Chapter 14 #3
“Of course,” he says, never once offering up the jewels that weigh him down, even if they could easily pay off his “loan.”
The head butler steps out and I wave Yorick over to him. “Please show our newest staff member his duties. He owes me a significant sum and is more than eager to work it off.”
“Right away,” the butler says while Yorick whines about not even getting a day off.
For an entire week, the butler is relentless, but Yorick does it all… with plenty of loud complaints. Yet there’s something about his personality that lets him get away with just about anything he wishes. It’s like the second he throws that smile of his at the maids or butler, they give in to him.
I mostly ignore him, which becomes increasingly difficult as the week progresses. He eventually pins me down in my office. I’ve just dipped my quill into the inkwell when he hurries toward me to hover over my shoulder.
“How are you so rich?”
“This concerns you how?” I ask.
“I was once rich.”
“Were you?” I reply, not caring in the slightest.
“Yes, I was. I was the son of an earl, but not just any earl. My father was Alfred Godwin. We had more money than probably even you. And then poof—all gone. Some days, I wonder where that money went,” he says as he watches me.
The name rings a bell, but why…
Alfred Godwin…
Ah… the man who called himself the Warden had the earl slaughtered, and he used those I’d made into vampires to do it. That’s right. And yet… this one lived.
“So that’s how you know what vampires are.”
“One of them kept me hidden while everyone I knew and loved was torn to pieces. When I came out, it was such a bloodbath. I sat next to my parents’ bodies for what felt like days. I was in so much shock over the fact that the people I loved were all ripped away in just one day. Were you there?”
“I was not.”
“That’s good. I might have to hate you if you were,” he says. Pushing my documents out of the way, he sits down on my desk as though he doesn’t notice that I’m working. “There’s something about you that I like.”
“Yeah? I like you best when you’re out of sight and quiet.”
Yorick grins at me as he sets his feet on the edge of the chair I’m sitting on.
They’re still bandaged, but he hasn’t complained about them, at least not to me.
“Thank you for saving me from the slavers. They made it painfully clear what they were going to do with me. I guess I shouldn’t have been born so pretty. ”
“I can shave your hair and help you with that problem.”
He clutches his locks of hair that are so long that they’re hanging in his face.
As soon as we arrived here, he got a good bath, and I noticed it just increased the number of women looking his way.
I was afraid he’d start pawning his chores off on them with just a smile.
“Not my beautiful hair! My mother told me I was so perfect that I looked like a pretty little doll.”
“Uh-huh… right. Take your perfect ass and do something of worth.”
“I’m too tired,” he says before he oozes off my desk and onto the chair behind me where he curls up and picks up my book. “I wish you were as perfect as me.”
“For sure,” I grumble as I look down at the ink smeared across the paper from his ass. Evidently, he needs some harder work to occupy his time.
The following afternoon, I wake to a soft knock before the butler steps in.
“Sir?”
I push back the covers and rise, already annoyed about being woken so early. “What is it?”
“Your newest servant is no longer here. He, uh… took your valuables… and some money and left.”
“Which… valuables?” I ask through gritted teeth. There’s really not much he can steal here that I care about. Some vases, some jewels.
But the way the butler refuses to meet my eyes makes anger roil inside of me.
“Which. Valuables?” I repeat.
The butler swallows hard. “He got into your safe.”
I freeze. “How the fuck did he do that?” Did I leave any clue about how to get into it? How did he even find its location? Have I even visited it this past week for him to know that I had such a thing?
“He left the door open and this sitting inside,” he says as he hands me a beautiful necklace.
I take it and examine it, wondering why Yorick would leave such a priceless necklace behind.
He could buy a lot with this, but he chose to leave it.
That’s when I realize that the emblem his family used is on the back.
“How did I acquire this necklace?” I ask, not even remembering.
“You wandered into a home after the attack of some earl while looking for a ledger, sir, and took a liking to it.”
I stare at it and then close my hand around it. Did he not believe me when I truthfully told him I had nothing to do with the death of his family?
“Should I send some people out after him? We can kill him or bring him back for you to take care of,” the butler suggests.
“Let him go. I don’t have time for such insignificant beings.”
He hesitates, seemingly confused. “He stole a significant sum.”
“I have things to do,” I say as I push him out of the way and head off to observe the damage with my own eyes.
What an irritating man.