The Ties of Family (RotG Fanfic)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jamie sat on the window seat, looking out of a window in the bedroom he and Sophie were to share. Snow fell thickly around the manor and the sky was dark. There was a woods near the manor, Jamie remembered, and as he stared out into the darkness and heard several wolf howls, he felt fear rising inside him. His thoughts wandered back to four years before when they had battled Pitch Black. Was he out there? As far as Jamie knew, Pitch Black existed wherever darkness was, even in the darkness at the top of the stairs.

Where was Jack? Jamie hoped the Guardian would fly to the country to see him. There was snow around here after all. Jack had to be near. Jamie gazed at the window, hoping to see frost swirling on it. But nothing close to Jack Frost could be seen except the snow on the windowsill.

"Jamie, aren't you going to bed?" Sophie asked, peering out from under her blanket. "Mom will be awfully mad if she caught you up past your bedtime."

"Come on Sophie, I'm already fourteen," Jamie replied, not taking his eyes off the window. "I can go to bed whenever I want. But you, you're just eight."

"I'll tell mom you were up past your bedtime," Sophie threatened.

"Don't be such a tell-tale!" Jamie snapped. His thoughts then wandered to the portrait he had seen along the stairs. He had to talk to Jack about it. But where was the Guardian?

Maybe I was just imagining things, Jamie thought to himself. Without a second thought, he grabbed his coat and a torch from his bag and hurried out of the room into the long, deserted, dimly-lit hallway. It looked very much like the hallways and corridors in dark castles he had seen in some movies. He hurried to the stairs, the lamps along the walls were his only source of light. "Wouldn't Pitch love to have this place as his lair," Jamie muttered to himself, as he reached the stairs. He went down a few steps and stopped at the portrait he had seen earlier. Turning on his torch, he shone it on the portrait.

There was no mistaking it. Jamie clearly recognised who it was. He peered closer at it, studying the features of the subject. There wasn't a single doubt about who the subject was. Jamie had tried confirming with the butler earlier, but the guy wasn't the friendliest of people.

"Why are you staring at him like that?"

Jamie jumped at the voice and almost dropped his torch. He managed to grab it and shone it upon the person behind him.

As the light beam hit her, cousin Estella held up her hands in front of her face to shield her eyes from the light. "Sorry," Jamie muttered, before turning back to the portrait. He was then overcome by an idea and turned back to Estella.

"Hey, do you know who this guy is?" Jamie asked, pointing at the portrait.

Estella gazed up at it. She then looked at the bottom of the picture, at the frame. She pointed at a small carving there. Jamie shone his torch on it. There was a name there.

Jackson Overland

The name was followed by a date, showing the date of birth of the portrait's subject and the date of his or her demise. Estella brushed her fingers over the date before coughing a little. "Jackson Overland," she said. "He was only seventeen when he died. He was born in Burgess, just like you and your family. Judging from the date, he was from very early colonial times."

"Wow, you really know all this stuff, don't you?" Jamie said, smiling a little.

Estella coughed a little before replying, "Yeah, my mom makes me learn all about the history of our ancestors and history itself. She wants me to be a historian when I grow up, but I don't know if that will happen." She coughed again. "Anyway, Jamie Bennett, you should be in bed, not here."

But Jamie was thinking of something else. "Cousin Estella, you said something about learning our ancestors' history," he said. "This boy, is he our ancestor?"

Estella looked at Jamie in surprise, though the boy couldn't see it in the dark. "Jackson Overland? Our ancestor? Of course he is! All the portraits here are our ancestors. It's like a timeline. The most recent ones are at the bottom of the stairs, the earliest ones are here."

Jamie shone his torch at the portrait again. "Tell me, cousin, when was this portrait painted? When Jackson Overland was still alive?"

"No," the girl replied. "After he died. They had an artist and his sister described him and the artist painted this. It is said that it resembles him completely."

"His sister?"

"Here she is."

Jamie shone his torch on the next portrait. There was the portrait of a lady, but she looked slightly older than her brother. Part of her hair covered her face like Sophie's and as Jamie studied her features and hair, he absent-mindedly reached up to touch his.

Estella coughed a little before remarking, "We are descended from her. Her brother wasn't married and he didn't have children. Now, I really must get to bed. I only came down here because I heard someone running in the hallway."

"Wait! One last question!" Jamie said. Estella turned on her way up the stairs. "H-how did Jackson Overland die?"

Estella hesitated for a moment, racking her brains, trying to remember. "Wait a second... oh no, don't tell me I've forgotten... wait..." Jamie looked at her hopefully. "Ah, yes! He fell into a pond!"

Jamie frowned slightly. "How can falling into a pond kill you? Did he drown? Didn't someone rescue him?"

"It was in winter. The pond had froze over, but not all of it. Part of it had not froze completely. Jackson Overland saved his sister, I think. He fell through the ice and into the cold water. And you know how cold water like that is. If I'm not mistaken, he died from cold water shock or hypothermia or something like that. He existed too long ago for me to care to remember. Please don't tell my mom I said that. Now good night, Jamie Bennett." She hurried back up the stairs and in the darkness returned to her bedroom.

Jamie shone his torch over the portrait again. There was no mistaking it. The boy in the portrait was Jack, without a doubt. Jack Frost.