Chapter 25: Chapter 25 – Just the two of us, from now on

As he had expected, the author was not very helpful. Half the time they were together was spent complaining about how twisted the plot had become because of him and, the other half, she dedicated herself to make a recount of her own merits and those of the protagonists. Well, in Ashley Carpenter's mind, her protagonists were the perfect example of a healthy relationship. She didn't see anything toxic in their actions.

But that wasn´t what irritated Oscar.

He, who had been frequenting online writing platforms since fifteen years old, had no problem with teenage girls praising certain types of misogynistic behaviors or wanting, as they put it, to strike up deals with people of the same ilk as Patrick. No. That didn't unnerve him, it just made him uncomfortable. Oscar's problem came when those same thoughts were held by people like Ashley, since the aforementioned was already in her twenties and writing for a younger audience.

For fuck´s sake! What ideas was she putting into their heads if indeed that was her mentality regarding love affairs!

And it is that with the children he could reason. In fact, when he saw someone with that attitude on his own blog, Oscar used to try to change their mind. Especially if it was girls. But, of course, with adults it was another story. Those were already brain rotten and beyond repair, or at least not a simple one that he was willing to deal with. Again, his kindness was not that big.

So as he made his way to Thornfield, he wondered what that writer would have said if she knew he supported things like feminism, legal abortion and was also willing to take a stand in favor of the LGBT community. It isn´t that in Europe having this type of opinion was new in his time but, knowing Ashley and her erotic novels where pure submissive women and classic straight men were showed, was convinced that she would have some unfavorable reply ready.

In short, the beliefs of each one didn´t matter. Ashley, or Dianne as he kept calling her, had promised she would have an eye on Madeleine. It didn't matter too much if she couldn't get close to Patrick or if he was too blunt in dealing with Madeleine: the author idolized them enough to do all that socializing work on their own.

Oscar reached the Northrop mansion, a little later than usual, and knocked on the door.

By now, his thoughts had turned around again. Forgetting the protagonist, the stupid author, and starting again to worry about where he would get the money and, above all, where he would find the time to collect it. Because, if he didn't remember wrong, Theresa's books would arrive shortly.

He was beginning to consider how the villain would take it if he told him everything that had happened with the money, also asking him for a deadline to replace the spent money, when the front door opened. Oscar was shocked when he saw that, instead of the usual servant, it was Albert who appeared before him.

It took about five seconds of awkward silence before either of them could react.

In this case, it was Albert who did it first, inviting him in with the usual calm but confident tone of his. And so Oscar, who had not yet fully recovered from the shock, advanced slowly, slower than usual, towards the interior of the house.

Never in his life had he felt that closing a door behind him was a threat, except for this instant.

“What's going on?” He asked softly, already in the hall, looking around.

Not that Albert had gone out of his way to open the door for him, this being a special occasion, or anything like that. It's just that, inside Thornfield, there seemed to be more movement than usual. Employees came up and down the upper floor from time to time, taking orders that could be heard from the corridor. In addition, there was a large trunk placed at the bottom of the stairs.

Most of the movement, the voices and the footsteps, came from above. It was not that Albert was taking a hobby to perform the duties of a servant, but that at that moment both the maids and the butler were busy with something. And he squared that the villain was the one closest to the door when Oscar knocked.

"The new course is about to start at Cheltenham," Albert explained, "so Letitia has to prepare for it."

"I thought classes would start in September," Oscar commented, since there was still more than a week to go until that month. Is her school so far from here?”

"It's set in the Cotswolds, so yeah, it's going to be a good ride. We're packing up everything to meet the Mullins in London in a couple of days. Then we´ll take the railway to the town of Cheltenham and spend the next weekend there, accompanying the girls.”

"So this will be the last weekend I see your sister around?"

"I'm afraid so," Albert admitted after a long pause. “She´ll spend a few months at the boarding school, as usual, but probably return for a couple of weeks at Christmas.”

Oscar nodded, as if he approved of all this. The fact that Letitia was no longer there implied that he, to visit Thornfield in the future, would only see Albert. And, after the initial terror that this character provoked, he could no longer tell if this was a good or bad thing. What he did take for granted was that this was a good opportunity to socialize with him more, trying to discover if he was a psychopath, someone who secretly enjoyed the suffering of others.

  "Now, would you mind going to the library?" Albert urged him, but without leaving his courtesy aside. “I´ll go tell Letitia you have arrived and, as soon as she´s free, she´ll come down”.

Oscar was going to say that it wasn´t necessary for him to tell her, because he could ask one of the servants to do it instead or even say nothing and just wait for Letitia to come on her own. After all, they were already expecting his visit, so she would end up coming down sooner or later. But Albert had already disappeared from his field of vision.

So Oscar was left with no choice but, for the first time since he had frequented the Northrop mansion, head alone to the library, where dozens of bookshelves awaited him. Busy as he was, he hadn't been able to fully devote himself to reading for the past few days, so pacing now among all those rows of unfamiliar volumes seemed like a good way to take advantage of a break from routine.

While he was looking for something simple to read, because even though he wanted to do this activity, he didn't have the head to deal with something complex that day, he thought the villain would soon reappear. It had been five minutes since he left him, and if it weren't that Albert had never been seen to lack diplomacy in dealing with anyone, he would have thought he was avoiding him.

No, that couldn´t be so. The villain couldn't be so coward.

Oscar took a well-known copy of a science fiction story and sat down, suddenly reconsidering what Albert had told him about his sister's departure. He already knew that Letitia would go back to boarding school, since she still had a couple of years left to complete her studies. But he didn´t imagine her departure would be carried out with such speed, much less did he consider the amount of preparations that had to be made. Perhaps it was common sense, but Oscar had his own unfinished business and the fact that the school year was about to begin hadn´t even crossed his mind.

What was the name of the place? Oh yeah. Cheltenham Ladies´ College. It was a renowned school for daughters of nobles and whose tuition, Oscar thought, could not be borne by him even if he opened himself in canal and proceeded to sell all his organs.

But leaving aside the costs and the remoteness of the school, since it was obvious that he wasn´t going to be able to visit her due to the latter, who was he going to tell about his miseries now that his only confidante would leave? For an instant, he had the image of Dianne, to whom he had told even more things than Letitia herself, and he felt that his life was going to hell. In other words, one of the few people who liked him in this disastrous work left and, in exchange, a copy of Madeleine appeared but in the version of: ‘I also transmigrated, therefore I know everything and I believe I can do everything.’

What kind of service was that?

"Ah, so here you were," someone said as they entered.

Oscar had not even looked at the door when he heard it open, since he assumed it was Albert or one of the servants. It wasn't until he heard being addressed that he not only proceeded to look at whoever had spoken but also stood up, prepared to greet the newcomer.

"My son told me about your arrival," said Peter Northop, after the introductions, "I was already looking forward to meeting the person who has been entertaining my children for the past few weekends."

‘Calm down, sir,’ Oscar was thinking as he gave the other his best forced smile. ‘I'm just a casual visitor, not your daughter´s future husband.’

Besides, what the hell with that "entertaining" thing? Not that he had come to bring a new circus show to town!

"I'm sorry I couldn't introduce myself earlier," Mr. Northrop continued, "but my job...”

"Don't worry, I figured you'd be busy."

‘Anyway, I didn't come to see you.’

"Oh, but I should have, it's inexcusable I didn't. After all, you don't see visitors very often in this house. When there are, we should take the opportunity to have a time to socialize and have fun as it should, don't you think?”

"I guess…" Oscar murmured slowly; it was true that he didn´t remember having read of any social events organized by the Northrops, so he considered these characters as asocial people and not very fond of  places where crowds gathered. But did they really not receive visitors?

That was the impression the novel gave him, but now he knew the characters, that surprised him. Maybe when it came to Albert it made sense, as withdrawn as he had always behaved, but both Letitia and her father looked friendly enough to have more than one friendship.

"It's a shame, but that's the way it is. Although I have to say this is mainly due to the fact that I spend most of the year in the city. And with Letitia in the Costwolds, well, the point is that all friends and acquaintances we have usually visit us at our home in London. This place is more like a little paradise, like our retreat. So if someone comes here, they don't do it too often. Because usually we´re elsewhere.”

It was no longer difficult for Oscar to laugh when he heard this. How could anyone say this house was a paradise when they had the Cornells as neighbors? This man was crazy! But he was a nice madman, everything had to be said.

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"I must be flattered that I was allowed to come, then."

“I don't know, in my case and in Letitia's, I think we would have let you come at any moment, whoever you were. Although we love living in this villa, sometimes it´s a bit boring to be alone around here. Perhaps it is our restless nature that we need to go out and talk to people often. It is because of Albert that we don´t celebrate parties or give balls; that boy doesn´t like being among people, or talking too much, or loud music... Sometimes I don't know who he has gone out to! His mother was also quite talkative.”

"Perhaps he transmigrated to the wrong world too."

“You were saying?”

"Ah, nothing," he said quickly. “I was thinking that, that being the case, it is curious that I am allowed to come so often. Are you sure I´m not bothering you all?”

"No, no, on the contrary it seems to me. Letitia has someone to chat with, as she must be bored already having to send letters to her friends on vacation, being able to see them not too often until the beginning of her classes. And as for Albert, while it is true that when I bring guests home he only leaves his bedroom briefly to say hello, it is a good change for him to stay in the same room as the visitor until they leave. At least, I think he will used to people like this… I hope.”

But how old was the villain? In his twenties, Oscar seemed to remind. Those people were already lost, just like the hysterical fangirls he remembered earlier. If his phobia of humans had not been cured in the past, it was impossible that now it would vanish overnight. At best, the villain could get used to certain people, thus reducing his inherent urge to cut off his neck.

But even Oscar couldn't guarantee that.

The door opened again at that moment and the Northrop siblings entered. Albert was pushing Letitia's wheelchair when she greeted Oscar, already from the threshold. It was at this point that Mr. Northrop decided he should leave the room, claiming that it was time to let the young people chat alone, without having to worry about having an old man like him around.

Peter Northrop, before leaving, had invited Oscar to dine with them, but Oscar had refused due to lack of time -since his curfew to get to at Lilac Hall was too strict-. And when Mr. Northrop finally disappeared, Albert stood for a moment looking towards the door that had closed behind his father, as if he too had wanted to accompany him and had only just discovered he lost the opportunity.

Letitia, who was in as good a mood as usual, took advantage of the fact that her brother had remained lost in the doorway to push her chair to the center of the room, where Oscar was waiting for them.

"I suppose you've heard by now," she said, after gesturing for him to take a seat on the couch again. “On Tuesday we´ll leave for London. I apologize for not mentioning this to you before, as I wanted everyone to enjoy the day of the fair without having to notice this kind of thing. I mean, I don't know about you, but here between you and me I'll tell you" Letitia lowered her voice to say the next sentence "that my father and my brother don´t take goodbyes well.”

“Is that so? I´d never have guessed” Oscar's surprise was genuine, and hearing such a confession, he couldn't help but have an absurd Northrop-starring scene or two flash through his mind. “I'm not really insensitive when it comes to goodbyes, but I think I could handle myself better, given the situation.”

“Really? Well, I wish you were the one to say goodbye to me in Cheltenham, sure everything would be much more enjoyable. When Albert accompanies me, he always stays talking to the principal for a while, commenting a thousand unnecessary things about me to the teachers and, worst of all, he even insists on checking that my bedroom remains pristine, that it is oriented in the right direction and without lacking comforts. Anyway! It's too much.”

"I'm just trying to make sure everything is in his place," Albert murmured, approaching his desk; It seemed like he intended to get on with his own documents, but without completely abandoning the flow of the conversation. “No matter how prepared that school is, there can always be unforeseen events. What's wrong with making sure that, even in an emergency, you´ll be well cared for?”

"But you go overboard, brother, you go overboard!" she emphasized. “It is normal to talk to the teachers for a while before the course begins. What is no longer normal is that you go into the women's restrooms to make sure the latrines are easily accessible.”

Faced with this observation, Albert could not find a way to refute it and simply limited himself to sticking his head into his own books. Apparently ignoring the other two people who remained there.

"Those dormitories at the boarding school," Oscar began, trying not to burst out laughing in the villain's face, "aren't they shared?"

"They are, usually four of us sleep in the same room. So imagine how embarrassing that is when they see my brother come in and start rummaging through sheets, curtains and drawers. Luckily, I usually have to share a room with the same girls and of course, since we have been friends for three or four years, and we´ve been sharing space that time because they´re already used to this weirdo and they don't tell me anything about him.”

“Ah, I said it because if you have company in the room, if any catastrophe happens like your brother says, at least you´ll have immediate assistance. But it is nice to know that, despite the discomfort you may experience at first with that habit of his, the relationship with your friends is going well.”

"Yes, luckily that bad drink will barely last a few hours. Then I´ll be free of him.” Saying this, Letitia looked pointedly towards Albert, although he was no longer attending to her. “I was going to ask you, Oscar, do you think you could come visit me some weekend? I think it's selfish of me to ask, and it's okay if you can't come, but I lost nothing by asking. The last weekend of each month is when visits are accepted.”

"I doubt I could, even asking with weeks in advance, I don't even think Mr. Seymour was too amused when I was absent three or four days."

"The work you do at Lilac Hall must be important then."

"Nah, I don't think so. It's just as routinary and boring as the one he did at Rose Cottage. And on top of that, I am worse off because it´s not just that I earn less than before, it´s that they don´t have the same tolerance with me... Which I partly understand, because I started working there just recently, but sometimes they seem too strict to me.”

"So I've heard, they say the Seymour butler is stricter than the master of the manor himself. But not everything has to be bad, right?”

“Well, people in service is not bad either, for the most part, I like them. I think that little by little I´m gaining their trust. I wouldn't dare ask for a break for a few days now, but I think the situation could improve in a few months. Until then, I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about money.”

Hearing this word, for some reason, Albert looked up from his books.

"I was trying to save some cash for the future," Oscar continued, unaware that someone else was watching him, "because I wouldn't want to stay to work for the Seymours for life. But I'm afraid at this rate, that won't happen in this century. That´s why I´m going to try to find another job”

"It's not to be pessimistic, but would you have time for it?" Letitia asked, quite rightly. “I thought you only had one afternoon off.”

“And so it is, although if I finish my tasks earlier than usual I could get a longer break to dedicate myself to other tasks. In any case, I have no intention of dedicating myself to something with a fixed schedule. If I could find a job that´s somewhat flexible with the schedule or that don´t require me to appear in an office on a daily basis...”

"You could also leave the Seymour estate and go back to the Cornells, at least while you can't find anything better."

"No, that can't be an option."

The last thing Oscar wanted was to go back living under the same roof as Madeleine.

"Not even for leaving Lilac Hall? I thought the salary wasn´t worth it”

"The salary´s not worth it, but I have already agreed to stay. At least until the end of the year, I´d like to try my luck there, if only so as not to make them doubt my seriousness regarding my employment commitments. Of course, I will not stop looking for a better place to stay and work in the meantime.”

In truth, if it hadn't been that damned Patrick had taken money that wasn't his and had to stay there to make sure Madeleine got it back - one way or another - Oscar would have seriously considered Letitia's outings for him. proposed. Yes, he was fed up with the Cornells. But he was getting a lot more tired of the Seymours!

"You could work here too," Albert suggested from his seat. “We haven't had a good gardener in a long time.”

“It's true!” The girl confirmed. “And surely we would pay you better.”

"Although, if you don't like that position, you could try something else. Overall, there´s always time to kick you out.”

“That's not nice!” Letitia protested this time, although she wasn't really upset.

This would have been a good opportunity for Oscar, had it not been for the fact that the person who was offering it was, apart from the villain, the same person he owed money to. Given that he didn´t want to be rude and that the chapter where his character died should not take place until the beginning of the following year - if the timeline of the original work was followed - Oscar could only reply:

"Thank you, but for now I'll stay where I am. If I see that I am not making any progress between now and December, I´ll think about it.” 

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