Chapter Six
"Cake?!" Elena and Gabby asked with their mouths wide. "But you and Mommy say no to sugar."
"Just to lots of it honey!" Nell chuckled with a smile. "We don't want you hyper."
"I think they'd be hyper even if they had a little bit of cake," Bobby Lee grinned.
"I think you're thinking of Madeline and Sabrina," Nell smirked. "Elena and Gabby wouldn't overdo it with cake." She turned to the girls and gave them a mock frown. "Would you?"
"No, Mommy," Elena and Gabby smiled innocently.
"Good girls!" Nell chuckled with a smile, patting their heads. "Bobby Lee, give them a little bit extra for being such good helpers today."
"What?!" Sabrina asked, dropping her fork.
"That's not fair!" Madeline pouted as Elena flinched, holding up Kitty for protection.
"Like Zoe said, what were you two doing all this time?" Sofia asked, "Did you help Elena find Kitty or her feelings puzzle? And did you help James when Little Rex was missing?"
"Well..." Sabrina hesitated.
"And why didn't you cheer for Bobby Lee and Sandra?" Zoe asked, recalling how quiet the two of them had been. At first she thought they didn't like fencing, but she had seen that they had looked a little bored during the whole thing.
"You weren't in on Mr. Cedric's game, were you?" Sandra half-joked.
"No, but..." Madeline started.
"But what?!" Gabby snapped before turning to Elena with a soft smile. "Elena, you can put Kitty back down now."
"No. Auntie Madeline is scary when mad," Elena muttered, holding Kitty close to her. "And likes to use her hands."
"Elena, that was one time. You didn't know that she needed that paper birdie thingy for school after having an accident on it," Gabby reminded her with a smile. "Besides you were sick that day, Mommy and Daddy know that."
"I know," Elena recalled with a sniff. "But Auntie Madeline does it all the time since then."
"All the time?" Gabby asked in shock, seeing everyone stop their conversations to look at them. "Mommy says we can't hit people when mad!"
"This is the first time I'm hearing about this," Bianca spoke up. "Madeline Elizabeth, would you like to explain yourself?"
"Yes Madeline would you?" Sabrina asked, not in denial but in shock that her sister would harm one of their family members.
"I agree. Madeline what brought this on?!" Nell growled as Elena ran to her, burying her face in her dress. "Jealousy? Something you thought would be fun to do behind our backs?"
"I...I..." Madeline stammered before running off in tears.
"I'm sorry, Nell," Sabrina said softly. "I didn't mean to be so mean to everyone and not help."
Nell gave her a little hug. "I know, but you made up for it when you were helping me find my necklace."
"You made Mommy happy!" Elena giggled softly, joining in on the hug.
"Daddy cake?" Gabby wondered, looking hungrily at the cake with big eyes. "Please?"
"Okay, I'll get you each a small piece," Bobby Lee nodded.
"Save some for me; I'm going to talk to Madeline and see what this is all about," Nell said as she went after Madeline.
She knew where to find her, since she sometimes liked hiding in James' tree house. She smiled as she remembered him showing Madeline and Sabrina around there, saying they could go up in it any time he wasn't using it. She also heard him promise to take Elena and Gabby up there when they were older.
"Madeline, can we talk for a minute?" Nell asked, seeing Madeline with her face in her dress.
"No!" Madeline mumbled, not bothering to look up before feeling herself in the air. "Nell what are you-"
"You thought I forgot Mama's flying game that she would do when she knew that you two were upset?" Nell asked with a chuckle before hearing Madeline sigh. "Madeline, baby, what made you do what you've done to Elena?"
"I don't know. Sometimes I get mad about what she does. Sometimes I yell at her to be normal like us. Last night after you and Bobby Lee went to bed and Gabby went to bed, Elena woke up again and came into my room, looking for Kitty and I got mad and said something that I know you won't like," Madeline confessed with a sniff, looking up at her sister in shame.
"What was it Madeline?" Nell wondered with a sigh, stroking her hair. "And please tell me everything. Including what makes you so mad that you use harm on Elena."
"I told her that she was the only one who cared about her stupid Kitty," Madeline sniffled. "Nobody cared that stupid Kitty was gone. Then I shouted 'Go to bed stupid sped.'"
"Well, that explains why I heard Elena crying as she went to sleep, but Madeline, I can't believe you'd say something like that," Nell frowned. "I expect that sort of language from Jack, since he doesn't know any better about autism, but certainly not from my own sister."
"I was also scared when Bobby Lee and Princess Sandra were fencing," Madeline murmured. "I don't like it when people come at me with swords. What if she got hurt?"
"Remember the trophy you saw when Princess Sandra first came?" Nell asked, "She got second place in her fencing tournament. That means she's quite good with a blade. She says the knights at her castle trained her."
"But Jimmy's son Robby always pointed his knife at me and Sabrina when Jimmy was alone with you," Madeline shuddered. "He said he'd hurt us if we tried to help you. I told him I didn't care, and I tried to go into the room once, and he hit me."
"So you think it's a good idea to do what you do because of a certain someone's son?" Nell asked as Madeline sniffed softly. "Oh Madeline..."
"Jimmy still in trouble?" Madeline asked with a sniff, remembering him well before shuddering in fear.
"Oh, yes, Jimmy's still in trouble for everything he did to us," Nell's grip on her sister tightened. "He'll rot in the castle dungeon until Elena and Gabby are eighteen, and when that day comes, he'll be executed."
"What about Beth and Robby?" Madeline asked.
"Don't worry, they were caught and they'll be executed too," Nell assured her.
"Do you talk to him? Do you talk about Elena and Gabby?" Madeline wondered, looking down in shame.
"Yes. I do. He'll never for the life of him see his daughters!" Nell shouted, taking Madeline in her arms. "I don't want Elena and Gabby hurt like we were."
"And we'll make sure to protect them from the likes of Jimmy McDonald and his family," Bobby Lee promised as he came up. "You can make sure of that."
"Bobby Lee!" Madeline cried before seeing the plates of cake with him. "Cake!"
"Bobby Lee thank you," Nell muttered with a smile. "And not just for the cake."
"You're welcome Helen. And to be honest I never want that b I mean jerk to be mentioned around the girls until you're ready to tell them," Bobby Lee promised with a smile, kissing her cheek. "And with the mystery solved we can-"
"No. Let's wait a year to have our own bundle of joy." Nell interrupted, seeing that Madeline was still with them.
"You're right, of course. And as Roland and Miranda say, good things come to those who wait," Bobby Lee smiled.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, enjoying the cake Bobby Lee had brought, then Nell suggested, "Madeline, are you ready to come back down?"
"Okay," Madeline nodded. "I'll apologize to Elena about everything I said."
"That's all we ask," Nell smiled as she and Bobby Lee hugged Madeline.
"Am I still in trouble?" Madeline asked as Nell helped her climb down.
"We'll let the grown ups decide honey," Nell said with a smile.
"But you are grown ups!" Madeline pouted with a giggle.
"Well, how about this?" Nell suggested, "There won't be any timeout for you, but you'll be grounded for a week for what you said to Elena, and how you acted. And for the entire week, you'll be responsible for her. Bobby Lee and I'll do the parts that require a grownup's attention, but you're going to watch her, play with her, and get things for her."
"And didn't Bianca say something once about a letter you had to write?" Bobby Lee asked.
"You know, that's not a bad idea," Nell agreed. "When I took Lamb-Lamb, Mama made me write you a letter of apology. I'll help you with spelling, Madeline, but that's it. And no asking James to write it for you."
"But he's so good at writing!" Madeline protested.
"That's true, but this is a writing project you'll have to do on your own," Nell said again.
8m agoMadeline frowned but hugged her sister gently before seeing Elena playing with Sofia's rabbit Clover who looked miserable.
"Cuddle bunny!" Elena cheered before looking up at Madeline. "No hit!"
"No, I'm not going to hit you, or cuddle bunny," Madeline said. "I'm sorry about what I said, Elena. Nell's making me write you a letter that explains everything, and she'll read it to you. And this week, we're going to play together."
Elena nodded. She looked happy that Madeline was going to play with her, but then something crossed her mind. "You can't go near Snow White..."
"Okay. I won't go near Snow White," Madeline agreed. "If you want to play with her, I'll get Nell or Bobby Lee to go with you and I'll wait for you outside."
Elena shook her head. "You play dress up!"
"Dress up?" Madeline asked in distraught.
"Dress up!" Elena repeated.
"Okay, we'll play dress up," Madeline resigned herself to what Elena wanted to do.
"Amber play dress up too?" Elena asked.
"She'd love that," Nell smiled. "Sofia, James, Amber, and their friends can play with you if you want them to, but Madeline is going to be by your side no matter what."
Elena nodded happily, dragging Madeline by her hand as Nell and Bobby Lee couldn't help but chuckle.
"You know maybe Zoe would like to enjoy dress up," Sandra muttered with a smile, saluting Bobby Lee with her blade.
"Yeah!" Zoe cheered, following after them.
"Good thinking," Patricia agreed as Sandra followed the group.
"I have to admit that mystery was actually fun," Nell said as Bobby Lee followed behind her and the group. "Wish we could do something like that again."
"Like for your twentieth birthday?" Bobby Lee suggested with a smirk.
"You're trying to show off your aging wife aren't you?" Nell asked with a smirk of her own.
"What do you mean aging? You don't look a day over sixteen," Bobby Lee smiled.
"Yeah, right," Nell smirked as she kissed him on the cheek.
"Helen you're eighteen. We both got a few years before we're like Mother!" Bobby Lee smirked, kissing her cheek.
"Robert! At least you have yours still!" Nell laughed softly looking at Elena and a frowning Madeline who looked like she was ready to protest the idea of being with her niece for a week.
"I know," Bobby Lee's smirk dropped. "But at least she was there to help you when Elena and Gabby were born. She told me all about it the first night. She, Bianca, Roland, and Miranda were all there for you, and Mother said that Lydia was watching over you."
"I remember," Nell muttered, smiling before laughing softly. "Though while I was sleeping through the first night, I remember dreaming that someone came in and started drawing the three of us!"
"You weren't dreaming!" Bobby Lee chuckled with a smile. "Amber came in and was drawing the three of you," he informed her, "Although, she had a little trouble concentrating due to a horrible snarling monster in the room!"
"A horrible snarling monster?" Nell repeated.
"Like this," Bobby Lee tilted his head back and pretended to snore very loudly. "I'm surprised the girls didn't wake up, but it woke me up twice that night! You of course slept right through it!"
"Robert..." Nell frowned.
"And I know you say your O'Malley bed hair is hereditary, but let's all hope and pray your snoring isn't!"
"Robert Lee Johnson, I'm warning you!"
They were cut off by Elena and Gabby giggling. "Daddy monster noise again!" Elena giggled.
"Don't worry, Love Bug; you'll hear the monster when Mommy's asleep," Bobby Lee assured her.
"Mommy monster!" Gabby giggled, hugging Nell tightly.
"I hope you don't get this in their heads Bobby Lee!" Nell snarled, trying not to frown at Gabby.
"Girls, Daddy needs a human shield," Bobby Lee said quickly, ducking behind Elena and Gabby.
"Robert, are you being nice to Helen?" Florence asked, giving him the same look she used to when he teased her when they were children.
"Yes, Mother," Bobby Lee smiled innocently.
"No he's not!" Nell whined like she had done as a child, leaving Elena and Gabby to giggle along with Zoe.
"Do they always act like this?" Zoe wondered with a chuckle.
"Oh, no; sometimes they're much worse," Florence smirked. "Robert, don't make me put you in time-out!"
"That doesn't work on me!" Bobby Lee grinned, kissing her cheek like he used to when he got in trouble for teasing Nell.
Bianca chuckled, shaking her head softly at Nell and Bobby Lee. "They're young adults but bicker like they're children."
"Roland and I do it sometimes ourselves!" Miranda chuckled with a smile. "Nell, Robert, calm down."
"But he called me a monster!" Nell pouted as Madeline handed her a dress up gown.
"Have you *heard* her snore?" Bobby Lee asked.
"I think all of DUNWIDDIE could hear that!" James smirked; he had gone into Nell and Bobby Lee's room to get something for Bianca once, and he had been startled by a loud sound, which turned out to be Nell's snoring while she was taking a nap.
"Bianca, Roland, Miranda, make them stop!" Nell whined.
"Come on you two! Enough nonsense!" Bianca chuckled, seeing Nell starting to blush. "Madeline Elizabeth, you're giving out all these clothes just for dress up?"
"Well I can't say no to Elena," Madeline scoffed, rolling her eyes at Nell for thinking of the punishment.
"We make Birdie pretty too?" Elena asked, holding a hat toward Wormwood.
"I don't know about Wormwood, but I do know that kitties are quite fashionable in hats," Sandra smiled as she found a small hat and put it on Kitty.
"Your kitty likes hats too?" Elena asked, finding a hat and putting it on Fig.
"Yes he does, and so does Ambre!" Sandra grinned.
"She tortures that poor kitty!" Robert smiled. "Yanking him up, spinning him around, making him wear hats!"
"Oh, he loves it," Patricia smiled. "She gave you that calendar of him wearing those different hats for a Wassalia present last year!"
"And he loves dancing," Sandra smiled. "He never complains when we dance in my room."
"Don't get any ideas!" Nell warned with a smirk, knowing that with Elena, ideas turned into reality.
"Snow White likes music Mommy!" Elena pouted with a frown. "She likes the kitties muse it cal!"
"You played them Cats?" Bobby Lee asked James with a laugh.
"Remember when I was playing all those cat-related songs when Elena was having a meltdown over a toy?" James asked. "Nell and I sang a song from Cats, and I made Elena that tape."
"That's right; we did sing that song," Nell smiled at the memory. "And Cedric made a copy of the tape for Gabby."
"I take James' tape out to Snow White," Elena added. "She likes hearing kitty songs."
"I'm sure she does. She and her little friends wake Clover up at night sometimes!" Sofia chuckled, patting Elena on the head.
"They sing kitty songs?!" Gabby asked with a giggle.
"I heard Elena playing her tape when she was in the stable with the kitties, and I played along with her when she said that they were singing along," Sofia invented quickly, knowing that the group hadn't been around when Wormwood got the speaking potion spilled on him. "They sounded so cute when they were singing along!"
"Just think. Elena invented her own kitty singing group!" Bobby Lee chuckled, making Nell smile down at Elena.
"Elena and the kitties!" Gabby shouted, jumping up and down.
"Ambre can be in the group too!" Elena added.
"Well, he does love to sing, but since he doesn't travel well, how about we make him an honorary member of your kitty's singing group?" Sandra suggested.
"Okay!" Elena cheered. She stared at her family and friends with a smile. "Dress up now?"
"All of us Love Bug?" Nell wondered with a smile.
"All girls!" Elena moved the box toward her.
"Don't mind if I do!" Amber smiled, taking out a feather boa.
"Okay," Sofia agreed as she found a hat that looked similar to the one she wore when she was picked to sing at the Harvest Festival.
"I call this one," Sandra called, finding a long hooded cloak.
"Look at this!" Zoe cheered as she drew out a yellow flapper-style dress that Bianca had tried to keep hidden from Nell and Bobby Lee.
"I wear this!" Gabby said as she put on a hat with a big brim.
"Now we have fashion show!" Elena cheered when all the girls had found their outfits.
"Something you'd like to tell us about Princess Zoe's dress, Bianca?" Nell teased, seeing Bianca's reaction to Zoe's discovery.
"Was it inappropriate for her?" Bobby Lee teased with a chuckle.
"Robert Lee! It's just a dress!" Bianca yelled, trying to hide a blush as Elena tugged on her dress.
"Mommy, Grand Mommy, and Miss Bianca too?" Elena wondered with a smile.
"I think I'll just watch you, sweetheart," Bianca said as she went over to a chair.
"All right, Bianca, if you won't tell them, I will," Florence said as she looked over the dress. She smiled as memories came back to her. "That was one of a set of dresses Bianca, Lydia, her friends, and I used to wear. Those dresses were worn by people called flappers. Bianca, Lydia, and I saw people wearing dresses like those, and since we liked fashion, we designed dresses that were similar to the ones we saw in the stores."
"And you wore this?" James asked.
"Oh yes," Florence grinned. "There was a dance one night, and Bianca, Lydia, Caroline, Elizabeth, Annabelle, and I made dresses to it."
"Just like Cinderella before her sisters ruined it?" Gabby asked.
"That's right, Gabby," Florence nodded. "Only ours weren't ruined by wicked stepsisters. Everyone raved about our dresses and asked where we'd gotten them. Imagine their surprise when we told them that we made them ourselves!"
"Mama did tell me a story like that once. I just thought it was a silly story to put me to sleep!" Nell chuckled, seeing the dress for herself.
"I have Lydia's somewhere Helen. It would be nice to have it passed down to you," Florence muttered with a smile. "You could wear it out to a outing between you and Robert."
"That sounds like fun!" Bobby Lee grinned. "You can make little ones for Elena and Gabby, and the three of you can wear them to a costume ball here at the castle!"
"That sounds like a great idea," Nell agreed. "Especially with Elena always following me around!"
"Like a puppy!" Elena giggled before seeing Gabby flinch. "I'm not a doggie, Gabby."
"I know," Gabby admitted. "I'm sorry, Elena."
"You get used to doggies in your own time," Elena repeated what Nell and Bobby Lee often told her.
"That's right, but you like little doggies, don't you?" Sandra asked. When Gabby nodded, she continued, "If you come to Orillia, you can meet Spike, Zoe and Ezekiel's dachshund. He loves jumping on people, and licking them."
"Like the doggies did with James?" Gabby asked, giggling as she remembered the story James told her.
"I guess so; I wasn't there when it happened with James, but Spike is friendly," Sandra replied.
Gabby shyly hugged Sandra as the thought of doggie visiting creeped up on her. She didn't want to be rude but the thought of a dog, especially an excitable one like Rex was, made her scared.
"Excuse me," Gabby muttered before tugging on Bobby Lee's pants.
"Gab-Gab, I couldn't help hearing about Spike. Roland told me about him; he was here once when we were out of town," Bobby Lee said as he picked her up. "He slept with James for his entire visit, and stayed close to him."
"That's right," James agreed. "Sandra said that even though Spike likes to jump on people, he's okay as long as someone's there to keep an eye on him."
"Just like with Jaggy?" Gabby asked.
"Exactly," James nodded.
"You don't have to meet Spike if you don't want to," Sandra added. "You can meet Ambre and our own barn cats." She knelt down to Gabby's level and whispered, "I know how you feel. I'm not crazy about big dogs myself."
"Did one bite you?" Gabby asked.
"No, but one ran at me," Sandra shuddered. "I was walking to a Buttercup meeting and a large dog started running toward me. I didn't know whether to run or hide in the closest shop."
"What did you do?" Gabby asked.
"What any person would do," Sandra grinned. "I screamed, and it ran away. The owner of the shop walked me to the Buttercups' meeting place, and the people who owned the dog came a few minutes later and apologized for letting him run loose like that."
"Wish Rex could've said sorry. Bad doggie," Gabby shuddered, trying to block him out of her mind.
"It could've been an accident Gabby," Robert assured her with a gentle smile even though he read letters about the incident. "He could've just been playing."
"Maybe," Gabby admitted. "But Jaggy's nicer than Rex."
"We heard about him, too," Robert nodded. "He sounds nice, and he's been trained as a therapy dog."
"James trained him well," Bobby Lee grinned. "Gabby's gotten used to seeing him around, but she still gets scared sometimes. We tell her to take her time to get used to him."
"That's all you can really do," Robert agreed.