The Wishbornes And The Fallen Star

Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, and had to calm myself down when I didn't recognize the room for a second. I looked across the bed and saw that Raynard and Irene were missing. What time is it even? 7:00am. Why are they up this early? My headache was begging me to go back to sleep, but I had to go check on my brother and sister.
I was walking down the stairs when Irene and Angus came in from the front door laughing. Irene was carrying a bunch of flowers in her hand.
"Morning Bell", said Irene as she saw me.
"Morning", I said in a raspy voice, "Where did you get the flowers from?".
"Oh, Gussie showed me around the garden a bit, and we picked some flowers for the breakfast table". I stopped on the second last step.
"Gussie?", and as I said it a sharp pain shot through my head. I had to squint my eyes as everything became a bit blurry.
"Yes, Gussie, he looks like a Gussie to me", said Irene as she smiled at Angus. Angus looked at me and asked, "Is everythin okay? Ye look a bit under thee weather?",
"No I'm fine thank you. I just have a really big headache", I said as I stepped down the stairs. "Raynard also woke up with a headache this morning", said Irene as she frowned.
"Where is Raynard anyway?", I asked.
"Oh, he's already in the dining room having breakfast, Helena and Theo left a few minutes ago to catch a flight to London. Some important business came up. They said they'll be back tonight in time for supper", she said as we started to walk toward the family dining room "I'll see you later Gussie", Irene shouted over her shoulder.
Raynard was demolishing some bacon when Irene and I entered the door. He looks like shit. Irene went to put her flowers in a vase standing on the table.
"Good morning", I said as I went to sit down.
"Mornin", said Raynard with bacon in his mouth. I just looked at him with disgust.
"You're up pretty early", I said as I grabbed a piece of bacon before Raynard finished all of it. Raynard swallowed then said,"I woke up with this humongous headache and couldn't sleep any further, so I came looking for something to take. Helena suggested this tea", he handed me a tea pot," at first I didn't want to drink it because you never know if they poisoned it or something, but then Helena had a cup of it and my head was pounding so much by that time I couldn't even think anymore with out it sending a sharp pain through my head, so I poured myself a cup and as soon as I took the first sip, my headache was gone", he took another piece of bacon, "she said it has hibibis something, peppermint and some other type of special honey, made by her mom, in it".
"Hibiscus?", I asked.
"Yeah that", said Raynard as he popped the piece of bacon in his mouth.
I took the tea pot, poured some in my cup, and smelled it. Definitely hibiscus and peppermint, but there was an undertone of something else, almost like honey, but not quite, it smelled different to normal honey. I took a sip and instantly my headache started to ease away.
"It's good hey?", said Raynard, still chewing his bacon. I took another sip and nodded my head.
"Gussies and I are playing tennis today if you guys wanted to join?", said Irene as she bit into an apple. Raynard frowned and looked at me. "Angus", I said as I rolled my eyes and smiled at him.
"No thanks Rena, I'm going back to bed. Still too early for me to be awake and since I don't have to work anymore I don't see the point of being awake at this time of day", said Raynard as he stood up from the table.
I really wanted to check out the library today but I don't want to leave Irene alone again. Not that I think Angus would do anything, but still we hardly know these people, so you never know.
"I'll sit and watch but I'm not playing tennis with you", I said as I put jam on my toast.
"Princess", whispered Raynard as he walked towards the door. I flipped him off and he just showed me a thumbs up before leaving the room.
***
I sat on the bench, next to the tennis court, as I watched Irene and Angus hit the tennis ball back and forth. Irene did it with such an ease that it looked like she's been playing tennis her whole life. Angus, surprisingly, kept up with her.
My focused drifted towards the manor. It's really beautiful. The vines creeping up the walls, the details in frameworks around the windows and the way the light just fell on the building really made it look like something out of a fairytale book.
Someone then whispered something behind me. I turned around but no one was there. And as I wanted to turn back to the tennis court, the lady I saw in the window walk along the garden hedge wall. She stopped and looked at me. She then turned around and walked into a path that vanished between the hedges. Where is she going? I looked at Irene who was still focused on the tennis game. She'll be fine for a few minutes I convinced myself as I stood up and walked toward the hedges.
The path continued into the hedges almost like something you would find in a maze. I turned a corner and my headache started with a flash of pain as I entered into an opening, enclosed by the hedges, with little cottage, that looked like it has once been a doll house, standing in the middle of it. The woman stood in front of the door. She turned her head slightly and smiled at me, then walked around the doll house.
"Uhm Hello, my name is Clarabell. I saw you in the window the other day and I don't think we've been introduced before. Are you one of the staff?", I said as I walked towards the cottage, eyes narrowed as the sunlight just made my headache worse.
No answer.
"Hello?", I said again as I started to walk around the doll house. Still no answer.
When I came back to the front of the cottage I looked along the edge of the hedges to see if there's no other opening she might have vanished into.
Nothing.
That's strange. With my head pounding now, I turned back to the doll house. It was really cute and from the paint left on it, I could make out flowers and animals painted along the bottom of the doll house.
I tired to open the door but it was locked, I then walked to the nearest window.
"What are ye doin?", said Angus from behind me giving me a fright. "Yer not suppose to be here", said Angus as he walked towards me.
"What is this place?", I asked.
"It's none yer concern. Mr and Mrs Wishborne doesn't not want one of yer to be here. So please leave", Angus said with wide eyes and he looked very nervous. I wanted to argue with him, but my head felt like it might exploded, so I just followed him back to the manor.
Irene came running to me as Angus opened the front door. "Bell, what's wrong?", she asked.
"My headache", is all I could get out as I entered the front door holding my head with one hand.
"Angus ask Miss Murray to make some of that tea Helena made Raynard this morning", said Irene as she put a hand on my back and led me to the stairs. Angus vanished within seconds.
"I think you should take a nap", she said as we went up the stairs.
***
I was walking through the forest, but I didn't know where I was going. My feet just kept on walking in a certain direction, as if they knew where they were going. I stopped in front of a door that was hidden between rocks and plants. One would easily miss it if you didn't know it was there. I put my hand on the door to open it, but then I realized, it's not my hand.
I woke up freezing. My room was lit by the last few sun rays of the day. Shit what time is it? I looked towards the clock and saw it was 20:55. Did I sleep that long? At least my headache is now just a low humming pain.
I got out of bed and grabbed my jersey that was hanging on the dressers chair. Weird that it's this cold in the middle of the summer.
    I was about to walk down the stair going from the first floor to the ground floor when I heard Theo whisper,"Angus we have told you to keep them away and to cover up the pathway so that they won't find it". They were standing next to the stairs. I stayed at the top of the stair so that they won't see me.
    "But I did cover it up. I've no idea how she got in there", whispered Angus.
    "If she opened that door everything would have been lost. All of our hard work for nothing".
    "I'm sorry yer..."
    "Clarabell! You're awake", said Helena as she came down the stairs leading to the third floor," how's your headache? Irene said that you could hardly speak it was so bad?", she put a hand on my back. I looked to where Angus and Theo were standing but they were gone. I looked back at Helena and said," It's a bit better now, but not completely. Can I have some of that tea you gave Raynard this morning?".
    "Oh yes of course. Did you like it ?", she asked and I nodded as we walked down the stairs.
    On our way to the kitchen I looked into the dinning room and saw Raynard and Irene were playing chess and Theo sitting at the dinning table reading a piece of paper. Did I miss dinner? Raynard noticed us as we walked by.
    As we walked into the kitchen Theo called Helena. "I'll be right back okay?", she said before she left.
    I just stood in the middle of the kitchen. As every other room, the kitchen was also huge. Well I guess if you have annual balls and stuff you probably have to prepare a lot of food for a lot of people. I sighed and started to walk towards the pantry.
    Raynard then came in as I walked out with some milk in my hand.
    "How you feeling?", he asked as he pulled a chair closer to sit at the big concrete table in the middle of the kitchen.
"Much better, but it's still not completely gone", I said as I walked to the kettle and turned it on. I then opened the cupboard below the kettle and took out a cup,"want some tea?", I asked Raynard. "No thanks", he said and looked at me strangely.
    "How you feeling?", I asked as I opened the top left cupboard where all the type of teas were. I didn't see Helena's special tea so I just took some chamomile tea.
    "Much better after my nap. You slept for quite a while?", Raynard said and just kept looking at me strangely.
    "Yeah my headache was really bad so I guess it knocked me out somehow." The kettle stopped boiling and I poured some water into my cup, then added two sugars and some milk. I put the cup on the table across from Raynard and said, "Something really strange happened with me today", I said as I went to the pantry to put the milk away. When I came back Raynard still kept staring at me in that strange way.
    "What? Why do you keep staring at me like that?", I asked as I sat down.
    "Have you been in this kitchen before?", he asked.
    "No", I said as I took a sip from my tea. Then it hit me.
    "How did you know where everything was then to make tea?", asked Raynard. I put the cup down quickly and just stared at it. "I... I just did", I said. How did I know where everything was? I looked back at the pantry then at the kettle. It must have been a coincidence? Right?    
"This day is just getting stranger and stranger", I said as I turned back to him and picked up my tea cup.
"What happened?" Raynard asked.
    "Yesterday I saw this woman standing at one of the top window watching us as we arrived, but vanished behind the curtains when I looked at her. So I thought she was maybe just a curious staff member. But today I saw her again and decided to follow her to introduce myself.
    "Wait what? You just followed someone you never met?"
    "I wanted to meet her?"
    "Bell!"
    "I know, I know, but anyway, we ended up at this doll house cottage thing and I tired to introduce myself but she like vanished into thin air. So then I turned by attention to this doll house and tired to go in but it was locked, then Angus showed up and went completely nuts because I was there and told me that Theo and Helena didn't want anyone of us there".
    "Why?"
    "I don't know, my headache was to painful at that time, I couldn't even ask questions, so I just left with it." Raynard leaned in and whispered," See! Orphan killers! That's probably where they bury the bodies".
    "Ok you got to stop with the orphan killers thing, but I do agree that there is something they are hiding".
The kitchen door opened and Helena walked in. "Ah, I see you found everything", she said.
I smiled at her and said," I just couldn't find the special tea so I just made some chamomile tea. Which is also kinda helping". She smiled back at me and went to a cupboard in the corner of the kitchen, opened it and took out a box.
"I'm going to put the special tea with the other tea so then you would know where it is next time", she said as she went to put the box in the cupboard with the other teas. Why was it in a different cupboard?
"We kept a plate of food for you in the dinning room. You are probably dying of hunger?", she said. And only now that she mentioned it did I noticed the aching pain in my tummy.