Sunkissed Innsmouth
Part Fourteen
The groundskeeper’s boy was slow, reluctant even, to get ready and moving as Phillip and Felecia arrived with their precious cargo. They were both lightened of their load and drinking liqueur mixed with warm chicory before the youth was ordered off to the kitchen to further prepare what they managed on the hunt. The youth seemed even tempered for once, tempered in hating the both of them equally for making so much work for him as he stood alone in the small kitchen butchering and seasoning the meat from their hunt.
After some time spent in silence, drinking their drinks and listening to the fire in the hearth crack and pop, Phillip stood and pointed to an ancient rocking chair and an equally old ottoman covered in faded yellow fabric. “Your camp outside will be soaked, no two ways around that. Spend the night here, that chair is more comfortable that it looks. We’ll get things dried and sorted in the morning.”
Phillip didn’t wait for Felecia to say anything, he was already up and crossing the threshold of the kitchen when she said, “thank you.” The groundskeeper only grunted and nodded, reluctant as ever to play the polite game of please and thank yous that Felecia was still used to.
The groundskeeper disappeared and there was only the sound of the fire until his low voice sounded in the kitchen just above a whisper. “She did as good out there as your brother ever did, and more than you ever have. She’s sleeping inside tonight, that’s final. Leave her be and keep to yourself.”
Any chance or forlorn hope for engaging with the youth died in that moment. Phillip didn’t just lace in his usual disdain when talking to his one remaining child, he was careful to point out that sides, perceived or otherwise, were already taken. Felecia made due with another cup of bitter, alcoholic chicory and did her best to settle into the rocking chair using the ottoman as a foot rest.
As exhausted as she was Felecia was also conflicted and uneasy. The dingy interior of the groundskeeper’s house wasn’t hers to sleep freely in; the walls already up and now being fortified between her and a young man who’s name she still didn’t even know bothered her. Sleep didn’t come easy as she listened to the sullen youth cut and chop away in the kitchen and when it finally did it was fitful and nightmarish. She woke a few times in the night, unsure of where she was and scared of that realization, the second time around she woke under a thicker blanket she didn’t recognize. She assumed Phillip had come out and draped it over her in the night but then she noticed that the old boots she was so careful about were also gone from their place by the still burning hearth.
Felecia stumbled around, half asleep and in the dark looking for the old shoes using only the cooling embers of the hearth fire for light until she gave up and understood the situation for what it was. She took off the shoes to let them dry out, planning fully to clean them as best she could and the youth took the opportunity to take them back. Phillip would notice it in the morning of course, and there would be more of that familiar and awful yelling until the shoes were returned even though they didn’t belong to Felecia to begin with. Phillip mentioned a willingness to make new boots, maybe that would be as good a time as any come morning to mention that willingness. New boots would be one part of the puzzle solved on how Felecia planned to get a new outfit that would be all hers.
Clothes all her own and belonging only to her, clothing and boots bought by labor were appealing sure but more importantly she imaged a certain satisfaction in handing these reluctant hand me downs back, folded and cleaned for the last time, to the sullen youth. Felecia could breathe easier knowing she didn’t owe the angry youth simply for the sake of the clothes on her back. Also, maybe just maybe, without the loan of his siblings things there would be some new/better opening for the youth to be more civil if not kind.
The morning found Felecia waking up under the thicker blanket with Phillip nudging her awake. “We’ll start by checking out your camp and securing it, after that we’ll need to check and secure the pens and fences around the estate. Long day, eat some meat and get another hot drink in you before we go.”