It was midmorning before David hauled himself out of bed.
He grimaced as he caught sight of himself in the mirror; hair completely dishevelled, a few days worth of facial hair growth and yesterday’s clothes.
He allowed himself a good, long shower and found some worn denim jeans and a t-shirt in his casual draw, a draw he kept, despite Jennifer’s protests, setting them to one side whilst he shaved and brushed his teeth.
Having dressed, he decided to take the long route down to the kitchen, avoiding that would almost certainly open only to the feeling of emptiness that would be seen in the things that he had ordered specifically just for her.
All he wanted at that moment was a simple breakfast and a large glass of fruit juice.
Jennifer would probably be annoyed at the fact that he was seeing to it himself.  Let her be, for once, he found that he couldn’t care less whether or not he was acting in the appropriate fashion.
The only that that he was going to allow himself to focus on was making sure that Anthony and Aurora were well settled in and treated well enough by the grubby glob that called himself their Uncle.
As he walked, he couldn’t help but notice how empty the house seemed, he had never noticed before how loudly his footsteps echoed on any non-carpeted parts of the floor.  How far away, physically, were each of the other members of the house from where he was walking?
For the time being though he preferred to be alone, the sooner he ran into someone, the sooner he would have to explain that there would be no bride to arrive at the household within the foreseeable future.
He dreaded the questions; the how, the why, the who.  How much should he reveal to them about Jessica and what had happened on board the cruiser. 
Fortunately, he didn’t pass a single person on his journey so it didn’t surprise him to find someone was in the kitchen.
Or, at least, on his approach he could have sworn that he’d heard someone, but upon his opening the door and entering the room, no-one was in sight.
Going to the fridge he pulled out some cold meat, butter and bread, and set to making himself a sandwich.  Grabbing a glass of apple juice, he made to go out into the garden, stopping only with the intention of pushing on of the chairs under the table.
He set his hand on the chair and pushed it only to discover that it was caught on something.  Putting his sandwich on the side, he braced both hands on the chair and started to push and wiggle it into place, still it wouldn’t go in.  There were cleaning supplies by the oven, perhaps Eloise had dropped a cloth under the table and it had got caught.
Getting frustrated, he was just about to drop to the floor himself when Jennifer burst through the door.
She paused far a moment, clutching a hand to her chest, trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, you didn’t half give me a fright, David.”
David gave her an amused look, “I’m sorry, did you expect to find the kitchen empty?”
She gave him an irritated look, “you know what I mean, I went to your room to see if you wanted me to arrange some breakfast for you, but you weren’t there and my mind started to panic.”
David raised an eyebrow, “really Jen, if you want to know the reasons behind why I’ve returned so abruptly, then I’ll tell,” he grabbed his sandwich, “but only once I’ve eaten.  I’m headed for the garden if you’d care to join me?”  He headed to the door and ushering Jennifer in the direction of the garden, he closed the door behind them.
Several minutes later the stubborn chair started to move, pushing it out, Jessica gently eased one leg out from where it had been embedded into the top of her hand.  She winced as the release of pressure allowed a swell of blood to trickle down past her wrist.
Thank goodness she had thought to have an emergency alarm system incorporated into the coms device, so if she got into a tight spot she could send a signal; a number of beeps dependant on her location, and Jennifer would figure out how to help her.
Had she not beeped her, David would have found her out, hiding under the table of all places.  When she had heard someone coming, there had been no telltale signs that it would be David, but caution made her dive for the table.
She reasoned that is it weren’t him, she would tell whoever it was that she had simply dropped an earring.
However it wasn’t until he had noticed the chair, that she started to beep Jennifer at which time he hand unwittingly driven the flat, jagged chair leg into her spare hand.
To stop herself from crying out had been all she could do as the foot was wiggled in and out of her flesh.  Biting her lip, she had felt a few sharp tears of pain running down her cheeks from her watering eyes.
Now, from her position at the sink, washing the blood from her hand and arm, she could see David and Jennifer sat on a bench about 20 meters away with their back turns.
How much would he tell her, could he be as honest as she had been, telling his mothering head of house everything down to the final departing kiss?  Or would it simply be a case of telling her that it had simply not worked out with the lady?  The suspense was killing her, although she knew that after a while, Jennifer would let her know what he had said.  If he indeed had said anything about the girl to which he had promised his heart, had been framed for the murder of her own mother, had asked to marry her, had been given temporary guardianship of her siblings and kissed her so passionately when she had kissed him.
Her thoughts stopped dead in their tracks and rewound themselves.
Anthony
Aurora
They hadn’t so much as crossed her mind the past few days.  It hadn’t even occurred to her to find out if they were alright, how they were coping.
The first thing she should have done was to have contracted them and let them know what she was doing.
Where were they now?
Had they remained on the ship under Ella’s guardianship?
No, if she knew Ella she knew that it had convinced them to return, which meant that both brother and sister were now at the residence of Great Uncle Ernest, that greasy slime ball.  A shiver of disgust ran through her, the thought of either of her siblings under his guardianship made her cringe.  There was no way that she would allow them to stay with him for longer than a few years, after all innocence was a virtue that that man had allegedly robbed from more than one young woman under his employ.  Her sister may be a few years away from it, and her brothers’ presence may deter him, but there was no way that she was going to take that risk.
Before she allowed her thoughts to lead her too far down that road she would have to find out exactly where they were and how they were doing.
Searching the kitchen, she quickly found a first aid kit and, bracing herself, she cleaned the gash with antiseptic and bandaged it.
The next thing to do was to get back to work, confident that Jennifer would keep David away for a while.
Opening the oven and resuming scrubbing gave her time to think.
When she had her lunch break, a trip would be made to the library to use the net connection to send messages to Anthony, Aurora, Ella and even David.  Each message specifically tailored for each recipient but only revealing that she was well and working for the time being.
Hopefully they would forgive her for being so neglect of their feelings so far if she could reassure them that she was going to be spending her time from the time of her departure onwards trying to solve the mystery and clear her name.
The fumes were beginning to make her light headed and the thoughts of what had been and what was to be done, Jessica found her senses getting rather overwhelmed.
She slowly backed up and rose to her feet.  Washing her hands at the sink she was able to note that David and Jennifer were no longer on the bench where they had been sat.  Looking at the clock on the well she could see that more than half an hour had passed.  Odd that Jennifer hadn’t returned to tell her what he had said.
“But why should she,” Jessica thought to herself, “she’s a busy woman and I’m sure that she’ll tell me when she has time.”
“She’s wandering the gardens, looking particularly pensive if you ask me.”
Stifling a frustrated sigh, and continuing with her hand washing, the black was proving tricky to remove, Jessica said, “Do my requests to you mean nothing?”
“And what requests would those be, prey tell?”
“You know what I’m talking about, startling me like that.  And anyway, how did you know what I was thinking?  Have you opened a portal into my mind as well?”
“No, no portal into your head, but it’s quite entertaining, watching your reactions, but I apologise.  And as for what you were thinking… you have it written across your face.  I think you should know that your new friend, Ms Moore, is doing nothing overly important, she is in fact idly wandering though the trees not too far away, and she is certainly not too busy to come and tell you what he said.”
She did her best to hide her disappointment, and successfully masked it with annoyance which was quickly turning to anger, “what should that matter to me?  She does not owe me a thing, I am more in her debt than anything.”
“Suppose that now you will be informing me that she must have good reasons, which I’m sure she has.  I’m just saying…”
But he never got to say.
“If this is all you’ve got to say then you should save your breath,” Jessica spat out as a wave of unprecedented anger swept over her, “I’m getting a tad fed up of just going along with whatever fate, or God, or you are trying to dictate into doing, understand?”
There were a few moments pause and in her head Jessica could picture a grin on T’s lips, however when he spoke, his voice was cool and serious.
“I understand completely, I was just making sure you’re totally aware of what you’re dealing with, that you’re covering every angle so to speak.”
Without waiting for a response he continued, “And I can see that you’re certainly taking it into account and considering your current predicament and your temperament towards myself at this time has me convinced that you can certainly handle yourself from here on out.  You have my most ardent apologies and I wish you the best of luck.”
Willing her mouth to close simply wouldn’t do it.  The unexpected declaration caught her completely off guard.
After what seemed like endless minutes she managed to splutter out a “what?”
There was no reply.
“I – I’m sorry,” she forced herself to calm down, “I didn’t mean to snap like that but I’m getting so frustrated and I’m not handling the situation terribly well.  I really am sorry and I do appreciate what you’ve been doing for me, you have helped me so much, I’m sorry.”
There was still no reply.
She waited a few moments, counting to ten slowly in her head, but she could still feel the anger bubbling away down in her chest.  Unable to contain it any longer letting it boil over and opening her mouth, all but yelled, “Fine!  Be that way!  I hope you’re glad to leave me on my own at a time like this!”
Throwing the towel she had been using to dry her hands, down on the counter top, she turned her back to the sink.
Her stride faltered as she found Eloise standing at the door holding a few large canvas shopping bags, one eyebrow raised.