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nHeidi saw Stanley bend down to pick an apple which had turned bad after falling down on the wet ground. He put it in the brown basket before going to pick the other ones leisurely. He continued with the process of picking the apple, turning it around his hand and then putting it in the basket.

nShe didn’t understand his attachment to it. She had heard from the lord personally how the butler didn’t like anyone going near the apple trees unless it was the lord or himself. The half vampire was fine with letting the apples rot but not okay to share it so that it could complete it’s purpose of being eaten. The apples that hung down looked redder with the dull clouds in the background of the sky.

n“What are you going to do with those?” she asked seeing him pick another apple from the ground.

n“I am going to bury it here to let it decompose and give life back to the tree,” he replied back tapping the apple, “Would you like to have one, Lady Heidi? The good one of course,” he tilted his head to one side as he asked her.

n“No, I am fine,” she saw him raise the wide stick to tap on the apples that hung on the branches.

nStanley was a peculiar butler with peculiar characteristics. Apart from his usual duties of looking after the mansion, ordering the maids and servants with tasks, running errands for the lord, he even spent time with Heidi taking the role of a governess. As a butler of the Rune’s mansion, he was the best one could get. Unlike other butlers who spoke only when needed, the half vampire had a mind of his own. By appearance he was lean and of average height. His beautiful platinum hair tied low. She wondered how he looked if his hair was let out free.

n“Can I ask you something?”

n“Yes, Lady Heidi,” Stanley stopped his hand from waving the stick to look towards Heidi. It had been a while since people had begun calling her Lady Heidi from Ms. Heidi or Ms. Curtis and she was still getting used to it.

n“Is there any reason why you don’t allow people to eat the apples?” She was curious why he cherished the trees to such an extent.

n“There is. There is always a reason behind what we do, isn’t it?” he spoke softly, pulling an apple from the branch and twisting it until it detached itself from the tree. He then touched the bark of one of the apple tree and spoke, “Do you know that vampires have different traditions when it comes to death. The most popular being the coffin. In the olden days people would bury the ones just like the humans,” Did that mean someone was buried here? thought Heidi, “I was a human in the slave establishment before coming to the Rune’s mansion.”

nShe remembered Lord Nicholas had said something about Stanley being a slave originally before starting to work here.

n“It wasn’t a happy life there. It isn’t a place for anyone but there are few things you cannot do anything about. During the two long years, I befriended a child there, a young boy. He was more or less like me. Maybe that is why I bothered to notice him when other slaves used to beat him up,” he stared at the apple in his hand, “When master picked me from the place without any notice, I didn’t get to bid the boy. There were days when I remembered and days when I didn’t. It must be the slave’s instinct, to be selfish and not to look back at people who rot.”

n“You never met the boy after that?” Heidi asked him.

n“I did. But the boy had died a week after I left,” Stanley answered, continuing to explain, “He had been beaten to death for disobedience by one of the guards. It isn’t that uncommon. When people running the slave establishment find a slave too hard to deal with without much benefit, they are either face death or are sold for blood in the black market.”

n“Is this where he lies then?” she saw the butler nod his head.

n“The dead bodies in the establishment are normally taken together and dumped in the lake of bones. Master help me find his body but his body had already begun to decompose. Four weeks the body lying with other piles of bodies. Master told me that he would let me bury the boys body here, telling there was a ritual to keep a person’s energy or remnants in the trees and I followed it. Besides that apples are my favourite fruit,” Stanley finished explaining it.

nHeidi didn’t ask further than that and let the butler do his work in peace while she stood at one side of the orchard quietly. It was a sad story. It was only after she pondered on it for a few minutes that she realized that more than being sad, the end was disturbing. There were at least more than twenty apples trees and it wasn’t just one the butler was partial to. He was partial to each and every one of them here. Wouldn’t that mean that the body didn’t lay just under one tree?

n“Do you like apple wine, Lady Heidi?” she heard Stanley ask her with his back facing her.

n“I haven’t tasted it to know if I would like it,” hearing this the butler turned his face surprised.

n“Really?” and she nodded her head, “Then you must try the one’s I make.”

n“Please don’t,” she waved both her hands, “I wouldn’t want you to overwork when you already are.”

n“Do not worry, miss. I am a half vampire with extra time in my pocket. I insist you try it. I am sure you will like it,” he spoke so enthusiastically that she didn’t have the heart to say no to him. After all the butler making wine from his treasured apples for someone who wasn’t Lord Nicholas was a rare occasion.

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