Rose and the Thorn (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16
Patrick
I woke up by myself like I had been doing all week. It left me to focus my thoughts.
I had gone out of the house last night.
Rose told me about her father and her ex-boyfriend and I had told her about my family.
It felt better than I had once thought. But I hadn't had the need to tell anyone before. People knew my story and the only person I had to deal with was Jenson.
I heard the knock before Jenson peered through the door with my breakfast.
"Morning Sir," he said sitting down the tray.
"Morning, how's Rose?" I asked.
"In bed, Sir. Following your orders."
"Good."
After I had carried her to bed. I had made my way to Jenson's office and told him not to let Rose work. I couldn't help but feel it was my fault.
"So are you going to tell me what happened last night?"
"I told her," I admitted, "I told her everything."
He stood silently as he thought.
"Well that was very brave thing to do, Sir."
I nodded feeling lost for words. I kept what she had said a secret. She didn't need Jenson to know.
"Sir, I asked you three weeks ago what you thought of Miss Rose. Would your answer be the same now?"
I thought about what I had said.
She was arrogant, rude, and stubborn. And yes she was all those things. But she was also beautiful, kind, understanding. She understands, on some level what I had been through.
I through my head back in the pillows.
"I don't know Jenson. My mind is telling me two different things. I've never been so confused in my life," I admitted.
"Will you allow me to give you some pointers?"
I raised my brow in disbelief.
"You're going to give me relationship advice?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"Rose is a very independent person. And I think she's been looking after herself for a while," I'll say, "try treading carefully around her. Don't make your full feelings known till she does. But make her feel special."
His advice made my head spin. Don't smother her but show your feelings. But not too much that she'll get scared.
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
"I wasn't always a butler, you know."
He smiled and left the room. It was only then that I realized that he wasn't going to watch me eat. He trusted me to eat? Five years ago, if he had left me alone, I wouldn't have. But I did. I ate everything that was on my tray.



Rose
I had never been so board in my life. Including the eight hour flight from New York to London. I couldn't sit still. If I did, I wanted to sleep. I had finished the book I had started two weeks ago and now I just roamed the empty halls of the mansion.
How could he get through that? To have face all those memories of his family, and then knowing that they will never come back. He will never talk to them. See them. Love them.
I had never realized my own pain till then. Though my father was still alive, the person he was, was long gone.
I remembered when I was twelve. It was just another Sunday afternoon. I was trying to do homework when our stove broke down. We stared at it as if we were trying to fix it with our minds.
Without saying anything, he handed me my jacket and walked out of the apartment.
The streets of Brooklyn were lit up by street lights as we walked side by side. My father's face was stern and filled with worry. I never understood why he was so worried all the time. But as we moved from apartment to apartment and Dad went from job to job, it wasn't hard to figure out.
"Rose, you should be in bed," Patrick called from behind me making me jump.
"God, Patrick, don't you ever do that!" I yelled trying to catch my breath. Why does everyone creep up on me when I'm in a dark hallway?
"I will when you start doing what you're told?"
"Let me give you a little hint; I don't do what I'm told. And I'm bored, so if I don't do something interesting I will fall asleep and die. That's if I have a concussion."
"You would be stupid if you didn't have concussion," he stated.
"Well people do say that I have a thick skull," I said as if proud.
"I bet they do."
I found myself giggling and flicking my hair. Why the hell was I flicking my hair?
"If you're not going back to bed, what do you suggest we do?"
I frowned, "we?"
"Well yeah, I think you should be supervised."
I wanted to laughed, "You think I'm going to go somewhere I'm not supposed to."
"Won't you? It sounds like something you would do."
I groaned, "Yeah."
"So what should we do?"
I was scared of my answer, "It's your house, what do you do for fun around here?"
"Well, I haven't had much fun for five years. But I did love to play hide and seek."
"Hide and seek that's your idea of fun?"
"Like I said, I don't have fun. But hide and seek was fun around here. There's so many places to hide."
"Yeah, we're not five."
He shrugged me off, "then what do you want to do?"
"Play for me."
He frowned, "play for you, like the piano?"
"Are you deaf? Yes I want you to play the piano. I heard you the other day, I thought it was nice."
He shielded his head as he was embarrassed. It was so hot.
Stop it, Rose!
"Okay, fine."
He led the way to the East Wing. It was truly one of the darkest rooms in the house. The light from the hallway lit up half the room but the other half was pitch black. I was amazed that he could even see the keys.
But he did and he played beautiful. This Patrick was different to the one I knew. It was as if he was importing to the person he used to be as each note came from the grand piano.
When he finished, I was speechless.
"It's good. It's really good. I can't believe you can remember all the notes."
"Well I should, I wrote it."
"You what?" again I was speechless. Who was this talented man that sat before me, "H-how did you, like, music. You wrote music," I could barely even speak.
"You make it sound like nobody can do it."
"Nobody can unless, you know, are smart. And well I'm, well, not."
He laughed, "You're smart."
I scoffed, "no I'm not. I dropped out of school."
"That doesn't mean you're not smart. Every time you have the day off, you read."
"That's because I want to escape from reality."
"I do that too but I don't read."
"No, you shut the world out."
"That's because the world is a horrible place."
"Oh, I know, I come from the world."
"So you say."
"Yes I say!" I had raisin my voice without realizing. I swallowed feeling overwhelmed with feelings. I needed to lie down.
"I'm going to go," I said not leaving.
"If you think so."
"I do."
I stood there for a minute or two deciding what to do. Of course I knew what to do. I nodded leaving the room.