The next morning the thunderstorm had passed. It wasn't as warm as it had been the day before, but the sun was shining again and the air still smelled of rain, when Willow strolled through the gardens the next morning. It was still really early, around 7 o'clock. For some reason she had woken up with the first rays of sun today and felt the urge to get outside. She felt like she couldn't spend another minute in the house.
After getting dressed by herself and leaving a note for Elise that she was in the garden going for a stroll and that she should please collect her in time for breakfast, Willow tiptoed through the house and out the back door. Taking a deep breath the fresh air immediately calmed her senses and gave her the feeling of just the tiniest bit of freedom. Sure it was nothing compared to climbing over that wall, standing on top of it, knowing that there was no one there to stop her. But just being outside made Willow feel a little better.
The grass was still damp and after only a few steps the hem of her skirt had gotten wet too. Willow didn't mind though. It made her wonder if she should head inside a little earlier and get a change of wardrobe though. Would her brother mind? Would it be in any way inappropriate if the hem of her skirt was a little wet? Willow couldn't imagine him getting mad at something like that, but if he had a bad day...
Just to be on the safe side she decided to change to one of the pathways instead of strolling through the grass. Her skirt should have dried up by the time they would have breakfast.
As she continued her stroll, Willow's thoughts started wandering. Should she risk sneaking out again tonight? She had never been caught on her nightly trips. Not by anyone she knew at least. That stranger had happened to catch her breaking out. Yes... that stranger. The unknown man on the horse. Willow couldn't help but wonder who he was. Whatever could he be up to right now? Did he manage to resolve that fight with his father?
Let's see, maybe if she put all the pieces of information she had together she might get a little closer to who he could be. He had been riding a horse. That very probably meant that he wasn't just a commoner. His family had to at least have a bit of money to be able to afford a horse. It also didn't look as bulky as working horses usually do, so it was probably just for riding.
Unfortunately it had been way too dark to make out any clothing. That would have helped quite a bit. You can nearly always tell if someone is noble by their clothing. By the pick of fabrics, the pattern on the fabrics, by the state that the clothes were in and even by the way they were worn.
Willow had never been one to play close attention to her own clothing. When it came to picking out a new gown there were two aspects that had always had to been taken into consideration: 1. Was it suitable for a lady in her position? 2. Was it affordable?
Money had been tight since Willow could think. Or at least neither her father nor her brother had considered it a good investment to spend a fortune on a gown. And if Willow were to be honest, she didn't care much at all. She never really got to meet new people anyways so why wonder, what it would say about her if her gown was lilac instead of blue?
But back to the matter at hand. The stranger from the other night. Could he be a nobleman? There was a possibility. They didn't exchange too many words but the way he spoke, the words he used surely told that he had a good education. But there was also something a little foreign. Willow couldn't place her finger on it, but he seemed to pronounce some words a little different, like he wasn't from around here.
If that was to be true though, she would probably never see him again. What were the chances of him coming back here then? Hold on one second though. Didn't he know that she was sneaking off the Cornwall grounds though. If Willow recalled correctly he mentioned the Cronwall grounds when addressing her. That meant that he had to be somewhat familiar with this area.
Ugh this was making no sense. Willow seemed to be getting nowhere with this. It was frustrating really. At the same time she wondered why it mattered so much to her. Why was she so curious to find out more about that stranger?
She kept telling herself that it had been the only exciting thing that had happened in forever, but she knew that there was something else. It wasn't just about meeting a stranger and talking to them. It was also that weird connection between them. How they both seemed to be running from something, even if just for a little while. But if one were to be realistic about this, Willow probably just felt a connection to that stranger because he was the only new person that she got to talk to in forever. Of course that seemed somewhat special and exciting to her.
Willow suddenly noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye, her head instantly snapping in that direction.
It was Elise, waving for her to come inside as it was probably time to have breakfast. With her brother. How lovely, Willow thought. Nothing could brighten her morning like sitting in tense silence at the breakfast table with her brother. Nevertheless she hurried back to the house as she didn't want to keep her brother waiting after the threat from yesterday. If she wanted to keep the freedom of being able to sneak out at night, her behavior had to be flawless around her brother at all times. That was for sure.
Willow arrived in the dining room first. Perfect. She got seated and patiently waited for her brother to show up. His newspaper was already laying at the table just waiting for him to pick it up and start reading. Willow threw a quick glance at it, but as usual couldn't be bothered to read about the gossip in it.
Finally her brother decided to make an appearance. She smiled up at him and greeted him with a soft "Good morning.". He grumbled something back to her which with very close listening could be identified as a "G'Morning". Someone seemed a little cranky today. Maybe it was him that didn't get too much sleep this time. But Willow would under no circumstances mention anything like that. She knew very well that this would blow up in her face.
So instead she started eating, while Philip picked up his newspaper. They had their breakfast in silence and Willow was just about to excuse herself as her brother's voice could be heard over the rustling of the newspaper. It started off with a reminder that Willow better remembered to behave herself today and she didn't even bother to pay attention to what else he was grumbling about behind his newspaper.
"Of course" Willow answered, even though she hadn't listened to half of her brother's rant of ladylike behavior and whatnot else. "I'll be good I promise" She forced another smile on her lips, but her brother didn't even look up from his newspaper, so she dropped it again. "If you'll excuse me. I would like to continue reading the book I started the other day."
There was no reaction from her brother, which Willow assumed meant that she was free to go. She went to her room to grab the book she had mentioned to her brother, but instead of staying in her room reading, she made her way towards the stables again. She preferred to stay FAR out of Philip's way and the stables were quite a nice place to read. The horses would be keeping her company and she'd sit comfortably in the mountain of hay that was stored there.
And that was exactly what she did. The morning passed by way too quickly like that and in no time at all, Arthur told her that it was nearly time for lunch and that she better get back into the house. With a sigh and quite a bit of effort, Willow got up from her comfortable spot. It really wasn't that easy to get up from a mountain of hey like that. Brushing off her dress and making sure that there was not a single piece of hay anywhere on her, Willow then made her way back into the house through the back door.
She sat in the dining room for a while, waiting for her brother. After a good 15 minutes of waiting the door finally opened, but instead of her brother it was Thomas bringing in the food and setting the plate down in front of her, wishing her "Bon appetit." as he always would. He only had one plate with him though, which meant that her brother wouldn't show up for lunch.
Willow was relieved. Spending every mealtime in a tense silence with her brother wasn't something she especially looked forward to. Willow shoveled the food into her mouth in a not so lady like way, but if her brother was not there to see, she didn't care all too much. She would rather hurry and get back to the stables and continue reading. There wasn't really anything else for her to do this afternoon anyways.
As Willow made her way back to the stables she wondered once again if she could get away with sneaking out tonight. She'd be in a whole lot of trouble if her brother were to find out. But he wouldn't, right? She would make sure of that. He would be sleeping safe and sound and she would enjoy a bit of freedom. It was probably too cool to go for a swim in the lake tonight, but she could go to her little secret place anyways and just enjoy some time away from this prison here.
The more she thought about sneaking off, the bigger the urge became to get away again for a little while. She'd make sure to be extra careful tonight. And she wouldn't be gone for too long. An hour - two tops. She would be fine.
Back in the stables she resumed to her previous stop in the hay and went back to reading. All too soon she had finished the book though. Too lazy to go up to the attic to fetch a new one, Willow decided on helping Arthur instead if he had anything to do for her.
She was trusted with the very important task of grooming the horses. Not really an important task and nothing that really needed to be done, but Willow wouldn't question it as she actually enjoyed that quite a lot. She grabbed one of the brushes and started grooming. As she guided the brush over the horse, Willow wondered how it would be to just gallop away from here. To just get on that very horse in front of her at this moment and be off, never looking back. How would it feel to have the wind brush through her hair? How would it feel to ride at such a rapid speed?
Willow was sure that that had to be the ultimate feeling of freedom. Oh how she wished she could do that. But there was just no way. She had never even sat on a horse before as her brother strictly forbade her from doing so. The likelihood of her falling off of that horse if it was only trotting along slowly was definitely there.
Even if she would manage to ride that horse, there was nowhere for her to go. She had no money so sleeping at an inn wasn't an option and sleeping outside all by herself seemed quite scary. Of course she could just go for a little riding trip, but her brother would kill her as soon as she got back. So it really wasn't a good idea at all. Sighing heavily Willow went back to her task of grooming the horses, as she had just stopped a few minutes ago being too caught up in her thoughts.
Once again Willows mind drifted to a very certain other horse owner. The unknown man on the horse from the other night. He surely could have just run off and left all his troubles behind. Unlike her he seemed to have enough money to do so and he had clearly been a man, so he had a way better chance of surviving outside on his own. Willow wouldn't even know how to defend herself and she had no weapon whatsoever. Surely that stranger knew how to fight and he had probably had some sort of weapon on him as well.
He would have probably drawn it on her, if he had considered her a threat to him in any way. But even in the darkness it had been clear to see that she was inferior to him in pretty much every way. He had seemed to be quite a bit taller and had had a horse. He could have outrun her if he needed to. He probably had the strength to knock her out with one blow. Willow shivered at that thought. She guessed she got lucky that none of that happened and they just had a small conversation instead.
Of course she was aware that it was dangerous to be out at night time by herself even if people thought she was a boy and not a girl. The world was a dangerous place. Especially at night. Willow knew that and still, nothing could have kept her from her nightly trips to freedom.
Night had fallen upon the Cornwall Estate, but it wasn't all that late just yet. Willow had just retired to her room for the night and now had to wait, till everyone would be asleep. That would normally take till around 11 o'clock. Maybe Willow would wait till midnight, to be extra sure that everyone was sound asleep.
She passed the time by reading in her bed, glancing at the clock on her bedside table every once in a while. Time was passing slowly, as always when she needed it to pass a little faster. But finally the clock showed half past 11. That should be late enough. Quietly Willow got out of bed and tiptoed over to her dresser to get her father's clothing, stopping dead in her tracks when she heard a noise though.
What was that? It wasn't the creaking off timber, Willow was sure about that. Should someone still be awake? Biting her lip she tried to figure out what to do. Should she wait a little longer? But she couldn't. She had already waited for so long. No, she would be fine.
Without a sound and as quick as usual she changed into the men's clothing and made her hair disappear from sight under the cap. Now tiptoeing over to the door, she listened more closely than ever for any foreign sounds. But the house laid in complete silence.
Pulling open the door to her room, Willow quickly scurried out into the dark hallway. In no time she had reached the staircase and was on her way downstairs.
She had barely made it down a few steps, when out of nowhere her brother walked by them bottom of the stairs. Willow's heart missed a beat as she was holding her breath, trying to be as invisible as possible.
Luckily for her he hadn't looked up the stairs and therefore didn't notice her standing there. Her heart now pounding at a million times an hour, Willow slowly backed up the stairs, through the hallway and back to her room. She released a breath that she didn't know she was holding, when the door to her room was closed behind her.
That had been close. WAY too close!
What was her brother doing up so late and downstairs at that hour? Did he suspect that she was going to sneak off at night and stayed up to catch her in the act? No that wasn't possible... Why would he assume that she would sneak off. She had given no evidence to him, that anything like that might be going on. There had to be another explanation as to why he was up and downstairs at such a late hour.
Willow was still searching her head for an explanation, as she got changed into her undergarments. Then there was that noise from before again only a little louder this time. And she was finally able to identify it. It was laughter. Her brother must have had some friends over. They were probably playing cards in the living room or something like that. This also explained why he was up so late.
Ugh, couldn't he mention things like that to her? This could have ended really bad. Really really bad. Not only could she have easily gotten caught, but she would have also embarrassed her brother infront of his friends and he didn't like that at all. He probably would have ripped her head off right then and there.
Why was it too freaking hard to just mention this to her? Just a few words about it dropped at breakfast. Wait a minute... Maybe he did mention it at breakfast. Why hadn't she paid closer attention to what he was saying at breakfast. He might have just told her that he would have friends over at night and she missed it, because she just assumed he was only telling her to behave once again. She was so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Willow would not let that happen again. She would pay very close attention to her brother's words now. It's not like he said that much to her anyways. But information like this was vital to her. If luck hadn't been on her side tonight, who knows how this could have ended. Willow didn't even want to imagine it. It would have been a disaster. It would have probably led into the biggest fight they had ever had. And it would have cost Willow her freedom. And at this point she felt like that bit of freedom was the only thing she had left. She didn't know what she would do if that freedom was to be taken from her.
Creeping back into her bed and under the blankets Willow shivered. Not because it was so cold in her room, but just thinking about how close she was to losing it all tonight scared her to death. She would have to be more careful. Just because she hadn't gotten caught so far, didn't mean that it was impossible.
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