Beauties of the Beast (The Yellow Hoods, #4): Steampunk meets Fairy Tale (6 page)

A sense of relief washed over Tee. “I kept wondering if —”

“And you’ll never feel that way again. Right?”

Tee nodded.

“So, how are you doing, love?” he asked, brushing her long, black hair out of her face. 

She looked at her hands. “Dad, Elly… she almost…”

He took her back into a hug. “Shh. She’s doing fine. You did great.”

“But I nearly… I nearly…” Tears streamed down her face.

He rocked her. “Nearly doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter what it was,” he said, his magical voice patching up some of the holes in her soul. He smiled as she sighed. “You’re becoming a remarkable woman. I’m so proud.”

Tee chuckled. “You’ve said proud about five times.”

He laughed. “Your mother has a better vocabulary. She reads more.”

“Yeah.” Tee wiped her eyes and nose. “Is Mom here?”

Standing up and looking out the window, William kicked himself. He didn’t want to talk about what was going on back home. “No. She’s helping the people deal with what happened, along with Squeals and Bore. We agreed that I should find you. We were certain you were okay, but still, we worried.”

“Dad?” asked Tee, her eyes welling up and chin quivering.

“Yeah?” he replied, rubbing her back.

“Can I… Can I tell you everything? I just feel so heavy,” she started to cry.

Without thinking, he reached into a long forgotten pocket and pulled out an old, yellow and brown handkerchief. “Here.”

Tee took it and chuckled, her face a mess. “You still have this?” she asked in disbelief. “I made it when I was three.”

“It’s always been there, it’s my lucky handkerchief,” he replied. “You made it for one of my burf-days, as you called it back then.” He nodded. “I didn’t know it was there, until just now. Funny how life is sometimes.”

She wiped her face and nodded. She then took the next hour to fill William in on her version of events, from Anna Kundle Maucher’s ill-fated plan to take on the Pieman’s that resulted in her capture and Pierre de Montagne’s death, to LeLoup’s help. As her burden lightened, his shoulders drooped and his face became more solemn.

Gazing out the window and holding her hand, he said, “You shouldn’t have had to go through all of that. I… don’t know what to say.”

“I’m stronger for it, right, Dad?”

He turned to her, nodding. “Incredibly so. I’m going to say it again.”

“What’s that?” asked Tee, confused.

“Proud. I’m proud of you,” he said with a grin.

Tee sighed. She squeezed his hand. “Can we go home now?”

His eyes darted around the room, which had gone from cozy to confining. “No. I’m sorry, little love. It’s not safe,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “You need to stay with Christina and the others.”

“But I can help,” said Tee, frowning. She squinted. “What’s going on?”

“Everything is fine, and you’re amazing, but I can’t have you come. Not yet. I need you here,” he replied. 

“Christina’s not even here,” said Tee.

“Actually, the Abbott told me Christina and Mounira arrived last night. I’m surprised Mounira hasn’t bolted into your room to wake you up.” He stared out the window. “Listen, I know Christina can be a bit… intense sometimes, but she’s a good person. I’ll send word, probably in a month or two, for you, Elly and Mounira to come home.”

“Okay,” replied Tee reluctantly. “Are you sure Christina won’t mind?”

“I’m going to have a talk with her. It’ll be okay,” he said with an odd smile.

Tee glanced about. “I’d like to go do my exercises now, if that’s okay. You’re not going to leave without saying goodbye, are you?”

“No way,” he said, giving her a kiss. “And you know what, if you don’t mind, I’d like to join you for that workout. Maybe you could show me some of your moves.”

“Okay,” she replied with a big smile. “I’ll meet you in the courtyard in ten minutes.”

Elly laid on one of the abbey’s courtyard benches, propped up with pillows. The black wooden wheelchair was on one side, a table with the remnants of a breakfast of tea and toast on the other.

She put down her book on the mountain of pillows and gazed at the manicured gardens. The surrounding old-world buildings protected the courtyard’s beauty from the rest of the world. She loved the serenity of the abbey in the early morning, and the fireflies at night. 

“Do you have need of anything?” asked one of the monks.

“No thanks, Jayne. I am fine, thank you,” said Elly with an appreciative smile.

“It is our duty, and our honor,” replied the red and gold robed monk. He bowed and left.

Elly glanced around, feeling something was missing. It had been there since she’d arrived that morning, and now it was gone. Then it hit her. She couldn’t hear Tee and William sparring any more. She glanced up at the sun, her hand over her eyes. She wasn’t very skilled at telling time from the position of the sun, but she knew it wasn’t lunch time yet.

“Is everything alright?” asked another monk. “It is nine o’clock and twenty minutes, if you were curious about the time.”

“Thank you… Malcolm?”

The monk nodded and left.

Every day had been similar, and though she’d expected to get quickly tired of it, Elly still loved being spoiled. Tee had started teasing her about the extent, which Elly took as a sign that the days of the dark and brooding Tee were going to pass.

“Hello, Elly,” said William, walking up and wiping his flushed face with a towel. A monk quickly took it from him and disappeared. “I was just on my way to talk with Christina and noticed you out of the corner of my eye. You’re looking comfortable.”

She smiled. “Did you manage to keep up with her? I heard the two of you.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “She’s really good. Honestly, I’m surprised, and exhausted. I don’t remember her always being that intense. Is that new?”

“She’s just… um…” Elly wasn’t sure how to answer and then stopped, noting the look in his eyes didn’t align with his question. “Is everything okay, Monsieur Baker?”

“Yes, yes. Well, as much as could be expected, given what’s happened, I suppose,” he said, offering the classic smile she used to see nearly every day when she’d pop over to Tee’s house.

“Are my parents with you?” she asked eagerly.

William gently shook his head. “Your parents are helping Jennifer in Mineau. They’re well, and, of course, worried about you.” He crouched down and looked at her, eye to eye. “How are you doing? You’ve been shot, but I’ve heard you’re recovering well.”

Elly unconsciously touched her bandaged side. “I’m doing okay. I can move around a bit now, but it still hurts. Yesterday, I made it through without the pain-stopping elixir the monks make. It’s made with the poppies from the nearby fields, and while it smells terrible, it tastes worse. But some good came of it—I’ve discovered chemistry! One of the monks gave me a book he wrote about how they make it. It’s fascinating.”

“Really? Huh,” he said with a laugh. “So, you’ve discovered something of interest to you?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Apparently, a few of the monks used to be inventors, though they won’t call themselves that. They’ve been giving me every book on the subject, its history, that they can find. I can’t wait until I can make my own little lab and try some of my ideas.” She chuckled and smiled.

“What is it?” he asked.

Elly tried to sit up, not sure exactly how to put it. “To be honest, I always wished I could be like Tee. The way she would look at things sometimes, the wheels in her head turning. I never thought I was like that, despite what Tee would say. But now, especially with the secrets she shared with me… I feel different. I feel free, and I’m loving it.”

“What did Tee tell you?” asked William, his face tensing.

She studied his steely expression. She could sense his concern and figured that Tee hadn’t shared what she’d told her. It warmed her heart to know that Tee really was her sister against everything, and nothing would ever be able to come between them again. “She said my real last name is DeBoeuf and I’m related to a leader of the Tub, the one called the Butcher. She also said I’m as much of an Abominator as she is.” 

“When I was slipping in and out of consciousness, I thought a lot about it. I feel like I’ve awakened a new person.”

William stroked his beard pensively.

She’d never seen him with a look she couldn’t read, and it made her reflect on how little she really knew him. “Is my last name really DeBoeuf?” she asked, bracing herself.

After some hesitation, he replied, “It is. How do you feel about that?”

“Excited, confused. I’m not really sure. I trust my parents, and I’m sure they have a very good reason for it.”

“They do. We all do,” said William with a sigh. “But, look at this pile of books. Are these all about chemistry? Have you read them all?”

“Yes, but I keep them here for when I need to go back for reference. Some of the monks have started teasing me, calling me the River. Apparently there’s a Staaten dialect with an expression about a river washing away… all the wood? Or something? I don’t remember. Does that make any sense?”

William skimmed through the titles of the books. “Jennifer calls someone like that a ravaging reader. I always imagine someone ripping all the pages out and eating them when she says that,” he replied with a chuckle. “This is an impressive list, Elly. You understand all of this?”

“Not all of it, but it’s making more and more sense. Sometimes one of the monks is able to explain something to me that I’m stuck on, but for the most part, I'm figuring it out. Like I said, I want to try things soon.”

“Just don’t blow yourself up, your mother would be really upset,” said William with a fake stern look.

“No worries,” she replied with a wink. She watched as his expression melted away and he gazed at the main building of the abbey. “Are you worried about Tee?”

“We had a good talk,” he said, turning to her. “But of course I am, I’m her father. We always worry about our little girls, even when they grow up to be fearless warriors.”

She narrowed her eyes and studied him. “She’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to her. I don’t think Mounira will either.”

William rubbed his face. “She’s carrying a heavy burden. She—”

“It’s getting lighter each day,” she said, interrupting.

Nodding, he said, “Thank you, Elly. It means a lot that she has a friend like you.”

“She’s my girl, my sister. Even if she finds a nice Benjamin someday, I’ll still be there,” said Elly.

William laughed. “She’ll never outlive that first crush. He was a nice boy.”

Elly smiled. 

“I better catch Christina before she wanders off somewhere. Listen, it was great to see you, Elly.”

“Wait. We aren’t coming with you?” asked Elly confused. “I thought once I heard your voice, that—”

He scratched his eye. “You and Tee… peas in a pod. You need to stay with Christina a while longer. I’ll see you in a few months, if not before. Take care, Elly.”

“You, too,” replied Elly. She watched suspiciously as he went to the main building, her head shaking unconsciously.

William closed the door to the Abbott’s office after Christina entered. It was decorated with the expected trappings of a religious life, from its books, to the small paintings that hung on the walls, to the bust in the corner.

Christina glared at the room, her loathing of organized religion poorly hidden. 

“I just ran into Mounira. Where did that mechanical arm come from?” asked William. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She sat in one of two old chairs and folded her arms. “Christophe made it for her.”

“Very funny,” replied William.

Christina’s expression hardened. “She said he made it. Do you know her to lie?”

“No one’s seen him do anything but stare at walls and mumble in years,” replied William.

“And Mounira claims he came to life around her. I spent some time with him when we were there, but he just stayed locked in his head. She couldn’t explain it.”

William frowned, and sat down. “You’re serious?”

“Do I joke?” snapped Christina, pushing her hair back over her ears.

“And you believe her?”

Christina glared at him. “No, I think a one-armed southerner with no history of inventing created a state of the art piece of technology without a single person noticing.”