Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

Chapter Four Part 1: Wrong Day to Go Out to Town

Another morning dawned upon the Acker Countdom’s land and its surrounding fiefs – it was the morning that marked the home-coming of Count Herald Aidan Acker and his victorious return from the battlefield. The whole household had risen up earlier than the sun and were brimming with enthusiasm and excitement at the thought of welcoming back their Lord and Master.

The same could be said for the children of the Count albeit for the fact that they did not rise voluntarily but had to be forcibly whisked off their fluffy beds to be washed clean of every nook and cranny of their little bodies and prettied and primmed out as if they would be making an appearance in front of the royal family.

Inside his quarters, the second young master Ryder Maxwell Acker was being attended to by his nanny, personal butler and a couple of maids for the fitting of his formal suit.

One of the maids just finished applying the scar-erasing salve that was prescribed for Ryder three days previously.

“Thank goodness the medicine works so well. The traces of the scars are almost gone…” Ryder’s butler, Joshua Bingen, commented as he stared at the young boy’s left forearm anxiously.

“Doctor Silas did say the scars would be non-existent after a week of applying the salve,” Carla Alfred, Ryder’s nanny since his birth interjected and stared intently at the said marks. “Lala, do place some make up over it so it’ll be more unnoticeable. It still bothers me…” she added before prepping the jacket suit.

Ryder merely let their conversation fly over his head and held his arms sideward so that the maids could dress him easier. He stared at his arm as it was being powdered like a piece of doughnut and looked back to the events of the afternoon three days ago when he and his siblings went home from their exploration of the Opal mansion.

Before heading to the main house, they took the items that they scavenged from their trip and hid them in the greenhouse behind the Sapphire mansion. That place had served as their base for quite sometime. It turned out to be quite a smart move for they were discovered immediately just as they were starting to sneak back inside the house.

The nannies and maids were absolutely horrified at their dusty and unkempt appearances and Carla almost fainted when Ryder’s fresh wounds were revealed. Doctor Douglas Silas, the Acker’s family doctor and his apothecary assistant were summoned immediately to tend to his injuries. They used a minor healing potion on Ryder which closed up the wounds immediately. The aftermath of the scars would then be taken care of with time and sufficient medical care.

After the fuss was over, Ryder was severely interrogated about how he got the wounds on his arm and he had to lie very well to convince everyone that he got it from rolling off a downhill path in the forest at the back of Ruby mansion and scratching the arm on some thorns. His siblings followed up on his alibi, lying about playing in the forest after sneaking out of the main house. As for the first aid on the wounds, Liam said that he was the one who did it by using supplies that they stashed away in their secret base.

The adults were still quite suspicious about their stories but since all five children were safe and the household could not afford having issues with the home-coming of the Count just three days away, they let go of the matter pretty easily.

Unfortunately, since one of them returned injured, Madam Clementine, the head maid, could not treat the situation as one of their harmless little mischiefs. The siblings were punished for their actions and they were confined to their own rooms and not allowed to see each other until the home-coming ceremony ends.

Thus, even though he very much wanted to go back to Opal mansion and find the girl in the cabin, Ryder could not do so. He was very irritated about that much more than being restricted to talk to or play with his siblings for three whole days.

Somehow, he had this growing fear that if he comes back to the cabin, he wouldn’t see the girl nor her dog. Just like how the scar marks were slowly disappearing from his arm, he was scared that they too have disappeared.

After Ryder was dressed up, he was ushered to the hall where his brothers were waiting. As expected, Hazel’s preparation was last to finish and when she finally joined them, her face looked like she just exited the underworld itself. Carter and Chase sniggered at her expression and each had to be kicked stealthily on the shin by Hazel herself for them to zip their mouths.

“My, my, my… Just look at the young lady and the young masters, such wonderful elegance and presence befitting of the Acker family name…” Madam Clementine remarked proudly as she gazed upon the children.

She then directed her attention to Sandra Walkins who was the senior maid, second in authority and hierarchy only to the Head Maid herself. “Is everything in order? Have you double-checked all the necessary preparations for the parade?” she asked.

“Everything is perfect, Madam… Sir Merill is out front with the guard knights onboard the carriage that the young masters and young lady would ride to the plaza,” Sandra answered.

The children were then briefed for the hundredth time about the procession of the whole ceremony and they all internally sighed.

“We’re not idiots, do they really have to remind us about this whole process so many times?” Carter thought as he pretended to listen to Madam Clementine’s drawling voice. He snuck looks at his siblings and as expected, they looked quite exasperated.

Indeed, the children had the whole ceremony memorized from start to finish to the point that each of them could recite it with ease.

Firstly, the children of the Count would be parading towards the plaza from their residence, leaving from the grand front gate. From there, they would be crossing the streets of Brett and Burke, the two small towns belonging to the fief closest to the Countdom, with the fief plaza as the final destination. They would rendezvous there with the other side of the procession – their Father parading with the knights who accompanied him to war. The children would then pay their respects to their father and the knights, then some p********a work of smiling, greeting and waving at the spectators who came to see the procession. Their carriage would then be promenaded back home with their Father beside them riding majestically on his battle stead. Upon reaching the residence, the children would have to get off first for they have to receive their father in front of all the servants and employees. Then one by one from eldest to youngest, they would present flower garlands to their father and release white doves to the sky to express their gratitude to the gods for sending their father and the knights home safely after a long continuous war. After that, there would be the medal-awarding of the knights and a sacred ritual to honor the spirits of the soldiers who couldn’t make it back home.

There would be a lunch party solely for the Count and his knights thus the children could be exempted from joining that. The whole ceremony would take hours to end and it would only be natural that the children would be exhausted by then. They would eat lunch separately and allowed to rest for the afternoon before having dinner with their Father afterwards.

“Remember, there’s no slouching, no scratching, no talking, no horsing around and no funny business of any shape or form. The people of the fiefs would all be there to see you and you must exhibit the epitome of nobility. Maintain your smile, meet the people’s eyes confidently and wave at them graciously,” Madam Clementine said, demonstrating the last bit about the smiling and waving.

“Am I understood, my lady and my lords?” she added before staring intently at the faces of one kid to another.

“Yes Madam Clementine…” the siblings chorused with unenthused tones.

The Madam didn’t look even the littlest bit mollified and she hardened her tone even more. “Your honorable Father is coming back home and wouldn’t have to leave for war again. I’m sure the young lords and lady can muster more enthusiasm than that,” she told them. For a thin, pole-like old lady, she could look quite menacing whenever she pushed manners and etiquette onto the Acker children.

The children straightened up upon hearing her tone of voice. “Yes Madam Clementine…” they chorused again, exerting more energy this time.

“Wonderful! Now off you go… We will be waiting for your return,” she said with a smile and instructed the maids to help the children board the carriage and take their prospective places.

The ride was painfully slow to serve its purpose as a promenade at which the children had to be noticed and seen by all the people they pass by. The Acker family rarely goes out and among nobility, they had the reputation of being quite neutral. They do not participate much in social events albeit for those important ones that they had to mandatorily attend as their duty and obligation to the Giovanni Kingdom.

The deceased Duchess, Lady Natalia Rose Acker, was formerly Natalia Rose Edbert, the third daughter of the Edbert Dukedom which led the neutral faction of the aristocratic society. She had been betrothed to the current Count in order to strengthen the bond between the Edbert and the Acker family.

Because the Ackers were meticulous and secretive and they generally don’t make public appearances so often, there were many curious and interested onlookers who had come from the capital just to take a look at the current generation of heirs. The crowd of people on the roads of Brett town was surely an evidence of that curiosity.

Strictly speaking, that parade was the first-ever public event that the children attended wherein they had to be presented in front of so many people. After all, the eldest Liam and Hazel were only ten years old; Ryder at nine and the youngest Chase and Carter aged seven with their birthday approximately a month away. They were too young to debut into society and thus had been living the lives of just carefree little kids. Their etiquette lessons were not even halfway done yet and they were not used to being stared at by so many pairs of eyes. Nevertheless, they kept their poise and focused at looking like perfect little members of nobility as to not bring shame to the name of the Acker Countdom.

“I’m losing all sensation in my butt,” Chase whispered at his siblings through smiling teeth.

“My cheeks are getting tired,” Carter followed as he mustered an identical smile.

“At least you’re not wearing a hot dress, shut your flapping mouths up,” Hazel hissed at them before waving at the group of children waiting by the roadside.

“Seriously guys, we’re not even halfway done, don’t do this,” Liam told them from the side of his mouth.

“Just endure it until lunchtime, then everybody would leave us alone," Ryder commented.

Finally, they reached the end of Brett town. They would be passing a subsidiary road to reach the next town and there wouldn’t be many people passing by thus the children could relax for a moment. They were given flasks of honey lemon water to replenish their fluids and engaged in small talk before they could enter the border of Burke town.

“So how did you guys fare from being separated from me for three days? Were you lonely?” Liam jokingly asked his younger siblings.

“Oh don’t even bring that up, older brother. I almost died of boredom,” Carter responded.

“Yea, it’s no fun playing alone... Even trying to mess with Jess lost its charm after a day,” Chase added, pertaining to his personal butler who accompanied him on his days of confinement. “Is your arm alright now, Brother Ryder?” he followed.

Upon that question, the attention of his siblings all focused on Ryder.

Ryder shrugged and pulled up the sleeve covering his left forearm to show them how it looks. “There’s a bit of scar left but a few more days of applying that musty-smelling salve and it’ll be completely gone,” he told them.

Relief was evident on the faces of his siblings and Ryder smiled at their concern. Then Liam turned to him and whispered, “You still have a lot of explaining to do regarding getting those wounds… You have to share every detail with us later.”

“Liam is right. You have to tell us what happened,” Hazel added with conviction.

“I was mighty curious about that too. It was really mean of everyone to separate us for three whole days,” Chase said then turned down his voice before continuing. “We couldn’t even inspect the items we got from Opal mansion,” he whispered.

Indeed, one of the greatest frustrations of the children upon getting confined to their quarters was the fact that they couldn’t take a proper look at those secretive-looking boxes, receptacles and items that they got from the abandoned house.

Ryder was the only exception for he was more pre-occupied with thoughts of the girl in the cabin. He actually forgot the fact that his siblings were able to get some loot from their exploration of the house. Much more than getting curious about those items, he wondered how he would tell his siblings about getting attacked by a big, white dog and meeting the girl in the cabin who seemed to be living there alone. Even to him who experienced the whole thing, the story sounded farfetched. Would they even believe him after hearing it?

“Since the punishment was already lifted, we can take a look at those items later after lunch,” Hazel whispered excitedly, breaking into Ryder’s thoughts.

“Maybe we could even find something interesting enough to show Father as a home-coming gift,” Carter added.

“If that’s so, how about we select an item each and let Father decide who’s the winner for the contest? Father had always enjoyed taking part in our games,” Liam suggested.

Ryder smiled and focused more on interacting with his siblings. That’s right… This isn’t the time to be concerned about an unknown girl, it’s the day that their father is finally coming back home. He should put other matters aside for now and focus more on family. “That sounds like a good idea. It’s a good way to bond with Father after so long,” he said and the others expressed their agreement.

Amidst their little talk, the carriage reached the entrance of Burke town, interrupting their fun. They all sighed and resigned to act their part once again as poised and elegant aristocrats.

~~~

On the other side of the parade, Count Herald Aidan Acker and his knights were nearing the fief plaza. He looked around at the bustling streets of Burke, quite overcrowded with the addition of the onlookers from the capital. Children and women cheered and waved from the windows of houses with a second and third floor and show-owners were out of their stores to witness the return of the Count and the soldiers.

Here and there, the Count could see a lot of the foot soldiers breaking in wide smiles upon spotting their family in the crowd. There were mixtures of tears and emotion in the air, drowning in a sea of cheers and shouts of merry-making.

On his right, Byron Von Fenwick, the trusted captain who was the closest to the Count among all his aides trotted closer for a bit of small talk.

“Enjoying the home-coming, Commander?” he asked, grinning widely.

“Indeed,” Count Herald responded with a small smile and scanned the surroundings. “The place had not changed much after my last departure… It’s very nostalgic,” he added.

“After all, a year in the battlefield feels like five years or more… It’s truly a good thing that the war had been settled and the treaty leaned favorably towards our Giovanni Kingdom…” Lord Byron commented.

“Let us pray to the gods that such skirmishes would not occur again in the future…” Count Herald said with a somber expression.

“Indeed… May the gods listen to our pleas,” Lord Byron remarked. He had led the most excellent of soldiers in his troop but even he suffered the loss of valuable knights. After all, one cannot expect to fight in a war with no risk of having casualties.

“You must be looking forward to seeing your children again,” Lord Byron said to change the topic.

“Well of course… They are the sole reason why I’m still living in this world,” Count Herald answered, his expression considerably brightening. “Honestly, after Natalie died, I ran away to the battlefield and from the responsibilities of being a single parent. But year after year after year, when I come back and see those little toddlers getting bigger and bigger on each of my returns, it had gotten harder for me to go back to war. My children had been wary of me since they only get to see me once a year and I admit it was hard for me to get along with them during their younger years. I was reluctant to face them, quite anxious of how they think of me and guilty from being a bad parent, but they were warm, affectionate little kids and they always make an effort to approach me first. I thought going to war would keep me busy enough to forget the pain of losing Natalie, but it was not the battlefield who helped me heal my wounds – it was the children. I should’ve never parted from them. If I died in the war, they would be left with no one… How come I didn’t think of that, I was such a fool.”

Lord Byron was quite surprised seeing his Commander be so soft for the first time. Count Herald had always been hard, cold and rather stoic in front of the knights but he also valued camaraderie, brotherhood and honor thus, from time to time, he shared smiles and laughter with his knights but for all the years they spent together on the battlefield, the Count had never said anything about his children.

“Come to think of it Commander, none of us know about your children,” Lord Byron commented after getting over the shock. “After hearing you talk about them like that, I’m getting quite excited to meet them… How old are they right now?” he asked good-naturedly.

“The eldest twins, Liam and Hazel are ten. Ryder is nine and the youngest twins Chase and Carter would soon turn eight in one month,” Count Herald answered with a trace of pride in his tone.

“Ohh…” Lord Byron said absent-mindedly with a nod as he mentally counted the names of the children. When it dawned to him that the Commander has five kids, he blinked and looked rather puzzled. “F-five? There’s five of them?” he asked rather dumbly, holding up the five fingers of his right hand.

The Count nodded. “Natalie actually wanted a dozen. She had eight siblings and thus she had a jolly time growing up. She wanted for us to beat her family by adding more children, and although we weren’t able to do that, five is still a good number,” he smiled, reminiscing memories of his late wife.

By his side, Lord Byron was absolutely discombobulated and had been stunned into silence. If he had his facts right, Count Herald just turned twenty-nine that year. He inherited the Countdom early because of the accidental and sudden passing of his parents and thus married early as well but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine their handsome and youthful Commander to be the father of five kids.

As Lord Byron was having trouble doing the simple math to find out the age of the Commander when he first had children, the Count saw his kids waiting on the improvised stage in front of the grand fountain of the fief plaza and broke into a bright smile.

The procession livened up at that very moment and as the Commander dismounted from his horse and made his way to the stage to be reunited with his beloved children, many in the crowd got emotional. The formality greetings were carried on along with wide smiles on the faces of the Acker family members and the audience whilst large birds flew overhead and scattered flower petals and colorful confetti all over the plaza.

After the formal greetings were done, the Count and his kids waved at the people and sent their good wishes to everyone. Then the procession was continued and the children were escorted back to the carriage, their father high up on his battle stead, trotting alongside them. The knights followed from behind.

As they made their way across the streets of Burke going to the direction of the subsidiary road to Brett town, something caught the corner of Ryder’s sapphire-blue eyes as he was sitting on the carriage and waving at the crowd.

It happened at an alley on his right, and so momentous that it could’ve been a trick of the light or an apparition of some sort – the figure of a little girl with long, wavy brown hair going down to her waist watching the parade closely, and a big, white dog with its tongue out as if panting excitedly, standing right beside her.

At that moment, the Count also coincidentally turned his head towards the alley and saw a girl with eyes of the most curious deep blue shade resembling the surface of a cool sapphire stone – eyes that seemed to peer into one’s soul. For a moment, the Count thought that she was looking directly at him and he stopped his stead for a while.

But then, his second son Ryder suddenly stood up from his seat and blocked his sight. The young boy was looking at the alley with wide eyes as if he just saw something that utterly surprised him.

At his abrupt rising, Ryder got unbalanced from the carriage’s movements and almost fell down if not for Liam getting ahold of his arm.

“Whoa, why’d you stand up for so suddenly?” Hazel remarked as she too got ahold of his younger brother’s torso to keep him steady.

Ryder didn’t bother with anyone and focused on narrowing his eyes at the alley, craning his neck to look over the heads of the adults in the crowd. But there was no girl there nor a big, white dog. His eyes must’ve tricked him or he must’ve been thinking of them so often that he’s begun to see apparitions.

“Ryder?” Liam called out, making the younger boy snap back to his senses.

“Huh?” Ryder finally said, looking down at his older brother.

“Is there something wrong?” a voice from his left alerted Ryder and he turned his head to that direction. Their Father was looking at him, quite concerned.

Ryder blinked and regained his composure then he shook his head and sat back down. “No, no… I just thought I saw something… Don’t mind me, it’s nothing…” he told them.

Meanwhile, walking through an alley towards the back of the market, Felicity had led Kenley away from the parade. She came to Burke’s to deliver the ginger tea that Mr. Tom from the bakery asked of her three days ago. She totally forgot that it was the day of the return of Count Acker. She heard about it here and there whilst strolling through town but as she never minded herself with public events, the rumors just go into one ear and out the other.

As she and Kenley exited Burke’s town and went over the side road towards the secret forest path leading to her house, she gave an audible sigh. “If I had remembered that today was the day of the Count’s return, I could’ve waited until tomorrow to deliver the tea bags…” she murmured.

Kenley looked at her and tilted his head questioningly. Felicity gave a little smile and crouched down to scratch his ears.

“I’m in a bad mood now… What do you say I whip up some pancakes and we’ll just roll around for the rest of the day and forget about chores for a while?” she told the dog.

The mutt’s ears perked up and he barked loudly once before circling his owner excitedly.

“Kenley, you goose… You really love pancakes don’t you?” Felicity said and calmed him down before getting back up on her feet. “Let’s go home boy…” she told him and together, they strolled towards the West Acker forest.