It truly is a scary thing when one realizes how quickly a person can adapt to a situation once their mind is made up to adapt to said situation.
Whatever previous thoughts I had quickly left my mind and I decided to simply accept what was happening to me. I could figure out the rest later. These are one of the great wonders of the human psyche I thought to myself.
"Please do not push yourself Young Master Grey. Let me help you up." Said the woman, who I now realize is probably a maid.
"I am fine, um…" I gave her a sheepish look because for the life of me I couldn't remember the woman's name. And then I realized that her name was never mentioned in the novel because Simuel never made it a habit of remembering the staff's names.
"What a capricious brat". I thought.
The woman realizing that I was unaware of her name gave me a small smile and said
"Gwendolyn, that is my name Young Master Grey."
"Right Gwendolyn." I said looking embarrassed.
"Again I am fine, you don't have to worry."
"Of course I would worry Young Master, you've been sick in bed for the past week. Please take your medicine and get better soon. Your father is terribly worried for you."
My father. Right. Although the novel does start by telling the story through Donellan Grey's point of view, later on the story is told through Simuel's perspective and we don't get to hear much from Simuel's father since their relationship is pretty strained going onwards.
Simuel didn't have much thought for his father since his father wasn't always around. So of course Simuel went on thinking his father disliked him and started resenting him from there. He started acting out quite early too. Little did the young master know that the reason his father was always away was for his sake.
Sigh, how frustrating I thought.
I ended up taking the medicine as I was told and felt a lot better afterward. Despite this being the 17th-18th century, everything is quite advanced here, especially the medical field. I guess that is to be expected from a fantasy novel.
Not much can be said besides that since the book focused mostly of the characters and not on specific details. I guess there are a lot of things I'm going to have to find out on my own. More importantly, exactly how old is Simuel anyway?
"Gwendolyn, I know this might sound strange, but do you know how old I am?"
Gwendolyn turned around to look at me and I could tell she was bit a confused by question but she answered anyway. If there's one thing I remember from the staff here is that they don't ask questions nor do they do more than what they're told. I guess I should be grateful for that.
"You are 6 years old Young Master. You are about to turn seven in 6 months."
Like I thought, I couldn't be sure but I know this boy's body had to be that of a 6 or 7 year old.
"Thanks for answering my question." I said with a small smile.
Gwendolyn looked quite surprised but I can't say I blame her considering the fact that Simuel didn't show positive emotions especially to the staff.
"I-it's no problem young master. Please feel free to ask me anything. I'll do my best to answer your questions. "
"Thanks, I'll be sure to do that."
With that, Gwendolyn proceeded to bathe me and dress me and went out to get me breakfast.
Since I was still feeling a little weak, she thought it would be best to eat in bed.
I was once again grateful to her since I wasn't quite ready to face anyone else in the mansion as of yet. I still needed to figure out my course of action from this moment forward since I'm going to be Simuel Grey for the meantime.
Should I act like Simuel from the novel or should I act as myself? Wouldn't it be strange if I started acting differently all of a sudden?
The situation with Gwendolyn is the perfect example of that. Maybe I could start to change gradually.
To be honest, although Simuel was blessed and never grew up wanting anything, his life wasn't rainbows and sunshine either.
He was quite detached and emotionally unstable due to his cold childhood, and of course his relationship with his family wasn't all that great either.
Maybe this would be the perfect opportunity to turn this young boy's life around and give him a happier ending right?