Vixen's Mistress Chapter 50: Forgotten Key

“You really told Hannah to tell Damian about Everlial?” Eda asked with a hint of shock in her voice. Thankfully the door to Mr. Williams’s office was closed so that no one could hear them.

“Not directly. I simply said we are all deserving of knowing where we come from,” Mr. Williams said as he continued to write in the ledger.

Eda had found over the years that if Stewart continued to work while answering a question that it meant he was nervous. “That strikes me as very out of character for you,” Eda admitted. Stewart was always one for following rules and etiquette even when it wasn’t the best of ideas.

“Is that such a terrible thing?” Again he continued to write instead of looking up at her.

Without hesitation Eda said, “No. I’m actually impressed you did such a thing.” She really was, though she wasn’t sure how to truly convey just how much without making negative implications of the proper way he is usually acted. “I just don’t understand why this of all things was what made you change your ways ever so slightly.”

Finally Stewart stopped writing, but didn’t quite look up yet. “I do believe that the only way for a society to grow and improve is to know where they came from. Even to a less grand sentiment, just a town needs to know its own history. A family, or even just a single person. Of course we can grow without the knowledge, but we can never truly know just how far we have come without it.”

Normally when Stewart would say such things he would state them with a lot of conviction, but right now he sounded far more somber than Eda would have expected. Vulnerable even. Eda was disappointed in herself that her initial reaction to this was one of slight distaste. It was very rare for Stewart to ever talk like this and Eda should encourage such open honesty instead of feeling that it was strange coming from him. “It sounds like there’s a little bit of personal history in relation to this.”

The pen in Stewart’s hands started to move again, but this time he wasn’t actually writing anything. He was just nervously moving it around. “There is.” It took a while before he spoke again and Eda was happy to wait. “I was adopted. I don’t remember much about my original parents or where I came from. I just remember we traveled all through my early childhood before they left me behind. My adoptive parents said I used to have a strong accent at first but they weren’t ever able to place it. I lost it very quickly so now I have no true idea of where I originally come from.”

These two had known each other for many years at this point. Well over a decade, but never once had he told Eda about this. She couldn’t blame the man as she kept her own personal history rather secret as well. “I think Hannah would appreciate you explaining this to her.”

Now his eyes did glance up at her confused. “Why would you say that?”

“Hannah is adopted as well.” Normally Eda wouldn’t have been comfortable sharing information she had originally learned from Rayne in confidence, but after the whole Hannah running off incident Eda went to talk to Neila and Jane. They had told her about what happened in greater detail, including that Hannah was adopted. Maybe that was still the wrong decision though… Maybe Hannah had told those two in confidence.

“I hadn’t known that.” Though most of his face remained stoic he so often portrayed, Eda could see his eyes soften a little. “I never expected a beastkin to share in so many experiences as humans might.”

“I think that’s the beauty in spending more time with people. We might not look the same, but at the end of the day we always find a way to connect with them.”

Stewart gave a gentle nod. There was a brief pause before he finally put down the pen. “Speaking of connecting with Hannah, both her and I are under the impression that there might be many people who mistake her position here. Many that might not respect her authority over the library.”

“That is not an unreasonable assumption to make. Even with how fast news spreads amongst nobility, it never appears fast enough to avoid incidents.”

“As Lady Hayward said tonight, Hannah had only been talked about in gossip rags so far. Even after hosting in three days the news will still come as a shock to many.”

Eda nodded. “This season is going to be interesting.”

“I agree. I did have one idea to help with the confusion that I spoke to our lady about.”

“What would that be?” Any help on that front would be welcome. Eda was good at dealing with talks between staff, but Stewart was better at facilitating things between nobility and staff. So for this she was going to defer to his opinion a little more than she normally might.

“I suggested that we should provide Hannah with clothes more fitting of her position over that of a maid's uniform. At least for when we host.”

“By the Goddess, please do not tell me you actually said this to Rayne.” Eda couldn’t help the clear annoyance in her voice.

Stewart looked very concerned at Eda’s reaction. “I did. I thought it was a reasonable decision to make and Lady Hayward agreed with me.”

“It is reasonable, it's just…” Eda trailed off before closing her eyes. She took a few deep words to calm herself down over what she knew would happen. “That is a reasonable idea. I think it will help greatly in showing there is a difference between Hannah and the maids whilst we host. Even outside of hosting it would be appropriate, especially when she teaches the family.” Stewart appeared to be a little calmer again. “I just have a few problems with it.”

He took a breath of his own before asking, “What would those be?”

“First, you just told Lady Rayne Hayward to buy clothes for someone. The woman who very famously loves buying exorbitant amounts of custom clothing.”

Stewart’s eyes went a little wide in realization. “Ah… I see where I should have considered my words more carefully.”

“Secondly, I recognize that since you have already spoken to Rayne that she’s going to do it regardless of what we say now and I’m worried about ensuring people don’t think she’s using Hannah as a living dress up doll.”

He nodded his agreement, still outwardly regretting his approach to this with the lady. “I feel ashamed I hadn’t considered that aspect of my proposal. I know the lady wouldn’t wish for others to see her that way, but I agree that I have set her down a path that might appear like that. You know Lady Hayward far better than I; do you have any idea how to remedy this?”

Eda paused for a very long moment whilst she considered the possibilities. “I think we have to accept that Hannah is about to receive a lot of clothing, but we can help say what those should look like. Rather than fancy outfits that we might see nobility dress up their beastkin in we should try and reign Rayne into getting Hannah professional style clothing. Clothes more fitting specifically for teachers of Hannah’s caliber.”

“I think that would be a wise direction to guide Lady Hayward in. I believe that was what I tried to express when I talked to her, but I do see with the lady that my point might not have gotten across.”

Giving a light chuckle Eda said, “That woman has determination like no other. Once she is set on an idea it’s hard to get her off of it.” Stewart nodded his agreement. A thought occurred to Eda. “Have we given Hannah a key to the library?”

“No,” Stewart said, only slightly confused by the change in topic. “I’ve given her the key to the gated shelves but that’s it.”

It was normal for only the head staff and the family to have keys to the rooms of a house. That was why the staff didn’t even have keys to their own rooms. That being said, the librarian was the head of the library staff. “If we want to make sure Hannah’s position and power over the library are respected should we give her the key to it?”

That was a question that Stewart pondered for a little while. “We didn’t with our past librarian.”

“No, but he wasn’t full time. Hannah is and that means she will be here when we host. If she decides there are too many problems with nobility making their way into the library, she could close it without having to leave it to find one of us to do so.”

“I can see how that would be helpful,” Stewart conceded.

“As the librarian she is also technically considered head of that staff.”

“That is also true. I wonder what other households would say about us having a beastkin as a member of head staff.”

“I’m sure we will find out once we start hosting.” A slight smirk grew on Eda’s face. “Though I might enjoy the upset of other houses. Sometimes they can get far too prideful.”

Stewart smirked. “Not that we aren’t known to suffer the same sin.”

“True.” Eda sighed. “If we are giving her the library key we should also give her the drawer key.”

“The drawer key?”

“Yes, even the drawer key,” Eda confirmed. The look of true confusion that crossed Stewart’s face concerned her. “What?”

“What drawer key?”

“The drawer key to the desk.” What other drawer key would she be talking about?

He continued to look more and more confused. “Who’s desk?”

“Hannah’s,” Eda said with a noticeable hint of annoyance. “The desk in the library.”

There was a pause before he spoke with a slightly concerned voice, “That desk doesn’t have any lockable drawers, Eda.”

“Yes, it does.” There was notable anger now. “The bottom left drawer has a lock for the lower half when you open it.”

“Does it?”

“Yes!” How could he not remember the drawer? It was Cyrus’s favorite hiding spot for things. Especially little presents and things for his family. Eda’s eyes unfocused from Stewart and suddenly went very wide. For the first time in a very long time Eda felt her face heat up in embarrassment. “Oh… Oh no…” How could she have forgotten?

Seeing Eda’s face go red truly concerned Stewart far more than he felt comfortable with. How many times in all his years working here had he ever seen her face go red? “Oh no what?”

Eda’s eyes focused back on him, but her vision quickly started turning blurry. “Cyrus told me not to tell people about it.”

“Cyrus? As in Lord Cyrus Hayward?! The late lord?”

Eda brought her hands to cover her mouth and nose. The tears were starting to fall now. “He purposefully had it added to the drawer to hide presents in there because Rayne had a terrible habit of trying to find her birthday gifts. I completely forgot we never told you. That we never told anyone…”

Stewart started to grasp the weight of what this all meant. “Since I never knew about it, I was never able to give the key to our old librarian. He never said anything about it either. Which would mean that, unless you have opened it, it hasn’t been opened since Lord Cyrus last used it.”

A shame almost greater than Eda had ever known welled up inside of her. How could she have possibly forgotten about it for all this time? In an almost panic she reached down to her châtelaine, not going for the keys that hung in the open, but for the small little pouch that hung off of it. Cyrus had been worried Rayne would ask what the key was for if she kept it with the rest of the keys. She had always been such a persistent and observed little girl. It didn’t take much digging before she managed to pull out the small forgotten key.

“The anniversary of the lord and lady’s death was a little over a month ago,” Stewart said gently, afraid to upset Eda further. It had to be said though because… “That would mean if there was something in there it would most likely be a gift for Lord Kaden’s birthday.”

“Goddess, please forgive me.” Eda’s voice was so quiet. “I’m going to lose so much sleep over this for months to come…”

Stewart wasn’t sure what to say to that, so instead he focused on another point. “By now the family have all gone to bed or are not in a state they would like to be disturbed in. We can tell them all in the morning at breakfast. I’m sure they will all want to be together for this.”

Eda only nodded, her throat growing too tight to speak.

“I can be the one to tell them.” He paused before saying, “I can say it was I who forgot about it.”

Her tearful eyes finally looked away from the key in her hands and back to Stewart. He would really take the fall for this. The shame inside of her told her to accept his offer, but Eda knew she couldn’t live with herself if she did that. It didn’t take much effort to shake her head, but it did to force out words. “No. I’ll be honest. I’ve faced worse.”

“Are you su—” A knock at the door cut Stewart off. It was rather late for someone to be knocking. “Yes?”

The door opened quietly and Eda saw Jain nervously standing in the doorway. “Jain, what is it?”

“I have something I’m worried about.” Her voice was very timid as she nervously glanced between the two head staff. “I’m worried that Lady Margret might be sick with something bad.”

It was jarring how fast Eda’s body switched from utter misery and shame to immediate care mode. “Elaborate,” she said, quickly getting up and pulling Jain into the room. For as much as she wanted to close the door quickly, she did it slowly and quietly. That only made Jain more nervous.

“You asked me to help with dressing her since she doesn’t have a proper lady’s maid yet.”

For the most part a noble woman wouldn’t have their own personal lady’s maid until she got married. Unwed a lady would just have some of the maids help her, maybe even her mother’s lady’s maid if she wasn’t busy already. Then once they got married they would usually pick one of their favorite maids to become her lady’s maid and bring her with her to the husband's home. It did admittedly work a little differently when it came to whether or not the lady’s maid was a beastkin or human as beastkin couldn’t say no to the move.

Back at the Keating estate Margret probably had a couple of beastkin who helped her dress and undress. Since she didn’t bring anyone but Damian, who, though a beastkin, was still a man, it was now up to the Haywards to provide someone to help Lady Margret. Normally in situations like this Eda would get Anna to do it as she had the most experience, but with how Anna had been acting with Hannah, Eda decided to give that important task to someone else.

“Did you notice something when helping her get ready for bed?” Eda wasn’t going to be around the bush, even if Stewart looked very uncomfortable with the idea of talking about an undressed Margret.

Jain was clearly growing more nervous as Eda’s intensity didn’t let up. “Yes. She had these little very light bruise like circular marks on her…” Jain paused as her eyes glanced over to Stewart. “Lower chest,” She whispered quietly. “And down her stomach to her hips.”

Of course the worry of a sickness spreading through the house was a major concern. That was why they had a doctor look over Hannah. However, Eda knew this wasn’t a sickness. “Jain.” Eda’s voice was cold and hard. “You are to never talk to anyone about this, do you understand me?”

The maid just stared at Eda with wide eyes, unused to this level of cold from the head house maid.  “But if she’s sick then shou—”

“You don’t tell people about this, Jain.” For as cold as Eda was being, she could have been far colder if Jain actually understood what she had seen. Maybe Anna would have been the better choice. She might not be the nicest of people right now, but Eda was certain she understood not to talk about such things. She couldn’t go back on it now that Jain had seen.

“I-I don’t understand. Why wo—”

“Jain. You continue to help Lady Margret and pretend as if those little marks don’t exist.”

“I don’t want to get sick.”

Eda let out a sigh. Tonight was not turning out to be a good night. “You aren’t going to get sick, Jain,” Eda said with a gentle and warm tone. With all the emotions running through Eda tonight, she couldn’t truly piece together the best way to handle this. Sometimes innocence wasn’t the best, and she probably should explain to Jain what was actually going on. On the other hand, telling her was just another avenue for Margret’s reputation to be destroyed. “The marks will go away in a handful of days and I promise you that this is nothing to worry about. I just need you to keep it a secret.”

“I still don’t understand why,” Jain said, still clearly scared but now confused by the sudden shift to a gentle tone by Eda.

“One of the maids back at the Keating estate clearly wasn’t as gentle as you were in helping Lady Margret,” Stewart said, finally breaking out of his discomfort. “We will tell the family and leave it up to them to decide what to do. They’ve probably already handled it back there, but even so this isn’t something for the staff of this house to gossip about. Lady Margret might even be very embarrassed about it and in this time of change for her, we need to make sure she feels comfortable here.”

“Very well said, Mr. Williams.” Eda would have sighed in relief if it wouldn’t have potentially stood out to Jain as strange.

Jain appeared more at ease now, but it was clear she was still worried. Hopefully that worry was only caused by how cold Eda had been at the beginning and not in doubt of Stewart’s words. “Alright…” Jain paused. “I’m really not going to get sick?”

Eda gave a gentle smile. “No, Jain. You’re going to stay perfectly healthy, I promise. I’m sorry I was cold with you. There were other factors at play with my emotions other than the business with Lady Margret.” It was a little upsetting that her words didn’t appear to make Jain feel fully better, but at the same time Eda couldn’t blame her. Eda knew she could be rather scary when serious and cold.

“Thank you for your concern, Jain,” Stewart said with a smile. “We will handle it from here, so no need to worry.”

Though Jain seemed satiated with their answers she still was clearly off a little. “Alright. I’m sorry to intrude so late.”

Eda shook her head. “Please don’t ever feel like you're intruding if there’s something worrying you.”

Nodding, Jain said, “Goodnight Mr. Williams and Ms. Eda.”

“Goodnight, Jain.” Ten whole seconds was how long Eda waited after Jain closed the door before she let out a sigh of relief. “Goddess…” After plopping herself back down in her chair all Eda wanted to do was put her head in her hands. She didn’t do it though and just let out another sigh.

“Well… That was surprising.” Eda only nodded. Margret didn’t appear to be the kind of woman well involved with men. “It’s a shame that she ru—”

“Do not go down that road, Stewart. Do not ever go down that fucking road!” It was rare for Eda to ever get truly angry. It was even rarer for her to yell. This matter was one that she would never hold back on though. Even if there were people outside of the room who could hear it. “Do you understand me?” Eda had never seen his face go so white. Had she ever even yelled at him before?

“I-I understand.”

[Back from break! This was an interesting chapter to write. I do like writing about other characters and events in this house that aren't necessarily directly related to Rayne and Hannah. I also just like writing Eda having vulnerable moments of her own since she's been acting as the wise caregiver that helps other through those kind of moments.

In the future during my breaks I might upload chapters of the starship story. Normally I try to keep a consistent word count of chapters (4,000 for Demon Bound, 3,000 for Vixen's Mistress) but I think for that series I'm not going to have a minimum since for now it's just a bonus story. I say that but I'm probably not going to write anything under 1,500 words XD]