Lord Theodore's Favorite Ritual
Chapter 91: Addition To The Mansion.

Outside, Theodore Mansion.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

*************

"Oh, and the lovely damsel returns" Gabriel wailed when Joyous came out to gather the dried bedsheets that they had washed today.

He ran to her as she started to walk hastily.

"I keep having a feeling it is past time you leave" she countered, her arm full with folded white bedsheets.

"What is your name fine lady?" he asked in a sing-song.

She ignored him and continued her walk, he jogged to her front, blocking the way and restricting her movement.

"Move out of the way," she said through gritted teeth.

"Let me help you carry it" he offered with a boyish smile. One she refused to look at.

"No, wait out here, the lord shall be with you soon" she retorted.

He laughed lightly, but his puberty voice was thundering. "That sounds like a prayer" he pointed out.

"Gabriel, stop!" Tom yelled from the other side of the compound.

"I was just trying to help her" he yelled back.

She glanced at him but quickly stopped. "She wants nothing of such, it appears" he whispered before moving out of the way and letting her through.

She shook her head as she headed inside.

Her teeth clenched when she thought of how she had been the one to offer herself to him to roast by replying to him in the first place.

She could barely point the twins apart. But she knows now that one is an ass while the other one just wants to stay clean.

*

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*

Late Evening.

Office, Theodore Mansion.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

***************

Theodore picked up a glass of something Conan now has become curious about.

"Is that chilled lemonade?"

Theodore smirked. "Yes, why?" Conan shifted.

He then smiled. "Who made it?"

"I have maids Conan I do not know who made it" Theodore replied. "And no, you are not getting a glass, it is for Lydia" he added.

"You are so whipped" Conan teased with a dark chuckle.

"She is my wife, you should worry about how you find it tasking to take your eyes off the witch lady" Theodore pointed out, his smirk proud.

"She is not a witch" Conan argued.

Theodore nodded as he asked. "What about the muckraker?"

"She is alive and writing" Conan said his eyes narrowed on the lord.

Yes, he was still smitten with the muckraker but now he has suddenly become so busy he barely thinks of her.

Theodore hummed, his facials teasing.

"You are wrong" Conan groaned.

"Okay" Theodore agreed but his face said so much more.

He believed Conan was beginning to harbour feelings towards his dear friend and it was engaging watching him reject it.

Theodore took a sip of his chilled lemonade before speaking. "I need you to take care of those boys Lydia brought" he instructed.

But Conan didn’t know of the new person. "Boys?" he asked.

"Two boys came to the mansion on their own, offer them a permanent job, if they want it, and hand them a space in the building for the male employed" Theodore ordered.

"Yes, Lord Theodore" he agreed.

Conan nodded. "Are they clean?"

Theodore’s lips thinned before he started. "Orphans from Critic-Izinghale they were being sent to the salve establishment before they ran away, that city needs to be checked"

"Sometimes I wonder what Salvatore-"

There was a knock on the office door interrupting Conan, Theodore looked at it as he responded. "Yes?"

Joyous stepped inside her head bowed, the moment she had stepped inside the mansion Dorothy had dragged her to a corner to beg her. She had needed Joyous to go into the lord’s office and call out Conan.

Dorothy was still unreasonably fearful of Lord Theodore.

"Joyous" he acknowledged. The maid smiled.

When he is not with his wife he can be lovely, she thought.

"Excuse me, Lord Theodore, Sir Conan, the lady needs you," she said softly.

Conan sprang up. "Helena?"

"Yes, Sir Conan" Joyous replied religiously.

Conan nodded, his head glancing at Theodore he said. "Theodore excuse me"

Theodore sat there shocked, he blinked but he could only replay the scene where Conan had sprung up out of his sear like a knight at war at the mention of his wife.

"Let me see what that soulmate is doing with my wife" Theodore mumbled to himself as he stood up, took the door and headed for the parlour.

*

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*

Late Evening.

Theodore Mansion.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

**************

Conan reached the parlour as fast as he could. Yes, he had been with Theodore but he couldn’t help it as his mind kept going back to Helena sitting say from him, in Theodore’s mansion, with Hound, Red and Shade present.

He saw her before she saw him, her eyes were droopy and she was clutching onto a small satchel.

"Please take me home Conan, I am so sleepy" she muttered to him the second she sighted him. She was already standing and was waiting for him.

He nodded. "Yes, come here, why did you have to eat so much?"

Her eyes widened. "You do not say that to a woman" she scolded in a whisper, he was standing right next to her, his left side part behind her.

"Yes, lady clingy" he retorted.

She looked up at him with narrowed dues "Do not call me that in front of my sister" she advised in a warning.

"You call yourselves sisters now?" he was surprised.

"Would you prefer we say soulmates?" Lydia asked back instead of Helena.

"No! You are well enough as sisters, Gooseberry, let it stay that way" Theodore jumped into the conversation, his breath tickling Lydia’s skin. He had breathed his words right behind her.

"Thank you, Lord Theodore" Helena expressed her appreciation.

He looked at her but quickly dropped his gaze and drew Lydia into his arms, he was still not comfortable with the resemblance.

"Theodore you shall have to take care of the boys yourself, I have to take her to the house," Conan said to his friend and lord holding one of Helena’s arms to steady her rapidly sleeper self.

"Tomorrow" Theodore called out silently.

"Yes Lord Theodore"

Conan silently guided Helena out of the mansion, she relied heavily on his side.

"What is happening tomorrow?"

Theodore looked at his curious wife after the knight and his lady friend left the room.

"We are leaving for the Citadel, it is a new month, we had already delayed it" he relayed.

It was going to be midnight but he didn’t have to tell her that, she would try to make him go in the morning but the earlier he left, the earliest he shall return.

"You are telling me too late" she complained, drawing out of his arms.

With his index he let her stray hair behind her ears." I seek your forgiveness" he said.

"I shall miss you" she confessed.

"Gooseberry" he purred, kissed her nose before he whispered. "Now, where were we?"

A clear of a throat answered his question making him close his eyes to regain patience. He turned to the sound and it was Hound.

"The boys, Lord Theodore" he reminded calmly.

"You -"

"We shall help Lady Theodore get ready for the night" Dorothy screeched, interrupting the lord’s speech.

Theodore froze her with a glare while Lydia smiled up at him. "Go, Theodore, I shall be waiting for you" she whispered before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

He let her out of his arm and soon the girls were pulling her upstairs. He followed Hound outside.

**************

Late Evening.

Outside, Theodore Mansion.

Critic Arley, Critic-Ishire.

***************

"Good evening Lord Theodore" the boys greeted in unison, their caramel complexion glowing in the evening light.

"I will be direct as I need to go back to my wife" Theodore started. "Do you want a job in the mansion?" he asked.

As they glanced at each other, he didn’t see the delight in their orbs as he asked again. "Do you need a job here?"

"Yes!" their big voice thundered in unison in the vicinity.

"Good" he bellowed "You can stay by the gates while he stays by the entrance here, or you figure it out"

They nod while he narrows his eyes. "Who is who?" he hadn’t cared before but if they were to be around his wife he needed to know the lesser evil apart.

There’s always evilness somewhere.

"I am Tom," one said.

"I am Gabriel," the other said.

Theodore scoffed. "How can I tell you apart?"

"I am Gabriel and he is Tom" Gabriel repeated slowly.

Hound took a threatening step towards them.

Gabriel quickly let a smile slip as he said. "Alright, alright, that is how you know the difference," he said.

"I act like I am alive, while he pretends he is dead" his words while Tom looked taken aback.

Theodore hummed before nodding his head towards the scowling Hound. "Hound shall show you to your rooms"

"Thank you for the opportunity Lord Theodore, we shall work to the best of our abilities" Tom promised, his head down while his brother nodded with a smile on his face.

Theodore nodded and headed back into the mansion. His wife was waiting.

Hound started to walk to their destination. The male-employed quarters that is a few weeks away from the female-employed quarters.

"Loyalty should be your first goal," he said suddenly.

"If you are loyal to him, you shall live long"

His threat doesn’t make them fear instead it drives them to be better.