Chapter 43 part 1

"So, what's your plan after this?" Nick asked Emily, both talking in English, while they ate a leisurely lunch of mostly fruit.

Emily sighed. She'd enjoyed catching up with Nick over the past week, but she had a feeling that this wasn't going to last. Mostly because she couldn't say what the duchess' purpose in allowing them to have been able to spend this time together had been.

He'd shaved the beard and been able to get the clothing he'd been wearing washed, though it definitely showed some serious signs of wear. Although, while she had hoped that he might be a little less arrogant than he was before, he still acted like he was more of an adult than Emily, simply by nature of him being older.

Plus, she'd shown the duchess where the gate was, so the duchess wouldn't have a choice but to believe more of Emily's story. Not that she had been worried about it. Though, the duchess also had started getting supplies gathered for the trip that Emily knew the duchess was going to want her to take. Which meant she otherwise had time to kill in the meantime.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I get the feeling that I'll have to help the duchess get in contact with Heathcliff in order to do something," Emily replied. "I get the feeling that she's not going to really let me have a choice in the matter, no matter if I'd be willing to in the first place."

Nick nodded, looking lost in thought. "Yeah, she didn't seem to happy with me most of the time when I'm pretty sure she had me as her slave," he commented.

"So, what'd they have you doing?" Emily asked, curious. She could imagine Nick trying hard to being a gladiator or something that would let him show just how 'great' he was.

Nick however looked more annoyed than anything. "Hey, I avoided telling you for a reason," Nick said, as if he'd already explained this, when he'd only dodged Emily's inquiries up to this point.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to know," Emily protested. "Though, if you really don't want to talk about it, I can't force you to."

"Damn straight," Nick declared as if that was supposed to impress her.

"Well, if you're not willing to tell me that, at least let me know if you saw anyone else while you were doing whatever you don't want to say," Emily said, hoping to at least get something out of him.

Nick started to shake his head 'no' but stopped after a second, clearly having something come to his mind. "Actually, I think I might have seen Lily, but I couldn't really be sure," he replied, his voice sounding like he was lost in his thoughts.

"Okay, what was she doing when you think you saw her?" Emily asked, wondering if she really wanted to know this.

"She wasn't actually doing anything specific herself," Nick said, clearly hesitating to say what he remembered. "Just that she was being dragged down the hall and her entire back was a bloody mess."

Emily winced despite herself. "Why would they do that?" she blurted, just imagining the scene making her freak out a little.

Nick shrugged. "Not a clue. All I could say is that no one around her seemed concerned at helping her," he said, his voice unusually stiff.

Emily shuddered. "Did they beat you while they had you… like that?" she asked, feeling like she had to ask, even though she really didn't want to know. She also didn't even want to use the word 'slave' herself.

Nick shook her head. "No, though I can't say how close I might have come a few times. I'm not sure why, but it was almost like they treated men gentler than they did the women," he said.

"So you're saying you didn't bother trying to learn the language they were speaking?" Emily asked, wanting to change the subject because she was getting a little sick to her stomach at what she was hearing Nick say.

"Why should I?" Nick asked defensively. "It's not like they'd have let me go if I did."

Emily shook her head sadly. That was just like Nick. He didn't care to try and think about how it could have at least helped him know what was going on, which would also help him figure out a way to get out of here. If that was possible in the first place.

"Don't look at me like that," Nick complained. "From what you told me, it didn't sound like you were living high on the hog yourself."

"Maybe, but at least I can say that I know what's going on around here," Emily retorted. "I even know of a way to get the duchess here to help us get everyone back."

"Really?" Nick drawled, clearly not believing what Emily was saying. "You think she's going to let us go just like that?"

Emily smiled. "You wouldn't know because you only think with that thing between your legs. If you didn't, you might realize that the women in this world are the ones that are the ones in power."

She wasn't completely sure about that point, but she doubted that Nick would realize that. Especially since he always seemed to underestimate what women were actually capable of. Even when it came to Shirley.

"Whatever," Nick said, dismissively.

"If that's how you feel, how about I let the duchess keep you and have her let me bring Eddra, Vaelis, and Kaelys with me back to Earth, if they're willing to join me, while you can stay here and maybe scrub the floors," she said, getting fed up with his dismissive attitude towards not just what she would say, but even her assertions about the way things were in this world.

"Go right ahead," Nick said. "All I'll need to do is show just how strong I am and they'll be looking to me to show them the right way."

Emily couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Yeah, to do that you'll first need to get them to understand you. So, if you don't learn their language, how do you expect that they'll understand that you're really as impressive as you like to think you are?"

"You can mock me now, but you'll be surprised at how easily things will be for me to change them, even if they can't understand what I have to say," Nick replied, sounding even smugger than he had since the duchess had brought him to her.

"If that's how you feel, would you be willing to try an experiment with me?" Emily asked, starting to feel a little malicious towards Nick.

"Sure, whatever you want," Nick replied haughtily.

"Alright, so how about I take Eddra, Vaelis, and Kaelys out of the bedroom and you take off the clothing I was able to get you back then toss it out of that room, then I'll have the duchess send you a servant's uniform, appropriate for your gender in this world, and then you can see what you think of effect you'll be able to have in this world with that, okay?" Emily asked, confident that Nick hadn't paid any attention to things like that since he'd been here.

Otherwise he'd have had to have started thinking about things like that before she'd even seen him after she'd escaped being captured on this world, and as far as she was aware, thinking about things like that definitely wasn't his strong suit. Not to mention how he felt about dresses. So, since he wouldn't have the clothing he was currently wearing, and how he didn't like to go around naked under any circumstance, he'd be stuck wearing the dress that Emily knew was the uniform for the male servants. Which he would definitely not be happy about.

"Fine," Nick said absently. "Whatever it takes to get you out of my hair about that shit."

Emily had an urge to punch him in the face, mostly from his attitude, but she held herself back. She wasn't interested in creating another problem to deal with. She was sure that he'd be apoplectic soon enough when he learned what the uniform he'd be expected to wear would be.

"I'll first send someone to go get the uniform, alright?" Emily asked, not caring to hide her displeasure. If she did, she was sure that he'd start to get suspicious of her. Which she didn't want to happen. If he did, then he might refuse to send out the clothing he was wearing when he went into the bedroom of the suite.

"Fine, whatever," Nick said absently as he bit into another apple, or at least what Emily assumed was an apple. She hadn't seen an apple that was red mixed with purple before, even though the inside looked exactly like an apple otherwise.

Emily pushed that out of her mind and made her way over to the door to the suite. Since she'd left the suite only to run into the duchess and almost got into a fight with her guards, the duchess had a servant stationed outside the suite so Emily could always put out a request for whatever when she felt like it.

She passed along the request she wanted to the servant, making sure to keep her voice as low as possible, just incase something might be said that would alert Nick to her plan. She wasn't sure what he'd be able to do about it, but she wasn't going to discount everything that was possible. There were too many things that could go wrong with it, so she merely wanted to ensure as little could go wrong with it in the first place.

When she was done, she then walked over to the room where her friends from this world kept themselves. Eddra had worried that the children she was looking after, especially her son, would get in trouble or have something happen to them. Emily seriously doubted anything would happen to them, but she hadn't been able to convince Eddra of that.

"Eddra?" Emily asked as she entered the bedroom. She hoped that she'd at least be able to coax her and the two kids out of the room so she could use it for her plan, but she wouldn't be surprised if Eddra refused. Although, she wasn't sure what was going through the woman's mind, so she couldn't be completely sure.

"What is it?" Eddra asked, looking away from the window. "Has the duchess come again?"

Emily shook her head, trying to get her mind to work again in the language of this world. "No, I was just wondering if you and the kids could leave this room for a few minutes," Emily said, feeling like she was making a huge request when she didn't se why that would be the case. "I'm having difficulties with my friend, so I asked him to change into the uniform of the servants here to see if that might help him understand something and he agreed, but we would need him to change in here."

Eddra nodded. "I understand," she said. "It's never easy for men to change in front of others, especially women."

Emily felt shocked at that statement, even though she knew it was a common sentiment on this world. The idea of Nick being 'shy' about being naked around women was not a concept she'd ever even thought of. If anything, he'd start to strip the moment he thought he thought that he was making headway on getting a girl into bed. Whether he was right or wrong on the matter.

"Uh, yeah," Emily replied, a little hesitantly. "That's the reason." Emily looked back the way she came before absently adding another, "Yeah."

Fortunately, Eddra didn't seem to notice Emily's reaction, so she merely got the two children to follow her into one of the other rooms. The whole time, Emily felt like she was watching a movie play out in front of her, her mind not comprehending what exactly was going on in front of her.

Though, as soon as they left the room, Emily went to push Nick into there, if necessary, so she could continue on with the plan. A plan she was starting to have a bod feeling about.

Not in regards to if it would work or not, but rather what it said about what kind of person she was. Why she felt that way about this and not about using her magic to get girls to be willing to sleep with her, she couldn't say. Only that she felt like this could potentially be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Still, she pushed those feelings aside as Nick entered the bedroom. She'd already started the ball in motion, so there wasn't any going back now. Besides, she was sure that if she tried to back out of it at this point, Nick would probably insist on going forward with it anyway.

After a few minutes, Emily called out to Nick in English, "Did you get your clothes off?"

"Yeah, but I'm still waiting for the uniform you mentioned," Nick called back through the door.

"Doesn't matter," Emily called back. "You agreed to toss your clothing out before I would pass you the uniform."

"You can't possibly have gotten it here yet," Nick complained. "Once it gets here, I'll toss my clothing out, okay?"

Emily wasn't sure he wouldn't try to alter their agreement when it did arrive, but she didn't feel like pressing the matter. She could always try to remark about him being 'shy,' but didn't think it would go over very well. If anything, he might become even more difficult to work with, whether or not he still went along with their agreement.

"Fine," she relented. "But remember, I won't even let you see the uniform until your clothing is tossed out here where I can see it, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Nick replied irritably.

Emily felt like she should respond to that bit, but kept herself in check. While she wanted to respond, she at least realized that doing so would only start up a back and forth between the two of them, and it probably would get ugly really quick. Which also could endanger her plan.

"He's not like other men, is he?" Eddra asked, startling Emily.

"No, he's definitely not like most of the men I know," Emily said, trying to calm her heart down, hoping that her sudden transition back to the local language wouldn't make her unintelligible.

"Are you close friends?" Eddra asked, her eyes gleaming with interest. "You certainly act pretty close."

"Close? Him?!" Emily asked with more than a sense of disbelief. "Hardly. He's just the only person that I can talk to about the world I came from."

"Mmm-hmm," Eddra replied, her smirk telling Emily she didn't believe Emily's protest. "You might not realize it yourself, but you certainly are rather a good match."

Emily felt her eyes widen in shock. Was that what Eddra thought about Emily and Nick?

"Hold on, I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding," Emily said, holding up her hands as if to hold the topic back. "I'm not interested in him that way. He's a friend, but not a close friend. I already have someone else that I'm interested in and I won't let anyone come inbetween us."

Emily wasn't sure if this world had anything against same gender couples, so she though it might be best to not mention that. At least not right now.

"Really?" Eddra asked, looking towards the bedroom door. "You mean no one's claimed him?"

Emily felt like she had somehow stumbled into an alternate reality. Eddra seemed to think that Nick was someone who would essentially be a step-father to her son, and maybe to her son's friend who just happened to be a girl.

Although, Emily paused in her assessment when she found herself clarifying the fact that Vaelis had a friend who was a girl. The problem she felt with her feeling the need for the clarification, even if it was only in her own mind, was the fact that Vaelis was merely three and Kaelys was five.

Not only were they too young for anything like that, but they likely were even too young to care about differences between girls and boys.

"Are you listening?" Eddra asked, startling Emily out of her thoughts.

"Sorry," Emily apologized. "Just got lost in thought about something."

"Well, then answer my question," Eddra demanded. "Has he been claimed?"

"Um," Emily hesitated, not sure how she should respond to this question. Even if she knew the answer, would it be her place to announce that to others? "Well, uh, you see…" Emily felt like no matter what she said she was screwed. So, she decided to take the 'wimp out' way and direct Eddra to Nick.

"You're going to have to ask him," she said, hoping Eddra wouldn't press the matter. "His life isn't one that I know much about. He might have someone who he's interested in and maybe is even going out with, but I couldn't really say. So, you'd have to ask him."

Eddra looked thoughtful as she seemed to consider what Emily had just said. Though, Emily had a feeling that this might not go as well as she would like. Or maybe even take a turn that Nick would protest.

"Alright," Eddra said, after a minute. "I'll ask him when he comes out."

Emily wished she had a camera to record that. If nothing else, she was certain that Shirley, Cassie, and Lily would love to see what happens, although Emily had a feeling that Nick certainly wouldn't like having what was going to happen immortalized.