Bambi and the Duke

At night after dinner was served, Vivian looked outside the window where the clouds poured rain since she had last gone to sleep last night. She didn’t understand how the clouds could rain non-stop. Her childlike mind wondered from where the cloud picked that much amount of water and if it was borrowing from someone.

”All cleaned up,” a man came entering the kitchen with his hands carrying used plates. His short black hair was tied into a pony which made his hair look pointy, ”We might need to refill the water there.”

”Don’t worry about that. I have asked someone to do it. Please pass me those glasses, would you?” Martha picked the large container from the boiling place on the slab to cool it.

”When did we start boiling this?” asked the man, about to dip his finger in the container which was filled with blood before his hand was swatted away. Being a vampire, the sight of it didn’t repulse him but he looked at the girl who had turned to see it before looking away as if it was a pot of vegetable which didn’t have blood right now in it. For a human child, it was one of the blandest reaction he had seen.

”The Easton’s drink it warm at night,” Martha answered, taking the glass and pouring the blood into it, ”I heard Lady Renae say something about Woville not being so easy when it comes to acquiring blood. Some humans are trying to corrupt the blood which affects the young vampires,” Paul raised his brow in question.

”Is that even possible? What about here then? Shouldn’t we be heating up the blood here too to make sure young master doesn’t get inflicted,” he voiced his worries, ” Mr Carmichael must really have faith with our Lord if he hasn’t asked us to boil every blood we feed the young master with.”

”It must be so,” the woman murmured. Placing the glasses on the tray, she called for Vivian, ”We need to pick up the wilted flowers. Let me show you where it is so that you can do it before you go to sleep. Come on now,” and like a cat, Vivian followed Martha close behind her.

In one of the rooms, Mrs Carmichael was narrating a story to her niece Charlotte before she could go to bed. It was something that had turned out to be a habit for the family every time one of her youngest sister’s children visited them. Her nephew and her son both sat in the corner of the room who were playing chess,

”As the young fawn says that, Bambi’s mother gently rubs her child’s neck in assurance to say not to worry as she would always be there to keep her safe. That is all for today,” Lady Renae closed the book in her hand whilst Charlotte sat up in her bed to ask her curiously,

”What about the hunter? Does he come back again?”

”Of course he does,” Leonard, the only child of the Carmichael’s answers his cousin’s question.

”So what happens when he does?” the young vampiress asks Leonard.

”What is the point of having aunt Renae read the book to you if you’re going to hear it in pieces?” Julliard, Charlotte’s elder brother asked her who was the same age as Leonard.

”I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t know now!” Charlotte exclaimed before giving her cousin a persuasive look who smiled back at her. The door to their room was knocked.

”Come in Martha,” Lady Renae didn’t wait for the maid and walked up to her to pick the glasses from the tray the maid held to give it to the children and she then spoke to Charlotte, ”I believe Julliard is right, dear. You will have to wait until tomorrow night or read it in the morning once you complete a good night’s rest. You didn’t tell us what you wanted for your birthday tomorrow.”

The little blonde vampiress didn’t wait a second before voicing her wish, ”I want Bambi!” Lady Renae chuckled at the wish.

”And why would you want Bambi out of all things? Here I thought you wanted the wolf last time,” says Lady Renae.

”If I have Bambi, then Bambi won’t be killed by the hunter,” Mrs Carmichael bent down to drop a kiss on her niece’s forehead before murmuring, ”Aren’t you the sweetest child.”

”She’s asking us to get inside a book to get her a gift,” Julliard commented at the ridiculous request of his sister. The young Carmichael who was drinking blood from his own glass found something strange behind at the door or rather behind their maid when he lifted his eyes up from his glass. It felt far more like a shadow and the more his eyes spent time looking at what it was the more the shadow hid behind the maid until black eyes met his which were wide in surprise when it met his gaze.

”Let us see what your brothers and I can do about it,” Lady Renae smiled down at Charlotte as she tucked her into bed, ”It’s time for you boys to sleep too. Both your father’s wouldn’t take it well if they found you boys wandering in the corridors unless it was of importance. Go on now,” she waited for the boys to leave the room and following them to make sure they got into their room.

But children of the vampires were never one to listen not the ones of Easton or Carmichael’s. Like every night, the boys usually stayed up in the glass room of the mansion, taking their seats on the narrow wooden board below the ceiling.

The glass room was made of glass windows entirely along with a thick glass ceiling which let one see the sky. Pots of flowers were placed in the room to culture the plants that didn’t grow well outside in the Bonelake atmosphere. It was one of the most beautiful views of the mansion.

”When are you guys moving back to Bonelake?” asked Leonard, one of his feet stretched across the wood and other feet of his dangling in the air.

”Not anytime soon. Father said he needs to finish the job the council gave him before we move back here. The humans aren’t making it easy either,” Julliard replied looking up at the sky, ”Father and mother don’t usually bring anything up in front of us. They think it will lose our innocence,” he rolled his eyes.

”It is the same here,” Leonard swung his legs to look down at the tall pillars, ”Though I did hear something about humans trying to corrupt vampires.”

”What does that mean?” Julliard asked to receive a shrug from his cousin, ”Anyways I am glad that the decades have come close to an end and we are in the phase of growing up now,” he ran his hand across his chestnut hair.

”Finally growing up,” Leonard murmured. Unlike humans, the initial years for a vampire to grow physically and mentally took its own time before pausing at the age around seven or eight for close to a decade or in some cases two until their age resumed for a certain time before their age froze. Both the boys appeared to be around ten in terms of human age.

Seeing a small figure which Leonard mistook for a cat, in the beginning, saw that it was the same girl he had seen today. He hadn’t seen her before, which made it obvious that she was new apart from the way she behaved. They had enough servants in the mansion and it made him wonder why she was added when a human of her age couldn’t work like the others in his mansion. His cousin had been busy looking at the dark clouds above them to notice the girl walking behind the pillars in the dark.

He tilted his head, seeing her tiptoe while her hairs that had been previously tied was now open. With the way she walked now, her steps slow and her head turning around looking at the expansive room it seemed that she was lost. He still remembered the way her eyes had widened in a mix of shock and fright when he had mistaken her for a thief who had been lurking in the corridors until he had tapped her shoulders.

”What are we going to do about Charlotte’s gift, Leo? She seriously cannot be expecting us to get inside a book to get a character out so that we can gift it to her,” the brown-haired boy complained with a sigh, ”I promised her that I would get her what she asked this time.”

”I did too,” agreed Leonard, not moving his eyes from the little girl who had finally come out of the shadows to look at the pots of flowers.

He then heard Julliard speak, ”Maybe we could get something close you know. Not Bambi from the book you know, like a deer but a baby deer. How do you think Bambi looks like?”

”Bambi?”

”Yeah.”

”The way Bambi was described...she must be an innocent fawn with big eyes. Naive in the big bad world she isn’t aware of,” Leonard’s sight followed the girl’s movements as she touched one of the flowers with her hand, leaning in to smell it before a small smile graced her lips lightening up her entire face which took the young boy by surprise, ”and a smile,” he whispered.

”Fawns don’t smile, Leo,” Julliard laughed softly which went unheard by the girl due to the pouring rain. Julliard turned to Leo, following his line of sight to see the girl, ”Who is that?”

”Bambi,” answered Leo. Jumping from the wooden board like a cat on the floor, Leo walked towards her in time to see her look at the flower.

Julliard was quick to follow the trail and he whispered, ”Wait, Leo!” which wasn’t as quiet as he had expected to be. His voice startled the girl who turned to look at them and in the process pushed one of the pots which fell on the floor in a muddy mess, ”Shit.”

”My mother doesn’t like anyone touching her pots,” Leo stated looking down at the floor and then to the girl who seemed like she was about to cry for the mess she had just caused.

”I am sorry,” the girl whispered, her voice was small and quiet like the windchimes Leo had heard in the market but had never asked to buy it.

”We won’t tell who did it,” Julliard who stood behind his cousin, heard Leo speak to the girl, ”In return, we need a favour,” he waited for her to speak but she didn’t.

Leaning forward Julliard whispered, ”I don’t think we are allowed to give people as a gift yet. She asked for an animal, not a human and I don’t think she understands the concept of bribery yet.”

”Trust me, this is what Charlotte was asking for,” Leo then cleared his throat and said to her, ”Meet me here in the morning tomorrow. Sharp at nine,” once she received a nod from her, he smiled patting her head, ”Good.”

When morning arrived, like spoken, Vivian had gone to the glass room where the two boys waited for her. She had gone back to the glass room because all these days Martha had told her to listen to the Carmichael’s without a question. Julliard who had mindlessly brought the gift wrapper got smacked by Leo for thinking they could gift wrap the girl.

”How do we present her then?” asked Julliard while staring at the watch, ”Knowing my sister, she’s already been up for two hours due to the excitement.”

Leo looked at the girl who stood quietly without a word. He stared at her until he picked the ribbon from the ground and cut it. He wound the red ribbon around her neck until he tied it into a small ribbon, ”This should do,” the young Carmichael stated before the three of them made their way to where Charlotte was.

Charlotte was in the drawing room with her mother and her aunt Renae who had brought her presents that contained clothes and shoes. Excitedly, she took hold of the gift one of the maids had got her. Being one the only young vampiress in the family, Charlotte was a dotted child with the family and the servants of the mansion. Opening the gift, she saw it was a wooden teacup and she looked at her mother, her eyes shining brightly with pure joy.

Lady Renae’s eyes fell over the door at the commotion that was being caused by it and she wondered what the boys were up to this time. Finally, when the door did open, her nephew stepped into the room, her son following next with a little who behind them before she was made to stand in front of them.

”Charlotte, happy birthday,” both Julliard and Leo wished her.

Julliard then announced, ”Here is the Bambi you were asking for,” Lady Renae covered her face mortified while her youngest sister Priscilla paled at what the boys had brought as a gift.