Hello all my dear fellows! Im so sorry I haven´t update in a long time, but I was busy with work and studies and all that stuff. Anyway here´s chap 22. I hope you like it.

I wanna thank to Portuguese Irish and Anwelfast fot the reviews and to Hobbit4lyfe for fav this story. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

GREEN EYES

It was already early morning when I heard the sound of a horse approaching. I recognized it immediately, it was Autumn. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard Ron's voice echoing in the silence of the forest.

"Laura you awake?"

I got up and left the tent limping. Ron had not come alone. Dirge and a young boy I had not seen before were with him

"Yes, I was waiting for you." I said approaching them.

"Miss Ainsworth, by God! You look terribly emaciated." Dirge said with a look of surprise and concern.

" Hello Dirge, how are you?" I said with a tone of reproach. "I thought that Ron had told you already how bad my health was.”

“Well, he told me.” He said wide-eyed. “But never thought you were that bad.”

"Well the important thing is that I ´m much better now and I owe it all to Ronald." I said looking at him. In the light of the fire I could see he was blushing.

"Now that you will come back to the village you´ll be able to get over everything girl" Dirge said smiling but his smile quickly faded. "Oh, sorry. I mean I know it will be very difficult to forget him. Julieth was terrible sad when she found out about the death of Adelbert ...”

"Yes. Yes I know." I said trying not to cry.

"Oh, I'm a fool. Forgive me little girl, I should not mention that matter. "

"Don´t worry Dirge." Ronald said in a soft voice. He approached me and I was surprised to feel his arm around my shoulders. "Laura will be fine, I'll make it so."

"I hope so my dear friend."

Then I noticed the boy. He looked about fifteen years old, was thin and pale. He had black eyes and straight dark hair that almost reached his shoulders. He looked at me curiously; when he realized that I was staring at him he smiled and greeted me with a hand movement.

"Oh yes. This is the young Jonathan Masbath." Dirge said pointing at him "He insisted on coming to help us."

"My family owes a lot to you Miss Ainsworth. You received us when we first came to Sleepy Hollow." Said the young man with a sweet voice.

I made an effort to remember him and then came to my mind when I met the Masbath family. I was 18 years and it was a hot summer afternoon. I remember it was Sunday because I could hear the church bells in the distance.

Flashback

"Miss, a man wants to talk to you."

"A man from the village?" I asked surprised.

"No, he is a peasant. Not from Sleepy Hollow." Answered the servant.

“And why he wants to talk to me?”

“If you wish I´ll threw him out.”

"No. Rather tell him I´ll go talk to him in a moment. "

"Yes Miss." Said the servant and with a nod, he left the room.

I stood up quickly and spied through the window. The servant left the house and headed down the road to the property boundary. There, under a tree was a family. The father, mother and three children, all boys, dressed in rags and carrying their few belongings on their backs. "Life is unfair." I thought.

I went outside the house and started walking slowly towards the tree.

"Hello." I said. 'Are you the peasant who wanted to talk? "

"Yes, Miss" The man said, squeezing his hat with his hands. "My name is William Masbath and this is my wife, Anabel Masbath."

"My name is Laura Ainsworth." I said doing a little bow. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Well, what do you want?" I asked.

"Madam, we have traveled for so long. We have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat." The man said, pleading. "I'm a farmer and I take very good care of animals, and my wife is very good cooking."

"I understand. You want to work here." I said. "I see no objection. You´re hired. "

At hearing this, the children smiled and gave little jumps of joy.

"We thank you very much Madam,"

"You must promise to work hard and honestly." I said. "And Anabel, I already have very good cookers in my service. Do you mind doing cleaning work in the house?"

"Certainly not, Madam, I am here to serve in whatever you ask." The woman said, smiling.

"Okay, all settled. Go with Paul, the man who received you, he will show you where you will live. "

"Thank you, thank you so much." They said as followed Paul to the house.

End Flashback

"You were one of the three brothers!" I said suddenly.

"Yes Miss. The youngest."

"But you all left the estate."

"The rumors spoke badly of you. My father never believed it but my mother insisted that it was the best to leave. She said that the house was inhabited by the devil."

At this I could not help laughing. The feeling was very strange. I hadn´t smiled in a long time ago.

"Okay, I do not blame them for thinking that." I said. "Then why are you helping me?"

"I owe you so much. Thanks to you we were not hungry, plus I do not trust those rumors. You're a good woman. "

"Thanks Jonathan, but maybe I'm not that good a person as you think."

"I always asked my father why the villagers were so unpleasant with you, but he never answered me just said that I should not believe rumors." Said the boy. "And as far as I can see you have not done anything wrong."

I smiled and put my hand on his head.

"I hope that when you grow up you´ll keep thinking for yourself."

"Within few hours dawn will arrive, we must hurry." Ron said as he entered the tent.

"Yes, is true. Jonathan go with Ronald and help him to put everything in the wagon." Dirge said patting the boy back.

"Yes Sir." He answered and ran after Ronald.

"Now we must do something so nobody will recognize you."

I already had meditated that for so long. It was very risky to return to the village but I didn´t have many more options. Sleepy Hollow was the closest place and at least there I would had the support of Old Dirge of Julieth and now the young Masbath.

"What will happen if I get caught?" I asked.

"They'll kill you." Dirge answered simply. "But don´t worry about that."

"Do not worry?" I said raising an eyebrow. "Dirge perhaps you´re drunk?"

"No, of course not." He said laughing. "You will live a while out of sight of everyone. You will be in close for a while."

"Closure? Where?"

"In the house of Van Garrett. Julieth got a job for you as a maid. She said you're her niece who come from other town. "

I let out a laugh. Life is pretty ironic. After being a rich heiress, I became a mere servant that had no reason to live. But hey, at least I still had friends who cared about me. Actually did not bother me too be a servant, I didn´t care about anything, I knew I had to get used to spending the rest of my life serving others.

"Julieth really have good ideas, but don´t you think they´ll recognize me?"

"You´re very skinny, that's a point in our favor." Dirge said examinating my cheekbones. "It is notice that you had to endure great hunger."

"Yes, a little but I wasn´t lucky enough to escape this world."

Dirge laughed as he approached the wagon and looked for something in a sack. He was still laughing when he showed me a shiny silver scissors.

"You have very good sense of humor Laura, I just hope you keep it when I start to cut your hair." He said waving the scissors in his hand.

"Shit, now I do realize that not only you're drunk, you're also crazy!" I said opening my eyes very much.

"No, I'm not crazy. Maybe a little drunk yes ... I took some beer before coming here ... but well, that's beside the point." He said getting closer to me. "You must understand that your face will look different if you cut your hair. People will not recognize you so easily."

"Damn, he´s right." I thought while unconsciously stroked my hair. It was so long it reached my waist. I was very sorry to have to cut it.

"Okay." I said finally giving a loud sigh.

Dirge smiled and ordered me to go into the tent and sit on the cot. There were Ronald and Masbath putting all the things in order. Ron looked at me strangely when I came inside and sat on the cot giving him my back.

"What's wrong?" He asked surprised but then he saw Dirge with scissors in the hand behind me. He understood. "Mein Gott, Dies kann nicht ist ..."

The men formed a circle around me and stared as Dirge cut my hair as if they were witnessing a very touching spectacle. I could feel each cut that Dirge gave as if he were cutting my skin, just closed my eyes; I did not want to imagine how I would look without my long brown hair.

Few minutes later Dirge gave the final cut and I opened my eyes. Slowly my hand touched my head. My long hair was gone, now it didn´t have more than one inch long. It was even shorter than Ronald’s, my ears and neck were exposed.

"My God." I whispered. "I hope this works."

"It'll work." Dirge said very sure. "You look so different."

"Yes, you do not seem to be the same person." Ron said, staring at me.

"Different? How different?" I asked alarmed.

"Your face looks skinner." Ron answered. "And your eyes look huge and bright."

"I look like a man." I said. "I still do not know what the hell I was thinking when I let Dirge do this to me."

"Now stop complaining. It's done and you can not do anything." He said.

"You don´t look bad." Ron whispered, trying to cheer me up.

"Well I do not care anymore. Why the hell I want to look pretty?" I said angrily. "I just want to be buried alive."

"Dirge why don´t you reattach her hair to see if that calms her down. She´s is unbearable now.” Ronald said.

The anger had begun to invade me. I didn´t know why I felt so much hate, it was probably lack of food or lack of hair or the lack of Klaus, but inside me had begun to grow a monster that roared trying to stay afloat. I tried to control myself but the stupid voices of the men stopped me.

"I don´t think that can calm her down friend." Dirge told Ron. "She looks like a wild beast that is about to strike."

"If I were you I would be careful Dirge." Said Ron. "You saw the huge cut that she had made me in the arm?"

Ronald's voice annoyed me even more. I knew he had nursed and protected me while I was sick, but deep down I hated him.

"Why don´t you just shut your mouth up for once Ronald?" I said with hatred but without looking at him.

"What?" He asked. "What you just said?"

"Shut your damn snout!" I yelled very angry.

"Laura take it easy." Dirge said with a conciliatory tone, extending his hand and putting it on my shoulder.

"I am calm!" I said while I snapped away Dirge´s hand.

"You're crazy." Ronald said rolling his eyes blank.

"Crazy?" I asked "Why crazy Ronald? Because I haven´t slept with you yet? Or because I was brave enough to run away from you and return to where Klaus were? "

Ron paled and fixed his eyes on mines.

"We'll wait outside." Dirge said nervously. He grabbed Masbath by his shoulders and walked off the tent.

"I knew, I knew that sooner or later you were going to tell me that." Ronald said with contempt. "You're nothing but a damned ungrateful."

"And you are a disgusting coward."

"Well, you already said it, witch. I am a coward and so what? "

“Fuck you, Ronald.”

He approached me and whispered in my ear:

“Even if you kill me I would still be in love of you.”

His lips met mine for a few seconds. The warmth of his breath made my eyes to close and my senses to enjoy that instant.

A moment later Ronald moved away breaking the kiss. He stroked my cheeks; his hands were very soft and white. He leaned his forehead against mine and smiled.

His smile was beautiful. His teeth were very white and little long incisors gave a touch of innocence and sweetness to his laughter. His gray-green eyes smiled too, shining in the darkness, fine lines formed around them.

I could not resist the urge to stroke his sand-colored hair, was so silky… I slid my hand gently on his head.

"I think I should learn to shut my fucking mouth occasionally." He said amused.

His voice made me realize that this intimate moment was a reality and not mere fantasy.

I moved away from him and gave him my back.

"We must hurry. I'll look for Young Masbath and Dirge." I said coldly.

And I walked out briskly leaving Ronald behind. He was still standing there, looking at me with surprise and disbelief.

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