"Easy, tiger!" Potter smiled down at me.
Swiping at him with my hand, I tried to slap his face. I couldn't believe who I'd been kissing. But he was too quick for me, and had taken hold of my wrist in his hand. "Don't get so excited!"
"Excited!" I screamed, pushing him off me with my knees. "I'm not excited! You disgust me!"
"Could've fooled me," he said, standing by the table and tugging fake bits of beard from his cheeks.
"You couldn't keep your hands off me a minute ago."
"That's because I thought you were someone else!" I roared at him, straightening my hair and clothes.
"I should arrest you for indecent assault!"
"Indecent assault? Me?" he said with mock surprise on his face. "It was you who assaulted me! You threw yourself at me! You couldn't tear your lips off me!"
"You took advantage of the situation," I hissed.
"You knew that I must have thought you to be somebody else. But oh no, you just had to be a jerk - you just couldn't resist -"
"Don't flatter yourself, sweet-cheeks!" he scowled.
"Don't cal me that!" I holered. "My name's Kiera!"
"Oh, I'm sorry Kiera," he said.
"Why do you have to make things so difficult for me?" I said, trying to get a grip of my anger.
"Difficult for you?" he said, sounding genuinely surprised. "Do you have the faintest idea how difficult it's been for me, skulking around this place night and day with bandages wrapped around my face and a pair of stockings stuffed up my jacket?"
"Don't you go blaming me for that," I snapped at him. "And why have you been disguised as the hunchback on Notre Dame ever since I got here?"
Before he had a chance to answer, I added, "And that's another thing - why were you spying on me through my bedroom window the other night?"
"Making sure that you were safe - that's what this whole goddamn thing has been about!" he said, puling out the stocking from beneath his long dark coat and throwing it down onto the table with the rest of his disguise. "And what thanks do I get, huh? I thought you were kissing me out of gratitude for saving your bacon."
"Saving me from what?" I asked.
"That's another thing," he said ignoring my question and removing something from his eye. "These contact lenses hurt like a bitch and then there's the cigarettes. I haven't been able to smoke since you got here."
"I haven't stopped you from smo -" I started.
"Oh no?" he sneered, puling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one up. "Knowing what you're like, the slightest sign of a discarded cigarette butt and you would've been crawling around on your hands and knees trying to figure out how tal the smoker was, how old he was, what zodiac sign he was, whether he'd taken a crap that morning, and Christ knows what else."
"So why put yourself through al of this for me if it's been such a nightmare for you?" I said.
"Why don't you ask him?" Potter said, pointing over my shoulder and blowing smoke through his nostrils. "He's the brains of the operation, sweet- cheeks."
Spinning round I saw James sitting in his wheelchair by the open door to the gatehouse. He looked at me from behind his tinted glasses, then at Potter. "I don't believe you Potter," he growled.
"Don't start having a moan at me, Sarge," he said.
"She already had it figured out."
Looking at the chauffeur sitting in the wheelchair, I said, "Sergeant Murphy - I might have known. I guess you couldn't have walked around as I would have noticed your limp? But I'd already figured out you could walk."
Taking off his cap, glasses and puling away his fake bushy sideburns, he sprang out of the wheelchair and said, "You mean I've been trundling around here for the last few weeks like that guy out of the X-Men and you knew it was me al the time?"
"I didn't know it was you, Sarge, but I figured out last night that you could walk," I told him.
"How?" he said, staring at me.
"Don't wear shoes that are clearly scuffed on the soles and covered in gravel dust and earth," I smiled at him.
"Oh great," Potter sighed in disbelief. "Al this sneaking around and you go and blow it because -"
"I needed to take a leak, okay?' Murphy snapped.
"You try wheeling yourself around this place - it aint easy you know! I was only out of my chair for a couple of minutes - long enough to sneak into some bushes and take a whiz. Anyway, you can't talk. What was with al the bandages? 'I said a beard, and a few scars and stuff,' and you end up looking like the invisible bleeding-man!"
"You try putting this crap on everyday - it ain't easy you know!" Potter snapped, waving the bottle of liquid latex under Murphy's nose. "I didn't think you would be back so soon the other night. There I was sticking on the beard and you arrive at the drawbridge with sweet-cheeks. What was I meant to do? I wasn't in character - so I grabbed the nearest thing that came to hand and covered my face with it. Got a problem with that?"
"Yeah, I got a problem with it," Murphy barked, puling the last of the fake white whiskers from his chin.
"At least I came up with a fake name," Potter snapped back. "I mean Marshal's a cool name. What did you come up with? James! That's your real name for Christ's sake!"
"My name's Jim!"
"Whatever!" Potter said. "I'm glad she's found out. I was getting bored of al this sneaking around."
I looked at the pair of them and said, "You couple of amateurs. Cal yourselves cops."
"Listen here, tiger," Potter hissed, "we had everything under control until you came in here and threw yourself at me."
"Threw herself at you?" Murphy said, looking and sounding confused.
"I thought he was Luke," I told Murphy. "Not for a second did I think it was Lon Chaney standing over there."
"Lon Chaney?" Potter said, confused. "Who in the bloody hel is Lon Chaney?"
Ignoring him, I turned to Murphy and said, "Where's Luke?"
Looking in my eyes, Murphy said, "He's not in a good way."
"Where is he?" I said.
"The burns didn't heal as wel as we might have wanted them to," Murphy sighed.
"Where is he?" I said again. "I want to see him."
"He doesn't want to see you," Murphy said, coming close with that awkward limp that he had.
"Why not?"
"He's very badly burnt," Murphy explained. "He doesn't want you to see him like that."
"I thought the girls al loved a guy with a scar,"
Potter laughed.
"Put a sock in it, Potter," Murphy growled without looking at him.
"Please tel me where he is?" I said, my voice softening. "I just want to see him. I don't care what Luke looks like. It doesn't matter to me."
"Ain't that sweet," Potter smiled.
"I won't tel you again, Potter," Murphy said over his shoulder. "I promised him, I wouldn't say -"
"He's in the forbidden wing, isn't he?" I asked.
"Where?" Potter scoffed.
"The wing of the house that Mrs. Payne has forbidden me to enter," I said, staring at Murphy and then at Potter. "That's who you've been taking food to, isn't it?"
Before Potter could confirm or deny my accusation, Murphy turned on him, and chucking his tinted glasses across the room, he shouted, "I can't trust you to do anything without screwing up!"
"Don't you go blaming me for this!" Potter moaned. "It wasn't me who wanted to bring her here. I told you she would only go poking her nose around -"
"Look, I'm not interested in whose fault this is," I cut in. "I just want to see Luke."
Then from the doorway someone said, "I don't believe what I'm seeing!"
Turning, the three of us looked towards the open doorway of the gatehouse to find Kayla standing there.
"What you doing here?" I asked her, not knowing how long she'd been listening to our conversation.
"I thought you were my friend, Kiera," she said, sounding angry.
"I am," I told her, feeling confused.
"So why have you been keeping secrets from me?"
she seethed. "Why have you been spying on me with them?"
"I don't understand," I said, going towards her.
"Those are the two guys who came looking for me when I ran away. The ones I told you about," she said.
"And al the time they've been disguised as my mother's chauffeur and handyman, when realy, she's had them down here watching me - spying on me - and you've known about it al along!"
"No Kayla," I said, reaching for her. "You don't understand."
Pushing my hand away she looked at me and I could see the hurt in her eyes. I could see that she thought I had in some way betrayed her. "I understand, Kiera. Everything I've shared with you - everything I've shown you - told you - you've been secretly teling them."
"I haven't," I insisted. "I promise you, Kayla. It's not what it looks like."
"They work for my mother and so do you," she said, her voice flat, just simmering with anger and hurt.
"Why have they been in disguise if they haven't been here spying on me? I trusted you, Kiera, I realy trusted you."
Before I had the chance to explain, she was gone, running back across the grounds to the manor. I went to go after her, but Murphy gripped my arm and puled me back.
"Leave her be for now," he said. "She's confused and angry at the moment and not in the right frame of mind to listen or understand what you have to tel her."
"What is it I have to tel her?" I said, eyeing him.
"I'l let Luke explain," he said. "It wil sound better coming from him."
"What wil?" I asked.
"He's in the 'forbidden wing' as you like to cal it,"
Murphy said. "First room on the right." I turned to go and as I did, he puled me back again and said just above a whisper, "Nothing wil be the same for you, Kiera, after you see what's in the forbidden wing."
Turning away, I started back towards the manor and as I did, Potter caled after me and said, "Don't worry, sweet-cheeks, I won't tel Luke how happy you were to see me again. It wil be our secret."
Jerk! I thought as I headed into the darkness.