a lazy afternoon   von alanqi
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                          Kapitel 1: a lazy afternoon
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Cain was sitting in his favourite chair in the library of Hargreaves Mansion. It
was late afternoon and the weather outside simply seemed to wet and windy to
leave the house, even for a short walk. Cain had sprawled his legs over the
sides of his armchair reading the weekly chronicle. There seemed to be no new
files, no unsolved mysteries, not even a missing cat. London was getting quite
boring nowadays, he thought. What is a man to do if there is no crime to
investigate? A knock on the door took his interest, it might be a visitor. The
so called visitor turned out to be his tea. His butler brought the tablet to the
little mahagony table in front of the sofa and served the tea into the single
cup he brought.

“Your tea is ready, master Cain”, Riff said bowing slightly.

“Thanks Riff” , Cain smiled “but I’d rather prefer something
stronger.”

Riff raised his eyebrows.

“And what might that something be?”

“Don’t know maybe an unsolved murder, a great affair in the city, or just a
drop of scotch added to my tea.”

Riff smiled before bowing slightly.

“As my master wishes” he uttered leaving the room to fetch the scotch his
master had proposed to like added to his tea.

It was the right weather to utter a wish like this he thought. The coldness kept
creeping into the house however high the fires were burning; the servant part
was even colder. Riff sneezed; he had to enter the cellar to get the bottle he
was searching, the kitchen supplies were used up too. Not a single drop left due
to the lingering coldness and the freezing servants. Riff sighed fetching a
candle. He took the silver chandelier next to the kitchen trespass to the
dungeons. He didn’t like the dark down under but there was no way to spare him
the search down yonder. With another sigh he opened the door, took the
chandelier with four candles carefully lighted and began climbing downstairs. It
was only two flights of steps but the air in this part was unbearable cold, it
was to far away from the heating room. It had to be cold though otherwise the
food down there would spoil, and the wine too. Riff sneezed again; maybe he was
getting a fever. His sight got a little unclear, but he was used to such things
by now and he was never ill, especially not when his master was asking something
from him, like a few drops of scotch for his tea.



                      Kapitel 2: waiting for the spirits
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Meanwhile upstairs in the library his master was getting even more bored. Ten
minutes passed without Riff re-entering the room. The tea would be cold when
Riff came back, he supposed. He liked tea especially if it was Riff who browed
it for him. It made him feel safe to be able to drink some hot liquid once in a
while without having to wonder about it’s ingredients or to smell for ill
substances. Riff knew about this. Riff was the only person who knew about his
father trying to poison him with arsenic. If it weren’t for those roses he’d
be dead by now. And if it weren’t for his wounds to be salved and cleaned
every now and then he’d be dead by some infection. He could have been dead by
a thousand reasons, but for the sake of Riffs caring presence and obvious
interaction he wasn’t. Why did it take his butler so long for a short trip to
the kitchen? , he wondered. Maybe some of the staff had left it disordered and
Riff stayed there to put things right, but it was utterly cold down there. Cain
didn’t’ like the idea popping up in his head, he wanted his butler to stay
in the warmer part. But if it was just the kitchen it was quite allright,
because there was still the fire in the oven. Maybe he was still searching for
that scotch he had whished for. While waiting for Riff to come back, Cain sipped
the still quite hot liquid into his stomach. It made him feel so warm. Only a
few things could ever make him feel this comfortable. Another 30 minutes passed
and Cain had returned to reading while sipping the tea. Some other things must
have been important enough to keep his valet occupied. Maybe the staff had some
of their problems and were keeping Riff to find the solutions. Riff was good at
those things; he himself had not the nerve to listen to their chatter. He was
glad that Riff saved him from that last part of being the heir of a great house,
so his uncle was quite unsatisfied with him. Uncle Neal didn’t like the idea
that he had made himself that dependent on his valet. Another 20 minutes and the
tea was gone, the hot liquid had left him feeling hot, so he got quickly rid of
his jacket and his vest.




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