Adeline

Chapter 5 - The Party

Celeste was 23 years old that day – born on the 15th of November, 1890. She was the same age as Adeline Dainford-Brown. Miss Dawlings was extremely well known for being exciting, beautiful, eccentric, and she knew how to throw the best parties. If you were invited to one of her parties, you knew that you weren't going to be home until the morning after.

Celeste lived in her parent's house, a beautiful 11 bedroom estate house with hundreds of rooms and vast acres of land that she explored growing up. Her father, who was the Lord of the estate, inherited the house from his father and his father before him. The house looked beautiful at all times, had a full working staff and crew for its upkeep. 20 cleaners, gardeners, things like that, two cooks and a handful of first maids and servers – and not to mention the butler, Paul. The house was originally meant for her older brother, Arthur, who inherited it from their parents after they did two years back in 1911. But, Arthur had already owned an apartment in London for his job, and so left the house to his sister.

Of course, she had lots of ideas of how she could improve the house. She added two working lifts that one could use as well as the stairs, she replaced all lamps with electric ones and installed gas systems. She went further to redecorate the ancient walls and refurnished the sitting rooms, bedrooms and also the servants floor. She added her own colourful, modern touch. Arthur didn't mind. He respected her opinion and design for what she decided – after all, she had an eye for decoration, as she made his apartment look stunning. It was one of the many things she was good at, and on top of this, she made the house more suitable for parties, something that she couldn't stop. It was part of who she was, decoration and parties. She certainly had an elegant style to her and when she liked something, she loved it.

Of course, their parents must have been rolling in their graves, and if they came back and saw the house, they would actively choose to return to the world of the dead. Their parents were conservative, which was what made the both of them relatively rebellious – especially Celeste, who, when she was a teenager, often stuck out of the house to travel to London and go to underground parties with her big brother.

As Adeline and Arthur rolled up the gravelled driveway in their taxi to the house, it was already pretty dark, and the party would be starting shortly after dinner. Hopefully, they had just got their in time for food, an event to which Arthur was also invited. Adeline looked out of the window at the house that towered about them, windows golden and glowing with light for as far as the eye could see. Around that, there was just trees that were shadowed by the setting sun. The car circled around a fountain in front drive and Adeline looked up at the house to take as much of a good look as she could. Most of the upstairs windows were blackened, but the large, floor to ceiling windows in the ground floor shone brightly so that she could catch a glimpse of the inside of the house.

The house was tall, and the stone steps leading up to the goliath front door felt like a mountain for Adeline. She was sweating nervously, terrified that someone might recognise her or she might say something wrong that would give her away. She'd never met Celeste so had absolutely no idea how this would go. For all she knew, Celeste could be some kind of monster that hated new people. On either side of the front door, circular towers stood tall above them, with dark slate turrets on top of them. Ivy stuck to the bricks on the outside of the house, clinging to the front of it and twisting around the arch way that made up the front door. Arthur knocked on the door slowly. As the two of them waited for the door to be opened, Arthur quickly squeezed Adeline's hand and her breathing slowed down. She calmed down. The vast door opened and inside was a man in a black and white suit. He looked young, but was clearly older than Arthur by a few years – perhaps in his thirties.

"Sir!" The man grinned and opened the door wider for Arthur to step inside. He shook hands with Arthur, and the two of them smiled acknowledging, "Wonderful to see you."