Curse of Rose de Winter

Chapter 17

The day went about hurriedly, and when Olivia arrived she brought a storm with her that I only wished I could recreate. Dressed in a flared out dress with a collar, lace at the chest, she looked like a modest actress before her cocktail party. I seemed to always compare her to an actress, even more than Scarlett.

She smiled and beamed her pearly teeth at everyone, even me, indiscriminately before she called for her daughters.

"Angel, Connie! Come greet your aunts and cousins now," she said, voice just like I imagined with a surly tone alike a whisper, less sharp than Scarlett's.

Scarlett, dressed in a vibrant red, held her arms out to the girls.

"Oh, Angel! Connie! I've missed you two so much, mon cherie!"

Angel, bright like her mother, hair curled and done up, have a tinkling laughter before kissing her on the cheeks.

She said something in French before laughing. "Aunt, you're the same as always! One day I'll chide you enough that you will take me to France with you!"

I didn't see what the status symbol of Europe was, but they went about it, talking about fashion brands and hairstyles. Then Connie joined. She had a very sharp face, a cold yet not unpleasant, maybe something akin to a schoolteacher.

Or maybe it was all my imagination and I simple related to Connie who gave a polite head tilt and left her sister talking. Dylan walked to her, and for some reason I felt compelled to follow. Maybe I had to introduce myself.

"Hello, Constance, was it? I'm Blanche."

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

She held out a hand, and I realized through meeting all my relatives not one had offered one. I was worried before I held her hand, wondering if I should make it firmer or looser. Then I saw her hands.

"You have very beautiful hands," I managed to say. Dylan's eyes and hers naturally went to her still hovering hand. It was slender and deathly pale, but her veins were like carvings done by Michelangelo.

"I suppose. It might be the only part I'm better than Angel at."

"Are you two twins?" I asked. Angel seemed to be finishing up buttering up to Scarlett and caught our group muttering.

"No, I'm her younger sister. You can't tell, can you?" Connie said. Just as she did, Angel hopped behind her, a few inches taller, but then I saw it was her heels.

"You must be Blanche! You are so beautiful, almost like Dylan's mother!"

"You've never seen her!" Dylan glared at her.

Angel slid down onto her sister's shoulder and peered at Dylan. "I saw photographs, I didn't mean anything bad."

It seemed to have struck a chord within Dylan, so he inhaled deeply, obviously vexed, and then left.

He walked back to Vaughn who was talking to Calvin, and I was left with the girls.

"What are your ages this year?"

"I'm sixteen," Angel said, beautiful smile on her lips. "Oh, is that dress from Paris? I recognized this design and cut, it's from Paris, isn't it?"

"Yes, but how would you know from only that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She beamed in a way eerily similar to her mother.

"I study fashion, in two years I'll apply to an university in New York! Daddy said he'd pay for it, and I'd live alone—or with friends, of course. I can't wait to grow up. It must be awfully exciting to be an adult, you seem to fall in love and out so quickly."