Fear Of The Dark

It was odd being back at 165 Eaton Place because, from what I could remember, it looked different. Not structurally, just, colours and decorations and things. I spent the day after lunch wandering round, taking it all in since I couldn't really go outside on account of the rain. Stupid British weather. We needed a proper Indian summer; I liked those.

I reached the foot of the stairs and brushed my fingers over the dark wooden banister; that was still the same. I took one step up, then another, dragging my fingers gently over the banister and feeling all the bumps and dents beneath my fingertips. Then I reached the half way point and stopped, before sinking onto a step and inspecting the vertical wooden struts.

And then, I found it and a smile crept onto my face. "Thirteen years and you are still here," I said quietly to myself as I stared at the little half engraved picture on one of them.

I heard a chuckling and looked up to see Brian watching me intently. Instantly I stood up and began to fiddle with my fingers nervously. "You don't have to stop just because of me," he smiled, coming up the stairs more and stopping on the one below the one I was stood on. I was still shorter than him. "I always wondered about that little...carving."

"My grandfather caught me before I could finish it," I answered with a sheepish, yet fond and firm grin as I remembered it, before I sank back down and Brian sat beside me. "Oh how much he made me cry. I didn't speak to him for almost a week. In the end he brought me a ribbon for my hair just because he felt so guilty for upsetting me."

"How old were you?" Brian then asked, the pair of us both looking at my carving in the wood. "I mean, when you did that."

"Five," I answered turning my head to look him.

"So you're eighteen?"

I nodded. I would have said more but suddenly Johnny came bursting through the front door, surprising the footman who had been skulking in a corner so to look like he wasn't eavesdropping on my conversation with Brian, and completely ignoring us as he headed towards the drawing room door, yelling for Sarah.

I glanced at Brian before the pair of us sprang to our feet and hurried after him, followed into the room by Jimmy (who was really called James) and Zack. Then the butler came through too, obviously wondering what all the shouting was about.

When we entered we saw Johnny crouch down in front of her and confused looks crossed every bodies faces, as an excited, almost ecstatic one met his. "What's going on Johnny?" Matt asked, edging round from behind Brian and I so to see better.

"The coroners report came out today. It's says that the injuries were too harsh to be caused by a woman Sarah you're off the hook!" He yelled grabbing her into a hug and I found myself joining them. Forget the big fancy house I was now to call my home, my best friend was no longer a suspect.

"That's wonderful news," Brian smiled at Sarah when we were done swamping her.

"Maybe we should take you girls out to celebrate," Matt now spoke up and both Sarah and I fell silent, to look at him.

"It's raining we can't go out," I incredulously laughed as I pointed towards the window that had rain lashing against it rather violently.

"Well, the ballet is indoors, is it not?" Zack then said, resting his elbows on the back of the sofa, right behind Sarah and propping his chin up in his hands. I remained silent, reverting back to my nervous habit of fiddling with my fingers. I hadn't seen the ballet in twelve years. It was my favourite thing in the world as a little girl and I wished that I could one day become a ballerina.

"That is all good and well gentlemen, but I think you have failed to notice the fact we cannot dress suitably for the ballet," I pointed out.

"It was a nice thought though," Sarah added. I could tell she was disappointed; she didn't even know what it was until I had first told her and tried to copy some of the ballerinas I'd seen on the stage. That was until I fell over and grazed my elbow so I packed that performance in even though it had made Sarah, and most of the other children who had been watching and listening, laugh.

"Au contraire, mademoiselles I think you may find that we have already thought of that, and of, I must say, your entire wardrobe," Brian now smiled and I smiled too; cocky American bastard with his French. Well if he can put on French so can I.

"Bien alors nous ne pouvons pas dire merci assez, n'est-ce pas? Il est plus gentil de votre part de faire tout cela pour nous. Peut-être trop gentil, mais comme je dis que vous allez seulement vous contenter du merci, sont vous non?" I spoke fluently, somewhat surprising myself that I still spoke the language so well.

Johnny and Sarah looked at me puzzled whilst Brian just smiled some more at me, his dark eyes glistening as they held my gaze. "What the hell did you just say, ma'am?" Jimmy spoke up and I turned to look at him.

"Well then we cannot thank you enough, can we? It is most kind of you to do all this for us. Maybe too kind, but like I say you are only going to settle for thank you, are you not?" I repeated for the benefit of the non-French speakers. I flashed Brian a cocky smile and he shook his head.

"Mademoiselle de Farrars vous parle le beau français, si je peux dire ainsi moi-même," he now said.

I smirked now as more confused looks filled the room. "Thank you, now stop showing off Mr Haner, it is not very gentleman like."

With that I flounced off out of the room leaving him gawping after me. I just gracefully climbed the stairs and headed to the room I had been informed was mine. I inspected it closely, picking up the few things on the little dresser when the door opened behind me. I turned and saw Sarah entire with a smile.

I smiled in return and set the brush I was holding down before seating myself on the stool. She grinned at me and I knew, from the look on her face, she was going to ask me a question. "What did he say to you?" I knew it.

"He told me I spoke beautiful French," I replied.

"Beautiful? How can a language be beautiful?" She asked with a laugh, then she put on some funny accent that made me laugh. "'Oh yes Miss Londoner who speaks cockney rhyming slang, I do believe you speak the language beautifully and I think I am falling madly in love with you because of it!'"

She began to laugh and I tried not to laugh myself; I found myself grabbing a small cushion and throwing it across the room at her to make her be quiet. It didn't work because she swatted it away and kept on laughing. "Why are you still laughing?" I scowled after a few moments as I folded my arms over my chest.

"Why are you being so defensive about it? He was basically saying you have a beautiful voice," Sarah now shrugged. Then she gasped and grinned at me. I arched one of my eyebrows suspiciously at her, waiting for her to elaborate. "Maybe your beautiful French has made him fall madly in love with you Miss de Farrars."

"And maybe your prodding the chest of a man who has saved your life no less than two times, has made you fall madly in love with him Miss Drayton," I retorted as I frowned even deeper.

Before either of us could say anymore there was a knock on the door and upon me allowing them entrance a maid stepped in to inform us were to begin getting ready to go out. Sarah flashed me a smile before she was ushered out and back to her own room. Only moments later the servants came in carrying dress upon beautiful dress which they proceeded to hang in the ornate wardrobe in the corner of the room.

[Brian]

I scowled, fiddling with the white bow tie the maid had just fixed for me before she swatted my hands away and told me to pack it in. Zack snorted a laugh from beside me and I growled angrily, making the maid jump and a fearful look flashed through her eyes. I smiled apologetically and she hurried away.

I glanced at the others who were standing round looking bored. I knew women took a long time to get ready but I didn't think it took this long. Instead I put my top hat on the end of the cane in my hands and began spinning it round until if flew off the end and Rose caught it, frowning at me. Zack laughed some more, but I ignored him this time.

"You should be more careful, master Haner," she frowned, handing it back to me.

"Well if Miss de Farrars and Miss Drayton would hurry up, I wouldn't be so bored and-"

"I am hurrying up," Sarah cut across me as she descended the staircase and I saw, in the corner of my eye, Zack gulp, his hand reaching up and pulling his hat off instantly. I grinned, catching Matt's eyes when I also saw Johnny smiling admirably at his friend as she joined us at the bottom of the stairs.

Her dark hair was scraped back neatly and she wore an off the shoulder satin dress that was pale pink with a high waist and then a sating bow around the waist. Dammit, I shouldn't know about dresses like that. All I could think about when I saw her was that if she looked as beautiful as she did scrubbed up the way she was, how was Kirsty going to look?

"You look amazing," Johnny complimented her with a cheesy grin.

"Yes you look rather, erm, beautiful," Zack mumbled shyly as he took her hand and kissed it lightly; I snorted a laugh, turning away to hide the fact I was finding it hard not to laugh at his nervousness. So much so I almost choked myself and one of the guys began patting me on the back. I heard Sarah reply with a shy sounding 'thanks' as I took a few deep breaths in order to calm myself down.

"Where is Kirsty?" Johnny asked but Sarah didn't have to reply because we could hear the talking upstairs.

"Please miss," the maid begged. "Everyone is waiting to see you."

"Well I look awfully stupid and I think I shall be staying in my room tonight," she answered. "Tell them to have a good night and that I shall see them tomorrow."

Johnny scurried off up the stairs as I frowned to myself and scratched my chin. Sarah was frowning too, with one hand rested on her waist. I noted she held a fan in one hand and a pair of white gloves in the other, before remembering I myself were gloveless at that point. I turned to the butler and asked him to fetch me mine before my attention was distracted by what was going on, on the staircase.

Johnny had come back down, guiding Kirsty beside him. She looked absolutely breathtaking and now it was Zack's turn to laugh at me. She was wearing a deep red and cream dress with a ruffled bit at the back and lace at the egdes, whilst her hair which shone brightly now it had had a proper wash, was curled and partially held up, so that some curls fell gracefully about her shoulders.

Sarah walked over to her frowning and hit her on her arm with the folded fan. "What was with all the 'I look stupid' business, huh?" She asked her friend who just stared back sheepishly. "If anyone should have said that, it's me since I've never had all this. You have, you should be used to getting dressed up and going out."

"It was twelve years ago Sarah, and I was six," she retorted before Sarah hugged her anyway and the pair of them smiled approvingly at each other.

"Well I do believe we should be leaving, the carriage is waiting for us outside," Jimmy now said, just as the butler passed my my gloves. I placed my hat on my head, then pulled on my gloves as the two women shrugged on coats to protect themselves against the cold night. I hung back as Zack offered Sarah his arm and escorted her out, followed by the others.

Kirsty glanced at me as she pulled her own white gloves on and smiled slightly. "Why am I not surprised you have scrubbed up well?" She commented and I looked down at myself.

"If anyone scrubs up well it is you, miss," I answered, offering my arm so to escort her out to the waiting carriage outside. Up and down the street people were climbing into carriages to leave for their nights entertainment. The guys were waiting on the pavement as I led Kirsty down the steps before helping her up.

I watched as she did it with so much ease, before sinking down onto a seat beside Sarah. The rest of us piled in with less...etiquette to the affair, before informing the coach driver to go. The entire ride was silent as the two women watched the passing scenery. They had never seen this part of London, well Sarah hadn't, and her eyes focused on everything intently.

Eventually we reached the theatre and we climbed out of the carriage. I offered my right arm to Kirsty who took it with a slight smile before we began to walk to the entrance where many people just as dressy as ourselves were headed. Kirsty seemed to take this all in her stride, smiling at couples as I tipped my hat and greeted them.

I could see people staring at her and women huddled together whispering as we ascended the stairs covered in a red and gold carpet into the grand lobby. I glanced behind us to see Zack talking quietly to Sarah whose eyes were open with pure amazement, yet she fitted in just as well as any other woman here. Maybe some of her etiquette could be touched up, but nobody would have really known she wasn't really a wealthy girl.

"You seem to have opened a few eyes," I said to Kirsty who looked straight ahead with a smile.

"Are you really that surprised?" She glanced up at me before turning her smile on a group of gentlemen who followed by tipping their hats to which I tipped mine in response. "All these people move within the same circle and all of a sudden you have brought two young women seemingly from nowhere into it."

"Do you recognize anybody?" I asked, at a loss for a reply to her latter statement.

"I recognise that tall young lady with the black hair," she said quietly as we passed the group the lady was stood with. "I did not care for her very much."

"Well if it isn't the young men from next door Frances!" A voice boomed out and I looked up to see a fat balding man with a thick grey moustache coming towards us with a similarly fat woman on his arm. Horatio and Frances Bellamy were our neighbours and had, upon us moving to Eaton, recommended good places to purchase furniture and the like from. They were almost like parents to us.

We stopped as he and his wife stopped facing us and beaming. Frances' eyes narrowed as she studied Kirsty who was smiling politely. Then suddenly, she gasped. "Oh my!" Her gloved hand flew to her mouth.

"Whatever is the matter, Cissy?" Horatio asked as we all looked at her.

"Why if it isn't Lady de Farrars?" She breathed out and I glanced down at her, seeing a smile set in on her perfect rose coloured lips.

"Lady Bellamy," Kirsty smiled politely.

"Look at you, I always knew you would grow up to be a stunning young thing!" Frances carried on cooing. "What on Earth happened to you after your poor grandfather, God rest his soul?"

We all seemed at a panicked loss now, having not even thought of the prospect of somebody recognising her. Until- "My family sent for me to go live in India with them, not wanting me to fall into the clutches of poverty. That is where I met Miss Sarah Drayton, my best friend," Kirsty began to explain and we all stared at her as she spurted this lie. How very un-lady like of her. "Then we headed to California which is where we met these fine young gentlemen. Sarah and I have only just arrived in London from California."

"You are quite the accomplished traveller like your grandfather," Horatio added with a bellowing laugh.

"Anyway, we must be moving along," Johnny now said. We said our goodbyes before leading the two ladies up to our box. Pssh. See if we were gonna sit down there, cramped up with all them top hats and bustles.

As proper gentlemen, we all waited whilst Kirsty and Sarah sat before sitting ourselves. I didn't like the ballet; I found it boring, but we had to keep them entertained and I would bet $100 this was better than going to a pub every night. Eventually the orchestra struck up letting me know it had began and I watched as Kirsty watched with a fond smile, as if remembering her favourite childhood memory, peering through a pair of tiny binoculars.

As for Sarah well she seemed so in awe of it. She was leaned forward, her arms crossed on the balcony and her chin resting on them whilst her eager eyes darted over the people prancing around. I yawned and tried to keep myself focused, but found it decidedly hard when I had other things to distract myself.