| Fantasy Fiction posted March 10, 2020 | Chapters: |
...23 24 -25- 26... 
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That first night in their new home (The Refuge)...
A chapter in the book Renaissance of Enchantment
Chapter 8 - Part One
by Y. M. Roger
| Background Maggie and Addy (and Bongo!) are all settled in for their first night. It seems they've met everyone except Demetrius... or have they? |
End of Chapter 7:
Maggie tightened her grip on his little hand.
“Addison.” Her tone was firm and brokered no argument. Addison noted it right off and didn’t argue – it was an unspoken agreement between the two of them that when Maggie put her foot down, so to speak, Addison listened. No questions asked. But Addy did spare Peadar another smile and a small wave as he walked obediently beside Maggie.
And Peadar hesitantly returned them both.
Maggie made a mental note about Peadar including a plan to talk to Addison about the man later this evening – she wasn't exactly sure what to think at this juncture, but a fair amount of caution was warranted until she figured it out. Because if there was one thing that was a constant in Marguerite Atkinson's life it was this: that she always went with her vibes and feelings. They might not make sense all the time, but they had never steered her wrong. So, that wasn’t going to change any time soon…no matter where they were living.
Begin Chapter 8:
Maggie lay on top her covers staring at the ceiling. She heard giggles coming from Addy’s room and knew he was having his usual fun with Bongo – the big cat really did watch out for him in an odd sort of way.
“Addy? Get some sleep,” she said so that he could hear her, the smile evident in her voice as it always was when speaking to either of them.
“But can’t I read a little bit, Mags?” came the oh-so-innocent voice from the other room.
Maggie chuckled softly to herself. That boy was no more reading than . . .
“I don’t think reading entails wrestling with Bongo, does it?”
She heard the whisperings of “just sit here” and “you’re gonna get me in trouble” and, finally, a response directed at her, “I’m reading now, okay?”
“For a bit” – she figured she wouldn’t be asleep for a while – “then it’s lights out, yeah?”
“Alright.”
Satisfied, Maggie reminded herself that she was still fully clothed and needed to get changed for bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. For some odd reason, she felt completely at ease and almost safe in this huge place – something she was having a bit of trouble understanding. Although, she did admit to herself that it was something for which she was quite grateful because those people out there, her tenants? Oh. My. Goodness…
Lyca. Well, she would have certainly fit in quite well back in New York with the whole dark brooding thing she had going on. Although there was definitely more to her dynamic here than what it appeared for two reasons: she’d acted protective of two of the other people in that room, even if she hadn’t come out and openly said anything. It was in Lyca’s body language with that huge but not intimidating – almost a contradiction if you asked Maggie, but it was what she felt – Kato. If there was any resemblance at all she would have put Lyca as his mother or maybe even older sister, but that was definitely a no-go. Funny thing was, the other person that seemed to fall into a gentler version of that mother/sister role to Kato was also the other one that Lyca watched like a hawk: Memphis.
Well, okay, Memphis wasn’t actually a tenant, but a live-in employee? Like, she lived here and worked here as the – what was it? The auberge factotum. Maggie grabbed her phone to look that one up. If Maggie didn’t know any better, she’d actually expect the words to address ‘magically soothing’ or some such nonsense: to Maggie, Memphis had actual waves of gentleness flowing off of her even though no one else seemed to notice or acknowledge such.
No results on the Google search. Huh. Wait. There were separate results.
Auberge – an inn in France.
Factotum – an employee who does all kinds of work.
Hmmmm. So, Memphis was the all-round caretaker of this… inn? Maggie had thought it to be a boarding house, at least that’s what Mr. Staltson had said. Placing her phone on the bed, Maggie went over to the desk in the room. They had said this room had belonged to her Aunt Rosemary. Maybe there were some sort of documentation and billing records in…
Grrrrrwwwlll.
Maggie paused in the opening of the top desk drawer and sighed. She knew Addy was restless and was happy to see Bongo, but… She glanced at her watch. Good heavens! It was after midnight.
Still smiling she marched to Addison’s door and flung it open.
“I thought y–” Maggie quickly snapped her mouth shut.
The room was mostly dark. There was Addy snuggled into a tight fetal position with Bongo at his back. The large cat lifted its head almost instantly. Maggie’s eyes were drawn to his chartreuse ones that held a faint glow in the soft illumination from Addy’s nightlight. Addison stirred only slightly, reaching behind him in sleep to find Bongo, and settling as soon as his searching hand poked the cat in the neck. Bongo flinched, seemingly annoyed, then re-focused on Maggie. She couldn’t help but grin at the cat – she really had been convinced they’d never see it again.
Pretty sure she hadn’t awakened Addy, Maggie raised a finger to her mouth and whispered, “Shhhhhhh.”
If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear Bongo’s face transitioned to one of disbelief before he seemed to shake his head if only in the slightest and lowered it back to the bedcovers. He let out one of his usual Bongo huffs as she closed the door.
Smiling to herself at how normal those two seemed, she almost forgot why she had looked in on them to begin with until…
Grrwwl. Followed by laughter.
It sounded like some number of people, and they were obviously just having a good ol’ time out in the living room. Oh, wait, what had Koko called it… the gathering room? Yeah, something like that. Of course, someone like Koko would call it that. She snickered to herself. Talk about another odd bird: Koko spoke as though he was prophesying at all times.
Maggie shook her head in dismissal as she headed back to the desk to finish her search of the contents thereof.
More laughter and, perhaps, talking? But the words were indistinct.
All right. There had to be some sort of house rules about quiet hours, especially after midnight. And if there weren’t, there would be starting now because Addy was too young to be awakened at these late hours.
She veered away from the desk and toward the bedroom door, an uneasy tension rising inside of her because everything was so unfamiliar. Back in New York, she wouldn’t have hesitated walking out and telling Punky and them to keep it down, but here? She and Addison just got here. She really did not want folks to not like them this early on.
At the dinner table earlier, even Peadar seemed to settle in her mind which was a good thing: those initial vibes on the front porch were not good. Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew it would take time to get to know the others, but she wasn’t willing to give an inch where Addy’s well-being was concerned.
She paused at the closed bedroom door, hand on the knob. Maybe some of the boarders went out and were just coming in from somewhere and would be quiet now. Biting her lower lip, she listened intently.
“And that, my dear Demetrius, is why you…”
Taking a deep breath and glancing down once more at her appearance, Maggie opened and stepped through the door, pausing to close it quietly behind her.
“Excuse me?” Her voice was a loud whisper as she spun toward the large room and began walking toward the far end.
There, a group of people of various ages, including one young girl about age six or so, seemed to be enjoying themselves with conversation and laughter. Facing one another and perhaps someone seated on the lounge against the wall that Maggie could not see from this angle, they were all clothed in what had to be stage costumes from the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Weird. Why have a costume party this time of year? And why were they all suddenly staring at her like she’d grown another head? Okay, some of them were looking from one to the other and smirking, but, honestly, none of this made any sense…
Maggie steeled herself and continued forward, trying to keep a pleasant air about her, but she pulled up short as the young girl began dancing and laughing in a funny, frantic way. One of the women nearest the child tried to grab her little arm, but she slipped to the side.
“Nanna-nanna-boo-bee!” The girl raised her hands her hands over her head, waving them, as she skipped toward Maggie. “Yooou can’t seeee me!”
A few of the men – one in a suit and tie that looked like it belonged in a fashion museum from the 1920’s – snickered at the little girl's actions. An older woman in the group – wearing some sort of colonial costume complete with bonnet – actually began doing her own little jig in place, appearing at first to sing along with the child.
“Nanna-nanna-boobies!” She emphasized the last word by shimmying her own ‘boobies’ that were quite substantial and held up for display in her bustier. “You can’t touch these!”
One of the leering gentleman reached toward her when Maggie’d had enough.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?!”
Every last one of them froze in place. The little girl stopped and caught her breath. Her eyes flew wide open as she quickly retreated behind the skirt of the woman who had tried to grab hold of her earlier.
The silence was palpable as the most handsome face Maggie had ever seen rose like a stalking animal from behind them. His features were strong – strong enough to leave an impression forever, Maggie wagered, because… well, damn. Mahogany best described his skin tone that looked perfect in any and every sense of the word. The face that skin covered was hewn in stone, she was sure of it – not a twitch, not a flinch. She honestly would not swear he was breathing. But when those onyx eyes met hers, Maggie felt something stir deep down inside of her.
The group parted for his passage as he took one step and then another in her direction. She felt no fear, no danger – something she was at a loss for given his size. Still, Maggie didn’t move. Couldn’t move. She was ensnared by those eyes… they were…, they were…
A loud ‘hooting’ outside the front window snapped her to attention. The alluring gentleman stopped his forward progress, his head turning sharply toward the window in the direction of the owl’s cry.
As Maggie sucked in a much needed breath, he turned back to face her, the tiniest of twitches playing in one corner of his lips. Those oh-so-piercing eyes seemed to suddenly dance with laughter, and Maggie had the unexpected urge to reach out and fix a stray black hair on the side of his head. Finding her wits and other senses that had seemed to have temporarily left, she fisted her hand to still it and took another cleansing breath. She had just opened her mouth to speak when he completely took her breath away: he bowed in front of her.
Ho. Ly. Crap.
To be continued…
Maggie - Marguerite B. Atkinson. Maggie is Rosemary’s great-niece.
Addison (Addy) Westmorland - little boy with Maggie, being raised by her
Dorothy Westmorland - Addy's mother (deceased)
Bongo - Maggie & Addy's large, black cat
Twilight - Great Gray Owl seen outside the diner and at Maggie's apartment in New York
Rosemary - (deceased) Rosemary Fenna, Sister of the World Wide Hecate Order (WWHO) and Guardian Protectress of The Refuge
Demetrius - tall, mysterious male resident of The Refuge, marked for death (perhaps more) by the WWHO
Peadar - Irish male resident of The Refuge, helped Rosemary with upkeep
Lycaois - (aka Lyca) Goth, warrior-looking female resident of The Refuge
Freki - Lyca's over-sized pet 'dog'
Koko - Native American male resident of The Refuge, has unending optimism and warmth about him...most of the time
Kato - large male Refuge resident who wears the clothes of a teenager. Kato is a young lion-shifter.
Memphis - nymph from Demetrius' original homeland, now auberge factotum to The Refuge
Geoffrey Staltson - Rosemary's lawyer and friend to the residents at The Refuge
Stephen - private investigator employed by Geoffrey
Maggie tightened her grip on his little hand.
“Addison.” Her tone was firm and brokered no argument. Addison noted it right off and didn’t argue – it was an unspoken agreement between the two of them that when Maggie put her foot down, so to speak, Addison listened. No questions asked. But Addy did spare Peadar another smile and a small wave as he walked obediently beside Maggie.
And Peadar hesitantly returned them both.
Maggie made a mental note about Peadar including a plan to talk to Addison about the man later this evening – she wasn't exactly sure what to think at this juncture, but a fair amount of caution was warranted until she figured it out. Because if there was one thing that was a constant in Marguerite Atkinson's life it was this: that she always went with her vibes and feelings. They might not make sense all the time, but they had never steered her wrong. So, that wasn’t going to change any time soon…no matter where they were living.
Begin Chapter 8:
Maggie lay on top her covers staring at the ceiling. She heard giggles coming from Addy’s room and knew he was having his usual fun with Bongo – the big cat really did watch out for him in an odd sort of way.
“Addy? Get some sleep,” she said so that he could hear her, the smile evident in her voice as it always was when speaking to either of them.
“But can’t I read a little bit, Mags?” came the oh-so-innocent voice from the other room.
Maggie chuckled softly to herself. That boy was no more reading than . . .
“I don’t think reading entails wrestling with Bongo, does it?”
She heard the whisperings of “just sit here” and “you’re gonna get me in trouble” and, finally, a response directed at her, “I’m reading now, okay?”
“For a bit” – she figured she wouldn’t be asleep for a while – “then it’s lights out, yeah?”
“Alright.”
Satisfied, Maggie reminded herself that she was still fully clothed and needed to get changed for bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. For some odd reason, she felt completely at ease and almost safe in this huge place – something she was having a bit of trouble understanding. Although, she did admit to herself that it was something for which she was quite grateful because those people out there, her tenants? Oh. My. Goodness…
Lyca. Well, she would have certainly fit in quite well back in New York with the whole dark brooding thing she had going on. Although there was definitely more to her dynamic here than what it appeared for two reasons: she’d acted protective of two of the other people in that room, even if she hadn’t come out and openly said anything. It was in Lyca’s body language with that huge but not intimidating – almost a contradiction if you asked Maggie, but it was what she felt – Kato. If there was any resemblance at all she would have put Lyca as his mother or maybe even older sister, but that was definitely a no-go. Funny thing was, the other person that seemed to fall into a gentler version of that mother/sister role to Kato was also the other one that Lyca watched like a hawk: Memphis.
Well, okay, Memphis wasn’t actually a tenant, but a live-in employee? Like, she lived here and worked here as the – what was it? The auberge factotum. Maggie grabbed her phone to look that one up. If Maggie didn’t know any better, she’d actually expect the words to address ‘magically soothing’ or some such nonsense: to Maggie, Memphis had actual waves of gentleness flowing off of her even though no one else seemed to notice or acknowledge such.
No results on the Google search. Huh. Wait. There were separate results.
Auberge – an inn in France.
Factotum – an employee who does all kinds of work.
Hmmmm. So, Memphis was the all-round caretaker of this… inn? Maggie had thought it to be a boarding house, at least that’s what Mr. Staltson had said. Placing her phone on the bed, Maggie went over to the desk in the room. They had said this room had belonged to her Aunt Rosemary. Maybe there were some sort of documentation and billing records in…
Grrrrrwwwlll.
Maggie paused in the opening of the top desk drawer and sighed. She knew Addy was restless and was happy to see Bongo, but… She glanced at her watch. Good heavens! It was after midnight.
Still smiling she marched to Addison’s door and flung it open.
“I thought y–” Maggie quickly snapped her mouth shut.
The room was mostly dark. There was Addy snuggled into a tight fetal position with Bongo at his back. The large cat lifted its head almost instantly. Maggie’s eyes were drawn to his chartreuse ones that held a faint glow in the soft illumination from Addy’s nightlight. Addison stirred only slightly, reaching behind him in sleep to find Bongo, and settling as soon as his searching hand poked the cat in the neck. Bongo flinched, seemingly annoyed, then re-focused on Maggie. She couldn’t help but grin at the cat – she really had been convinced they’d never see it again.
Pretty sure she hadn’t awakened Addy, Maggie raised a finger to her mouth and whispered, “Shhhhhhh.”
If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear Bongo’s face transitioned to one of disbelief before he seemed to shake his head if only in the slightest and lowered it back to the bedcovers. He let out one of his usual Bongo huffs as she closed the door.
Smiling to herself at how normal those two seemed, she almost forgot why she had looked in on them to begin with until…
Grrwwl. Followed by laughter.
It sounded like some number of people, and they were obviously just having a good ol’ time out in the living room. Oh, wait, what had Koko called it… the gathering room? Yeah, something like that. Of course, someone like Koko would call it that. She snickered to herself. Talk about another odd bird: Koko spoke as though he was prophesying at all times.
Maggie shook her head in dismissal as she headed back to the desk to finish her search of the contents thereof.
More laughter and, perhaps, talking? But the words were indistinct.
All right. There had to be some sort of house rules about quiet hours, especially after midnight. And if there weren’t, there would be starting now because Addy was too young to be awakened at these late hours.
She veered away from the desk and toward the bedroom door, an uneasy tension rising inside of her because everything was so unfamiliar. Back in New York, she wouldn’t have hesitated walking out and telling Punky and them to keep it down, but here? She and Addison just got here. She really did not want folks to not like them this early on.
At the dinner table earlier, even Peadar seemed to settle in her mind which was a good thing: those initial vibes on the front porch were not good. Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew it would take time to get to know the others, but she wasn’t willing to give an inch where Addy’s well-being was concerned.
She paused at the closed bedroom door, hand on the knob. Maybe some of the boarders went out and were just coming in from somewhere and would be quiet now. Biting her lower lip, she listened intently.
“And that, my dear Demetrius, is why you…”
Taking a deep breath and glancing down once more at her appearance, Maggie opened and stepped through the door, pausing to close it quietly behind her.
“Excuse me?” Her voice was a loud whisper as she spun toward the large room and began walking toward the far end.
There, a group of people of various ages, including one young girl about age six or so, seemed to be enjoying themselves with conversation and laughter. Facing one another and perhaps someone seated on the lounge against the wall that Maggie could not see from this angle, they were all clothed in what had to be stage costumes from the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Weird. Why have a costume party this time of year? And why were they all suddenly staring at her like she’d grown another head? Okay, some of them were looking from one to the other and smirking, but, honestly, none of this made any sense…
Maggie steeled herself and continued forward, trying to keep a pleasant air about her, but she pulled up short as the young girl began dancing and laughing in a funny, frantic way. One of the women nearest the child tried to grab her little arm, but she slipped to the side.
“Nanna-nanna-boo-bee!” The girl raised her hands her hands over her head, waving them, as she skipped toward Maggie. “Yooou can’t seeee me!”
A few of the men – one in a suit and tie that looked like it belonged in a fashion museum from the 1920’s – snickered at the little girl's actions. An older woman in the group – wearing some sort of colonial costume complete with bonnet – actually began doing her own little jig in place, appearing at first to sing along with the child.
“Nanna-nanna-boobies!” She emphasized the last word by shimmying her own ‘boobies’ that were quite substantial and held up for display in her bustier. “You can’t touch these!”
One of the leering gentleman reached toward her when Maggie’d had enough.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?!”
Every last one of them froze in place. The little girl stopped and caught her breath. Her eyes flew wide open as she quickly retreated behind the skirt of the woman who had tried to grab hold of her earlier.
The silence was palpable as the most handsome face Maggie had ever seen rose like a stalking animal from behind them. His features were strong – strong enough to leave an impression forever, Maggie wagered, because… well, damn. Mahogany best described his skin tone that looked perfect in any and every sense of the word. The face that skin covered was hewn in stone, she was sure of it – not a twitch, not a flinch. She honestly would not swear he was breathing. But when those onyx eyes met hers, Maggie felt something stir deep down inside of her.
The group parted for his passage as he took one step and then another in her direction. She felt no fear, no danger – something she was at a loss for given his size. Still, Maggie didn’t move. Couldn’t move. She was ensnared by those eyes… they were…, they were…
A loud ‘hooting’ outside the front window snapped her to attention. The alluring gentleman stopped his forward progress, his head turning sharply toward the window in the direction of the owl’s cry.
As Maggie sucked in a much needed breath, he turned back to face her, the tiniest of twitches playing in one corner of his lips. Those oh-so-piercing eyes seemed to suddenly dance with laughter, and Maggie had the unexpected urge to reach out and fix a stray black hair on the side of his head. Finding her wits and other senses that had seemed to have temporarily left, she fisted her hand to still it and took another cleansing breath. She had just opened her mouth to speak when he completely took her breath away: he bowed in front of her.
Ho. Ly. Crap.
To be continued…
Maggie - Marguerite B. Atkinson. Maggie is Rosemary’s great-niece.
Addison (Addy) Westmorland - little boy with Maggie, being raised by her
Dorothy Westmorland - Addy's mother (deceased)
Bongo - Maggie & Addy's large, black cat
Twilight - Great Gray Owl seen outside the diner and at Maggie's apartment in New York
Rosemary - (deceased) Rosemary Fenna, Sister of the World Wide Hecate Order (WWHO) and Guardian Protectress of The Refuge
Demetrius - tall, mysterious male resident of The Refuge, marked for death (perhaps more) by the WWHO
Peadar - Irish male resident of The Refuge, helped Rosemary with upkeep
Lycaois - (aka Lyca) Goth, warrior-looking female resident of The Refuge
Freki - Lyca's over-sized pet 'dog'
Koko - Native American male resident of The Refuge, has unending optimism and warmth about him...most of the time
Kato - large male Refuge resident who wears the clothes of a teenager. Kato is a young lion-shifter.
Memphis - nymph from Demetrius' original homeland, now auberge factotum to The Refuge
Geoffrey Staltson - Rosemary's lawyer and friend to the residents at The Refuge
Stephen - private investigator employed by Geoffrey
 Recognized |
Hooray! Maggie's back! That must mean the author is on break: YEP!! Spring Break, my friends!! And we're gonna get moving on this book starting now and up through the summer -- think of it as your favorite TV-series that took a hiatus cuz one of the actresses got pregnant... lol!! ;) Welcome back to Renaissance of Enchantment everyone!! :)
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