LAMIAE

CHAPTER TWELVE: DAILY ROUTINES

On Thursday morning, Casper didn't show up for breakfast, even though Genevieve had prepared a lot of food. Dagmara thought that her grandmother must have got up before dawn, since she was very lively at that hour.

"Listen, Grandma," said Dagmara, forming a monologue in her head. "I guess since I live here, you should give me some chores," she murmured, examining the neatly arranged napkin by the plate of toast and cheese. She felt a bit awkward with the fact that Genevieve had already prepared breakfast for her several times in a row, and she also made lunch and dinner. In her house, regular meals were rare, let alone a set table, just like in a restaurant.

"First of all, you were supposed to call me auntie," she replied, showing her teeth as straight as a ruler and white as snow. "Secondly, what would you like to do?"

The first part of the sentence was a barely perceptible admonition in Genevieve's voice, but the girl just couldn't bring herself to call the woman anything other than grandma. The question was much more difficult because she had to come up with a sensible answer to it. What could she oblige herself to do? Probably the same as at home.

"Maybe washing dishes, daily cleaning of my room and general cleaning of the whole house once a week. Plus cooking on Sundays, since I'll be mostly at school during the week..." she wondered, but her grandmother waved her hand dismissively.

"Okay."

"That's it?" she asked, seriously intrigued. Her mom would probably give her a lot more responsibilities by taking up the offer.

"Do you wish to do something more?" the woman was surprised too, but for a different reason. "We don't have any animals here, except for Tie, so you don't have to take care of them. Casper can keep the room tidy by himself, and as you can see, we haven't gotten filthy so far," she thought that Genevieve was right. There was not a trace of dust in the entire mansion, not a single thing that was out of place.

"You don't have a dog here?"

"No, it would be superfluous" the woman shrugged.

Well, yes, especially since we live in the forest, the girl thought with disbelief, subconsciously imagining how many burglaries or at least attempted burglary must have happened here during the year. She shuddered at the thought, looking surreptitiously around for the alarm.

"How far is it from here to Kielce?" she asked, when she was sure that the house "didn't know" the concept of anti-burglary security. "And where exactly are we?"

"But we're in Kielce," Genevieve smiled understandingly, remembering that they hadn't talked about the location of the house before. "We live parallel to Kusocińskiego Street. Opposite us, on the other side of the street, is the shooting range of the Provincial Police Headquarters. I'm sure you saw the fence when you were going with Casper."

She was about to nod when she realized she hadn't seen iy. In fact, she saw nothing but this house and her school. She was always either busy talking or too distracted. She didn't even have time to visit the house, even though she had promised herself to look into all the rooms. Meanwhile, the only places she usually visited were: the bathroom, her room, the kitchen and the dining room attached to the kitchen. She frowned when it occurred to her that every time she decided to inspect the house, something else would absorbed her attention until she forgot what she had intended to do in the first place - on the first day it was Arleta, and on Sunday - Tie, who behaved rather strangely, so much so that she had to let him outside. Right after that, Grandma called her out for lunch.

"Is Tie a bit of a Persian cat?" she changed the subject, intrigued by the desire to learn more about Genevieve's pet. A woman should know such things, because even if the cat was just a stray, after all, the vet must have examined it.

"It's an alley cat," she cut short, not caring about her granddaughter's face, which expressed disagreement with her words.

After Dagmara ate breakfast, she vowed that she would see the mansion after school today, even if it was all in flames. She went outside the house, almost bumping into Casper, who looked like he was waiting for her.

"Are you in such a hurry to get to class?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, then laughing. According to Dagmara, it was rather a nervous giggle, which was supposed to relieve the tension caused by their yesterday's exchange of words.

"Not necessarily, but I don't want to be late again, because Arleta is going to wait for me," after a few minutes she was already sitting in the car, but Casper, who was supposed to follow her, somehow suddenly disappeared. Instead of him, she heard meowing outside, so having opened the door, she was not surprised when the black cat jumped into her lap, after which he unceremoniously moved to the back seat, curling up there. Dagmara decided not to bother with the cat, taking care of the bag. She had to make sure she had her schedule, an old French notebook, four blank notebooks, and something to write with.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Casper appear from behind the hedge, hurriedly getting into the Mercedes.

"I'm here," she heard his cheerful voice.

"Did you eat breakfast so quickly?" she asked curiously, zipping her purse. He looked at her confused for a moment, then looked away.

"I ate one sandwich, that's enough for me."

He set off as usual with a squeal of tires.

"What time do you finish today?" he asked, but she shrugged.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Probably a little after twelve, but we'll see."

"Oh," he didn't ask for anything more, so she thought that probably when they get to the school, he will ask Arleta the same thing to be sure.

"You don't have to give me a ride every day, I'm sure you have other things to do," she continued, staring out at the forest through the window. "If you'd just show me where the nearest bus stop is, I could..."

"No," he interrupted her sharply. She glanced at his expression just as they passed a fence on their left that must have been the same one her grandmother had mentioned. The shooting range building was nowhere to be seen, so it was no wonder she hadn't noticed the usual fence.

"Why?" she gripped her purse tighter as he gasped. Only now did she notice that she hadn't fastened her seatbelt, so she quickly set about correcting the mistake.

"Because it's too early and you might get lost. Because the stop is far away and we live in the forest," all his answers sounded absurd to her.

"Don't you think that Warsaw is a bit bigger? Don't you think it's easier to get lost there and there are more criminals than in Kielce? If I made it in the capital, what can happen to me here?" She couldn't help the bitterness in her voice. "I ruin destroy your daily routine," yes, she blamed herself for making him subordinate all his activities to her.

"You're not ruining anything," he replied, as if he was surprised she'd even thought of it. He sighed. "You've heard of Victoria, I don't want anything to happen to you."

She looked at him surprised.