Broken Hands ; mepperfield (historical creepypasta fanfiction)

12 - string, needles and buttons yet no biscuits

The first rays of sunshine where piercing trough the kitchen's window. One stitch at a time, Kyle was sewing back together Lottie's winter cloak. She had given it to him as far back as last august, yet he had not begun his work yet. But this very morning, as the cold wind swooshed over the thin glass outside and brushed the inside of the Ward's chimney in loud whistles, He had made his way downstairs and gathered his sewing material on the table. Multiple colored strings, his trusty meter and the rest of his clutter gathered in a lovely metallic box with text on its lid. It read "Londoners Lime Tea Biscuits" in a fancy writing over some drawing of a park promenade somewhere in the capital. The black haired boy had no idea where and when they had acquired this box, perhaps his mother had sent it in the mail, he couldn't remember. Yet he did not care much as the box wasn't containing any of these lime tea biscuits anyway, only scissors, needles, buttons.. A tailor's ustensiles. Now Lottie's cape had been trough a serious rough patch. He wondered how such a considerate girl could ever have ripped her clothes apart in the slightest. He also wondered how such a considerate girl could have done anything to hurt Mary, not that he knew.. What she had done.. To hurt Mary. Maybe he did not want to know at all. Maybe he would just, let his flow of thoughts drift away until.. "Ouch!" Kyle whined as he accidentally stung his finger with the needle. 

Edmund who had just entered the room let a light laughter escape. "I would have thought all these sewing apprenticeship you took at the finch's over the last few years would've taught you to be a wee bit more cautious Kye-Cakes" 

-"Don't call me like that.." Muttered Kyle, his cheeks red of embarrassment. "And, what are you talking about , apprenticeship i took at the finch's..?"

-"Oh classes, courses, tuition, call them what you want. You know what i mean. What tea shall i brew for your breakfast Kylebear ?"

Kyle still had absolutely no idea what Edmund meant, but he knew fair well how much he hated all the odd nicknames his siblings had crafted for him. "Black tea, with a few drop of milk please, and my name is Kyle, im a grown up now you know?" He falsely scolded. 

"And im still your Elder." Gently mocked Edmund.

-"What put you in such a good mood ?" Later on asked Kyle as his brother was serving him his cup and sitting at one of the corner of the table.  

Edmund raised his eyebrows. "Well it's you. You've just seemed in much higher spirits lately.. Ever since you've started going out again with these two Londonians fellas. You were to meet them later this morning too am i right ?" 

Kyle's heart tightened. Was that right? Had he been.. Better? Well he was certainly eating again. He had even gotten up to work on his project, he was leaving the house often. But how could he ? Was he even allowed to feel better..? After she had passed..? His heart filled with shame. His Mary, it still wounded deeply, he still woke up desperately in the night, realizing she was truly gone.  Was he allowed, even in a lifetime, to ever heal this wound..? So in what had been merely a week... 

-"And i thought.. maybe today was the day i'd announce the big news to you.." Edmund cut his brother's thoughts with a soft smile. "Do you still remember Millicent..?" 

Kyle furrowed his brow. "Miss Beckham? Your school friend who's become your penpal after she emigrated right ?"

Edmund nodded, his eyes fizzling away in the room, filled with what seemed like excitement. "We're getting wed! The Beckham family has decided to help us financially move to the New Orlean ! Kyle we're all moving to the Americas !"

Kyle's whole body felt as if it had been fiercely shaken. "Americas! Americas! Americas!" Sang his brain louder and louder, to the point where he was pretty sure his ears where oddly bleeding again. The black haired boy fainted a smile and nodded. "Th-thats.. Brilliant! Yes, amazing.." It meant they where back at the starting point again, just like they had been a few month ago.. The Ward's plan to use their nobility to marry into wealth, buying lands in the New Orlean, all of that while avoiding the matter of their mother's disappearance... To be perfectly honest, he didn't knew himself why the news sounded so bad.. Thats what he had wanted; to come along. He remembered clearly how forgotten he had felt when Edmund had announced a few month earlier they where moving without him. Abandoned, betrayed, is what had shaken his core. But now that leaving him behind was out of the question, Kyle still felt horribly wronged. They where forgetting him again in a way, brushing his feelings apart, just like his mother had done for all these years. Was he truly not worth being present in their discussions? Why was it they had made such an important decision  without even doing the mere effort of asking him before? His work in Mepperfield wasn't done. He had to uncover the truth about Mary's death. He had to find his mother. Then, there was Tim... In any way he tried to wrap his mind around the idea of living somewhere Tim wasn't didn't feel right to say the least. They had been together, best friends, ever since they where so small they could actually sneak behind the bakery's counter, attempting to steal a few pastries.. Of course, Lottie would always catch them and scold them while pulling their ears when they did so. But it didn't matter much whether they where laughing or crying, they where together. It didn't make much sense.. Nothing between them made any sense, not even Kyle's round and soft tailor hands compared to Tim's shepherd roughened hands covered in a constellation of small scars. Not their line of work, not their height, nor their social status or their way to talk. They where something of an odd duo. Yet, nothing felt right, nothing made sense when he wasn't around. Kyle could finally begin to understand what Mary had meant, being afraid to leave one's home, because Tim was his very own home.