"I cleaned all the part of the window I could reach, Marie, what do I do now?" little Bella asked, as she climbed over the edge of the loft.
"Most importantly, don't fall," Marie teased, before she turned back to observe the contents of the chest.
There were indeed curtains contained inside, thick dark green woollen curtains which would work wonders for keeping the cold out. Shaking each one out one by one, Bella giggled as she chased disturbed mothballs around the loft and caught them up to return to the chest. Gathering up the curtains Marie threw them out of the loft, aiming for the armchair, before she and Bella climbed down the ladder again. Bella managed the ladder without any trouble and Marie breathed a sigh of relief; the loft was small, she couldn't see fitting two beds up there, so she assumed Logan was intending to sleep Bella up there alone. There was nowhere else for another bed, and while Logan had said last nights sleeping situation wouldn't be permanent, she couldn't see him forgoing his own bed to sleep in the tiny loft.
The girls worked side-by-side the rest of the morning, hanging curtains, washing windows, sweeping floors. They dusted the loft, and went through the rest of the items in the chest, mostly other housewares, blankets and quilts. Rolled up in the bottom, wrapped in what appeared to be a length of silk, was a dark green woollen coat. It was obviously cut for a woman, it had long sleeves, a large hood, and the 'skirt' of the coat was full and went down to the floor. It looked to Marie like something a woman would have worn back in the eighteen-hundreds, over a full or bustled dress.
"It's so pretty, it should be yours!" Bella declared, as she pushed Marie to try it on.
"I don't think that's a good idea, this is special, it might be something sentimental of Logan's," Marie explained – then had to explain what the word ‘sentimental' meant - before rolling the coat back up carefully and wrapping it again in the silk. She would take it downstairs though and put it in Logan's room, then Bella could use the chest for any clothes Logan bought for her.
There was a bed frame in the loft but it had no mattress on it, so instead Marie and Bella made a 'bed', out of the quilts and blankets from the chest, on the floor by the chimney. The chimney was nice and cosily warm, and warmed the little loft space nicely. Bella immediately asked Marie if she thought Logan would let her have the loft as her room - it seemed like she loved it. Once they had hung the smallest curtain over the loft window, they retreated back to the ground floor to tackle the last room; after collecting more firewood and topping the cosy crackling fire up again.
"Bella," Marie said softly, catching the little girls attention once they were back inside. She had been debating about how to broach a certain subject, in a way that didn't upset Bella, or make her overly cautious or afraid, all morning. Bella had finally given her an opening, and a way to bring it up. "Sweetheart, you can't wander off like that," Marie scolded gently, watching as Bella hung her head a little.
"I just wanted to see the birdie," Bella replied, pouting adorably.
"I know sweetie but you can't go off on your own like that, you don't know what might be in the snow, the snow might be covering up a hole that you might fall into, or a bear trap, there might be wild animals that might grab you, or bad people, or you could wander too far and get lost," Marie pointed out. "If you want to look at something like that again, you tell me and I'll come with you, okay? It's very, very important that you always stay where I can see you, alright?" Marie stated.
"Uh-huh, okay, and Logan too, right?" Bella responded, a bright smile lighting her face.
"... It's very important you always stay where *I* can see you, even if you're with Logan I should always be able to see you," Marie replied, not wanting to say anything the might cause the girl to be scared of the man.
"Why can't Logan watch me too?" Bella asked, confusion on her face.
"Well, Logan... I don't think Logan has much experience with little kids, he might not realise some things that might hurt you," Marie offered tentatively.
"I'm not a little kid, I'm a big girl!" Bella replied with a scowl.
Marie giggled. "Yes of course you are, and you're a big girl who stays where I can see her, okay?" she pressed again.
"Okay," Bella replied, with an exasperated sigh and a roll of her pretty blue eyes.
"Promise?" Marie asked, raising a brow sceptically.
"Promise!" Bella answered with a giggle.
"Good, for now, we’re staying here in this kitchen and trying to figure out what all these things do, it looks like we've got all the ingredients for making bread, except an oven, but I think that's what that box is in the side of the fireplace..." Marie began to murmur, mostly to herself, as she pulled things out of cupboards and dusted them off.
--
"Shit, maybe I should have brought Marie," Logan muttered to himself, glancing between the list he held in his hand, and the shelf in front of him. Who the hell would have ever known there were so many different kinds of tampons! Well, Marie probably, if that was the case she could have given him a little more direction than just writing down 'tampons'.
"Uh, can I help you sir?" a nervous female voice almost squeaked, from about halfway down the aisle.
"I hope so," Logan replied, grinning at the young shop assistant, no need to traumatize the girl, she should know this too, right? "My girl asked me to grab her some tampons, she wasn't very specific though, anything special about these or does anything go?" he asked the girl, who suddenly wasn't so nervous anymore. In fact, she looked like she was trying not to laugh at him, and simultaneously drooling over him.
It took a few minutes for the girl to explain the different types of tampons, before Logan eventually selected a few that should cover all bases, and moved on to the next thing he needed. He almost did a double take after thanking the shop assistant and walking away, when he could have sworn he heard her sigh dreamily behind him. Hell, if he had known talking about tampons turned chicks on like that before he would have had even less trouble picking up women. He saw the same girl as he was waiting at the checkout, whispering with some of her friends, and giggling as they tried to watch him without being so obvious, making their actions even more obvious. With a shake of his head, he headed out with the last of his purchases.
He ended up having to pile the groceries on the front seat and foot well, thanks to the back of the camper being loaded up, but it wasn't too far back to his cabin from here.
He breathed an unconscious sigh of relief when he drove out of the trees and into the cabin clearing an hour later. Not only was the cabin still standing but smoke was still lazily curling out of the chimney, indicating the fire was being tended. Marie and Bella were still there. An odd feeling accompanied that thought, contentment definitely, a feeling of home, but also a tiny little inkling of guilt- that he was sure must be his conscience- nagging at him that he was, for all intents and purposes, holding them prisoner.
Unsurprisingly, his overwhelming response to that was for his conscience to go fuck itself. He had no intention of harming either girl, or forcing them - Marie specifically - to do anything... much... that she didn't want to do. He wasn't even going to force them to stay, if Marie really hated it here, or hated him - though he planned to do everything in his power to avoid that outcome - he would set her up somewhere safe, maybe take her to Xavier's. But those were, hopefully, worries for another day, or better yet, never.
First, he had to finish setting the two girls up in his home. He backed the camper up, as close to the front porch as he could get it, and then headed inside with the first load of groceries.
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