Author's Note: To those who commented on the first chapter....Thank You! I hope you continue to enjoy. :)
2. The Absence of Fear
The next morning Mary went out to find the statue in the same place it always had been, and she began to question whether the whole thing had been a dream. She wandered back in to the sitting room and saw the list of names. At least that part hadn't been a hallucination. She went back outside, feeling a little more certain that she hadn't dreamed the whole thing. Mary hesitated before touching him. When he was just a statue, she felt free to touch him anywhere. Now that that she thought of him as a living thing she was hesitant about touching him somewhere that might be offensive to him. Finally she laid her hand on one large wrist. He hadn't seemed upset when she touched him there the night before.
"Aiden, I don't know if you can hear me, and if I'm disturbing you I'm sorry, but I'm about to start looking for information. I'll let you know if I find anything tonight." She took her hand off of his arm and walked back inside. She was still not entirely sure that she hadn't made up the names on the list, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to do a few Internet searches. It wasn't like she was terribly busy anyway.
The knowledge she had of the Internet was gained mostly at the public library. Aunt Patrice didn't believe in using computers, but the library was an acceptable place for Mary to spend time. She used that to her advantage. One of the things she had requested before making the trip was that a top of the line laptop be set up with printer and Internet connection. She sat down with her list of names in her own private library and started searching.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mary meant to be on the balcony just after sunset, to make sure she hadn't just been dreaming the night before, but she wasn't used to spending so much time in front of a computer screen. She ate an early dinner and sent Mrs. March home for the night. She did the dishes herself, then went to her room, stretching out on the sofa in front of the fire. She thought her eyes only closed for a moment, but when she opened them again there was a blanket over her, and Aiden was sitting in his chair reading the notes she had made. The yellow legal pad looked tiny in his hands. Mary pinched herself to make certain she wasn't still asleep.
"When did you get here?" She ran her fingers through her long, dark brown hair, trying to put it back in some kind of order.
"Not long ago." He smiled slightly, watching her move. "You were sleeping so peacefully I did not wish to wake you."
"Did you cover me?" She asked, fingering the blanket a bit, her mind waking slowly.
"You were shivering." He lowered his head again, but Mary could feel him watching her out of the corner of his eye. "You found all of this in so few hours? I thought you knew no one."
"I don't. That was just stuff I managed to dig up on the Internet." She pulled the ottoman over next to his chair and sat down. "The sections with stars next to them are ones that I wasn't sure of, like I found two John Pressmans in two different locations in that time period. I wasn't sure what was right, so I wrote down the information I found on both. What?" She asked after realizing that he was looking at her strangely.
"Internet?" He asked, the tip of his tail stroked her ankle. It sent pleasant shivers through her but Mary told herself that he wasn't doing it intentionally. She forced herself to be still and ignore it.
"Sorry, it's-" She paused for a moment, thinking. "Well you can get information if you-" She paused again, unsure of how to continue. "Let me show you."
He followed her downstairs and now she knew why the doorways were taller and wider than any she had ever seen and why all the floors were stone. That day she also noticed how there was at least one piece of furniture in each room that fit him, though most of it was fragile-looking and she doubted it would bear his weight. She spent the next several hours talking about what she had found, and, in a stilted way, trying to explain how she had found it. He settled on believing there was some magic behind it and Mary decided that that made it considerably easier for her. The whole time his tail stroked her bare ankle softly.
Once he understood how she had found so much information and pointed her in the right direction on those families she was unsure of he began scanning the books on the shelves. She had done the same thing herself when she first time she explored the room. Mostly old fiction and history, some erotica that was tempting but she was too afraid Mrs. March would see it was missing.
"No." He said finally, his wings rustled softly. "This is not the library Ambrose spoke of, though I doubted it would be."
"This is the only library I've found so far. Did he tell you there was another one?" She walked over to him slowly.
"He described it once as 'downstairs'. There is a cellar?"
"There is, but I haven't been down there yet." She went to the desk and got the heavy ring of keys she'd been given. "Mrs. March keeps it locked, though I think she would keep every door in the house locked if it were up to her."
