Adeline

Chapter 15 - Hopeless

"Lady Dawlings?" A voice called from behind the large doors of the games room. Celeste looked up, alert by the sound.

"What is it?" Celeste said. She wasn't pleased. She had told the help not to disturb her this evening. It was of importance as she was negotiating sale of land with her friend and his wife. Another truth might be that she was trying to get them as drunk as possible so that they would buy her acres for a higher price. Celeste was a business woman, of course.

"I know you said not to disturb you," The servant stepped timidly into the room, poking her pale head through. She was wide eyed and shaking from having been given the task of delivering this news, "But it's the phone, m'lady. We told them that you ought not to be disturbed but this is urgent news. From your cousin, Harry, m'lady."

Celeste's ears pricked with interested when her cousin's name was mentioned. Harry didn't normally have urgent news to deliver, and he usually visited her himself instead of using the phone. Her curiosity peaked and she looked back at her friends, Sylvester and Ann who were sitting quietly, glasses of wine in their hands. She smiled at the maid kindly and turned to her friends, "I'm very sorry, Syl. It seems there's some kind of emergency that I must tend to. Please excuse me for a moment." She smiled widely, trying to ignore the bored expressions of her friends.

She got up, flattening out her dress and making her way hurriedly to the door, "This better be important." Celeste hissed as she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"It is, ma'am." The little maid said. She was only a teenager, but what had been said on the phone seemed to have struck some kind of terrible fear into her. She looked as though she'd seen a ghost.

Celeste reached the phone and collapsed into the large chair adjacent to it. She majestically sprawled across the cushions, her feet tucked up under her dress. She took the speaker up to her ear and held the mouth piece under her lips, "Hello?" She said, listening out for her cousin.

"Miss Dawlings?" The voice said.

"Who is this? Harry?" Celeste furrowed her brows in confusion.

"No, miss. This is his assistant, Lovell Baker." The man said.

"Mr. Baker, what is it that you are calling me about? I'm rather busy this evening an-"

"It's urgent, miss." The voice was shaky and nervous. Celeste began to worry, bringing her hand up to her face. Her heard beat more quickly. What kind of urgent news might be coming from London? What had happened to Harry that meant that he wasn't able to call her himself. Why was this assistant calling her instead?

"Spit it out then." Celeste shook.

"Miss, I've been instructed to tell you that your brother is in terrible trouble." Baker said.

"W-what?" Celeste shook. Her eyes began welling up with tears and she felt a lump in her throat that she tried so hard to swallow, "You mean, Arthur?"

"Yes, miss. Your brother Arthur. He is gravely injured from the events of this evening and Harry has asked that you come and take him home to Hertford." The voice said as it buzzed through the receiver.

Celeste couldn't speak. She didn't know what to say. She just sat there, frozen and terrified. She was too scared to speak, to move, to cry. Her own brother, the last of her immediate family was reportedly seriously injured She shook with dread and then alarm and she felt her heart drop to her stomach. She choked and couldn't speak, "Miss? Miss Dawlings? Are you there?" The man badgered her to answer.

"Y-yes... I'm here." Celeste said in a quiet, trembling voice.

"Miss, I am very sorry to deliver this information to you, it has been a dreadful thing that has happened this night. I'm afraid that your brother was caught in the middle of it." The man said.