Darling Ellie

Chapter 10

Peter

I replaced all of Wendy's old clothes last night with identical looking ones. Clothes fit perfectly to Elaine. I wanted to truly see her, for truly selfish purposes of course. Once I had arranged our breakfasts, I watched Elaine eat for a moment before beginning my questions,

"So, tell me about yourself?"

"What do you want to know?" Elaine asked looking up at me.

"Everything." She was silent, her eyes trained intently on her bowl.

"Elaine, I need to know about you."

"I know what you do with secrets." She replied quietly.

I continued to stare at her.

"Elaine, you won't be leaving Neverland. What's the harm in telling me about yourself. I like to know about all of my Lost boys."

"I'm not a lost boy though am I." What she said wasn't really a question.

"You're a lost girl. Same rules apply to you, you simply happen to be female."

"Thus, I am more intriguing? Thus, I have more benefits?" she asked angrily.

"You paint me as such a villain Elaine."

"You are a villain." She spat.

"Ouch." I smirked.

I watched as her eyes flicked to Felix who was talking to David. "They can't hear us."

"What?"

"I put a charm over us, they can't hear our conversation."

"I still don't feel comfortable, you could be lying." She said accusingly.

"I wouldn't lie to you." Elaine stayed quiet.

"After breakfast we'll go back to the cabin and continue our conversation in private, deal?"

She hesitated for a long while before agreeing, "Deal."

I watched her eat in silence. I watched how delicately she lifted the spoon from the plate to her mouth. Her subtle movements as she chewed. The bobbing in her slender throat as she swallowed. Everything about her was perfect. No, I thought to myself, I mustn't get wrapped up in this girl. She looked up at me once she finished and I pushed my chair away from the table, offering my hand to help her up. I placed my hand at the small of her back once she stood and guided her from the room. As we left, I felt a single pair of eyes watching us but when I looked back, I couldn't single out who they belonged to. Strange.

I sat in my armchair and Elaine sat on the chaise. Both of which had been returned to their usual positions after last night.

"You hid the marks from last night." I observed again.

"I saw the way Felix looked at me, I was embarrassed."

"You should have left them, I'm sure the other boys would have been interested." I chuckled.

Her face turned dark.

"Your Second most likely thinks of me as some little whore now Pan, you think I wanted the other boys thinking the same!" I was taken aback, stunned into silence.

It had only been a joke, none of the boys would've cared anyway.

"Where I'm from to be seen like that is to bring shame on yourself. To hear people, whisper as you walk by. To be ridiculed."

"What was your old life like Elaine." She didn't answer me. "Please Elaine, I just want to know you."

She sucked in a shuddering breath.

"My life was not quite ordinary, but nobody looked at me any different."

"Not quite ordinary? What do you mean?" I asked softly.

"My mother was a higher social class than my father. She was the second daughter – the fifth child – of a very wealthy lord, while my father was the son of a prominent banker. So, my mother Kathleen was at least a class if not two above my father John. Some accused my father of social climbing or only marrying my mother for her dowry."

"What's a dowry may I ask?"

"It's like the value of the marriage given from the bride's family to her and thus to her husband. My mother's dowery was a country summer home, a small household worth of servants and two thousand pounds. It made my father seem like more impressive of a man. In truth my Father loved my Mother wholeheartedly but not everybody saw that. My mother was not able to have any children after me and no one knew why. It's not something people talk about. She died when I was eleven, they say the illness that killed her developed not long after my birth and was most likely the reason she could not have any more children. My father and I mourned her for months and on my twelfth birthday he left me with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Christopher. I haven't seen him since." She paused, "Some people say that he went off to find a new wife so that his Darling lineage wouldn't end with me. Some say he got on a ship and is lost at sea somewhere. Some say he died of his grief. I know my father is out there, I just don't know where. I grew very close with my Cousins after I moved in with Aunt Wendy. The family spent a lot of time with Uncle Michael's family, more than I had spent with them when I lived with my parents. And that's been my life for the last four years."

"What are you cousin's names?" I asked. She paused considering whether or not to tell me.

"Wendy's children are Thomas, Arthur and Charles...Charlie." I saw her face soften at mention of Charlie who I assumed to be the youngest. "Michael and my Aunt Fleur's children are Dante, Renee, Elenore, Christian and Allister. They're the big family. I'm closest with Renee as she was born only a month or so after me." Her family was large, and she seemed happy, but at the same time I could see a longing in her eyes, a longing for her parents.

It was good she was here, here you can forget about your parents...and how much you miss them.

"What about school or your friends or where you learned to fight as you do?" I prompted.

She bristled at the last part,

"I don't think I want to say much more today." She sighed.

"Okay then just this one last thing...What do you like to do?"

"I love to read, I love archery and I love ink painting."