FORTITUDINE (COMPLETED)

21) How Many Twins Can There Be?

Poke.

My hand lazily goes up to my cheek to brush away what had landed on it.

Poke, poke.

I let out an annoyed moan and lift my head off of the soft feather pillow and crack one eye open.

'Nathalie? Devereux?' My eyes widen at the sight of younger set of twins.

"Nathalie! Devereux! What are you doing here?" I shout as I sit up in my bed so I could hug them.

The twins giggle as they each grab one of my hands and begin to pull me out of bed.

"Come on, we haven't seen you in forever!" Shouted Devereux, stressing the last word.

"Yeah, we want you to play with us!" Shrieked Nathalie as she tugged me out into the hallway.

I laughed as they pulled me to the stairs...until I looked into the hall mirror that is.

I froze at the sight of my reflection. "On second thought, can you guys wait for a little while so I can freshen up?"

I mentally awed at their pouting faces and knelt down to give them each a kiss on the head. "I will play with you as soon as I'm finished...for as long as you like." I added.

They smiled and gave me a hug before running down the stairway. "I want to play Cowboys and Indians!" Shouted Devereux.

"No way! I wanna play princess!" Yelled Nathalie running after Devereux down the halls.

I laughed to myself and shook my head. I took one last look in the mirror before turning around to head back to my room.

I took one step and froze as I looked up. 'Great. Just great.' I thought to myself.

"Jacob." I laughed nervously. "Funny meeting you here."

Jacob smirked at me and pushed himself from the wall he was leaning on. He walked up to me until he was just a few feet in front of me and crossed his arms.

"I hope you're not planning on looking like that at the dinner party tonight." He chuckled.

I raised an eyebrow at him and looked him up and down. "I don't really think you can be saying anything about that subject, Jacob." I say with a smirk.

He looks down at his cotton robe and silk night trousers and frowns. "I was taking a bath!" He exclaims running a hand through his long, damp hair.

"Of course you were, and I just woke up." I state crossing my arms.

He tilts his head back in realization and nods his head. "I understand. I apologize for insulting you when my...condition...is only slightly better than yours." He flashes his pearly whites and begins to walk past me to the downstairs bedrooms.

"Would you like me to send up a maid to help with the eagle's nest that was once called your hair?" He calls over his shoulder not waiting for an answer.

I grumble as I walk back into my room. "We don't even have maids!" I shouted to the now closed door.

~~~~~~~~~~

I spent the whole morning playing with the twins and Elliott and now it was time for the dinner party.

I sat uncomfortably in my chair. The stiffness in the brand new dress that was made specially for tonight was not helpful at all.

The dress was a light pink-almost peach-color and had a belt of jewels. The sleeves only covered my shoulders and were also covered in jewels.