Greenbriar Manor

Mind Your Manor

Meanwhile: 

At the Manor Martha was getting used to her temporary job as Manager. She quickly realized it required alot more than just signing things and meeting guests. There were calls to make, rooms to clean, children to mind and rooms to decorate. Even the nightly meal of her benafactors was in her control. The first night Mack and Fran were away Vivien and Jake came home to a dark kitchen instead of a meal. When they looked for Martha she was nowhere to be found and could not be reached by phone. Vivien almost called Fran in tears begging her to come back but she knew she needed a break. Also, they quickly learned that wherever Martha changed linens or washed any dishes or did laundry that it was like the water changed color to a muddy hue.They worried that the old well had finally run about dry. They told her to check on it but she brushed them off though It had stained many aprons and other linens.

Also, Ingram noticed that when she went in the house from outside after dusk there was a strange odor that followed her. Something akin to mud after a rain and iron ore. They wondered if it was because of the water pump outside the main property was in need of repair. As it was the one that she washed her clothes and hair in everyday before work. They offered to let her wash and shower whatever she needed at the Manor but she declined. Grey's do not take charity. But Brooklyn always came to walk her home through the thicket at dusk and no matter how many times he tried to follow her home he would get lost or suddenly be called back home.  Nothing seemed quite right unless he was with his horse. Even his father wanted Fran to come home after noticing his son become withdrawn and ill tempered trying to be perfect at his equestrian pursuits. He had made up his mind if they did not come back he would sell the horse at the end of the year. Things had become too much for all of them. Nothing was worth Ingrim losing his education and his kind spirit over. Not even if it could give him a good future. Brooklyn watched on as Sultan began to learn and be led and as the end of the warmer weeks came to a close he knew that he was ready for one competition. The Greene's allowed him to enter a race the last day that Mack was to be gone. So that when he came home there would be a new ribbon and two great stories but as the days neared Vivian found herself restless and unable to sleep. 

 One day while Martha was doing her rounds she wandered into the stable and went to see Sultan. As she felt the horses dark withers it began to sweat. Thick drops ran down his coat like he had a fever. He stomped his feet and whinnied low in his throat more like a roaring lion than a horse.  He was spooked by this woman and Vivien started to worry that she had come to work more for the stablehand than the house chores themselves. Everyday at her lunch hour she would repeatedly find that woman and the three legged dog of Brooklyn's wandering near the stable. The old man they had hired was training Ingrim harder than ever and he was learning to jump the horse. Brooklyn showed him how and he followed through beautifully. He almost never thought of Mack although he had only been gone a few days. Mari had begun to spend all her time in the library reading books about dolls and horses and worrying about Mack. Brooklyn was waiting to see if Fran would return but enjoying the time with his parents in the same place again for the first time in many years. That was until the night that Fern's mother had her bad dream. She woke up in the night after Fran left with a fitful screaming and Fern rushed to her side.  Fern touched her mother's hands and they were waxy and cold. Her lips looked blue and she was shivering. She recounted a story that she had dreamed she drank a glass of water and that some time after drifted off to sleep. That she tried to drink more but all the pipes swelled shut and she had to go down to the stream for more. But when she had found the stream the water was bubbling and murky. She followed the bank down and down throught the thicket and came out the other side and when she got there was a giant felled tree. She could not get around it or over it. As she attempted to she noticed a doll with a beautiful porcelain face and green eyes but when she went to remove it from the stream she noticed that it was smiling. At first it calmed her but then she realized in the treeline stood a figure. An old  woman with a rolling pin and an apron and behind her a child that looked exactly like that doll with a teacup in her hand leering at her and pointing. Through the thicket she saw a treehouse and inside it another redheaded little girl. She ate a tea biscuit and the sky grew dark and as the first clap of thunder hit she was violently thrown backwards into red mud. Twisting her ankle and swallowing the tepid bubbling water of the creek as she tried to flee the storm and warn the children. Another limb fell in front of her and then darkness. She woke up screaming and gagging with Fern standing over her. Fern gave her some of the tea Brooklyn had suggested to calm her nerves and read a story to her so she would go back to sleep. Since coming here it seemed that Fern had become the mother hen type. Running the business, doing chores, cooking meals, minding children. When would she ever grow up and go on to do something else? She longed for Fran to come home so she would have some time to herself again. Mari had been staying in the loft and so she was sleeping in her old bedroom. She wandered in one day and opened a book on horses. A piece of green foil paper came out in her hand. An invitation "Marisol Grey you are cordially invited to a welcome home surprise party for Bridgette Greene  at Greene Manor February 6, 19..." The last two numbers were indicipherable long since rubbed away by age and grime inside the library book. She should not be snooping anyway it was no importance to her about a party  she was not invited too. She turned to see Martha enter the house. She pulled off the linens on the bed and acted as if she was preparing them for laundering. Martha shrugged as she walked out of the house and down to the Manor. She would look for more invitations in the library shelves for she could not ask about it and there was no one here to comiserate with but Brooklyn and he seemed only to care about the horse. She wished she did remember her lessons from school each day but as time progressed she felt even those were becoming dull. When had they come here anyway and shouldn't it be time for them to find their way again in the world? Everyone else had...Martha ran the house. Mari and the man, Brooklyn and Ingrim had the horse barn. Vivien, Jake had their society life and upkeep of the house itself. Why were they here and what was that strange dream her mother kept having ? Was her condition getting worse? She had come her searching for a friend and had found only folly. Maybe it was time to go home. She just had to wait until Fran came back then she would resign. 

Things were changing as they always did ...family came and family left but the Manor kept records. Fran would need to return quickly... Brooklyn hoped that she would as he finished training his father's last stallion and watched the sun orange and hopeful give way to blue horizons and then total darkness that can only be felt as things long loved shift to another end.