Daddies of the Castle

by Adaline Raine

  “That sounds like an interesting cultural opportunity.”

  I snorted at his attempt to gloss over it all. “When I was sixteen, there was this one, brief, stolen afternoon with my friends when we’d gotten out from the watchful gaze of our teachers. We scaled the fence in our demure flats and long, pleated skirts.”

  “This sounds very naughty,” Idris remarked. I wasn’t sure if he was chastising me or not.

  “Yeah, it was. The three of us walked all the way to a tiny convenience store selling Coca-Cola and weird flavors of Pocky and potato chips; foreign-imported concepts but always with a Chinese twist. We hid in a field just like this one, but greener. Hunkered down below the stalks, we devoured our illicit contraband, talking non-stop about school drama, before we reluctantly went back to school, covered in dusty dirt, to face the music.”

  “And you were in a lot of trouble over this?”

  I nodded emphatically as I remembered. “Oh, boy, were we ever. We were thoroughly punished on the spot, separated into new dorms, and given extra written work for a week after that. But it was worth it.”

  “Why?” I wasn’t sure if he was perplexed, or if he was finding out if I understood what I’d done.

  “All the punishment in the world was worth that brief moment of freedom on a rare clear day in the middle of all the obligations and perpetual disapproval. Not to mention the bad food. You don’t know bad food until you’ve eaten at a school cafeteria in China. That was the worst thing I ever did as a kid. Maybe that’s why I’m so naughty as an adult schoolgirl. I was never allowed any opportunity for a real rebellion when I was younger.”

  “But you also crave being controlled,” he noted. It was true, I did.

  “If I get away with stuff, I get so giddy it scares me. I need discipline, but I need the chance to be naughty, first.”

  Blowing off the classroom today when the sky was so blue, I felt the same lightness I’d experienced that day in China. I was escaping, but this time I had permission. Idris seemed to be thinking over what I’d said.

  “Given that you’re in secondary school, young lady, you are given plenty of opportunities to be naughty. But you ought to think of them as opportunities to do the right thing.” As soon as he spoke, I knew the moment had passed and we were back in our roles as teacher and student again.

  “But why, sir?”

  “So one day you grow into a sensible young lady ready to take on the world.”

  I sighed. “Doing the right thing is exhausting.”

  We kept walking until we got to the trees. The smell of the woodland was comforting.

  “We need to find a good spot, secluded from noise or other people, but with some visibility of the surrounding environment,” Idris told me as we walked through the woods. The Castle was so busy with people, it was nice to be out here. I doubted we’d meet anyone else so far from the entrance.

  “What exactly do we do once we find some birds?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “We identify them using my ‘American Birds’ book.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then we watch them.”

  Idris was a lot more enthusiastic about this whole bird watching thing than I was. The change of scenery was refreshing, though. I sometimes wondered if I had become a journalist because I hated sitting still. My whole childhood had been sitting quietly, usually listening politely and respectfully to adults.

  “Take a seat.” He indicated a fallen tree trunk. I perched on it, my ass aching from the bruises beneath the surface, while he got comfortable beside me.

  He handed me the binoculars. “Point them over there.”

  I looked through them, quickly pulling them away from my eyes. “Everything’s fuzzy, sir,” I explained, as I twirled the disc to focus the lenses properly, occasionally looking through them to check. “There.”

  Once I’d got the binoculars to behave, I aimed them in the direction Idris had suggested. There was a slight hint of movement on one of the low branches of a tree. I saw the back of a brown bird with a sort-of orange tail.

  “What is it, sir?” I asked Idris. For some reason, I felt compelled to whisper despite not having been told it was necessary.

  “Let me see.” He took the binoculars. “Some sort of hawk. Let’s consult the book.”

  He flicked through it to hawks.

  “One of those?” I pointed at two similar birds which were listed side-by-side.

  “Either a red-tailed hawk or a red-shouldered hawk,” Idris surmised.

  “Its tail was kinda orange,” I mused.

  “Probably the red-tailed hawk, then,” Idris said.

  “Maybe it’s only red when it has sunburn, sir,” I giggled.

  To my surprise, instead of telling me to be more serious, Idris chuckled a little, too.

  The bird stood around for another minute or so, not really doing anything interesting, then it flew away.

  “Ordinarily, you would write down what you’d seen in a notebook, to keep track,” Idris explained. “That way, if you saw a rare or endangered bird, you could remember where you saw it. It helps conservation efforts.”

  “Do you have a notebook, sir?”

  “Yes, but not here. Mine’s at my flat in London. I wasn’t expecting to see anything while I was here, and anyway, I’m not very experienced with American birds so I can’t identify them as easily as British ones.”

  “But you brought binoculars and a field guide, sir?” Why had he done that, if he hadn’t intended to watch birds in America?

  “Old habits die hard, I suppose,” he said, shrugging. “I saw a bird while I was on a car journey when I first arrived, and I was overcome with the need to know what it was called.”

  “And what was it, sir?” I asked.

  “A Carolina wren,” he replied. “Now be quiet and wait. They won’t come while we’re talking.”

  I obediently stopped making conversation, but it was hard. I wanted to ask him a billion questions. When we’d sat in silence for long enough, a rabbit appeared on the forest floor. Soon after, two birds landed side by side and Idris covered his mouth with his hand. One of the birds was bright yellow, the other was more muted but seemed to have a yellow belly.

  “A pair of hooded warblers,” he whispered.

  I’d never truly heard anyone speaking with bated breath until that moment. He clearly wanted to tell me what was going on, but he was trying his best not to scare the birds. He handed me the binoculars after he’d spent a half-minute looking.

  I realized this must be some special sight, and my heart tingled because instead of keeping the view to himself, he’d torn himself away from it to let me see, too. The perfect gentleman.

  I got a good glimpse of the birds, then returned the binoculars to Idris. They were very pretty creatures, and the way they hopped on the forest floor was adorable, but I didn’t want to deprive Idris of seeing them, since he’d been so excited about it.

  He studied them for a few seconds before they flew away.

  “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  “What did I do, sir?”

  “I never would have come out here by myself,” he explained. He opened the book and showed me the entry for the hooded warblers.

  “They’re yellow and they have the biggest eyes of any warblers,” I read. “And rare.”

  “Not super rare, but certainly something I didn’t expect to see today,” he elaborated.

  I decided to do something naughty but unexpected; I put my hand on his and squeezed it affectionately. Rarely did I initiate something like that, not even with my ex-husband, but for some reason, the intensity of this moment made me impulsive.

  Before I could regret what I’d done, Idris dropped the bird book on the ground and put his other hand on top of mine. I smiled. Without thinking about it too much, it was clear we were sharing something special.

  He leaned forward, and I knew this was going way further than I’d expected. But I wanted it to. Needed the kiss he was moving i
n for.

  His nose was four inches from mine when I parted my lips and closed my eyes. We kissed, and the connection shocked me so hard I pulled away, covering my mouth with my caned hand, while he still held the other one.

  “Sorry. Was that too far?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pull away like that. When we… uh… kissed, I felt something powerful between us. It surprised me, was all.”

  He looked into my eyes with an expression of caring concern. “I felt it, too.”

  The moment was slipping away. Awkwardly, I stood up from the fallen tree and brushed the lichen and bark flakes from the back of my skirt.

  “Anyway, I guess we’d better head back if you want a tennis match before I have to go trick-or-treating with the little ones,” I said, trying to act casual.

  “Yes. Indeed. We ought to get going.” If he was disappointed, he wasn’t sharing about it. He scooped up his book and looked every bit the old-world schoolteacher as he straightened his suit and led the way back to the Castle.

  Chapter 4

  Idris

  L etting Ella out of my sight so she could fulfill the rest of Mr. Collins’s punishment was difficult. I wanted to keep her in my hotel room, strip her naked and play with her. Having no real sense of when she would return, I picked up my current book. Swiftly put it down again. I was in no mood for reading a fast-paced thriller, not when there was a fascinating woman to occupy my thoughts with.

  With not a lot else to do, I made a cup of tea and my thoughts returned to Ella. The more time I spent around her, the more I wanted her. Trying to rein myself in had worked until a certain point, but then I’d kissed her.

  When she had been standing in the corner of the schoolroom, I’d read her file and learned sex wasn’t off-limits, nor was intimate touching, or bondage, but I didn’t want to initiate anything.

  Actually, I wanted it too much, and I knew if we had sex, I would never get her out of my thoughts. Given that it was doubtful we’d see each other again after this weekend, that would be a disaster. No, the best solution was to keep my distance.

  The kiss had been a delicious mistake, but I couldn’t let anything like that happen again. I didn’t want to ruin the mystique of neither of us knowing anything about the other, beyond what was routinely shared between Castle guests.

  Once I’d finished my tea, I went out, planning to venture down to the Rainbow Room, but I made it as far as the lift before I was pounced on by Priscilla and Jemima.

  “Don’t you two have lessons to attend?” I asked, not concealing all of the sharpness in my tone.

  “We’re finished for the day. And now we get to do what we choose,” Priscilla said. She looked up at me expectantly. “Do you have company for dinner?”

  When she batted her eyelids, I was pretty sure some men somewhere found it attractive, but she was barking up the wrong tree.

  “Thank you, I already have plans,” I replied firmly.

  “Oh. Well, so do we. Right, Jemima?”

  “Uh… do we?”

  Priscilla gave the other girl a death glare.

  “You should show more common courtesy to your friends, young lady,” I scolded her.

  Priscilla’s attitude changed immediately. I didn’t really care to find out whether I’d embarrassed her or given her what she’d wanted. The lift arrived and I decided this would be a perfect moment to go back to my room on a pretext.

  “I’ve forgotten my book,” I announced, and walked off, leaving the two girls to find someone else to bother.

  Downstairs, I decided to investigate the confectionery shop. It seemed like the perfect place to buy a treat for Ella. Regardless of my conviction to not get entangled, I wanted to make her smile, and sweets would be the perfect gift. Every little girl, even schoolgirls, loved bonbons.

  “Hello, sir, welcome to Maybe’s Candies; what can I help you with?” An assistant waved as I entered the shop.

  My nose was immediately greeted by a mixture of cinnamon and licorice, with a mild undercurrent of chocolate beneath them both. With my mouth watering, I glanced at the rows of containers.

  “I’m afraid I have no idea what most of these are,” I confessed. “But I’m looking for something for my schoolgirl.”

  “What does she like?”

  I wondered the same thing, but all I remembered was she’d had pizza and carrots for lunch. “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

  “Does she prefer chocolatey flavors, or fruity ones?”

  My nose remembered the scent of her shampoo this morning, after she’d borrowed my shower. Green tea. “She likes green tea. So… fruity, I suppose?” Tea wasn’t really a fruit, but I really was in the dark, here.

  “Sure! Let me show you what we have…”

  I left with a very big bag of sweets and hoped my guesses about what flavors she liked would be borne out.

  Idris

  Ella tapped on the door at seven and trudged in looking exhausted.

  “I never want to see another candy as long as I live,” she grumbled, then belly flopped across the foot of the bed.

  I glanced at the bag of sweets I’d bought her as a gift.

  “How about if they were slightly more grown-up sweets, and all for you?” I hazarded.

  “Only if I can begin with a plate of broccoli, sir.”

  Was that a challenge? Because I would hold her to that. Getting her to eat broccoli and accept a gift seemed like a win-win to me.

  “Bargain. Come on, let’s get ready for dinner and pop downstairs.”

  We stopped by the wardrobe department once we were ready to move, and despite the fact that half the Castle must also be getting ready for the banquet, there was no queue and the costumiers had us both dressed in record time.

  When we emerged, I got my first glimpse of Ella kitted out in a princess gown. The sight took my breath away. Her gown was sky blue, in an ethereal-looking fabric which shimmered in the light. Her hair was put up and her eyes shone through the mascara and other make-up she’d been given.

  I hadn’t thought it possible for Ella to look any more stunning than she usually did, but here was the proof. A mental image flitted through my mind of Ella on my arm at a big function. She wouldn’t look out of place in the slightest. Now she was dressed up as an adult, her self-assurance radiated through her posture, expression and, best of all, her smile.

  She was used to this.

  The revelation took my breath away as much as the sight of her did. Contrary to what I’d previously thought, she might actually stand a chance of accepting me, if she found out who I was.

  “Let us away,” I said, bastardizing a quote from Macbeth .

  “And say how much is done,” she replied. I hid my surprise well, but inwardly I was astounded that she’d known the next line.

  We walked into the banquet hall and I decided to continue the Macbeth quotes.

  “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” I asked.

  “Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” Ella added.

  “Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo; down! Thy crown does sear my eye-balls. And thy hair.”

  “Had I as many sons as I had hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death,” Ella replied. I laughed out loud because she’d pulled a quote from another part of the play and used it as a commentary on hair. People around us were giving us odd looks, and we didn’t care.

  That was the moment I knew I was falling for her.

  Throughout dinner, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the proceedings because a sort of game started, where every time we said anything, we did it with a Shakespeare quote.

  “Too much of water hast thou, Ophelia,” I told Ella, pouring her some apple juice into a chalice.

  Now, it was Ella’s turn to giggle, but a moment later, after taking a big drink of her juice, she put on a very serious face.

  “O, true apotheca
ry! Thy drugs are quick. Thus, with a kiss, I die.” She fell against the back of her seat in a rendition of Juliet’s death scene, and I decided we might have gone too far when the guests around us raised their brows.

  “Stars, hide your fires,” I murmured.

  “Let not light see my black and deep desires,” she uttered back, righting herself in her seat and doing her best to look like a responsible adult.

  “So you’re a fan of the Bard,” I noted, keeping the conversation going. “Have you ever seen one of his plays?”

  “I was in several at college and high school. I always wanted to see one done professionally, but I never seem to have the time.”

  “I have an annual pass for the RSC; the Royal Shakespeare Company. I could take you along. It’s not a long flight.”

  She grew silent for a moment and I wondered if I’d said the wrong thing. This was always where dating went a little awry. To me, it seemed fairly straightforward for us both to hop on a plane to London and see a play together, spending a few days enjoying one another’s company at the same time.

  “So you must have seen a few,” she finally said, carefully ignoring what I’d thought was a clear offer to take her out. “Tell me about them.”

  I gave her a perfunctory rundown of Hamlet and King Lear . The spark of conviviality between us had guttered, and in a crowded place, I couldn’t do a lot to rectify that.

  The entertainment—someone’s punishment—was well orchestrated and the rest of the dinner was excellent, but through Ella’s silence, everything else felt hollow.

  Ella

  We’d had a lot of fun quoting Shakespeare until Idris had made a pretty odd offer and I didn’t know how to respond. Instead, I had shut down. The idea of going all the way to London just to see a play… it sounded fun, like the sort of thing kids came out with, but hearing it from an adult, who was also supposed to be my designated adult, confused me too much.

  I couldn’t possibly accept an invitation like that. Making it work between my already-insane timetable was unlikely enough, but on top of that, there was a deep imbalance in the offer he’d made. I didn’t want to accept it, because it wasn’t the sort of thing I could ever repay, and in real life, I didn’t like being put in that position.