WE #14 ~ CK

She had never been so thankful for the warmth in her life. The wool socks now blanketing her frost-bitten feet slowly melted the penetrating cold inside. The skinny sticks she used for arms drew her sad excuse of a shawl closer to her body. Suddenly, an elderly woman shuffled across the stone tiles towards her. 

"Here, let me take that for you, deary" she said, whisking away the soaked shawl and replacing it with a blanket. 

"Thank you," her whisper of gratitude barely audible.
"I'm Agnus, the housekeeper around these parts. What do they call you?"
"I'm Evangeline," the girl managed after a short pause.
"Evangeline, honey, let me show you upstairs. Perhaps we could find you a cozier place to stay?" with a quick wink and a whisk of her long apron across the floor, she started for a very ornate staircase in the room across the hall.
the sea green eyes of the little girl roamed the furnishings of the magnificent castle as Agnus strode up the staircase through everlasting hallways lined with various works of art. if it had not been for the illumination of the candle the elderly house keeper was carrying, Evangeline would have smashed into a male figure who had suddenly materialized from the darkness.
"Oh! Mr. Everheart, you nearly scared the daylights outta me."
"I beg your pardon, Agnus," his deeply grave voice was illusive. "and who might this be?"
Mr. Everheart's questioning demeanor searched the girl.
"Evangeline. I just brought her in from the cold. I was just going to find..."
"AGNUS WEATHERBY!! you KNOW our strict policy regarding trespassers."
"Yes, sir, but I couldn't just leave her out in the snow..."
"Enough!" he screamed. "I shall personally see her out in the morning."
"Surely you must have a heart somewhere...." the housekeeper remarked with a slightly questioning air.
Immediately, he flashed a glaring eye towards Agnus Weatherby as if to silence any more comments that were to follow. And upon the satisfaction of seeing the dejected housekeeper and frightened little girl, he drew a cane seemingly from the heated atmosphere itself and stalked down the hallway. Agnus watched cautiously as the mysterious form of the man descended down the staircase, and only resumed her journey once she had confirmed Mr. Everheart was indeed gone.
"I apologize, deary. He's not normally that cross just...." she hesitated. "very leery of strangers."
After another minute of venturing through various hallways, Agnus halted outside a door and fiddled with some keys in her pocket. The door caved in to her quick, forceful shoves and the elderly housekeeper and child entered the room. 
The room was small but elegant. A wooden trundle bed covered in cream sheets lay tucked next to a window overlooking a gorge. A dust-covered tapestry hung above the bed and an aging wicker chair sat not faraway from there.
"I hope this is to your liking," Mrs. Weatherby said.
The girl smiled.
"It's perfect,"
"Well then, why don't you get some sleep? I'll find you some new clothes and get you cleaned up in the morning. Good night, deary." and with that, she turned and slipped out of the room.
It seemed mere seconds before Evangeline was comfortably tucked beneath the covers, peering out the window at the world outside the castle. Her awe-stricken eyes gazed at the stars as she succumbed to the ever-imminent call of sleep.
~
"Ouch! Let go!!" Evangeline shrieked.
It was the pinch of Mr. Everheart's fingers that had awaken the girl from her dreams.
"Come on!" he ordered gruffly. "You're no longer welcome here."
Down the staircases they descended, dimly lit by the early morning light. A few twists and turns through various corridors and tapestry-lined hallways materialized before the child and the old man had reached the entrance hall of the castle.
"Please, let me go!"
"Oh, I'LL let you go, alright. Out of this castle never to return!" he said, swinging open the door only to be met by a pair of blue-grey eyes awaiting him.
"Umm...i beg your pardon, Mr. Everheart, but what on earth is going on here?"
the keeper of the voice could not have been older than 18. His tall frame threatened Mr. Everheart's own stature, and atop his head chocolate brown locks of hair snaked their way to the middle of his forehead. A mesmorizing pair of eyes gazed from beneath a knight's attire. Evangeline stood agape in his presence.
"Ohh, i was just....i was....i was just....oh, did you hear that? Must be the breakfast bell! I'm afraid i must be going."
and with that, Mr. Everheart abruptly pulled the girl inside, but not before the stranger could mouth, "I'll be back for you later". the knight's reassuring smile was the last thing Evangeline saw of the outside world before the door was slammed shut.
Mr. Everheart glared. "You got lucky...this time."
His iron grip loosened around her wrist as he drew away from her, sinking into the darkness beyond.
~

*Note: the weather in my story and the weather in the picture don't exactly match up, but this is just where my creativity led me.