Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 6 - Violet Baudelaire

Violet looked at Mr. Poe and he gave a slight nod to Mrs. Hadley's direction and Violet reverted her attention to the woman who elegantly stood in the door. She smiled yet again and put her hand out. Klaus shook it with his hand that wasn't holding his book, and the woman turned to Violet who both shook hands and Mrs. Hadley gently ruffled Sunny's hair.
"Hello Klaus, Violet and Sunny," she acknowledged the Baudelaire's, "as you may know, I am Mrs. Hadley, your new guardian. I know you three have been through a lot, so I have got a room for all of you. In addition, I have four other children who knows that you are coming and trust me, they are the most caring and selfless kids I know!" Violet and Klaus smiled weakly. Obviously she would talk highly of her own children.
"So kids, I'll just step aside and if you come in with your bag, then I will give you a quick tour around this house, and mind you, a quick tour here would be very long." So Mrs. Hadley stepped inside and the Baudelaire's stepped into the ornamentally lit house.
The house felt similar to the Baudelaire mansion except that it was ten times more decorative and lit up. Chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, statues of heads and bodies were scattered around the place and large, museum-like paintings hung on the cream walls. Large rugs were lit up by the tall lamps and tapestries also covered parts of the walls. The entire house seemed to be too decorative and fragile for anybody to live there, let alone four children.
Mrs. Hadley took Violet's hand and started walking to the door arch on the other side of the room. Her hands felt so soft and smoothed that Violet thought she rubbed her hands with hand cream whenever she gets the chance to. "So Baudelaire's, this is the entrance hall," Mrs. Hadley said, "all of these statues are bought from my ex-husband and I. As you can tell by the paintings as well, we love to go to museums so we purchase a lot."
The woman stroked an elegant stone head which seemed to be screaming in agony. She curved her long, silver painted nails on the cheeks of the screaming man and said, "this was bought in a museum in Milan. My ex-husband really enjoyed but I wasn't too sure, but now, I think that this masterpiece brings the entire room together. Don't you think?"
Violet and Klaus weakly agreed to Mrs. Hadley, while Sunny in Violet's arm exclaimed, "Masterpiece!" and giggled.
"Now let's continue the tour," Mrs. Hadley smiled and walked ahead. The three followed and soon they were going through all of the rooms, "This is the kitchen, we have another one upstairs. Oh, and that painting was painted by a Belgian artist we met outside this famous museum in Brussels. Okay, and if we go through this door, we are now in the dining hall. This chandelier up here used to be owned by the king of this rich town named Givencha. This chandelier was in the middle of the main dining room, just like this one."
The three listened to their new guardian's commentary for over half an hour, going through each room in the house. After the tour was over, they circled back to the small living room where the Baudelaires were told to sit on the hard but luxurious-looking sofas where they were told every single rule of the household which took another half an hour. Most of the rules meant, "do not touch any artefacts or decor in the house," which was said in twenty different ways. "Now, if you will go up to your rooms and stay there, the children's will be back soon from their private tutors and you can meet your new siblings!"
Violet and Klaus stood up and Klaus picked up Sunny from the sofa. The three started towards the stairs and when Violet turned her head around, Mrs. Hadley called out to them, "Your room is on the third floor, down the corridor, take a right, a left and the first door to your left." The directions to their room passes many rooms and down two corridors and it was only a matter of time until they reached their room.
Inside was a simple guest bedroom but with added touches. A big bookshelf was covering one side of the wall with books on endless subjects. A corner of the big room were filled with machinery that Violet immediately went to with a slight smile on her lips. In the center of the room were baby toys that Sunny excitedly squealed at and toddler-walked over to.
The next hour went by in a flash and none of the three Baudelaire's looked up until there was a poised knock on the door. Klaus and Violet looked at eachother before Violet called out, "come in!" The door knob slowly turned and the door opened. A small woman with mousy brown hair stood behind it, "sorry to disturb you, but Mrs. Hadley is calling you to the big living room."
"I'm sorry, but where is it again?" Klaus politely asked.
"Oh just follow this corridor, that way, and go down to the bottom floor and go down the right corridor, then take another right one and you will be there."
"Oh, thanks," Violet thanked and they started heading down the corridor. After a minute of careful navigating and accidentally going into the bathroom once and the kitchen twice, they made it to the extravagant living room. It was about three times larger than the small living room and if possible, even more ornamental.
Mrs. Hadley sat in one of the couch near a large family portrait which was looked like the exact same scene that stood before the Baudelaire's. Around their guardians are four children, all different sizes but all adorned the fair, straight blonde hair gene from their mother. The eldest looking was a boy who looks about the same age as Violet, and was wearing a cap along with some expensive-looking basketball shoes. He was not smiling.
"So Violet, Klaus and Sunny, this is Harry. He likes sports a lot and I think you will get on," Mrs. Hadley winked at Klaus who gulped. "These two are Sarah and Hannah, they are twins and are both ten but they like different colours." It was quite obvious as Sarah was wearing a dress of warm tones and Hannah was wearing a cool-toned shirt and skirt. Both wore headbands in their favoured colours which complimented their long, straight, blond hair and just like their brother they weren't smiling either.
"Ok, now this is George, he's three years old, just like you Sunny!" George sat next to Harry and he giggled playfully while Sunny gave him "the look."
"So, before you talk to eachother, I want to introduce you to my new boyfriend that I met yesterday, Harold!" The Baudelaire's were expecting some sort of grand entrance by this new "Harold" through the large double doors. "Harold? Are you coming?" Mrs. Hadley called out again and this time, the doors opened, revealing a man with slick, and oily blonde hair. The man was wearing a button down shirt with palm treees on it and had some sunglasses on.
"Hey guys, I'm Harold, surfer," the accent sounded like a surfer talking and the Baudelaire's turned around to face the Hadley children and they weren't even paying attention to him. They turned their attention back to Harold who gave a toothy smile at the Baudelaire's who smiled nervously back.
"Harold, dear, take off those sunglasses, I just love your eyes," Mrs. Hadley said adoringly and Harold replied, "of course, darling."
He reached for his sunglasses and the moment he took them off, Violet's pulse started to quicken. She knew who "Harold" actually was, but how was it possible? How could he get here so quickly? Harold made a wide smile and said, "Hello, Baudelaire's."
Violet took a deep breath, closed her eyes for two seconds and replied, "Hello, Harold," and weakly smiled back at Count Olaf.