The next few days, a bare man was tested by the cold weather. His appearance was that of a red lobster, shivering around the castle walls. But the father wasn’t the only odd sight to behold those days. There were also rumours of a pale ghoul traversing the grounds.

The moment Joss entered their view, Remony screamed in fright, "You look horrible!". This observation of hers couldn’t be more true. Joss appeared to be so starved, that his abdomen was sucked in and formed a square that his ribcage rested on. William was just as surprised as Remony and asked with great concern; “She’s right! Why do you look so starved!?”.

Joss glanced in his father’s direction with worry. He then looked at the two girls and coldly admitted, “I don’t dare eat anymore… Just the thought...”. Joss wobbled about. He got dizzy thinking about the doubts that haunted him ever since that awful day…

Before he completely lost himself in his wobbly dance, he was forced to sit down by the girls. Once seated, he cradled the saddle he had prepared before coming over. It rested in his arms like a pillow as he explained, “I don’t trust her anymore... She’s after what little we have…”. Both girls asked in unison, “Who?”.

Joss sighed and whined, “Remember that day you mentioned Harvick’s brother dying from leeches?.. Well, I came home that day, only to find those exact vermin in my drink!..”. William gaped, baffled by the coincidence and the awful news. He went down to pat Joss on the shoulder, as he sought information; “Who would do such a thing!?.. You said she?.. Is it?.. Jacqueline!? Did she try to harm you?”.

Joss slowly blinked, affirming William’s guess.

Remony stared at poor Joss and asked, “She’s your stepmother, correct?”. Joss weakly nodded, which made Remony continue to speculate aloud; “Then I can’t fathom any other reason for her behavior… She must be after your spot for the inheritance… She did after all give birth to a son. And since your the oldest and thus the first in line to claim the property yours, she must have thought to eliminate you… Like a Frelian, cleaning out its nest from former lovers and spouse”.

William found this sentence unsettling; “Do you mean to say, that she might go after the twins as well? Since they also came from Vanessa and not her?”.

“Maybe?…”, Remony replied, with her finger caressing her lips. Then with some afterthought she added, “ Perhaps she would do it as a safety measure, even though her son is second in line, now that she is married to your father… But I think they’ll be safe as long as Joss stays alive… For if she doesn’t succeed in his murder, there wouldn’t be any benefit to the twins’ deaths…”.

William looked up at his ‘former’ father. At least he tried to. It wasn’t the most attractive view, one could gander at up there. “Does he know?”, he asked. Their father might not have cared one bit for William but he sure did treasure Joss a lot. So it would be fairly odd if he let Jacqueline go unpunished.

Joss seemed conflicted by this question. He had confronted his father with this problem once before, but since he didn’t have any evidence to support that Jacqueline had lusted after his lifeblood, there wasn’t much help to get.

And for some strange reason, the father was so distracted these days, that he hadn’t even noticed his son’s deteriorating body. Joss replied after some thought; “I have told him about it… But he doesn’t find it plausible… He said that it was a foolish plan to try and kill me and the twins. For he would immediately know who did it and have them hanged without mercy... In the end he concluded that she wouldn’t benefit from it and her motives were too vague to begin with… Thus it must be hogwash, he said”.

Although fighting for the inheritance of any property, was a common sight. Jacqueline’s goal seemed a bit reckless and without foresight. It basically wasn’t in her character to act so rashly… Besides, Joss wasn’t just anyone's child. He was her dearly beloved sister’s. But then again… Did she in fact cherish her departed sister, the way she had advertised it? Or had she cleverly been hiding her true feelings all this time?

Nonetheless, William had a hard time stomaching Jacqueline’s bend ways. Thinking to himself: Just why does this family seem to attract so much evil? Hrmf! I wouldn’t be surprised if that psycho book has placed a curse upon our name, that is designed to plague us till we all drop dead!..

Seeing William pondering for himself, Remony acted. Although she didn’t have any clever words to share, she did have a bit of bread in her dress-pocket. She wrung it up from its hiding hole and gave it to Joss. A slight blush invaded her eartips, but only those with exceptionally good eyes would be able to spot this. “Here”, she said. “Have my bread… And in the future if you should go hungry, you can always come by us and ask for food. Right, Mirabelle?”.

William nodded his head firmly and confirmed his cooperation; “Of course! Just come by and I’ll feed you till you drop dead like a feasting pig! Haha”.

Remony teasingly slapped William on the shoulder for being such a clown. Then they all giggled for a bit. William was the first one to talk again. He wished to request something of Joss, so he said, “Actually, Joss. I have something I need to ask of you! So please come with me to the kitchen… If you come now, I’ll give you a nice serving of soup”.

Joss licked his lips and found courage to live again. He got helped up by both girls, who forsaked their duties to comfort their starving friend. To think the shock he got from Jacqueline’s little trick, made him fast himself to such an extent. It was really creepy, how well you could feel his bones just by holding him around the shoulder.

When Joss had been considerably fed, Remony left to make up for her lost hours of work. William stayed for a bit longer to ask a big favor of Joss. He wrung his skirt, before deciding to speak. "Joss… As we both know, ever since the castle servant was kidnapped, it has become dangerous to even live here… That’s just how it is… Nowhere is safe. Especially not for someone like me, who is weak and powerless against bonded adults…”. As he was paying Joss some exaggerated lip-service, William couldn’t help but wince a few times.

He talked about the troubles of lacking protection, in preparations to his main point. The meat of his question.

All of this lip-service was merely to butter Joss up, into a higher state of acceptance! Finally William found his courage and asked his brother, “... I want you to help me purchase a sword and a set of armour. And it cannot be postponed. It must take place this year!".

Joss choked. Not on the soup but on the wooden spoon that he sucked into his throat, from sheer disbelief. His eyes widened like giant plates, before he coughed and spat out the foreign object. *Cough*. "That's insane Mirabelle! Wasting money on your own armour!? You'll grow right out of it in a year or two! And what are you going to use it for? You're a girl for crying out loud!...".

William waited for a bit before striking back. For in his dreams of owning his own shiny armour and cool sword, he hadn’t included the fact that he was just a young girl right now. How could he forget that he wasn’t done growing yet! Of course an armour fit for a child wouldn’t be able to fit an adult woman! Simply put: It really would be a waste of money...

William decided to readjust his request and snapped back, "But… Just because I am, doesn't mean-... Well, let me ask you… Whom of us makes the most money right now, hmmm!?.. ME! And I'll gladly share it. But! First you must help me!.. Please Joss... I really want it! Does it really matter what I want to do with it?.. At least a sword! I really need a sword...".

Joss wiped his mouth off in his sleeve. It was true that his sister earned a better pay than him… So he suggested, "Hmm… I don't know if-... Well, I can help you get a sword if you so desire… But let me be clear, that it won’t be my fault if you get in trouble for it… And if you do! You gotta promise me that you seek me out for help first!.. Don’t always go to Harvick. I can be reliable too!".

William laughed. To think that his brother was still so obsessed about winning over Harvick. Apparently it didn’t matter what the competition was about, as long as Joss could beat Harvick at it…

He isn’t even here to taste defeat if you should win, William thought. But he still loved his brother for being what he was: A good sibling! So he went over in his excitement and hugged Joss. While doing so, he screamed into his ear; "Thanks Joss! You're the best! And guess what? I'll buy a sword for you too! That's my gift to you".

Joss felt smitten too, but soon his rationalized thoughts put a damper on his excitement. He said, "Really!? Are you sure about that?.. They can be expensive as heck, you know… Or are you going to gift me one of those from the rusty sword pile?".

William didn’t even know such a thing existed and said bewildered, "Huh!? Of course not! It'll be a fine one! You get to pick it for yourself!". Joss still couldn’t accept this gift and grunted, "I still don't think you fathom the cost of such things…". William shrugged his shoulders in a carefree manner, while saying, “Well, you tell me!? I’ll come back and fetch you, when I have the right amount for two swords”.

Joss seemed a bit suspicious as to whether that day would ever come.

He took the saddle that had accompanied for an hour now and said, “Well, good luck Mirabelle... You’ll probably need a pound for a sword... So two pounds in total...”. William stared at Joss as he left.

He thought: Two pounds!? That’s like… uhm… 240 + 240, that’s 460… no… 480!? I need 480 pence and I only earn 3 per day! Oh god, this is going to take forever!