Curse of Rose de Winter

Chapter 15

The following day was no less interesting. I woke up early again and felt my head ache. I felt that my nerves were strange somehow, like the house and it's people had taken their toll on me.

At breakfast only Dylan was there. "Has Ruby told you the reason behind everything?" he asked after we both said good morning.

"Yes, I saw Claribel last night too. It seemed like she wanted to go to Ruby, no, Calvin's room. To see Ruby."

"That woman claims Ruby as hers. She's done worse, she threw parties with Ruby dancing and playing piano in awful dresses and hair done up dramatically just for that man to love her—"

Austen rushed into the room in a frenzy, cutting Dylan off.

"Good morning, Austen," I said.

"Good morning, uncle," Dylan said, and returned to his newspaper. "What's the matter?"

"I forgot! It's soon to be Olivia and my anniversary," Austen cried, bursting into tears. Behind him we saw Ruby jumping into Calvin's arms and he glared at Austen.

"Then it's too bad she's not here," he retorted. He came into the room with Ruby, and Ruby gave me a small but warm smile. I laughed, pointing at Austen secretly, and the two of us giggled.

"No, no, it's our anniversary the day after tomorrow, when she'd arrive with the girls. Oh, I'm sure my honey came just for me, but they will have to take the small guest rooms and it'd be such a mess—"

"Calm down, Uncle," Dylan said quickly. "We can have a nice dinner that night, then."

"How?"

"Well, fancy food I suppose. I'll have the cook ready it. Lots of it." Dylan sounded annoyed, but Austen chose to ignore it and smile.

"A party!" Austen decided by himself, snapping his fingers. He jumped about like a dog. "She always has a dress in case of anything, we can have a ball, that sounds spectacular enough for her!"

"What?" Dylan interrupted, face in a scowl.

"I'll have to buy the girls dresses, no, a maid can buy it for them, or with them. Oh, then I'd have to get Olivia one too..."

"A ball? That's awfully big," Calvin said. "Maybe a buffet can do." 

"We can do that instead," Dylan said quickly, and gave Calvin a thankful look. "Now calm yourself, Uncle. There's enough rooms. We have another guest room we can prepare and your wife can be in your room. You have a king suite, after all."

"Yes, that's kind of you, Dylan." He finally took a seat. Scarlett had entered while we were talking and Claribel and the maids followed. The maids each carried trays and laid out eggs and sausages, accompanied with toast and butter.

"What do you want now?" Scarlett snapped as she took her seat. I refrained from looking at Claribel.

"Come on, Scarlett, please don't bother Olivia on the day of our anniversary. I beg of you, as a brother," Austen pled.

"Me? Bothering Olivia? Why, I've never done anything close of bullying, I believe she's mistaken me for someone else," Scarlett said sweetly.