Before The Beginning

Chapter 11: Asking a Favor

Begin!

~Beatrice's POV

"Why do you need to go to Lemony with this, why can't I help you," Bertrand asked.

"Truthfully, Bertie? I don't know. I just need his help with this. It's not a good thing that I'm planning to do and it's probably going to cause some problems, but I can't just disobey my orders. We need that bowl, by any means necessary, and I am choosing to ask Lemony to help with it. Nothing more than that."

Bertrand seemed to understand when I explained it to him. As it turned out, the fastest way to Stain'd By The Sea was via train so I had to wait an extra day to get a ticket. It gave me an extra day to plan out what I had using some help about any upcoming plans Esmé had. Because of this I opted to tell Bertie what I was doing and why. Bertrand would keep this secret, he understands its severity. I told him everything that happened; he was enraged about my confrontation with Esmé, but I didn't have a choice on avoiding her.

"Just promise me something Bea, come back safely."

"I will."

~...

Stain'd By The Sea was an interesting little town, however at the moment I'm sure it would have looked nicer if it wasn't raining here. I held my coat tightly around me and walked the streets looking for Lost Arms; the building that Kit said her brother was staying in. Upon finding it, I quickly went inside. I saw an older man smile at me behind his reception desk.

"Hello, ma'am."

"Hello, I need help, is there a Lemony Snicket here? I'm a friend from work."

"Lemony? Well he's been renting a room, but at present he's out."

I took a breath, "Do you happen to know where I might find him? It's rather important."

The man showed me a small map of the town. "Well I see him a lot with Miss Mallahan, she lives at the Stain'd Lighthouse. You could try asking her, he might even be there now."

"Ok thank you sir," I replied before stepping back out into the rain.

I could see the lighthouse off in the distance. I hope Lemony meant it when he said if I ever needed him he'd agree to anything I asked. He's a good man, and I hate to see him in danger too, but everyone is in danger unless we get that sugar bowl. When I reached the building, I knocked in a specific way that would tell Lemony who it was. (Something we used to do as children together.)

The door was opened by a pretty woman with slightly curled blonde hair, covered by a hat, and grey eyes that looked like they might have been black at one point.

"Hello?"

"Er, hi..." I started, "Um, I'm looking for Lemony Snicket... It's for business."

She gave me a skeptical look before calling out, "Snicket, you have a visitor!"

Lemony joined her at the door and stared at me in shock. "Beatrice?"

"Hi Lemony I need to talk to you. It's work related..."

He quickly pulled me inside. He introduced the woman as Moxie; she seemed less than enthused to meet me, but I couldn't worry about that right now. I was here for a reason. They let me hang up my coat to dry, and brought me into the kitchen. While passing the other rooms I noticed the living room was where they had been previously, a movie was paused on the tv and there was a mess of blankets on the couch. I also noticed Lemony's hair was a mess, when it was normally rather tidy. It was nice to see that he was doing fine without me. Moxie brought a typewriter with her and set it on the table.