𝑰𝒗𝒚 | r. de noir

18. the curiosity

OLIVE AWOKE TO FIND HERSELF in her bed. A cool cloth sat atop her forehead, and she'd been covered by her duvet. At her bedside, sat Aunt Jane, fast asleep in a chair. Her head drooped to one side, and her spectacles had slid halfway down the slope of her nose.

Someone had long since started a fire in the hearth, which now was but a dim flicker of light amongst a pile of embers. Outside, the late afternoon sun was beginning to fade, like the fire. Olive figured she must've passed out and slept through most of the day.

As Olive pushed herself up to sit, Aunt Jane snorted herself awake and upright. She readjusted her spectacles, before gasping with relief at the sight of her awakened niece.

"Oh! My dear, thank goodness you're alright. How are you feeling, child?"

"I–"

"–And what on Earth got into you? Running off into the woods, getting Maria to lie for you?"

"But Aunt Jane, I–"

"Such utter nonsense that girl was spewing, something about a curse, and the moon, and that you'd told her some silly story. After everything she's been through, the last thing she needs to hear is some tale about how her new home is in danger. Honestly, my child, I really thought you knew better."

Olive's jaw sat open, wavering, but she couldn't find any words to speak.

"Alas, we are all very glad that you decided to return," Aunt Jane sighed. "You gave us quite the shock." The woman forced a smile, and reached forward to pat her niece on the arm.

How could Aunt Jane have gotten it all so wrong?

After a moment of pathetic, misunderstanding silence, Aunt Jane stood, and brushed off her dress. "Well, I know Maria will be delighted to see you awake," she said, before turning towards the door. "Once she gets the chance to see you're alright, I'll have someone draw you a bath."

Olive noted the way her aunt's nose twitched as she glanced at Olive's tattered underclothes that were mostly hidden beneath the duvet.

"And have someone remake your bed."

Before Olive could gather her thoughts, Maria came bounding in through the door. "Oh, Olive! I'm so glad you're alright, now!" she cried, leaping onto Olive's bed to give the girl a warm embrace.

After a moment, she peered back at the door, her delighted tone falling to a hushed whisper. "I'm so terribly sorry you had to escape on your own," she said. "I tried to explain everything, but Miss Heliotrope and my Uncle wouldn't believe me. They said we never should've read that storybook, and that the whole thing is just some fairytale. That you should've known better not to let me go into the woods with the bandits, but that there was no true worry because even though they're known to steal goods, they've never kidnapped any of our kind, before."

Olive sighed after she finished processing Maria's outpouring of information. "It's alright, Aunt Jane is always determined to find my faults, no matter what. I can't even understand why I ever thought they might believe us in the first place."

"However did you escape the second time?" Maria asked, leaning forward on the bed. "I for sure thought you were doomed, and was cooking up a plan to sneak out and save you myself, but Uncle wouldn't let me out of his sight."

Olive thought of Robin, now, for the first time since she saw him last. She had no time to think of him, as she ran through the trees, as she could hardly keep up with her breath even as she crashed through the doors at Moonacre Manor.

"The De Noir boy," Olive spoke. Her face suddenly turning pink. "Robin, he.."

Maria's face paled. "Oh, Olive, he didn't hurt you, did he? That awful–"