now." She stated clearly, trying hard to not let the woman's glares affect her, "I can handle myself." "I really hope so." Victoria stood up and looked at the coin again, "Castle Greystoke is not a place for a girl like you to get messed up in. I hope you know what you are doing." She gave the girl a wry look. "Is our little Jamie getting herself in trouble?" A rather beautiful young woman with short dark hair and a white strapless gown inquired as she approached the two. Jamie thought the woman looked like she belonged at a ball and not in a dingy café like The Raven's Keep. "It is nothing, Elizabeth." Jamie protested, even more abashed by all the attention she was receiving, "Really, there is no need to worry about me." She repeated with an irritated sigh. Elizabeth stepped closer to Jamie and leaned close to her shoulder, "I see." She said with a smile, "You made love tonight didn't you?" She inquired, her smile turning into a wicked grin. Jamie spun around and gave Beth a wide-eyed look, "I have not!" She violently shook her head in protest. "Then you are still a virgin?" Elizabeth interrogated, her grin widening the more Jamie squirmed in her seat, "Am I right or am I wrong?" She asked curiously. "I..." Jamie turned a shade of crimson and buried her face in her arms on the counter. "Jamie!?!" Victoria gave the girl an appalled look, "Is that how you got this coin?" She held the coin out before the girl's face, "Please tell me you are not following Elizabeth's path?" She pleaded with the girl. Jamie quickly lifted her head, "NO, MA'AM!!!" She cried out in alarm, "It's not like that. I would never sell myself." "What is wrong with being in my business?" Elizabeth asked defensively. Beth was one of the most called for courtesans in the area and she had clients from the grandest of royal courts to men, and women, of the highest social standing, "I am an artist just like the rest of you." She added feeling rejected by her own friends. "I would not think they were putting down your profession my sweet." Said a man in a black suit and white scarf. Bandages covered most of his head leaving only one eye peering out at the women. He also was missing both hands; one was converted to a hook while the other was simply a stub covered in more bandages. He held a canvas tightly under one arm while his paints and pallet were tucked under the other. "Samuel!" Elizabeth spun around and planted a kiss upon part of the man's exposed cheek, "Jamie is in love!" She announced gleefully. Samuel carefully placed the canvas upon the bar, "Good going young lady. Who would the young man be? One of the residence of Raven perhaps?" He inquired. Jamie's blush only deepened and Elizabeth responded for her, "Actually knowing our young Jamie I would presume that he would be a she, am I correct?" She said reflectively with a hand upon her chin. "How did you...?" Jamie raised her head; stunned that Elizabeth would guess her deepest secret. Elizabeth tapped the side of her temple, "Trust me." She stated then leaned close to Jamie, "I can smell her on you." She whispered. Jamie could feel herself overheating and nearly fell off of her stool, "Oops." Beth grabbed Jamie by the arm before she fell, "Maybe I went too far. Victoria could we have a cold drink here." She inquired. "Coming up." Victoria quickly filled a glass with water handed it over to Beth who took the glass and placed it under the girl's lips. "Come on drink up." Beth coxed as she tipped the glass ever so slightly to get Jamie to drink. Jamie swallowed a few gulps before Beth pulled the glass away, "Are you alright?" She asked concerned for her friend's well being. Jamie took a deep breath then glared at Elizabeth, "Do you have to tease me so much?" Jamie snarled at the woman. Beth stepped back from Jamie, "I am sorry." She apologized, "You are just so adorable when you blush. I did not know you would faint like that." Jamie turned to Victoria, "Ma'am, Do you really think I would sell myself off?" She pleaded, "Do you not believe me?" Victoria looked at the coin then back to Jamie, "You really got this from Lord Greystoke?" She asked again, "For the paper?" She demanded. Jamie nodded, "I have been delivering his paper for the past year. I just never told anyone because I knew you would take things the wrong way." She explained feeling worn out by the interrogation. "Then who is the girl?" Victoria asked curiously, "Jamie, I need to know. Usually I'm not interested in others activities, but you are different. I worry about you and what if this girl gives your secret away." She stated with distress in her eyes. "Maria would never-" Jamie cupped her hands over her mouth but it was already too late. The cat was out of the bag so to say. "Young Lady Maria Greystoke?" Samuel asked, shock by this outcome, "I never thought that she would... I mean..." He stammered, "Were the Greystoke's not trying to find a fiancée for the girl on her sixteenth year?" He remarked aghast. Elizabeth blinked, also stunned by the news, "Well, I would have never thought it possible. She is such an innocent child. To think she has been sneaking around behind her father's back like that." She sat down heavily upon a stool next to Jamie. Victoria shook her head in dismay, "How long has this been going on for?" She asked even more unsettled then before. "Only nine months, ma'am." Jamie bowed her head in shame; "We would meet out back of the castle until today when she took me up to her room." She explained uncomfortably. Elizabeth rubbed her face with her hand then turned to Jamie, "Listen love." She always called Jamie 'love' when she was giving her one of those serious talks, "Maria is a noble and you are a newsboy. You live in two different worlds. It will never work out. She will find a man and toss you out like the trash." She stated with a disappointed sigh, "It just won't work out." Jamie jumped to her feet, "She will not!" She cried out. It was not like she had not thought about that before. Many times she found herself laying sleeplessly in bed worrying about what might become of her love, "You have no idea what Maria is like." For some reason having Victoria point it out to her made her defensive and angry. She needed to protect Maria from these rumours and in her heart she believed that Maria would not leave her, "She loves me and we will be together. She promised me." Jamie declared proudly. "As one of her toy servants maybe." Samuel stated bluntly. Beth hit the man in the arm, "Samuel!!" She snapped, but it was already too late. Jamie had already fled up the stair to her room and locked the door behind her. Her sobs could be heard drifting through the floorboards. Elizabeth was about to head up the stairs when Victoria took hold of her arm and shook her head. "Leave her be." Victoria stated helplessly, "She needs her space." **** To be continued...
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