InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Better Things than You ❯ Escape ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does.

 

A/N: For those of you still reading this, this chapter will more than likely be a disappointment, but stick with it. From my outline, the next one should be better. This chapter is really for laying ground work, setting up the plot for the rest of the story. It's a boring necessity. Sorry.

For those of you who like the pleasant, Victorian-ish drama going on here, this chapter will temporarily be the end of it. I feel like a lot of the stuff I write reaches a point where it spontaneously combusts, eats itself, then changes directions, and this fanfic is no exception. However this time the grand plot twist was actually planned. I've also ran the idea by Beatrix B. who approved it, so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

 

Chapter 3

 

Kagome woke in the night. She thought she had heard something, but the house was quite and cold. Wrapping up, she found herself drawn to the window. Stepping into the moonbeams that spilled from the glass panes, Kagome looked out into the small scrap of grass functioning as the house's front lawn. What she saw down there caused her to jump back into the shadows.

 

It was Inuyasha.

 

It was Inuyasha, looking more than a little sad. He was staring up at her window with the most defeated look on his face she had ever seen, his ears crushed to his head. What was he doing there? Kagome tried to get her heartbeat under control, but it was of no use to remain clam at a time like this. She was about to step back into the moonlight so that he might see her, but before she could move he had turned and walked away.

 

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Kagome had to drag herself out of bed the next morning. She felt ill and lonely and extremely confused.

 

But appearances had to be maintained, as her mother and Miroku continuously hinted to her. They meant well, they were trying to save her from a life of spinsterhood, but it was pointless.

 

Her maid finally came in and helped Kagome dress, lacing up her stays and forcing her into a dress her mother had chosen for the day. Evidently there was to be a guest at brunch that morning, someone to do some business with Miroku and her father.

 

Kagome slumped down the stairs, feeling too tired to think—much less be sociable. When she had not been thinking of Inuyasha she had been having nightmares about him: the two them in a vast ball room alone, his back to her as he walked away. In her dream, Kagome had tried to call out to him, tried to catch up to him so she could look on his face, but he had only quickened his pace until he finally vanished into the shadows, leaving her completely by herself.

 

Outside the breakfast room door, Kagome paused at the sound of a male voice from within.

 

It begins already…Business with Miroku? I'm sure.

 

Kagome's head drooped along with her shoulders. She had been set with Inuyasha—not only had she had a good catch, but she had loved the fruits of her labors.

 

She had thought her betrothed loved her too.

 

Perhaps he had not had it all…perhaps she had been wrong.

 

Screwing up her courage, Kagome stepped into the brightly lit breakfast room. There sat her mother, her half brother, and father. Those three belonged there. The fourth figure perched across from her brother did not belong with her family.

 

She immediately recognized him from the night before. It was Lord Greenswitch.

 

“Ah, finally awake, I see!” Her father beamed. Along with the other men he rose from the table. Mr. Higurashi sauntered around the edge from his seat at the head and clasped his daughter in his arms. After a moment, he stepped back and displayed her to Lord Greenswitch, his arm supporting her shoulders as he guided her to her place next to the noble. “My daughter Kagome, m'lord,” he smiled and Kagome curtsied deeply. When she straightened she found Lord Greenswitch's eye on hers.

 

Not on her so much as delving into her soul, in a way that made her feel he was getting a good look at her undergarments. Kagome looked down quickly to make sure she had remembered to put on her dress, and was more than a little relieved when she found she the pale fabric of her frock instead of the white of her lace corset.

 

Blushing, Kagome took her seat, and the men resumed their conversation.

 

“As I was saying, Mr. Higurashi, it is a risky investment, but if we are successful you can not even imagine the returns you will receive,” Lord Greenswitch smiled, his blue eyes flashing as he spoke.

 

As he looked at her father, Kagome took a chance to examine their guest's profile. His deep black hair was long and pulled behind his head in a leather clasp. He wore what could only be an expensive morning jacket of an unusual blue hue, which only worked to accentuate his blue-blue eyes.

 

“Well, Kouga, I'm not sure.” Mr. Higurashi grumbled as he leaned back in his chair.

 

“If you would be willing to invest father, I would not mind accompanying Lord Greenswitch.” Miroku offered. Kagome stared at her brother. She felt jealousy flare beneath the layers of lace and bindings. He could simply pick up leave, and she would still be…stuck.

 

“I could always use an extra man,” Kouga Greenswitch offered, nodding to Miroku in a sign of thanks.

 

Mr. Higurashi leaned even further back. His chair made a groan. “I'm still not sure, m'lord.”

 

“If we find nothing, and your son gives an unsatisfactory report of how I run my expedition, Mr. Higurashi I will offer you a quarter back on your investment.”

 

The chair squealed in pain as Mr. Higurashi considered the preposition even more. “Fifty-five percent.”

 

Kouga scowled and shot a glance at Miroku to gage his friend's reaction. “I'm being generous, but thirty-five percent.”

 

The chair was screaming in pain under the gentle rocking of her father's weight as he considered Kouga's words and Kagome was sure the piece of furniture was going to collapse. “Even with that, I'll have to be dipping into my children's inheritance. Fifty percent is all I can offer.”

 

Kouga's lip twitched. “Forty percent, Mr. Higurashi. I don't think I can offer you much more if I come back empty handed. I might not even be able to repay that back for sometime…”

 

“Forty-five percent within three years of your return and my son tags along, and you have a deal my boy.” Mr. Higurashi's chair legs came crashing down to the floor with a heavy thud.

 

Kouga looked a little ill. “I'm not sure—”

 

Mr. Higurashi cut him off. “What's five percent of an investment between friends, m'lord?”

 

“Fine, you have a deal. I'll have all the papers written up so you can sign. And I'll have to add Miroku to my roster, but that won't be a problem…”

 

“Can I go too?” Kagome's quite voice cut though the lull in the conversation.

 

“Kagome!” Her mother cooed with an embarrassed laugh.

 

“You fancy yourself an adventurer, Miss Kagome?” Kouga asked, smirking. He looked at her in the same way most men looked at her, as though she were a child. She couldn't help but remember Inuyasha was rarely so condescending.

 

“I need to get out of London.”

 

As soon as she spoke the words, Kagome knew she should not have been so abrupt. Lord Greenswitch looked taken aback at her words. That coupled with a gasp from her mother and the sound of her father clearing his throat made her cheeks burn, and Kagome lowered her head.

 

“My daughter has a fast tongue, as you can see, Lord Greenswitch,” Mr. Higurashi tried to cover for her slip up. “I doubt she even knows what she says half the time, but as an explorer you must excuse the anxiousness of youth to see the world.”

 

Kouga swallowed, glancing at Kagome then back at her father. “I understand what you mean, but surely you can not be saying that a woman would wish for a place outside the protective sphere of her better male relatives?”

 

Mr. Higurashi took in his dejected looking daughter and the warning glare his wife had shot him before going back to her morning tea. There was no safe answer.

 

“Of course not, Lord Kouga,” he said as friendly as possible, knowing he had just nailed another plug into the casket of his wife's good opinion. “But what person can resist the temptations for adventure in a far off land?”

 

Kouga gave a sideways glance to the now-quiet woman beside him. He shuddered at what he was about to say. “You wish your daughter to accompany me too, along with your son?” If Higurashi answered in the affirmative, there was little he could do but accept the woman aboard his ship. He needed the fat man's money far too much to refuse him on such a matter.

 

Again, Mr. Higurashi looked to Mrs. Higurashi. She gave the slightest of shakes to her head. “No, I'm afraid, I can not go that far. Kagome is too young, and as yet unmarried.” Mr. Higurashi did not need his wife's help in knowing when to hint at the important things…

 

At the other end of the table, Mrs. Higurashi silently moaned at her husband's lack of tact. They were trying find Kagome a husband, not throw her at any man who happened by their breakfast table.

 

Kouga visibly relaxed. The Higurashi family was almost desperate enough to send their daughter along with him in the hopes that the two of them would become closer, but not completely without hope it seemed. Not that he would mind being closer to Kagome Higurashi, a famed beauty in her own right, but he didn't want something Inuyasha Takahashi had used.

 

A short while later, Kouga was able to break away from the family, again promising to bring by papers for the arrangement.

 

The moment the front door swung shut, the quiet tension that had been building in the breakfast room burst.

 

Mr. Higurashi let out a deep, guttural sigh, looking to what his wife would do. Mrs. Higurashi looked displeased and set her dainty tea cup down with a clang. Miroku looked from his father to his step mother and finally to his half sister.

 

It was Mrs. Higurashi who spoke first. “I know Kagome this is not an easy burden to bear, nor do I believe you should have to bear it. But what are you thinking? Asking to go away with Lord Greenswitch like that? He knows as well as we do you need to “get out of London”, but you did not have to say so.” Kagome could tell her mother was more disappointed in her behavior than angry.

 

“I'm sorry mama. I just—I,” Kagome stifled a sniffle. “I don't want to stay here any more. After last night, everyone staring at me, the whispers, and then when I had to see them together—I can't stay in London.”

 

“Kagome, if you want a husband—”

 

“I doubt I'll find him here, mama. London looks at me like used goods.” Both Mr. Higurashi and Miroku shifted unpleasantly in their seats, but Kagome's mother held firm.

 

“Don't give up hope yet, Kagome. Something can be done.” She leaned across the table and squeezed her daughter's hand, smiling her smile of encouragement. Kagome tried to smile back, but it was little more than a twitching of her lips.

 

She would go along with her mother's plans for now, but she knew she had to leave London at all costs. There was no way around it, and a plan was already forming in her mind.

 

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Some indiscernible time later…

 

Mrs. Higurashi sighed a little sadly. The past four months had gone by so quickly for one child while at the same time they trudged by painfully for the other. Miroku had been so buried in the plans for his part in Lord Greenswitch's expedition he had not had time to think of anything else. He had been able to push passed his anger at Lord Inuyasha's betrayal, and he seemed much happier. When they had said their goodbyes to him as he began his journey with Lord Kouga that morning he had seemed without a care in the world.

 

Mrs. Higurashi wished the same for her stepson could have been true for her daughter. Kagome had slunk around the house, terrified to go to the parties, large dinners, and social events that would be required for her to find a husband. At first, Mrs. Higurashi had been firm, practically dragging her daughter along with her. But after no short while she had found herself as against leaving the safety of their own home as Kagome. The girls Kagome's age, ones her daughter had once claimed as friends, had been outwardly hostile. Young men refused to dance with her at balls, sit by her at dinners and discussions. She was utterly and completely shunned.

 

Mrs. Higurashi felt as though she was trying to sell a leper in a marriage market, and she blamed only one person. Inuyasha Takahashi.

 

His actions had not only caused the total social rejection of her daughter, but he was the source of Kagome's depression. Yes, she could call it depression. And the dark mood surrounding the young girl was only getting worse.

 

There was a loud crash somewhere up stairs, breaking Mrs. Higurashi's thoughts. Standing, she made her way up to the second floor. Everything was perfectly still, perfectly in place. Kagome had gone to bed early after saying her goodbyes to her half brother, her husband was out at a friend's, the servants were in their quarters. But what had made the noise?

 

Softy opening the door to Kagome's room, the first thing Mrs. Higurashi noticed was the fact the room was freezing. But as she stepped inside, she saw all the windows were closed…

 

Her eyes fell on the large shards of glass lying on the floor. Lifting her gaze, she found the window nearest Kagome's bed was broken. Mrs. Higurashi hurried to the sleeping lump under the covers. A lump that did not move or in the end turn out to be human. Under her daughter's bed spread, she only found some carefully arranged pillows.

 

Mrs. Higurashi rushed back to the window, looking out into the night. There was nothing out on the lawn such as the form of a young woman, and for that Mrs. Higurashi sighed in relief. But as she looked on further, she could see the short drop it would be to the porch roof just below the window. Only a little way down really—a drop even someone as short as Kagome could make with ease. From the porch roof, a sturdy tree grew on either side. One had had its branches removed and would be very difficult to climb in any case. But the one on the other side still boasted branches that lead directly to the ground. Her fearful mother's mind could not help drawing farfetched ideas…Kagome would not have done something so rash as to run away, would she?

 

Had Kagome left them?

 

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Far away from the safety of the Higurashi house, in the belly of a very large ship rocking on the flimsy surface of the ocean, huddled a small figure of ambiguous gender. Cold and afraid, it was hidden deep in the cargo hold with the horses. Occasionally a little sob could be heard from it, followed soon by a resolute sniffle, after which it would raise its head in defiance to the fear it was feeling.

 

 

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A/N: See what I mean? Very boring chapter for you guys I'm sure. The next one really has to be better because it can't be any worse than this one. I still have a few things to lay down for the plot, but I promise the story is going to start moving on. Sango is going to show up, if not at the end of the next chapter, then in Chapter 5, and that should be fun.