As Kaitlyn is away I am filling in for her and posting chapter 3 to my blog instead of hers

Susie was getting exasperated. Miss Alice was being cranky today and to top off her bad mood that awful disgusting Count Damien (whoever he was) had had 2 men hanged in the market
"Hmph" she said to no one in particular and finished taking her hair down for her bath. As she washed, she reflected on her day, apart from Alice, and seeing those men hung- oh she would like to give that disgusting monster a piece of her mind!
She got out of the tub and wrapped a towel around herself, and peeking out of the bathroom to make sure noody was near she ran across the hall to her room.
Once she was dried off she looked through her rather small wardrobe and picked out her best dress (she had been instucted to wear her best clothes as the young lady who was marrying Baron Jonathan's eldest son was visiting with her father and two of her brothers tonight), The sky blue one with the violet sash that matched her eyes exactly would do.
When she was done she combed her long brown hair out and braided it, and as she braided her hair she idly wondered, who could the father of the bride be?

Count Damien ran his hands through his hair and uttered a frustrated growl. He was middle aged, with 7 children, 3 girls and 4 boys and his oldest daughter was getting married soon, so his life wasn't easy at the moment .
His perusals of some old records was interrupted by the captain of his guards. "Sire" he said bowing low. "What is it Reginald?" he replied only mildly irritated as the documents were very tedious and rather boring.
"Sire," he said again, "We have discovered something horrible." Now Count Damien was intrigued. "What?" he inquired. Reginald faltered a little. "Well...We have discovered that...ah, your page has been black mailing your bodyguard."
Count Damien's eyes narrowed, he clenched his jaw, and barely managed to keep a handle on his anger. "What...has William...been blackmailing Roger about?" His voice was controlled but anyone could have heard the anger. The guard was obviously frightened but he continued:
"Apparently William was angry at you about something and he had caught Roger disobeying you," Reginald stopped and swallowed. He was sweating with nervousness and when giving the count bad news you were likely to be included in the punishment just because he was in a vengeful mood. "Then-"
Count Damien stood up and screamed "Kill them both!!!" Reginald tried to say something about Roger, but Count Damien just cut him off with "I will tolerate neither blackmailers nor those weak enough to allow themselves to be blackmailed!"

As Kaitlyn is not going to be posting the story anymore I have added the first chapter from her blog for convenience.

A few years later.
Christopher sat up in bed and almost screamed. Gasping and covered in sweat, he still had nightmares of his father’s glazing eyes, and the fire which destroyed all of their belonging that the Guards couldn't carry away. He climbed out of his uncomfortable bed and pulled on his loose shirt and his patched brown pants, and walked into the garden to bathe.
As he washed himself in the small but clean pond provided by Baron Jonathan for the men to use for bathing, he reflected on the past few years he had come to live with his aunt and uncle. They had taken him in- as a servant. "It's not so bad" he thought as he dressed and headed into the house to start his chores.
He went in through the back door and almost collided with Helen, the scullery maid. Helen was a big boned redhead who had sent several rude alley boys home with a bloody nose or swollen face to remember her by. So as he passed he said "sorry Hel' didn't see you."
Upon entering the kitchen he saw Susie. She was a quiet, petite girl with chocolate brown hair who was Christopher's cousin Alice's maid. "Christopher, Miss Alice would like to know where you hid her dressing gown today?" He rolled his eyes and replied. "If you two would look where it belongs, you would not think I hid it." But she shook her head and got down on her knees to check way back in the pantry anyways.
Christopher rolled his eyes again and studied her. She was about 5'3" he estimated and as she started to get up off of her knees he took her arm and she tossed her thick long braids over her shoulder, which almost made him lose his balance. Then with a red face she hurried out of the kitchen.
Suddenly felt someone watching him and with horrified apprehension he turned and saw Helen standing in the kitchen doorway but before he could think of something to say, she just "humphed" and with a look she stalked back out into the barnyard.

Christopher was running, gasping and half-crazed with fear. He fell to the ground, tripped by a plank in the road and lay there without the will or the strength to get up, as fear and sorrow leeched them both away.
As he lay there trying to scream, someone grabbed his arm and started running, pulling him along. He looked up and saw his father! Then a new sound assailed him. He looked back and saw the King's Guard chasing them. He could hear their boots pounding the worn pavement, their bloodstained sabres slapping and clanking in their sheaths.
Now he screamed and a strength he never knew he had surged through him. His father pulled him into an alley and after several sharp turns he dodged into a deserted shack. As they climbed up into the loft they heard the Guard searching, their voices muffled by the smog and thick night air.
"Christopher!" his father was saying, "I most likely will not live through this night." Christopher could not find words to voice his sorrow so his father went on. "Pay attention! Take this letter and this box." With that he handed Christopher a small puzzle box and a sealed envelope. "But Christopher," his father said, "if these fall into the hands of Count Damien you are doomed."
As he started to say something else they heard a shot. Christopher's father slumped over dead.