Chapter Three

The next morning i woke up to screaming.

"Niklaus get back here!!" A voice yelled.

I open my eyes and take in my surroundings. The memories from last night flood through my mind and i smile.

"Good morning sleepy head," i hear someone say. I turn my head to see Elliot.

"Hey Elliot." i smile at him

"Breakfast is almost ready here's some clothes." he hands me a pile of fabric and goes to walk away.

"Thank you." I call after him.

"No problem," he calls back. I take the clothes and unfold them. There is a light blue dress that goes down to my ankles and has three quarter length sleeves, it has a string for a belt and a bag that is on the waist. I slip on my stockings and my shoes. Once i'm dressed i walk down the ladder.

"Good Morning Katerina." Gia smiles at me

"Good Morning" i smile in return.

"How did you sleep?" She asked me

"Very well thank you." i nod at her.

"Breakfast  is ready come," she hold out her hand for me. I take and she leads me to the table.

"Good morning." i smile at the family

"Good morning Katerina." Elijah smiles

"SIt next to me!!" Niklaus cheers, i smile at the young boy and nod and sit next to him.

"Smells delicious mother," Elliot comes and kisses his mother on the cheek.

"To bad you have to miss it." Eerika comes into the room "You're going to be late." she tells her older brother.

"Bye Everyone see you later." Elliott runs out of the house

Breakfast went by fast, Gia made eggs and toast that's was very good,  in my family we had porridge every morning as my parents and siblings didn't have time to do anything else.

"Katerina could you help out Elijah with washing the clothes?" Erik aks me.

"Of course i'd love to help." i smile at him.

"Katerina let me do your hair." Eerika looks at me with a brush and a hair tie.

"Okay." i walk over to her and sit down in front of her.

    She takes the brush and combs through my platinum blonde hair, it feels nice to finally have someone comb through my hair as it's been two days since it's been brushed, She tugs on my hair trying to get it detangled. This takes a few minutes but when she finished she started to braid it. She took my hair and braided it all the way down to the ends, once she finished she put it over my right shoulder.

"Pretty." Maverick says sitting on his mother's lap. I smile at the young boy.

"Thank you Mav,"

"Come on Katerina," Elijah climbs down the ladder from the loft. He is wearing brown trousers with a white shirt. He also has two bags connected to a belt.

    "Be back by sundown." Eerik calls after us as we exit the house. Elijah leads me to the back of the house where there are two bags.

"Grab one and follow me." he orders me.

The bags were not heavy but they were not light, both bags were filled to the top with no extra space.

    The walk to the river wasn't long but it wasn't a fast walk. Once we reach the river Elijah doesn't hesitate to start washing the clothes.

"Come on." He snaps at me.

I look at him socked, he was so nice to me yesterday but today he is being so mean. I open the bag to clean the clothes. I take out the first article of clothing and unball it, its a dress a beautiful blue dress with a brown leather belt around the waist. I take the dress and dunk it in the cold crystal clear water. I swish it around a little bit before i grab the soap out of the bag, its a brown color but it smells strongly of lavender. I take the dripping cold dress out of the water and put the soap in the middle of the bunch, i start to slide the soap up and down the fabric. When i think it's all clean i put the dress back into the water and rinse out the soap, once I feel like the soap is all out o hang it on the branch that Elijah hung the clothes he washed. The next thing I pulled out is a small pair of trousers i already knew they belonged to Maverick as he is the smallest in the house. I did the same process as before rubbing the soap on the fabric then cleaning them, and when i'm down with the hang it up on the tree branch. I did that about thirty more times before i finished my bag of clothes. I looked over at Elijah for the first time since i started washing the clothes to see him skipping rocks.

"Oh, you finished."  He looks at me with his big brown orbs

"Yeah.." I sigh

"We have to wait for the clothes to dry to go back so it might be another hour or so," he tells me skipping another rock. I nod in response, looking at the horizon. I pick up a stone from beside me and chuck it into the lake. I start to get lost in thought, i wonder if my family misses me? I bet tatia is so happy to be the only girl in the family.so she gets all the attention. I wonder if my brother misses me, we were really close until he got married at the age of 17.

"Let's go." Elijah snaps me out of my thoughts.

I dont respond but i get up and grab the bag and put the clothes in the bag and close it up.

"Katerina." Elijah calls from behind me

"What." I snap out e

"You're going the wrong way." He chuckles out

"Oh," i mutter out and turn the other way.

"Katerina." He runs up to me.

"Yes, Elijah?" i look at him

"What's wrong?" he asks me

"What's wrong? Wanna know whats wrong you were so nice to me yesterday and now you're being a jerk." i look at him in the eyes frowning

"I'm sorry..." he sighs "My father told me i have a week to find a bride or they will find one for me." he rubs his face with his hand.

"Oh, im sorry."

"It's fine, i have my eyes on someone." he smiles at me.

We start to walk back to the house as we don't have a while until it's sundown as we were at the river almost all day. The walk was silent for the most part besides a few sighs a long the away. I wonder who the girl is he has on his mind. The walk felt shorter than it was the first time we made this walk to the river.

"Katerina!" a voice yells.

I look up to see Niklaus running to me, once he reached me he wrapped  his small arms around my legs.

"Hi Buddy." I tell him laughing.

"Let her go Nik we have to put the clothes away." Elijah tells his younger brother.

Niklaus unwrapped his arms and ran back to Gia who is cooking supper on an open fire. Elijah and i walk into the house and drop our bags full of clothes on the floor. He starts to open the bag he was in charge of and dumps out the clothes, he pulls out an article of clothing and starts to fold it, so i do the same.

"I'm back!" Elliot yells as he walks into the house.

"Hello Elliot." I smile at him

"Hello Katerina." he kisses my head and walks off most likely to say hi to Gia.

"What was that about?" Elijah asks i shrug and continue to fold the clothes.

I finish folding the clothes just in time for Erik to come and get me and Elijah for supper.

"Kat sit next to me." Eerika tells me as i come into her view.

"Kat?" i ask her

"Your new nickname." she shrugs as i sit down next to her.

Dinner tonight was good, Gia made fish soup, everyone was talking about their day and telling stories but, Elijah and I we are quiet not talking just eating. Once everyone finished their supper I helped Gia by taking the dirty bowls to the well to clean.

"Hey Katerina," Gia starts "are you okay? I mean you were so quiet during supper, well so was Elijah, did something happen?'' she asks me.

"No everything is fine." I sigh.

"Are you sure?" she asks again.

"Fine." I fake a smile.

We cleaned in silence after that, which i don't mind at all.

"Come on let's get cleaned up for bed." Gia smiles at me.

I nod in her direction and walk into the house without a word.

"Kat come here please." Eerika calls from the loft.

"Coming," i call back.

I climb up the ladder wondering what she needs me for.

"Do you know what's going on with my brother?" she asks

"Which one?' I crack a smile

"Elijah, he's oddly quiet this evening." she sits on her cott.

"He was like that when we were cleaning the clothes at the river." I told the girl sitting beside me.

"Did he tell you anything?" she asks me with worry.

"He did say one thing," I start "Your father is telling him he needs to marry." I whisper to her not wanting anyone else to hear.

"Bloody hell!" She exclaims.

"Shhh" I shush her and cover her mouth.

"Is everything okay?" Gia yells up to the loft.

"Yes mother, Katerina just stubbed her toe." Eerika calls back to her mother.

"Very funny." I tell the girl laughing a little.

"As if you had anything better." She giggles.

"I did actually." I mock her.

"Like what?" she laughs

"Maybe I was telling you a story from my childhood." I tell her 

"That would've been better, knowing my mother she will ask to see your toe to see if your okay." She tells me

"Really?" I laugh at her

"Once when i was younger me and my Elijah got into a fight over who could play with Elliot, Idropped a stone so it sounded like he hit me but when mother asked to see i had nothing to show her," She starts to laugh at the memory.

"You did what!?!" I ask her shocked

"I wanted my brother to play with me so i was a little devil when i couldn't." She laughs

"Are you girls decent!!" Elliot yells uo the loft.

"One second brother!!" Eerika calls back.

"Anything else?" i ask her with a laugh.

"That's all for one night, we should get into our night dresses." She tells me.

I nod in agreement and grab the fabric she held out to me. Once I unbunched the fabric it shows to be a lavender night dress with long sleeves and lace along the back. I quickly slip it on as the boys have to come up and go to sleep.

"Okay you can come up now!" i shout down the ladder.

First it was Niklaus who came up the ladder.

"Katerina!" The young boy yells and hugs my waist.

Next is Elliot, he walks over to Eerika and I, first he hugs his sister and says goodnight. Then he turns to me and hugs me as well and give me a kiss on the forehead just like he did this morning. Last he walks to his second youngest brother and ruffles his hair and bids hima goodnight. The last one up the ladder is Elijah, but unlike his siblings he just walked straight to his bed and blew out the candle making the room dark. With that I lay on my bed for the time being and prepare for the restless night of sleep