The Curse of the Baron Roderick
by Bottou-chan

Part Four

Joker leaned against the oars. "Good spot?" he asked.

"Good spot," agreed Raiha. He bent over the hook, affixing his bait to it, then expertly cast it into the water. He slowly reeled it back, making it twitch and wiggle slightly, as thought it were alive.

"This lake’s enormous," said Joker, looking around. "I was imagining a little baby pond… there’s a lot of room for fish down there." He reached for some bait to affix to his own hook. "What do you think… we’re two hundred yards away from shore?"

"And we’re not even in the middle of the lake yet," agreed Raiha. He glanced at the murky depths which rippled beneath their rowboat. "I certainly wouldn’t want to go swimming in that."

"I bet you this gets really cold in the wintertime," commented Joker. His hook landed thirty or forty feet away from their boat with a gentle plop.

"I bet you this is really cold in the summertime, too," replied Raiha. With an impish grin, he asked, "Shall we send you in there to find out?"

"Erm, no thanks. Not unless you want to keep me company in there." Joker’s fangs glinted in the sunlight. "And I don’t think Neon-han or the staff would appreciate it if we came back with no fish, no boat, and looking like drowned kittens."

"I could spend all day out here," said Raiha, after a short silence, staring up at the clouds. They were white, although the edges were tinted a steely gray. "It’s so peaceful… I wonder what Kurei-sama is doing right now."

"Probably lounging on the couch in his bathrobe and bunny slippers, eating bonbons, watching soap operas," suggested Joker. They shared a quiet snicker at the thought, so as not to frighten the fish.

~in the library~

Neon stared at the suit of armor in the hallway. "Is it real?" she asked, tapping on it, enjoying the hollow sound. For some strange reason, having a suit of armor in the hallway seemed fitting. It was almost like being on a movie set. The light filtering through the high-set windows was rather gray and dismal, and the smell of rain was in the air. The carpet was a rich red, dappled by the shadows of the leaves of the elms outside, as they waved in the pre-storm breeze. The walls were paneled in a dark mahogany, which glowed with handsome reddish tints where the light struck it. Her ancestors gazed solemnly upon her from the heavy portraits which lined the walls. The heads of deer gazed glassy-eyed and mute. It was all so… cliché. And yet, it was poetic and picturesque at the same time.

She hated the idea of giving all this scenery up. But what other choice did she have? It wasn’t like she wanted to stay here forever. There were no memories for her here… these were only things left behind by some dead relation who had nothing to do with her while he was alive.

Neon made her way into the library, walking around aimlessly, pulling out random books, leafing through them, and then reshelving them. Alice in Wonderland. The Wind in the Willows. Some books by P.G. Wodehouse and Leslie Charteris… others by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. Classics, many of them. The books themselves, with their ornate leather bindings and gilt pages, were works of art.

She reshelved a first edition of Swiss Family Robinson and glanced out the window. The clouds were gathering more quickly than she had thought. Raiha and Joker were out fishing on the lake… surely they had the sense to not be out on the water in this weather.

~at the lake~

Joker picked his foot up and pressed it against the side of the rowboat. Water squelched from his canvas tennis shoe.

"Oi, looks like the boat isn’t sealed as well as it could have been," he commented.

Raiha was gazing at the sky. "That storm’s going to hit us. We’d better go back to the boathouse," he suggested. "If we don’t, we’ll have more to worry about than wet shoes."

"I thought Keefe said the storm would bypass us," objected Joker. He checked his watch. "We’ve only been out here for what, an hour?" He pretended to pout. "I haven’t caught anything worth keeping yet."

"Oars, Joker-san. The oars," said Raiha gently. He reeled in his line, and Joker reluctantly followed suit.

"Sure you can’t use your Raijin to protect us from the lightning?" he inquired hopefully.

Raiha smiled. "Of course I can… but the Raijin isn’t an umbrella to keep you from getting wet. If you catch pneumonia and die, how will you ever hope to steal Neon-san away from Kurei-sama?" He grinned mischeviously at his friend.

"Oi, you know I’m only playing. It’s so cute when she blushes… it matches her hair," grinned Joker, disassembling his fishing rod and packing it away. "But yes… I guess we’d better call it a day." He picked up the oars and began to row towards the shore. It was rather more difficult this time, as the waves were driving him in the opposite direction. The wind had picked up strength, and it looked like there would be a good-sized storm coming up. Miles and miles away, the clouds were a dark, ominous gray. But even now, a light drizzle of rain began sprinkling on their heads, and Joker began renewing with extra gusto.

"Oi!" he exclaimed, startled, as one of the oarlocks jarred loose. He almost dropped the oar, but there was nothing he could do to keep the oarlock from plummeting to the lake’s murky bottom.

"That’s not good," said Raiha, looking concerned. He glanced up at the sky. With only one oarlock, they would only be able to row in circles.

"We’ve still got two oars," said Joker. "Here, lets try and paddle this like a canoe. I’ll paddle, and you steer."

Raiha crawled behind Joker. "It’s worth a try."

~in the library~

Neon clasped Through the Looking Glass to her chest and stared sightlessly out the window. The rain was coming down in hard sheets by now. The tall elms on the side lawn were being lashed mercilessly by the strong gusts of wind. She frowned.

Raiha and Joker should have been in by now. Wherever could they be? She wished she had a psychic mind-reading device.

Peter came into the library with a tray of hot cocoa. "Have some," he encouraged her. "If you don’t mind us taking the liberty of joining you…?" His voice trailed off into a hopeful question.

"Feel free. Have Joker and Raiha come back yet?" she asked the boy, accepting the mug from him.

He shook his head. "Do you think that the ghost at the lake might have targeted them?" he asked, wide-eyed. "They were certainly saying some disrespectful things about her earlier. It would be no wonder if she decided to do something to teach them a lesson."

"Saying such things!" Neon reprimanded lightly, taking a sip.

"It’s all in the curse," said Peter, shaking his head. "You can’t escape curses, no matter how much you try."

A bolt of lightning struck somewhere close. The electric lights flickered, then went out.

"Ah, the power’s out now," commented Bronwyn, meandering into the study. "I’ll get the candlesticks. Peter, go fetch Caitlyn, and see if she can’t find some candles. Then go to the woodbox and try to get a fire in the fireplace. Otherwise, it’ll get cold. We can’t have you catching a cold, now, can we, Miss Neon?"

Neon hid a small smile. ‘Miss Neon’. It reminded her so much of Magensha. Not that she wished to bother herself with his memory… but it did remind her. "That would be very nice," she agreed. "The library’s probably the best place for it." The library wasn’t the most cheerful of places, even in the daytime. With the blackness of the storm raging outside, and no electricity inside, it was rather on the spooky side. No wonder Caitlyn didn’t want to clean in here at nighttime.

Harold came in, carrying a candelabra with five lit candles. His face was a distorted mask of brilliantly-lit and shadowed patches. It reminded Neon of the time Raiha and Joker had amused themselves with flashlights on a certain camping trip, trying to tell stories to frighten her. She glanced outside the window once more. Where were those two? They would be insane to be outside in this weather. Heh. They were insane anyways—the both of them—but not even they were partial enough to storms to want to actually be roaming around in this weather.

"Harold," she said. "Is Keefe with Raiha and Joker?" She tried to keep her voice light, but there was concern in her eyes.

Harold shook his head. "I don’t think so. I believe he set them up with the necessary equipment—fishing tackle, rowboat… that sort of thing. But I believe he had his rounds to make. The foxes have been running quite rampant, and are seriously decimating the pheasants."

"Keefe’s not out in this weather, too, is he?" Neon allowed herself at least the pretense of being worried for him, too.

"There are several gamekeeping cabins, just for hunting parties and the like," explained Bronwyn, rummaging around and finding several candlesticks. "I’m sure he took shelter in one of those. It will be all right."

Neon nodded silently. Caitlyn came in with a box of tapers; she and Bronwyn busied themselves with placing them in their holders. A short while later, Peter showed up, juggling a box of matches and several hefty logs for the fire. Neon retrieved the matches from him, proceeding to light the candles. They gave a warm, soft glow to the room which she somehow found comforting. Nothing like candlelight… her thoughts trailed back to Kurei, and a small smile curved on her lips.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of lightning. Thunder crackled nearby, causing everyone to jump. At almost the same instant, the door to the library was flung open, and there stood Raiha and Joker, shivering and sopping wet.

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