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"I don't know, I mean we met in rehab so..." Pamela said, her hands crossed in her lap as she spoke to Oliver. The only sound in the room other than her gabbing being the sharp clink of the silver utensils around them. "He was lovely at first, you know, but then all of his business partners started falling out of windows."
It seemed Oliver was the only one to notice Alexandra laugh into her food as she and Felix shared an amused look. Although he had been speaking to Poor Dear Pamela about the absolute pathetic whirlwind that was her life, his eyes couldn't help but flicker to the woman across from him and over the candelabra.
She was dressed in an evening gown of emerald green silk with her hair in gentle curls down her shoulders, the studs of pearl earrings just peaking out through the wisps of her straw blonde hair as it covered them.
She had sent him what felt like knowing looks every moment their eyes caught one another that evening, looks that made him feel as though he was privy to some sort of secret they both shared. It made him fell sickeningly important and yet not in the way he felt beside Felix. He did not feel like the butcher with the prized pig when Alexandra leant him her gaze. Her felt like some kind of emperor.
"He spoke in Russian all the time and it sounded so very romantic." Pamela said, her voice dropping slightly with her next admission. "But I didn't know the Russian word for whore so I just thought it sounded like lovely poetry. Daddy did always say I would end up at the bottom of the Thames."
"So far so good." Oliver stated simply, eliciting yet another hastily covered up laugh from this time both Alexandra and Venetia who locked eyes before quickly breaking the contact so as not to make the other laugh even more.
"I don't know what I'd do without Elspbeth." Pamela continued, sending a grateful look to her friend. "She really saved me."
"Don't bang on about it, Pamela darling, we're delighted to have you for as long as you plan to stay." Elspbeth said quite unconvincingly to Oliver's ear but Pamela nodded without a sound at that.
"Forever?" Alexandra asked pointedly, stabbing her steak with her fork as she sent Pamela a tight smile.
"No, I think I might've found somewhere-"
"Oh good!" James exclaimed, his wife emphasising his statement with a bright look on her face.
"Yes, my cousin has a flat." Pamela said, seemingly not as eager as her hosts about this very idea.
"Oh that will suit you very well, a nice little flat." Elspbeth said, eyes seemingly boring into her friend who looked uneasy as she next spoke.
"Well... It's more of a bedsit really-"
"I loved living in a bedsit in my twenties, it's so freeing to live all in one room. And there's far less cleaning to do." Elspbeth cut in once more. "Oh but it will be terrible when you're gone. How will I cope?"
"Well I could actually stay for a little bit longer." Pamela said hopefully, eyes widening at the idea of staying at the glorious manor house but it seemed Elspbeth was having none of it.
"No darling, you couldn't." Elspbeth stated, her brow furrowing. "You must be desperate to be rid of us and find your own place, I quite understand."
Oliver took note of how Felix's face lit up at that and James nodded quite vigorously at the idea of this woman leaving his house.
At that, the table went silent. Even Pamela whom before now Oliver felt was not capable of keeping her tongue from flapping about every moment of the day. As he returned to his meal, Oliver glanced up and saw Alexandra and her mother seemingly having a conversation with just their eyes.
He didn't like when her eyes weren't meeting his.
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Walking up behind the figure of the girl sat against the marble bench beneath his window, he knew immediately it was Alexandra. He had watched her from there window as he readied himself for bed, seeing her walk through the mist like some marble nymph under the moon.
She exuded it. The way certain cats and other such animals, make you wish to touch them. Or make you wish to be chosen by them. She had that. It was partly her beauty but it was also more than that. Especially for Oliver.
He thought, walking towards her through the dew drop infested lawn, that not even her grandest form (covered in gold, iridescent jewels dripping from her skin) could compare to her greatest form (barefoot in white cotton under the silvery moon).
"Hey." He said softly, hoping so as not startle her but she still turned sharply to face him. Her expression released from any tension that had built up once her eyes set on his seemingly harmless face.
"You gave me a fright." Alexandra said, pressing a hand to her chest to calm her beating heart and he winced.
"Sorry, I just..." Oliver said, gesturing blindly to his bedroom window behind them as he spoke. "I thought you were sleep walking."
"Aren't you supposed to not wake a sleep walker?" She asked, cocking her head slightly to the side as she raised a brow at him and he huffed out a slight laugh as he shrugged. "Don't worry, I just wanted to have a look at the moon tonight. I tend not to be able to sleep well the first few nights back."
"It wouldn't help if you're freezing." Oliver shook his head, going to take the blanket he had brought down to give to her but she refused it.
"I'm coldblooded, Olly. We all here." Alexandra said, eyes moving back to the moon above them before she gestured from him to sit beside her on the marble bench which he did promptly, the cool stone sending a shiver through him as he did so.
"You're not cold blooded." Oliver said, shaking his head as he moved so half of the blanket was wrapped around both of their shoulders. He could feel the soft skin of her arm on his. "Not from what Felix has told me."
"You can't go believing everything Felix says." Alexandra said with a little laugh. "We're twins, it's our job to big each other up and tear each other down."
"You're quite close then?"
"He's my brother, I could not escape him even if I wanted to." Alexandra said, the moon reflecting into her hazel eyes as she spoke. "I'm just lucky that I don't want to."
Oliver nodded and the two were silent for a few moments, the only sound being an owl in a far away tree and the leaves blowing about in the early summer air. It was idyllic, but it seemed every aspect of Saltburn was.
He looked at the girl beside him and he felt as if he could see her better now, outside of Saltburn with all her finery stripped away and out of the shadows. She was beautiful and serene. Her eyebrows smooth and thin, and angular just as the women in antique portraits seemed to be. In his heart, terror was arisen. A terror which nothing can explain. A dark malicious delight.
"She's beautiful isn't it?" Alexandra said softy still staring up at the moon. Oliver hummed, not looking way from her.
"Yes, she is."
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