After the girlish conversation with the queen, she and Phipps left. Leaving you and Grey at his manor. The door shut, and the first thing Grey did was hug you tightly.

"E-Earl!" You gasped out, he was near suffocating you.

He let off after a moment, but still held you. Your mind was going insane. No! Get him off!

Oh my god! I'm being held by him!!

This is scary...

Holy crap, how can I even breathe?

You calmed them slowly, and he spoke. "Sorry. I've wanted to do that all day."

"U-Um... Okay?"

He looked down at you, and you shied away. You had enough to worry about without more butterflies. He leaned down, next to your ear. "You're adorable." Then let go and walked away. You stood there, trying to calm yourself.

WHAT THE HELL IS WITH HIM! HE IS A BAD INFLUENCE!! JUST WALKING AWAY! HE'S GOING TO HURT YOU!!!!

Oh wow... he held me for that long... wow..

He whispered in your ear. Oooo. Scandalous.

Since when did he have this much affection for me?

"I'm so confused..." You muttered to yourself. Before going to find him. He's probably in the kitchen...

You got lost more than once on the way there, it was a big place. Eventually you gave up finding him, and simply looked around. There were a lot of interesting rooms, and you had never been in a manor before.

Eventually, you found your way into the back garden, and decided to climb a tree.

Why not? I'm wearing shorts anyway.

You struggled with your ankle the way it was, but finally made it to the top of a relatively easy to climb tree. The wind threw your H/C hair in a dramatic way, and you liked it. Until you got cold. Then you realized you had to get down somehow. It was a small tree, you could have just jumped, but your ankle was still paining you.

You were going to climb down, when you realized several of his servants have come to watch you. You had the urge to talk to them, so you decided to show off. You dropped down a branch, then hovered above another, close to the ground. You landed lightly, with a small tap.

"Hi!" You waved, and smiled cheerily.

A few servants waved back, but none spoke. You frowned.

"Why so quiet? I won't hurt you!" You smiled again, then dangled your legs from the branch, sitting on it properly.

Finally, one of them spoke up. It was a girl, wearing an apron covered in dirt. It had hedge clippers peeking out of a pocket. "Most nobles don't talk to us." The group nodded their agreement, despite their reluctance, they had gotten closer. All of them were slowly edging toward you.

You sighed loudly. "Well, I'm not a noble. I wanna talk to you guys!"

The same girl spoke up. She was closer than everyone else, and seemed a bit bolder and younger than the rest. "If you're not a noble, why is the earl so affectionate toward you?"

You flipped over, your back on the branch, your head hanging off, hair dangling below you. "You'll have to ask him. The queen insists he likes me, and I'd have to agree with her. But I'm not sure. You really will want to ask him."

"You really aren't a noble?" A little boy walked up, what looked like his mother, tried to stop him.

You got a good idea. "Do I look like a noble?" Then made a ridiculous face. Going cross-eyed and stretching your mouth in a strange way.

The boy laughed out his answer, "Nope!" He had a huge grin on his face. By then all of the other servants had come up to you as well, and you finally got out of the tree. You didn't want to stress your ankle more, so you slid out, upside down, gaining some gasps, then fell on your hands delicately, turned on one, and flipped back over.

You gained a wow from the boy, a few whistles from others, and just overall awe.

"Is that really impressive?" You were confused. It had been a normalcy in your house.

"Yeah. None of us can do that." The little boy piped up.

"Well, the earl can, but he's on a different level than us." The boys mother talked. She had a very gentle voice. You decided you liked her. After that, almost all of the servants ended up talking, and you all became quick friends. They were all pretty friendly, and many seemed to look up to the earl. After about an hour of taking, and by the end, they had all sat down, they all said they ought to get to work. There was dinner preparations, and the garden needed evening watering. You said it was fine, and that you didn't mind.

You wandered through the house once more. Eventually, you found a loooooooong hallway, and you were afraid to go down it. It was in the basement, and wasn't lit the best. It was creepy beyond belief. You heard footsteps, and whipped around.

"Gosh, Y/N, what are you doing down here?"

"Exploring." You tried to keep calm, act like it was deliberate, but you could feel the cold sweat.

"Yeah. Well you look terrified, I'm about to be the same way. Why don't we leave?"

You suddenly remembered he was afraid of ghosts. You got a cruel idea. "Nah. I like it. It was creepy at first, but now, I wanna go down!" You began to walk into the hall, scared, but wanting to lure him in.

"Not funny. Let's go!" He was shaking a bit, and was getting really pale. The urgency in his tone was obvious, and made you want to run back to him. You swallowed, and kept going anyway. You hated every step, but you did want him to go down there. So you pressed on, going farther and farther down.

"Come on! It's not gonna kill you!"

He grumbled, and stayed where he was. You shrugged, and pressed on. Actually having some fun. Then you heard it, voices. You saw a corner at the end, and saw a flame appear on the wall. Someone had a candle, the shadows were flickering. You began to shake, bad. You yelled back to the earl.

"Do you see that?"

"See what?"

"Th-The flickering! And the shadows!"

"Come on, Y/N! Don't freak me out like that!"

"I-I'm serious!"

"Y/N! That corridor is a dead end! It turns then stops! There can't be anyone back there!"

"Then who is!"

Silence.

The light kept getting brighter, and voices louder. You couldn't tell what they were saying, but you didn't like it. You backed away, still shaking. You saw the fire even brighter, flickering and lighting the wall. You kept backing, slowly. Then, it got to be too much. You turned, and ran. Ignoring the pain in your ankle, you ran fast, and hit the earl. You hugged him, still shaking, tears beginning to leak out. He held you tight.

Eventually you turned around, and saw the light was gone. It was all shadows again.

"Don't think about it." Grey's gentle voice reached your ears. "Last time any of the servants or I went down there, we all saw things too. I don't like that hall for a reason Y/N."

"Okay." You whispered.