Grey Skies

Journal

Copyright 2014 @phoebe_wv883

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Chapter 1

Sophie

"Mummmm." I whine, "Why can't I go to London with you?"

"Sophie, you know I'm only going for an afternoon, to visit with your aunt, you would be terribly bored." My mum, the Duchess of Lighton, replies.

"Fine. Have it your way." I toss my iPhone, and then myself, on to my bed.

"Lovely, see you later." Mum kisses my cheek, and then walks out of my room, forgetting her hat. She rushes back in, then places the feathered hat on her brown hair, and leaves once more.

"Bye, mum." I mutter under my breath, and then turn my attention to Minecraft.

I don't know exactly why, but whenever mum and dad aren't home, the house feels empty. I know the house is never exactly empty, because over half of the staff that work here are live-in, I've never been home alone. After about twenty minutes of Minecraft, I get extremely bored, so I text my best friend, Liz. And I wait. And wait. And wait. She hasn't texted back in three minutes, her phone must be off.

So I hop off my bed, and stuff my feet into my tan fold-over Uggs, and grab my puffy black jacket. I twist my dark hair into a messy bun, and as an after-thought, put my phone in my back pocket. I run down the stairs, past the huge portrait of the 5th Duke of Lighton and his family. I think that the paintings are actually kind of creepy, ever since Liz pointed out that the kids have the faces of old people, just littler bodies.

I make my way to the main door, and on the way, I see our butler, Smith. Smith, unlike the other members of staff, has been around since I was born. Smith has a kind face, and even though he's a servant, he's a bit like a grandfather to me; he provides me with advice, and when mum and dad are grating on my last nerve, I can always turn to him. I don't know what I would do if the slightly elderly butler left.

"Smith, I'm going out for a walk in the gardens. I should be back in about 45 minutes." He slightly bows to me, and says, "Very well, Lady Sophie. You'll be pleased to know the white roses have bloomed, and I know they're your favorite."

"Thank you Smith." I respond as I go outside.

~ 10 minutes later

I haven't walked the gardens in a quite a long time, and I have forgotten that it clears my head. By the time I have been walking for about 15 minutes, I reach my desired destination: the creek. When I was a child, I used to come out to the creek almost every day. It was my absolute favorite place on the estate. Now, I still like the creek, but my favorite place is the window seat in the Burgundy Room. You can draw the, well, burgundy drapes around you and bring a book or ... something like that.

Now that I'm at the creek, I will do what I set off to do in the first place, find my mother's old journal. I heard her and dad talking about it the other day, and she said that there was something in the journal she had wanted to show me, but because of everything she had to do, (yeah, right) she couldn't come out to the creek and retrieve it herself. So I did. I looked in the first place I thought it would be, and because it was my lucky day, I found it!

You see, I don't consider my self a nosy person, just a curious one, so I don't open the book, but I promise to myself to give it to mum at dinner. As I lift the small book from the "hidden" safe box, a small piece of paper falls out. "Bloody book!" I exclaim. I don't want to be ruining mums book, not after I've just found it! I grab the piece of loose paper, and upon closer inspection, see that I haven't actually done anything wrong. The paper that fell out was a letter, from the Queen of England. Okay, this is freak out time. I set the book down, on my jacket. I close the safe box and put it back into the split tree trunk and squat to cover it back up with foliage and a sprinkle of dirt. I stand up to admire my work, and brush my hands off on my jeans. "Perfect!" I exclaim to myself. I bend down to pick up the journal, and grab my jacket with my left hand. I contemplate putting it back on, but it's sunny outside and I'll be warm enough in my light gray three quarter length sleeve shirt. I start jogging back to the house, and I go across the lawn, past the white roses. When I near the house, I see Daes, the chauffeur, unloading the car. Dad is back from Spain! I run even faster until I burst through the back door, sweating and out of breath. I spot my dad, a tall man with graying hair, in the library. Even though I'm 13, I still become very excited when my parents return from long trips.

"Sophs!" My dad smiles.

"Dad!" I groan, "Don't call me Sophs anymore." But I'm so glad that he's back, I can't harness the smile that spills over my delicate features.

~ 20 minutes later

"How was Spain?" I question my father, now that we have tea and are more comfortable in the small library.

"Oh Sophie, I wish you and mum would have been there! I hate leaving you all alone in this big house." He says with his drama that causes me to giggle every time.

"I wish I could have gone too, I love Spain, almost as much as Italy." I reply, stirring my tea.

"I know. But it was only for two weeks, and I just stayed with Uncle Charlie the whole time. He didn't let me out of his sight, he's always been that way, acting older than me and being overprotective."

"Wow, sort of like somebody I know." I tease.

"Do you mean mum? If so, I definitely agree." He teases back.

"Uh-huh." I say back, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Dad holds his hand up to his mouth and acts confused, looking about the room. "Y-yo-you mean me?" He asks back.

"What, no." I feign surprise. And then promptly dissolve in a fit of laughter.

~ 2 hours later

That night at dessert, I give mum her letter. Over crème brûlée, I pull out the note from the King and say, "Mum, I found something that was yours." I reach across the table, and hand the letter to mum. As she sees the address, her eyes become wide, and says "Sophie, wh-where did you find this, darling?"

"In your journal. The journal is in my room, I told Lynn to put it on my bed, but I thought you might want to see this."

So, what do you think of it so far? I think I'm going to change part of the plot, so yeah. Comment, vote, and keep on reading, keep on reading.

~Phoebe