Master's Chamber

Chapter 3: Ongoing Trip

The ride to Ashmoure Castle became long and muddy. Raeliana sat next to Addison at the depot, waiting for the next train to arrive. She couldn't help entertaining the possibility of asking Addison to book a room from a nearby hotel, but she forced herself to refrain. When all the debts have been paid and their house sold, she's been left a small inheritance, one that could afford luxuries now, but wouldn't last her for the rest of her days without extreme hard work.

Perhaps if Heinz Ackerman had been a less generous man, there would have been more left for his daughter, but Raeliana couldn't begrudge him the past. He had wanted a certain lifestyle for his family, and he had gotten it, even if it meant being less than judicious with a physician's income.

Some would have called him a fool for pursuing medicine when he could have been a banker, but Raeliana knew that her father could never have even entertained such ideas. His thoughts had always been more lofty. He had always wanted to help people, and he did.

Raeliana's mother had been one of those many souls who owe their lives to him. Raeliana could not and would not fund fault with him, even though their home was now gone, and with it, all the happiness she has once possessed.

She and Addison sat primly on the short bench still waiting for their ride. Raeliana sighed and closed her eyes wishing that she could instead loosen her corset and lay down on a mattress while waiting.

"Hey... Are you sure you want to do this Rae-Rae?" Addison asked, her black-gloved hands holding her purse in a nervous death grip. "You've lived in London for so long, and I'll be so sad thinking I won't get to see you that much anymore... What if you won't like York? What if you won't like that John Claude Wainwright and the Castle? Will you think in coming back?"

"I am hoping we can stay long enough to find out. I am already thankful that you are atleast accompanying me for a short while, before you go back." Raeliana answered. The spirit of a rueful smile crossing her lips. She had thought it prudent not to mention to her bestfriend that Lord Claude expected a man. Now she wondered how she can break the news to her.

"Ofcourse, it's because I care about you so much. Though I cannot help but feel like we've made a mistake. It's just me being superstitious, ofcourse, but I have a bad feeling about this place we are going to."

Raeliana thought a moment of Addison's words. She had never quite sorted out her own feelings about this trip. That was the odd thing about the escape. One never thought about where one was going, but only focusing of the means to get out.

"We'll be alright. Lord Claude might be quite charming too." She looked at Addison who gave her a funny look.

"It doesn't matter if he's charming. Actually, it's always the charming one's that has the bad intentions..." Addison stared at the foggy side infront of us, checking to see if a train was arriving or not. Mumbling, she said, "Look, I just don't think this trip is proper for a lady such as yourself."

A lady such as yourself. Such as yourself...

Raeliana squeezed her eyes shut. That was the least what she wanted to hear from her bestfriend. She never wanted to hear those words again. Those were his words.

A man like me can't marry a lady such as yourself.

Slowly, Raeliana opened her eyes again and stared at the misty yellow light that was moving towards them down the tracks. Her mind drifted back to finer days when her father was still alive, and the world had made sense.

She recalls her favourite book which was Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Her romantically inclined imagination placed herself in the role of Rebecca. She was not as dark as Rebecca, instead her hair, while blessed with thickness, was brunette. Her eyes weren't dark either. They were hazel, and some would say, is overly large for her fragile face.

In her reveries, Aaron had always been Ivanhoe. As it turned out, fiction has strangely twisted into the truth. Aaron had been Ivanhoe. For Ivanhoe had married Lady Rowena.

"This is the right thing to do, I feel it." Raeliana found herself saying even though Addison was up off the bench and distractedly intructing a boy to help with their bags. "I feel it..." She repeated as she then stood up to join Addison going inside the train.