Lament

The Green Faerie haunted my dreams that night but still I awoke before I saw his face. Blood red lips swam through my view as I blinked my eyes open, however. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and saw that I was quite alone in my room, unlike yesterday morning. As I sat up, yawning and shaking the slumber away from my body, I thought back to the decision I'd made the night prior, the decision I'd made right before I'd gone to sleep. I'd visit Wren Morgenstern today and I'd offer to help and ask what I could do.

It was a daunting task and I ordered Jeannette to help with my dressing. I wanted to look impeccable for today. Wren would probably think I looked like a common girl either way, but I wanted to go in there looking more courageous than I felt. So I let Jeannette dress me in a simple, yet elegant, blue walking dress with a white jacket and simple pearl earrings. Jeannette swept up my hair in a smooth updo that she secured with a plethora of small pins. It was uncomfortable, but I made no noise of pain.

When she was done, I explained to Lily where I was going (who looked at me with careful eyes before she waved me off) and took one of the footmen as my chaperone. He was a younger man who was extremely competent with the horses, if not a tad sullen. I knew it was early to be calling upon someone, but Wren was such an unconventional female I doubted she would actually care. Still, I rode with nervous flutters in my stomach and watched the empty streets of Mayfair in the bright light of mid-morning.

Secretly, I couldn't help but wonder which house was Viscount Farnsworth's - Mr. Haverford's. There was no way that he would not live in Mayfair, it was the fashionable part of London and all the good families lived here. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ever see his house, if I'd ever go inside. I didn't dare hope for something as monumental as a dinner invitation, but I'd settle for a garden party or something. Thinking of Mr. Haverford's face somehow seemed to mend the hole that Alphonse's departure had made in my heart. If not completely, at least a little.

I had no idea where we were off to, but I had asked the footmen who knew where the Morgenstern's town house was and the one that was escorting me said he did. So when we stopped in front of a relatively normal looking house that was similar enough to the houses around it, I was strangely shocked.

I was not exactly sure what I'd been expecting, but I'd been thinking that there would at least be one gargoyle. Which I knew was silly. The Morgensterns weren't animals and even though they were different, it wasn't as if they liked standing out. I knew that Wren probably wished she was the same as every other girl. The kind of girl that men talked to. She thought it was so much easier for me. Well, I was still the strange girl who had lost both of her parents, was living with her dead guardian's wife, had turned down a marriage proposal from a wealthy and handsome man and was a heathen who didn't attend church.

Oh and I could not forget the hallucinations I was having about the Green Faerie. Good thing no one but I knew about that. I did want to ask someone about those, though...

The footman helped me out of the simple carriage that was used for everyday use and walked me up the stairs. Nervously I smiled to him. "I do hope Miss Morgenstern doesn't think me impertinent for calling upon her at such an early hour," I said with a laugh. The man simply nodded sharply. Defeated, I blew out a sigh and looked ahead. The footman rang the doorbell.

Expecting a butler, or at least a maid, to open the door, I was more than a little surprised when I saw Glenn Morgenstern standing there, smiling at me. "Goodmorning, dear Fae," he said with a bow. "We were not expecting you to call upon us so soon, however, that is of no consequence. Please, come in." Then he nodded to the footman. "You may bring the carriage around to our stables if you'd like." The footman nodded and let go of my arm as if I were diseased.

With a hmph, I followed Glenn into the house. He led me into a light filled sitting room, where a maid was dusting the mantel of the fireplace. Glenn gestured to a pink overstuffed chair and I let myself down into it. "I came to see Wren," I told him slowly.

Glenn shrugged. "Yes, of course you did. However, she is currently sitting with Prince for a moment."

Surprise racked my body. "Prince is here?" I asked, much louder than I intended. The maid looked at me carefully and then turned back to dusting. Suddenly, I wondered how much she knew about the Morgensterns. I wondered if she simply thought that Prince was ill. Glenn gave the maid a stern look behind her back.

He finally nodded. "He is upstairs in one of the unused bedchambers. We found that we could care for him better here. Lucy, Greer, Sloane and Ennis are still up at Criewulf. Lucy and Greer will join us later, but Sloane and Ennis need not join us in London until next season."

At that comment, I found myself cracking a smile. "I had no idea that your family was interested in the matters of matrimony." My words were frothy, but they hid a more serious question. Glenn grinned.

"Strange, I know, isn't it?" he asked. "However, we are just as human as the rest of the world and not only do we need husbands and wives, I find myself sometimes wishing for a pretty girl to make me the happiest of men." He laughed at his own words and I smirked. Glenn then turned his eyes to me. "Of course, my search could be over if you'd do me the honor," he said casually.

Taken aback, I looked at him. "Are you...proposing marraige to me?" I asked. Glenn shrugged. "You jest."

"Maybe a little," Glenn told me, a twinkle in his eye. The maid that was dusting shook her head a little bit in dissaproval. Glenn took his seat on a chair across from me and picked off a few grapes of a bowl of arranged fruit in the middle of a small table that sat in front of him. "Now tell me. How have you been? We haven't seen each other since you departed from Huntsville. And if I remember correctly, the last time we talked, we spoke of the strange man who was roaming the Criewulf lands."

I swallowed. "Strangely enough, I meant to talk to you about that." Glenn looked interested. "I have been having a...reoccuring dream, of sorts. I never seen the Green Faerie's face, but I'm always following him through a forest and then through Seven Dials. And when I am about to see his face, all I see are red lips and then I wake up. And...last night, I swore I saw him. Or at least, his green wings."

All hints of merryment, interest or slyness slid from Glenn's face. Instead, he looked quite white. "I too, thought I saw him last night," he said quietly. I opened my mouth to ask Glenn what this could mean but was quickly interrupted by the sound of footsteps. We looked to the doorway to see Wren standing, looking quiet ashen faced. Glenn instantly stood up. "Is Prince all right?" he asked quickly, color returning to his face little by little.

Wren nodded slowly and looked at me. There was no darkness in her eyes or on her face. She simply looked thunderstruck. Sinking down into a chaise, her eyes never left mine. "Prince told me..." she said, trailing off. My stomach clenched. Prince must have told her... "He told me that he did what he did for Alphonse. He felt something for him. In the few moments when he was on the borderline of life, he said that he had wanted Alphonse to be happy..."

Watching Wren so miserable made me feel guilty. He'd told me before he'd told his own sister, his own twin. The room was very, very quiet. The maid had long gone. Finally, I managed to squeak out a small, "I'm sorry."

Wren heaved a sigh and looked at me. "What you said to me last night made me wonder." She turned away at that and looked out the window. "Now I know Prince was just trying to be brave. He was just being..." she shook her head, "himself. I should have not let him go, he would be standing with us right now." Finally, Wren looked at me. I had never seen her look this vulnerable before. It was strange and a little frightening. "I'm sorry," she said after a few moments. "I'm sorry I blamed you."

The apology gave me a new warmth. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," I replied, "he just made me promise not to tell. He proposed marriage to me, and that was when he said to me that he could never love me because he wasn't interested in women. I told him no, I told him I would not marry him because I was in love with Alphonse. I said that he should go and try to have his own romance, try to find love himself and really find it. I feel so guilty now," I sighed.

"So much has changed," murmured Glenn, "and not at all like I predicted."

After a moment, Wren chuckled. "You thought anything would change? I thought we'd simply witness a murder like our forefathers. I assumed we'd have to collect the blood of Alphonse Wainwright and we'd have to do the bidding of the Wainwright family so we wouldn't be killed. I thought everything would be the same as it always had been." She looked at me then, and there was a trace of a smile on her face. "But then Faerie came and changed it all."

I felt a blush come to my cheeks when she said that. I knew that was as close as I could get to a compliment from Wren Morgenstern. Then I remembered why I had come. It was not to chat, but to offer my help. I folded my hands in my lap. "Wren, I have come to offer to help you find whomever it is that is creating homunculi. I, too would like to stop them. And I cannot help myself. I would like to find Charles. I do not know what I'll do when I see him, but, I still...something needs to be done."

Wren nodded. "We're going to need to get close to as many families as possible. Between the three of this, we should be able to accomplish enough. And once Lucy and Greer arrive, we will be able to find out more. Lucy seems to have a way with men." That was a bit of an understatement. Lucy Morgenstern was the most promiscuous girl I'd ever met. At dinner parties at Criewulf I'd seen her flirt into many men's hearts, even married men. I did not doubt she could close to as many as she wanted to.

"You know I'll do the best I can," I told her.

It was then that a man with a powdered wig came in, holding a card. "The Viscount of Farnsworth, Jules Haverford, is here to call upon you, Miss Morgenstern."

My head turned to Wren, whose features lit up. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "send him in!"

"How do you know Mr. Haverford - I mean, Viscount Farnsworth?" I asked her.

Glenn answered for her. "Our families have been connected since before we were born. The families of Morgenster and Haverford were once related, but now the relation is so distant its difficult to find anymore, but it is there somewhere. However, Jules has not been in London for very long. His father recently died, and he has only been the new Viscount for a few months. I am sure it is getting some used to. And of course, all the eager mothers ready to hoist their daughters on the poor man..."

"Yes, he told me all of this last night. He was my partner for the Sir Roger de Coverly."

Farnsworth entered with a bow, and when his eyes caught mine, he grinned. "I had no idea I'd have the pleasure of seeing Miss Brighton this morning." He turned to Wren then. "But you know it is always enough just to see you!" I did my best to suppress a giggle. So Farnsworth was a bit of a flirt, was he? Wren looked pleased though. I was sure she was happy to see an old friend after so long.

"How are you, Jules?" she asked and I felt my stomach turn at the fact that she was close enough to use his Christian name. It wasn't as if I was jealous, I just wished that I could freely call him Jules without repercussions. "I heard you were at Almacks last night. However, I retired early with a megrim. I did not see you at all," she told him. Well, that answered my question. I hadn't seen Wren for the rest of the night after I'd left her behind the potted plants. I'd been cautious for the entire night when in reality I had no reason to be so.

Farnsworth took a seat and let out a long breath. At that moment another maid came in with four cups of tea and a pitcher of cream and bowl of sugar. I took my tea with a bit of sugar and no cream. The others took their tea and Farnsworth took his top hat from off of his head and balanced it percariously on his knee. Then he grinned at Wren. "Interesting. Life for me has been very interesting recently," he said with an enigmatic smile. Then he started in his chair and put his hand to his head. "Silly of me, I completely forgot! I met a footman on the way up your steps who had your invitation to some party. I told him I'd deliver it directly to you." With that, Farnsworth fished out a large cream envelope that said Morgenstern on it.

Boredly, Wren took the envelope from Farnsworth and I understand why she didn't look thrilled. A young lady who was out in the season could get upwards of forty different invitations a week. It was all somewhat of a hassle deciding to which party you should attend to connect yourself with the right people and I didn't envy Wren for having to do it alone. She took the card out of the envelope. "It's the welcoming party for the new Earl of Blackpool," she explained to us all.

Farnsworth looked surprise. "No. I had no idea the old Earl had died! Honestly, I never even knew he had a son!" Wren looked at Farnsworth with some interest. "Ah yes, the old Earl was a bit of a hermit. Only attended parliament when necessary and never stayed in London. He had a house, but it was always empty."

Wren shrugged and placed the large card on the stool next to her. "You sure are a wealth of knowledge, dear Jules." She turned to him with a glint in her eye. "Tell me, what other gossip have you heard?" she asked and Farnsworth blushed.

"You know that men don't gossip."

"Yes," laughed Wren, "then I suppose it's good that you are a mere boy." At this I couldn't stifle a giggle as well. Farnsworth turned to me, his eyes like melting honey. Looking at him made my stomach flip and I completely forgot what it was we were talking about and if I was supposed to be saying something or...

"She is cruel to me. I am pained!" said Farnsworth, only his voice was very far away. He turned away from me soon after, though, and the spell was broken. "All right, all right, well I heard early this morning about the first match of the season that was made last night at Almacks," he said.

I stared at Farnsworth. "So soon? But I made my debut only yesterday afternoon! I have been in society for naught a day!" Wren and I looked at each other and she grimaced.

"Well of course it is an arranged match. He and her father made the deal last night. They'd been planning it for awhile, I heard. Their wedding will be in June, I believe."

June weddings were supposed to be lovely, but I did feel a bit badly for the poor girl. Not many people married for love, but at least women could accept a man that they liked, that they thought they could get along with for the rest of their lives. "So who is the girl and who is the man?" I asked him.

"Hm. Well I know the man is Edmund Smythe," said Farnsworth and Wren and I grimaced at each other again. Mr. Smythe was a lecherous man of thrice my age. He'd been married twice before, but both of his wives had mysteriously and tragically died all before their twenty-fifth birthday. At least, this was what Olive had told me behind her gloved hand the night before. I knew for a fact that he was lecherous, though, for I'd been forced to dance with him and he'd continuously made rude comments to me throughout the dance. "And I believe the girl is Victoria Landry."

I was glad that I had finished my tea long before, because the empty teacup I was still holding onto fell to the carpeted floor. Not her, I thought. But it seemed that my closest friend was now engaged to not only a lecher, but a murderer.