To Love A Myth - Book 1: Mr. Higgs and the Maid🎩✔️

28

Higgs didn't see Merida for a while after she had her little outburst on the stairs and decided he should go and check on her. He knocked on her door but she didn't answer, so he decided to open it up and see what she was doing in there. He found the room dark but his arachnid eyes made it possible to sense where Merida was. He walked over to the bed and found her fast asleep on the bed but he smelled damp salt water and leaned over her to smell where it was coming from to make sure it wasn't here. He sniffed where she was for a moment.
"What are ye doin?"
Higgs pulled back as Merida opened an eye to stare at him. He crossed his arms.
"I smelled salt water and I was making sure you weren't crying."
"Oh."
"Are you alright?"
"Aye, I'm fine."
"Why do I smell salt water then with your scent on it?"
"Dinnae..."
"Merida..."
"I does it matter? I cannae change the past..."
Higgs thought for a moment and nodded a little. "I see... You can't blame yourself for what's happened to him, Merida."
"I ken it, I just wish I dinnae have to believe it. Catherine was right about him."
"What do you mean?"
"She said that I'd be able to understand immediately what he's gone through when I see him. I thought she was just exaggerating but... but when I saw him..."
"Uncle Kans is used to being stared at as well as mocked and ridiculed. There's nothing you can do about that."
"Ye ken I cannae?" Merida sat up. "Ye really believe I cannae do anything about that forlorn look on ye uncle's face?"
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying that you're getting mad about something that you can't fully understand and could never possibly do so unless you were back in time with him when it happened. All you did today was make him very uncomfortable with that little outburst of yours. He thinks he's angered you."
"Ye told him he hasnae right?"
"Of course I did, but that has no bearing on anything. He has trust issues too, you know."
"I might have figured..."
"Edgar said you said you'd fix some broth for him. He's been waiting for you."
"Aye, I best get started on cooking dinner. What um... can he eat?"
"Uncle Kans? Yeah but it will be a bit of a chore."
"How so?"
"Anything his flesh touches turns to gold except for clothing, for some reason. Food is included in that. If it touches his mouth, it turns to gold and he can't eat."
Merida drummed her fingers on the mattress, wanting to go into another tantrum again but her headache wouldn't allow it and she sighed.
"So yer saying that he cannae eat?"
"No, I don't think so. I think during the month of the Midas touch he doesn't eat at all."
"He drinks though, yah?"
"I think so? It's not a curse item that any of us have so it's kind of all up to Uncle Kans on how to do it."
"Ye're not verra helpful."
"Well, like I said, it's not something the rest of us have. What father has is only through me, but Kans and Rad don't have what my father has save what my grandfather passed down."
"This will be a chore..."
"I'm sure he'll be fine."
"Higgs, ye cannae eat for a whole month and be fine. I'll think of something..."
Higgs crossed his arms. "Don't do anything stupid, Merida."
"Ye ken I'm a fool?"
"I 'ken' you're going to cause an issue. Your brash nature works fine with me and will probably work on Uncle Rad but Uncle Kans is not the same as everyone else around here. He's fragile in a lot of ways... going full force like a whirlwind will not be the best course of action. I suggest you figure out a better tactic or he'll never want to come back again."
He turned and left the room as Merida stuck her tongue out at him. She was capable of doing a lot more than just yell and threaten. She understood, though, why Higgs was getting on to her. Just like she sensed with his other uncle (suave and all), he was protective of his uncle and anything that got in the way of that was not going to do. Her quick temper and anger at what was done to Kans was going to have to be curbed somehow, although she didn't know how she was going to do it. Looking at the man just made her want to punch something and all for reasons that were for the good, not the bad. She could just see the hurt in his eyes, the years of mental torture, feeling that he would never be good enough for anyone or anything... that he felt he was unworthy to even be in the same presence as everyone else. Merida growled again and threw a pillow at the window. If the past were sentient, she's punch it in its big fat ugly face... but Higgs was right and she needed a different approach to Kans. She got up and headed to the kitchen, deciding she'd think about it over making that broth she promised Edgar.