Harold chuckled when she began explaining her secret, still seeming strangely refined despite the action. After that though, his face returned to one of quiet contemplation. He looked up at her next question. "Hm?" Harold seemed almost pleasantly surprised by this turn, smiling at Helena. Waiting for her to finish, he seemed to think for a moment, still smiling lightly. As her next tirade of questions echoed from her lips he chuckled again, his expression turning rather warm. "I shall do my best to answer these questions to your satisfaction M'lady." Another warm smile.

"I am more than pleased to be part of M'lord's household. I am also quite please to have such a lovely lady to serve under." He smiled her way again, another warm smile, his aged face showing no deception. "I would not give up my position with M'lord for anything in the world. If that answers your first few questions." Harold continued, obviously remembering much. "M'lord would say I have known him his whole life, as I have served M'lord since he was a barely a child, and I am much older then he. I was hired to care for him after all." Smiling again, obviously fond of such memories he pondered Helena's last question.

"I am unsure M'lady, as I am not privy to the details being discussed, or how long it will take to agree on them. I am sure we will have time for whatever you wished to do here." Harold smiled again, bowing slightly and stepping up to the library door. "Please do let me know if you need any assistance, or have any more questions." Pushing the door open he followed her into the doorway, waiting for her to ask any other questions. The library was larger then Kyle's, but had a more refined feeling. It was obviously there more for decoration then anything, and likely saw little use outside of social functions or occasional boredom.

Helena giggled as Harold said he liked serving her. That was a very nice thing to say. She listened and nodded as her questions was answered. "I'm only a little over 400." She said whe they tLked about age. She felt like she had to say that. "But you knew Kyle as a child." She said happily. She took Harold's hand and guided him over to a chair. "Sit?" She asked. She moved to one of the other chairs and sat down, turning to look at Harold. "shat was that like?" She asked. "I mean, what you feel like talking about. I don't think Kyle would be ... well, people like to have secrets. And he'd tell me, if I asked." She said. "Just short description so I have dirt on him." She said and smiled.

Hopefully just about enough to make him blush. She smiled. She was so much younger than anything in this house. She was certain. She looked around. "Why does everyone hate me?" She voiced out loud. She put a hand over her mouth. Sbe hadn't meant to say that. "I mean, obviously, you seem to like me. I don't ... back home I didn't have servant. They all worked for my father." She explained. "And everyone here... Kyle's family doesn't seem to like me all that much." She muttered. "I mean, tbey were the ones wanting me, right?"

She crossed her arms. "Being really bad at showing it." She looked at Harold. "Thank you for saving me, by the way." She said. "Earlier, with the carriage. You won't make it in time next time, but just know that I still appreciate you trying." She said and smiled. "It won't be your fault, just remember that." She smiled. "And besides I think I have solved that problem all by itself." She said. She looked at Harold.

Harold smiled again, allowing himself to be guided forward and slowly sitting down in the chair. Chuckling again at her next barrage of questions, he pondered the best way to explain Kyle as a child. Helena seemed to be thinking something, and ended up speaking it. Harold waited patiently for her to finish, in order to properly answer her questions. He did pause at her last comments. "I... do not quite know what you mean M'lady, but I am glad I could be off assistance to you." He paused again. "I will ensure I remember your words, for when I will understand them."

After a moment he continued, changing the topic to her questions. "I suppose I'll answer your other questions in the order you asked them, if that's alright M'lady." The old butler smiled again. "As for M'lord, I suppose then he was still the young master." Harold chuckled at the memories. That spirited, fiery young boy was still there, simply more hidden then it once was. He had always tried to be a sanctuary for his master, a place where he could be himself.

"He was quite a wild one when he was young, yelling and fighting with his family." Harold chuckled. "He's still like that on the inside, though a bit more subdued in how he shows it." His tone showed he obviously cared for Kyle, more like family then a master/servant relationship. He'd added that last part more for the sake of his master's relationship with the girl before him then to answer her question. Harold paused once more, obviously thinking. "As for the next question..." He sighed. "I am unsure the best way to answer that."

After a moment he continued speaking. "I will try to explain it the best I can, but I am unsure if it will make much sense." Harold shook his head slightly, wishing he knew a better way to word it. Well, he was sure the explanation would work, but it might not make sense to someone who did not think the same way. "Imagine that you have a useful brush, perhaps it brushes you hair just the way you want. You may or may not be particularly attached to your brush, but it's still simply a brush. It it's a gift, you may feel like you don't want to give it to anyone else, or want to keep it all to yourself, but you still know it is simply an object."

Harold paused, sighing again. "My apologies M'lady. I am unsure if that answered your questions. Do tell me if I can clarify anything for you. I apologize for my indirectness." He did not want to say something that might be viewed to badly, he had his manners after all, but to soften the blow would be to speak untruly, so this method was the best he could come up with to explain. Analogy was useful, but often left those who heard them confused. Harold smiled at Helena. "Was there something you wanted from the library, of did you simply wish to speak more?"

Helena chuckled as she was told of Kyle. He sounded like a fun kid. Maybe theywould have been better friends if they had been closer age wise. She smiled. "He sounds funny." She said. Yelling at his parents, yeah she felt like that too. She hated being in this stupid household. Kyle and her would go home soon, though. She would only be here a few more days. Just a few more. That idiot was going to get it.

What came next kind of ruined her mood. Which made her hate she seemed to wear her mood on her face as of late. She didn't want Harold to feel bad about what he said. "I'm not a brush." She whispered and touched her hair. She was a person. Still, Kyle saw her as a person, right? Or was he just seeing her as a fancy new toy he could play with. "Kyle is different. He wouldn't ... he doesn't see me like that." She said, though there was clear doubt in her own words. Kyle could just as easily see her as the doll he was to the others. Just a pretty doll that was put on the shelf, only to be taken down one in a while to be shown off to the owners friends.

She looked around. "I was going to ransack this place." She said and stood up. "You should probably leave, Harold. I don't want people to blame you. These people needs to be taught a lesson." She smiled. "Thank you for keeping me company. You havr been great." She said and all but pushed him out. She placed a chair in front of the door and turned. A giggle came out. If these people was going to hate her. She was going to give them the right reasons. She skipped down one of the shelves. She crawled up one of them and picked up bok she just threw on the ground. She found quite a few that seemed to have been read a lot. She piscked a few pages in between and ripped them out, before folding them as airplanes and throwing them. She found a few with and autograph. I those book she ripped more pages out. She hummed happily for herself as she ruined the library. Kyle would probably also be mad at her ruining a library, but it wasn't like that would keep her too awake at night. He had his study back home. It was going to be just fine.

Once there was papers and books everywhere she smiled and headed out. It was dinner time now, so she went and asked a maid for direction. When she entered Kyle and her father was present. "Kyle!" She said and smiled. She ran over to him and took a seat next to him. She looked over at Kyle's father and couldn't stop giggling ovthe mess she had made. She just hoped that none of the maids or servants would be blamed. "This house is huge. I got completely lost." She said.

After his explanation, Helena face turned rather quickly, and as she spoke, her hand went to her hair. "Of course not M'lady." Helena's next words showed her doubt, and while his reassurances might not do much, it meant more then nothing. "M'lord sees no one like that. He has always found it... quite distasteful." That was likely a bit of an understatement, but Harold was not the kind to speak so strongly, at least unless the situation truly called for it.

After a moment Helena looked around, her next words of a completely different topic. Harold's eyebrow raised, and he stood up as well, adjusting his clothes. She spoke again, Harold nodded. "Well, I suppose I should excuse myself then M'lady. Do enjoy yourself." He was quickly rushed out of the room, not that he resisted, and pondered for a moment what to do next. First of all, he should ensure no maid ended up in this area for the time being, then he would go and ensure the room his master and mistress were sharing was properly set up for their use.

---

Kyle rubbed his forehead again and headed off to the dining room. Due to the time that was the best option. He sighed again. Kyle would have liked a break, but there was little he could do. Arriving in the rather large room, he seated himself and leaned back. After a surprisingly short moment his father approached. Sighing again he sat up and adjusted his jacket before his father entered the room. He said nothing, simply taking his seat at the head of the table. Seems his father had decided to leave his mother and Martin to their arguments.

Ignoring his father's thoughts as best he could, Kyle noticed Helena heading their way. He knew she had been doing something, his glimpses of Harold's mind told him that, but the discussions he had been engaged in had left him rather unfocused on other matters, so he couldn't know for sure exactly what she had planned. Not that he would have otherwise, even if you could hear the person next to them, it didn't mean you knew what they were doing, or even talking about.

"Good evening Helena." Kyle smiled, looking a bit tired. It was nice to see her again, and she seemed in a surprisingly good mood. He twitched a bit, and tried to continue ignoring his father. Smiling again he responded to her next comment. "Seems like you enjoyed yourself. Find anything interesting?" His hands were a bit tense, starting to turn white from the pressure he was exerting on them to resist punching his father in the face. He needed a good nights sleep, and perhaps then he wouldn't feel so volatile. The only current blessing was that his father was content to sit in silence, though he doubted that would last forever.

Helena smiled. "Mmhm." She said as the other asked if she had found anything interesting. She smiled. "I went to the library. It's very big." She said. She looked at Kyle's father, and looked back at Kyle. "Did you figure out the plan for the hunters?" She asked. She looked at his hand. He seemed tense. She looked at him. Was there something wrong. Maybe his family's thoughts had pissed him off. She would just need cheer him up.

She didn't need to impress Kyle's parents anymore. "Kyle?" She asked. "It's rude to be all omnipotent." She said. She poked him in the side. "What number am I thinking about?" She asked and giggled. "And no cheating. You have to guess right, or I'm making you sleep in the chair." She said and giggled.

She heard the door open and she turned her head to look at Kyle's mother. "We are doing guessing game. Powers are not allowed." She said and smiled. "Kyle has to guess the number I'm thinking." She smiled at Kyle. "It's between 1 and 10." She said. "No more hints."

Kyle smiled a bit. He had a better idea of what she'd been doing now, though it would be amusing to see the aftermath. He had to admit, he worried what she might have broken, he was partial to books after all, though he had taken all the ones he cared about when he himself left. Quite a contradictory feeling. Her next question brought a less pleasant look to his face. "We're a few details short. I'll explain later." He didn't want to leave an opening for his father, or one of the people heading in this direction, to take advantage of. Kyle did not feel like talking about that anymore at the moment.

Helena said his name, bringing his back to the present. "Hm?" Kyle jumped a bit when she poked him in the side, chuckling afterwards, sounding both amused and surprised. He smiled at her, well, this certainly was distracting. To an extent. He tried to loosen his hands and leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair. "Well, I guess I'll have to do my very best to get it right." His mother entered at about that point, and his eye twitched slightly, being surrounded by his families thoughts was always exhausting, especially when he was already tired. Taking a deep breath and running his hand through his hair again he almost wished he had the mental fortitude to just ignore them, for real, not just pushing them to the back of his mind.

Helena was almost to cute for her own good, which was both a good and bad thing, considering the thoughts of the others around him on the matter. He smiled at her again, chuckling. "That's my only hint? How many chances do I get?" He had to admit, it was mildly amusing tormenting his parents like this, so that was an unexpected bonus. "Seems a bit unfair to me." Chuckling again, the looked thoughtful. His mother seemed to be in far to much of a huff from arguing with his brother, and his brother seemed to be doing something else, so that meant he at least had some time before he had to talk with any of them again.

Kyle looked thoughtful, trying to think what number she would pick. He'd played these types of games before, though usually with his powers involved, which ruined them a bit. It was a good party trick though. The ones he's played with Harold had been a good way to test his ability to control his powers however. Turning his mind back to the topic at hand he tried to think of what number she might have picked. On the off chance he only had one go at this he wanted to be careful. "Well, let's see... four?" He'd decided to go with the first number of her age, since it was likely she picked on related to her. Not that he knew, it was certainly a fun challenge.

Helena smiled. "I'll give you three chances." She said and showed it with her hands. "If you don't guess it, though you get the chair." She said and giggled. "And there has to be a punishment if you lose." She said as he said it was unfair. This was how you made the game more fun, after all. She played with her hair for a bit as She waited for him to make his first guess.

A chuckle fell from her as he made his guess. "Wrong." She said and chuckled. "What about three." Helena looked over at Martin. "I'm not playing with you, so you are not allowed to guess, silly." She said and leaned closer to Kyle. "Right, Kyle?" She said and looked up at him.

She looked at him. "Did you have any books in the library?" She asked. She had been rather rude to a lot of the books. "Also, you have two guesses left." She said. "And it wasn't three either." She said and looked over at Martin. "That's a stupid number anyway." She turned back to Kyle.

Kyle smiled. "Well, I suppose if I have three guesses..." Not that that didn't leave a lot of room for failure. He chuckled again. Before he could make his next guess however, his first one having been wrong, Martin spoke up. Kyle shook his head, sighing slightly. It as as though his brother was trying to keep him from having any time with Helena. He nodded at Helena's comment. "That is quite true, we are playing a private game after all." He sighed, shaking his head again in his brothers direction, though this time more for effect then his real feelings. "One would think you would be able to tell when two people want some time to themselves." His remark had a hidden bite, what with Martin's rampant escapades. Not that Martin could argue, after all, reading the atmosphere of a group was part of being a noble.

Turning back to Helena, he shook his head at her next question. "I brought all my own books with me, so anything left belongs to my family." So she had destroyed some books. Well, he was glad nothing of his remained here, though it was still a pity. Shrugging, he was shaken from his thoughts by Helena's next comments. "Well, I suppose that's two numbers out... hm..." Thinking he decided to go for a number farther away. "Eight?" He smiled at Helena. "You could at least tell me if I'm close. After all, what will I base my next guess on?" Smiling again, his mother spoke up.

"Is this really an appropriate time for such a conversation? After all, with such dire circumstances..." His mother was obviously displeased with seeing him so close to Helena, something that once again brought a sigh to his lips. "I see nothing wrong with it. No reason not to have fun when you're young." His father spoke up, he would have been surprised, but his father was known for ogling young girls, something his thoughts made rather apparent. His mother sent back a biting comment, which he tried to ignore. Now that those two were going at it, it meant he didn't have to respond, unless they dragged him in anyway.

Helena chuckled as he guessed the next one. "Wrong again." She said and smiled at him. "You are really bad at this when you can't read minds, Kyle." She said and rested her head on his arm, just to piss of Kyle's mother enough. She didn't like the way Kyle's father just jumped to her defender. There was something wrong with that, and she had noticed the looks he was sending her. They were not looks you cpshould give one that was over three thouwpsand years younger than you.

"Okay, I'll give you a hint." She said. "But you'll have to do something to earn the hint." She grinned. "You have to ... " her eyes landed on Harold. "Kiss Harold on the cheek." She said and smiled. "And it has to be a real kiss." She said. Then she petted him on the arm. "Don't worry. I won't get jealous." She teased and giggled.

She waited for her little deed was done and looked over at the other family members. Then back at Kyle. "Alright. Hint will be this. The number I'm thinking of is next to eight." She said and smiled. "So either nine or seven." She said. "No cheating. Last hint." She said and giggled. She looked over at Kyle's mother. She could play all she wanted. She had no say. Kyle was hers. She had been gifted him, or chained to him, she couldn't even return him. So, she had to just fuck off and hand over her son like the good like noble rat she was.