Who is my Husband

Chapter 3 Cookie

            Kailee opened the door and stomped inside. She was feeling a bit irritated after seeing her uncle. She wasn’t paying attention and she stumbled as she navigated in the unfamiliar room. She braced herself as her body was flung forward and waited for the painful impact. Instead, she felt two strong hands grip around her waist, gently lifting her to her feet.

            “Are you okay?” A baritone gruffer voice rang out.

            Kailee looked up to the green set of eyes of the man who was still holding her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause problems for you.”

            The man’s voice chuckled slightly. “Cause problems for me? You are the one who almost fell. Are you apologizing to me for catching you?”

            Kailee was very much aware how his hands were still holding on to her. She looked the man over uncertainly. Coincidence or not, but he was also very similar in build and stature. Lance, this guy and her husband were all built very comparably. Almost too comparably and she wondered if it was planned.

            “What is going on here?” Lance asked as his eyes narrowed up to the man who finally lowered his arms from Kailee.

            “Our little lady here almost smashed her face into the ground. Someone isn’t doing a very good job keeping her safe.”

            “Are you picking a fight already Grum?” Lance spat out angrily.

            Kailee took a step back and looked at the two men. They both had brown hair, green eyes, close to the same height and the same build. This had to have been planned right? And both hair color and builds were the same as Trey. If Trey was even his real name. A horrible thought entered her mind. If either of these men put on a mask and entered her chambers, she would just assume it was her husband. She felt a bit sick at the idea of getting passed around between men. Surely not… right? This was just a clever decoy to keep his identity a secret for who knows why.

            Then she thought of what Grum had just said. ‘Keep her safe.’ What did that mean? “Umm, keep me safe? I thought you were just here to show me around.”  What she had here was a glorified spy. That is exactly what Lance was. That or her husband staying close to her as the pretense of someone else. Okay she was making her head hurt a bit.

            “Well, I mean of course I am to make sure you are safe too. But I am here to make sure you are taken care of. I’m to look out for you.” Lance shot Grum an annoyed look.

            “Thank you for catching my fall…Grum is it?” Kailee figured she at least needed to thank him for that.

            “You’re welcome my lady.” Grum said as his eyes turned warm looking at her.

            “Kailee. Please just call me Kailee.” She was never addressed as her ladyship, or mistress, or my lady. And it felt foreign to her.  “What is your relationship to Trey?”

            Grum smiled. “I do his heavy lifting when necessary.”

            Kailee nodded her head. “I take it you don’t just mean lifting boxes?” She watched his smile spread. “So Lance is his right hand man and you are his…”

            “Pfft. Right hand man. I’m the right-hand man. He is the left-hand man.” Grum clicked his tongue as he looked at Lance.

            “You don’t even know which hand is your right to be able to say that.” Lance teased back.

            “So you have seen his face too then?” She watched Grum nod his head. “Oh, so are you both his top men then? The two he goes to when he needs something important? Or are there more than you two?” Kailee was trying to put a puzzle together here. But she needed to know who all the pieces were.

            “There is one more of us. Reggie. He comes and goes. But you’ll be seeing him around.” Lance answered her.

            Kailee had a pretty good hunch that this Reggie was also the same build with the same hair color. If so, then she had her three main pieces to try to figure out. They would be her main suspects for now but everyone with a similar build would have to be analyzed. She was going to c***k this mystery of her husband.

            An older man walked into the room. “Lunch has been prepared. Please come while it is still hot.”

            Lunch? She never had gotten lunch. She received breakfast and a small dinner. She had not had lunch or snacks since her parents died. She didn’t even feel hungry since she had eaten so much for breakfast. Yet, she felt bad turning the older maid down. She was beaming at her with such kindness and she didn’t want their efforts to go to waste.

            “Come come my dear. You definitely look like you could use some extra nourishment. You look to be close to my granddaughter’s age. How old are you sweetheart?”  The old maid asked as she walked Kailee down the hall. Grum and Lance followed behind them.

            “I’ll be twenty tomorrow.” Kailee said quietly.

            “Yep, I knew it. The same exact age.” The old maid led her into the dining room where three sets of meals had already been prepared. It looked like they already expected Grum to join them.

            “Umm…” Kailee looked at the maid as she started to leave. “What is your name?”

            “You can call me Cookie, dear. That is what everyone calls me.” Her gentle voice was sweet and kind. Kailee felt relaxed around the older woman. She watched her until she left and then turned back to the table with a frown. Lance and Grum had already sat down and were eating their food.

            “What is wrong? Don’t you like what is being served?” Lance asked, noticing her face.

            “I’m just not particularly hungry is all.” She wasn’t used to eating so much.

            “Eat.” Grum said tersely, not sparing a glance up from his food.

            Kailee sighed and sat down at the table. There was a cold meat and cheese sandwich, a bowl of chicken noodle soup, some hot bread and juice sitting at her spot. When she was a child, she used to get lunches like this. But that was so long ago. During a happier time in her life when both of her parents always showered her with love and affection.

            She couldn’t remember much from the night they died. In fact, it was all blank. What she was told was that there was a house fire. It claimed the life of her parents and her aunt. She vaguely remembered staring at the burning building while she laid in the grass in and out of consciousness. But before that was a blank. Maybe her father had rescued her and went back in after her mother and ended up losing his life too? At least that is the story she decided to embrace in her mind. Though there was a far more sinister one she kept locked in her heart.

            She always suspected her uncle. And it all made sense except for sparing her life. Her uncle hated her and despised her so why would he have kept her alive? That was the piece of the puzzle she could never figure out. And because of that she was never certain that it was him.

            “Eat.” Grum said in a low tone that sounded almost like a growl.

            Kailee’s eyes looked up to him. He was still looking down at the table as he ate his food. “I’m sorry. I am just not hungry. I haven’t eaten lunch in years. I am not used to it. And then I had a big breakfast.” She felt bad about wasting the food. “Do you think you guys could eat it so they don’t get their feelings hurt?”

            “I’ll make a deal with you. You eat half of your sandwich and we will help you out with the rest.” Lance was all about bargaining. This way she would at least eat a bit of food.

            She smiled and nodded her head to him. “Thank you.”

            She watched as Lance and Grum finished up what was left of her food. “So is it always like this?” She watched as Lance looked up at her while Grum continued to eat while he listened. “I mean, is Trey not usually here during the day?”

            “It just depends. Sometimes he is and sometimes he isn’t. Same with us. We are not always around either but there will always be someone here with you.” Lance answered with a small smile.

            “You know I don’t need someone here to hold my hand. I am used to being on my own. You don’t have to stick around just to keep an eye on me. Unless that is exactly the reason. Maybe you think I am some dangerous spy and you need to figure out my weakness.”

            “Sweetheart. No offense but you couldn’t scare a kitten.” Grum smirked as he finally finished his plate.

            “In either case. I am not a child. I don’t need to have an escort. There are plenty of people here if I need anything.” Kailee persisted with her main point. Though she felt annoyed at Grum with how dismissive he was over her being dangerous.

            “You’ll have to take that up later with Trey. He gives the orders. We just follow them.” Lance shrugged with a smile.

            Hmm. Good acting. Trying to throw off the scent of one of them being Trey. Whatever. She would play along. “I guess I will then. Whenever I see him again.” She scooted her chair out and stood up. Lance and Grum doing the same.

            “I’d like to walk around the place and get used to the layout.” She watched the two men to see if there was any change in their body posture. But there wasn’t. It seemed her looking around wasn’t a big deal at all. She started walking down one of the long hallways and sighed to herself. There was also another thing obvious to her as she listened to the sound of footsteps slowly following behind her. Privacy was going to be hard to come by now. She was used to being alone. Having someone constantly around her felt alien to her.

            She followed a stone stairway upwards. She looked out through one of the windows and admired the view of the garden. Up ahead she could see a curtain that covered an area where light was peaking through. She figured it must be a balcony, so she walked up to it excited. When she pulled back the curtain, she saw she was correct and that it was a balcony. She couldn’t admire the view because as she walked out she was startled to see two large brown dogs laying on the floor. They seemed to be equally startled seeing her too.

            “Sorry if I scared you fellas.” Kailee said sweetly and the two dogs walked up to her.

            “Crap, I forgot about the dogs. Kailee get back.” Lance said as he went to run up to her but then stopped in awe. He watched the two dogs sweetly licking at Kailee with their tails wagging.

            “It’s okay. They only startled me.” Kailee said as she rubbed both of their ears. “Who is a good puppy?”

            “What the hell do you make of that?” Grum said as he stared at the two animals.

            Kailee looked up to Grum and tilted her head in confusion. “Did you think I was afraid of animals?”

            Lance pointed at the two dogs. “Cain and Abel there only like a handful of people. They are guard dogs. They never welcome outsiders. This is abnormal behavior for them. It actually makes me nervous.”

            Kailee smiled and shook her head at the nonsense. “Not these good boys. So much adorable overload right here. You two are going to be my new friends here, aren’t you?” The dogs wagged their tails and licked at her face causing her to giggle. Kailee found it hard to believe these dogs were aggressive. They were just teasing her. At least that is what she thought until another man walked up to the opening. Both dogs immediately began to snarl at the man. The hair on their back stood up and they bared their teeth at the newcomer.

            “Grum grab the dogs before they lunge.” Lance said as he tried to intercept them.

            “Now that’s no way to act without seeing what he wants first. You two can surely tell the man doesn’t mean any harm. Come back here and sit.” Kailee said with a disappointed tone. To her surprise both dogs came back immediately to her and sat at her side. It was like they perfectly understood her. She could talk with magical creatures and they could talk back. But she never once thought she could talk with regular animals too.

            “Um-um-um… Sir Grum sir… a shipment arrived that you need to look at.” The man said and then quickly left the area in fear of the dogs.

            Grum and Lance stared at Kailee. “Have you met these dogs already?”

            “No.”

            “Then why are they listening to you like that? They don’t even listen to us. They only respond to Trey’s commands.” Grum felt uneasy seeing this. Those dogs were trained killers. They were guard dogs brought here to keep all outsiders away. Either the dogs were losing their touch or there was something else going on.

            “Maybe you just aren’t sweet enough to them is why.” Kailee said with a small smile.

            “I’m going to check out the shipment. Can you do your job this time?” Grum asked as he raised his eyebrow to Lance.

            “Just go do yours.” Lance spat out while Grum chuckled as he walked away.

            Kailee patted each dog on the head once more. “You two be good boys and I’ll try to bring you up a treat later.” Both dogs panted happily as she turned to look over the balcony.

            The view was spectacular. You could look over the whole garden. And in the distance was a trickling fountain that she had yet to see up close. That would be on her agenda tomorrow.

            She wondered if all animals did understand her. And if they did, why? What was it about her that gave her this ability to speak to animals? On top of finding out who her husband is she also had another task now. Figuring out why she can talk with animals.