Chapter Fifteen- journey and arrival

Chapter Fifteen

The one-week trip home, like the past four or five times, wasn't that interesting, however after the fifth day, we were hit by a snow storm causing us to stay an extra few nights at a private Inn that Edward's friend owned.

I and Claire shared a room, while Edward took a whole office and room to himself, where he could do his work.

"Hey James, do you want to go out and build a snowman?" Claire said as she was putting her leather gloves on, since the times were cold, I was usually wearing a bundle of jumpers, pants and thick winter socks. Which were made out of gray wool. Claire wore a Woolen coat and some fur-covered boots and gloves, i cant understand how she can wear such thin clothing and still not get unwell.

"I might as well, what kind of snowman are we building?" I asked while strapping my boots on.

"Of course, the biggest one we can!" Claire said while explosively jumping like a starfish and running to have a look out at the window.

"Let's go make it next to that tree!" after she said this, I was ready to go and followed the ecstatic girl outside in the cold weather after notifying Edward, who nodded.

"Look, James! It's so pretty! How does it look with my hair? Do I look like a snowflake?" Flowing like a snowdrop, Claire spun through the snow and fell over on her back.

"Well you look pretty, I can see why you love the snow," I said while laughing at the now blushing Claire who had messed up her snow angel out of embarrassment.

"Well, let's get this snowman started, do you have a carrot and stones for the eyes and mouth?" I said while gathering a clump of snow.

"Carrot has been acquired!" Claire said while throwing the carrot into the air and letting it rocket back down into the snow.

"What about the big stones for the belly?" I had almost forgotten about them.

"Got them right here, alright, ill start working on the head, you start the bottom of the body! Now Let's start!" Claire said while she started rolling a small snowball and kept rolling and rolling, it made me feel dizzy just by watching.

Slowly but surely, and after a lot of hard work and have the day gone, we had the bottom half of the snowman done. And we also had the head done, now all that was left was the middle ball.

With both of us working together, the last part was done fairly quickly, and after sticking all the pieces together, we placed the carrot and stones...

"Done!" I said while stretching my back, which had been in a lot of pain since we were rolling the snow all day.

"James I'm getting cold, let's head inside the warm room and watch it from the window.." Claire said as she (intentionally) started to shiver, although i knew she was faking the shiver, I couldn't help worrying about her health. Like a dad worrying if his teen daughter was alright at the party she had went to with her reliable friends.

After getting some hot chocolate and taking a warm bath, I decided to head to my room to read before going to sleep, however to my disappointment, Claire who had been in the bath before was already hogging the entire bed while she slept. snoring.

How did it end up like this? I depressingly said while sitting on the hard, cold floor to read my book about the different types of seasons in this world, however to my dismay, i learned that although the names were different, this world had four almost identical seasons compared to my old world.

the seasons went with its earth counterpart: Summer- Yammer, Spring- Jest, Autumn- lofting and Winter which was surprisingly, still called winter.

The next day, the Snow had cleared enough that the Carriage could move again, so with our journey back and running up again, we got in the carriage and continued. However before we left the town I looked back at the snowman, which had an expression different from the one I and Claire had made before we left. Had someone changed it?

No, I must be going crazy.

Although we were stuck in a particular village, it was only two days away by carriage from our destination. And by noon, on the second day, we had reached the village at the bottom of the mountains, where I would usually go to get groceries for Elizabeth and Liza.

When we got out of the carriage for a small stretch, the snow that was heavy two days ago was now struggling to stay firm and had practically all melted.

After I suggested that I and Claire could grab the food for the feast, and walk back ourselves, all while I could show Claire around the place. Both Edward and Claire accepted. So after the carriage left. Me and Claire went to go see Mrs. Strothings (Owner of the local shop. and Clara's mother.)

*ring*

"Good afternoon." Mrs. Strothings said, before turning around and showing a shocked face. "James? Is that you James? I haven't heard from Elizabeth that you were coming back... did you sneak away? she said with a worried expression.

After a small laugh, I explained everything to Mrs. Strothings and she eventually started to laugh as well.

"So you got the letter your mother sent away, I knew you would be back soon. However I didn't expect you to be here so soon. Clara will be delighted now that you are back for a small while. Oh by the way, who is this Beautiful young lady behind you? Is she your friend?

Claire who was looking about the whole time I had the conversation with Mrs. Strothings, suddenly turned around and introduced herself.

"Hello, I am James's cousin, Claire. I am also the same age as him and I plan to marry him in the future!" Claire said without hesitation, however there was a trace of embarrassment showing when she said the last part.

My mind went completely blank with that last statement. How could she so boldly say that? And in front of Clara's mother too??? She was outrageous, I better give her a scolding later.

Mrs. Strothings looked at me, and then she looked at Claire for a minute, and then back to me and started giggling to herself

"Well it looks like my little Clara has a competitor now, this makes things a bit more interesting, Fufu."

After saying this, she handed over the bags of groceries to me, who was still in a state of shock and was quite embarrassed.

After paying for them I decided to say something...

"Haha, thank you Mrs. Strothings you have always been very kind to me, I hope I can repay you the favor of helping me when I was seriously injured, eventually.

"Don't worry about it, I only ask you for one thing and that one thing is very precious to me. I don't know about the rest of the boys in this village, but I know you are different James, When you get married don't forget my little Clara, hehe."

After saying this she started laughing and then patted Claire on the head who was also blushing behind me.

suddenly there was a voice from the door.

"Mom! What are you saying? Who's going to marry who!?"

Ah, this familiar voice. How could I forget it? It was the voice of Clara.