"Fetch Eli and we'll start cleaning up." Erik stated.

Ilios nodded and took up her skirts, racing out the front door and searching for her brother.

He stood at the opposite bank and easel in front of him and paintbrush in hand.

The winds had tossed his pitch brown hair every way and it fell in wild strands across his forehead and eyes. 

"Eli!" Ilios called. "Eli you have to come in now."

He didn't seem to bother hearing her, he was too busy painting.

"Eli!" She shouted again.

This time his head sharply turned and he met her own exasperated look with a smile.

He packed up his things and made his way to her. 

"Couldn't move any quicker in your old age?" She teased. 

"Stop it Ilios," He muttered with a laugh, "I'm in no mood."

"Why?" Ilios prided, "What's wrong with you now?"

He gave a shrew little frown and smirked, looking out across the waters and walking quicker. 

"Oh nothing," He sighed, "Just I fear someone has come to take my dear sister away from me at last." 

Ilios eyes lit up at the sight of a letter in Elis' hands. She darted for it but he held it high above her head. 

"You'll have to fight me for it," He grinned. 

"Eli!" She shouted in anger, "Give it!"

Ilios easily knocked the easel from his arms but getting at him was a rather harder, diffrent story. He was broad in the shoulders and any attempt of hers to uppercut and punch his face ended with her being sent backward on her toes in a dizzy horror.

When he had finally had his fun, he smiled softly and handed her the letter. 

Her eyes scanned it frantically, "Oh David," She whispered putting a hand to her mouth. "Eli you knew? You knew all along?"

Eli spoke deftly, "His financial prospect leave something to be desired. But-"

"But?" Ilios asked nervously, turning her eyes upward.

"If you are both willing to wait, I see nothing that should keep you apart." Eli smiled.

Ilios looked down in a melancholy manner and abruptly stopped walking. 

"This is what you wanted?" Eli asked with concern. 

He watched with apparition as his sister nodded gravely and gave a small uncertain smile, "Yes Eli. I thank you for arranging it." 

They began to walk again and Eli felt unsettled guilt of doubt within him. 

"And Peter?"

"Peter," Ilios said in a mad rush, "Has never cared one farthing for me." 

Eli raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. 

"It's happened rather fast hasn't it?" Ilios laughed. 

"If the coming years sway your affections you can have no worries. David cares to much for you to see you suffer."

"He truly loves me then?"

"Yes," Eli chuckled opening the door, "And do you love him?"

"I might," Ilios laughed, "It's quite smaller a feeling that I was expecting. I think I might learn to..."

"It often is," Eli smiled fondly, kissing his sister's forehead. 

"Wait for me!!" A little voice called from across the bay. "Wait!"

"It's just Winnie," Ilios groaned, "Little brat is always on time."

"Is that a bad thing?" Eli laughed. 

"It is when it makes you, who are perpetually late for anything, even more, tardy by comparison. Come on, Father will be needing your help setting the plaster." 

Winnie angrily dragged her small boat of groceries behind her.  If Mary was anything like her sister, she was sure not to be fond of her at all. 

-----------

"Papa?" Mary asked slowly.

"Yes?" Gustave laughed taking a right turn. He quickly shook his head and stumbled the other way, "Goodness no. That's a pit I believe...or was it?" 

"Papa, why are we here?" Mary asked in a small voice filled with fear. 

"Because our family lives down here darling." 

"It frightens me," Mary murmured looking about the dimly lit halls. "I don't like it."

Gustave stopped and crouched down beside his daughter with a reaffirming smile, "Come now I suppose your right. We've known too much of the dark in our lives, haven't we? Let's have a little illumination." 

Mary watched in nervous excitement as her Father felt about the wall. 

"Yes..." He murmured, "No. Yes. No this one I'm sure." 

Mary stared with wide eyes, had her Father gone mad? 

"Eureka!" Gustave shouted pressing a brick in and watching as all the candles exploded with light. 

The one nearest them sparked like a firecracker and making a great noise. 

Mary screamed just as all the lights extinguished into pitch black darkness. 

"Darn," Gustave spat shaking his head. "Mary darling are you allright?" 

"I want to go back," Mary said trembling and sinking to her knees where she was, "I can't see you. I want to go back." 

Gustave felt along the wall until he sensed the small girl beside him. 

"Don't worry," He assured her, "My father will find us." 

Mary looked up to the dark shadow of her Father, "I never thought of you having a Father before." 

Gustave gave a funny glance at her and nodded, "Yes, well, he's a good sort of man, but-"

"Why don't we come here? Like the other children visit their grandparents on spring break every year?" 

Gustave stifled and wrung his hands, "Because-Well sometimes, places, have memories that we can not share. Good ones turned sour in the rains of loss." 

Mary's eyes widened, "Is that what drips from the ceiling?" 

Gustave nodded with a sad melancholy smile. "Yes. You see, there used to be a grand princess who walked these halls." 

"Mother?" Mary asked hesitantly. 

She knew she wasn't to speak of her Mother but she couldn't help it. 

Gustave gave an inward groan of pain and thought about snapping at her. but the girl's eyes looked so much like his wives that he hadn't the heart. 

"No," He started watching her eyes grow dim in disappointment. "But a girl just exactly like her perhaps."

Mary's small smile returned. 

"Papa?" 

"Yes?" 

As her eyes began to adjust she thought she saw a man standing in the end of the hall, but she wouldn't have her Father calling her foolish, never that, so she held her tongue. 

"Nancy says all girls are princesses." 

Gustave nodded and gave a small chuckle, "Nancy is a very smart woman." 

Mary drew closer, taking her fathers arm, "Then it's true?" 

Gustave patted her arm gently, "You can be anything you want to be, so long as you believe." 

Mary frowned and pulled her knees in closer to her, away from the shadows, away from the dark, "And what do you believe Father?" 

Gustave sensing her fear picked her up and set her on his lap. petting her hair gently. 

"I believe, that like your Mother before you. You are and always will be, my little princess." 

"Forever and always?" 

Gustave nodded, his eyes looking about the dark and praying his Father found them. 

"Forever and always."