10-23-2013, 05:42 PM
The errand boy seemed to reluctantly accept Marzio's explanation, although it obviously troubled him. "Well, if you have to... It's back the way I came, on the right. You can't miss it, there are rosebushes everywhere." The boy paused, obviously wanting to get on to his errand, but he couldn't go without one last word of warning. He looked Marisa straight in the eye. "It's not right for a nice girl in a haunted house. You go tell them you can't work there, and find something safe."
Marisa watched the boy leave with alarm. This sounded even worse than Nazario's usual schemes. She looked to her brother for reassurance. "Marzio, you don't think it's a real haunting, do you? What if it's really dangerous? Do we go through with it, or do we... Maybe we should find somewhere else to work... Nazario's reference should work anywhere, right?"
She entertained that thought for a long moment, then shook her head regretfully. "We couldn't, could we? He'd be angry and manage to ruin it somehow. We'd be thrown out, or worse... we have to go through with this part, at least."
Reluctantly, she turned her feet in the direction the boy had indicated, and the house came into view almost immediately. Just as the boy had said, roses were putting out their last blooms of the year, brightening the building's solemn stone walls with crimson roses and white ones, and blushing pink ones with golden hearts. A man in dark blue was trimming the older flowers before they could spill their soft petals, and a girl a few years older than the twins was carrying broken crockery out of a side door to leave for the rag-pickers. Marisa exchanged an experienced look with her brother and headed for the side door as the most appropriate place to ask about a job.
"You're looking for jobs?" Alfonso studied the siblings who had come to the kitchen door just as he was discussing with the cook what servants would be needed to replace the deserters. These two appeared God-sent. They had obviously been travelling, but they were reasonably clean and seemed willing to work, and the reference from their priest seemed genuine enough. "We obviously can't take on anyone who can't do multiple tasks... what are your skills?"
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