the unexpected

discoveries

Lilly hops out of her bed and gets dressed. She puts on the veil and holds willow. As she walks to the dining hall willow keeps playing with the loose string on her veil. Lilly giggles and pulls the string off. She makes it into the room and nobody was in yet.
"Excuse me, can you bring a bowl of milk?" She asks.
"Yes madam." The butler says bluntly.
Lilly sets willow on the table with the bowl of milk. Lilly starts to eat, the door opens and Agatha walks in. Her eyes a sunken in and under them are bags.
" Agatha, you look tired." Lilly says "why don't you go back to bed? I can have them bring your food to your room."
Agatha smiles, "no sweety, I am fine. I have just been doing alot of work since Johnathan passed."
Lilly sighs softly and pets willow. Eric walks in. His shirt was buttoned half way.
"Good morning ladies." He says
Lilly stared at his chiseled chest through the undone buttons.
" Is there anything wrong Lilly?" He asks
Lilly snaps back," yes, I'm fine."
Eric sits next to Lilly and looks at willow.
"It's named willow right?" He says petting her. Lilly nods and everyone eats.
"Where is Adam?" Lilly asks
"He has some tutoring to do." Agatha says
"Oh." Lilly says, "I was wondering if he wanted to go to the library and read for a little while."
"You can read with me." Eric said
Lilly blushes and won't look at him.
"Yeah, Eric is well read and he's read almost all the books in there." Agatha says
Lilly nods. Eric holds Lilly's hand under the table. They go to the library and Eric runs to a shelf.
"Lilly follow me." Eric said
Lilly followed him and saw him on his hands and knees looking in an empty shelf close to the floor.
" Eric, what are you doing?" She asks
Eric doesn't respond and pushes a board to the side and crawls in.
"Come on Lilly. It's safe."
Lilly crawls through the narrow crawl space and stands up. It was a separate room without any windows or doors.
"What is this place?" Lilly asks
Eric chuckles, " when I was younger I would always come here to be alone or stay quiet. My father showed this to me when I was really sad once. I've come here to think about things."
Eric walks to a wall and lights a torch. The room was large. It had a pile of dusty books, the floor was padded. Eric plops onto the floor. Lilly follows, "this room is amazing, the floor is comfy and it's quiet."
Eric nods and lays back. Lilly grabs one of the books and blows the dust off of the cover.
"I've read that book hundreds of times and is still my favorite." He says.
Lilly opens it and reads it aloud. Eric gets close to Lilly and rests his head on her lap. Lilly blushes and she reads. After a while they left the room and went back to the library.
"You're an excellent reader Lilly," Eric says, "I could listen to you read forever."
Lilly giggles, " I don't think I was that good." They both leave the library. Eric walks Lilly to her chambers.
He whispers, "remember when I said you don't belong here?"
Lilly looks at him, "yes, why?"
Eric sighs, "I am sorry. I wanted to intimidate you so you could leave."
Lilly's heart sinks
"But now I want you to stay here." He says grabbing her hand.
Lilly blushes, "i want to stay so no matter what I'm not leaving." Eric laughs and walks to the direction of his chambers. Lilly walks into her room and the maidens are draping a dress on her chair and getting makeup on her vanity.
"What's going on ladies?" She asks
" Your wedding is tomorrow so we are getting everything ready for when you wake up." One of the maidens say
"Will getting me ready for a wedding take a whole day?" Lilly asks shocked
" You are to look your best since everybody gets to see you without the veil."
Lilly gets into a night dress. She was about to get into her bed but one of the maidens braids her hair tightly.
" Why the braid?" She asks
The maiden doing her hair responds, "your hair will be straight when you awake so when we bathe you your hair will wash easily."
Lilly nods and lays in her bed. She pets willow and slowly drifts away into her own dream land.