"Now, let's try the tea" Ms. Lara began with a smile. Caroline strained to find one of her own, and fought hard not to let her eyes narrow at the feeling the smile had caused.
Ms. Lara took her hand and led her inside, past a very beautiful wooden door. Caroline hastened to see the servants inside had quite pretty uniforms.
"We have wonderful tea selections" Ms. Lara was saying. "I'll have one of the niggers bring a tray."
Caroline nodded, and sat on the chair Lara was now pointing to.
"Cora! Tea!" she bellowed, and even rang a tiny, beautiful, porcelain bell that had lain on the tea table.
Caroline looked around, but the home really seemed quite similar to her own. She had no doubts they had brought the same decorator in, and that he had acquired the furniture in the very same expensive European store in Philadelphia (a fact she knew from her mother's constant bragging).
She watched as the servant entered the parlor only moments later, a silver tray in her hands. Another servant followed behind her, with saucers for sugar and milk. Ms. Lara had them place the trays on the table and shooed them away.
"Let our lessons begin" she smiled widely. Caroline forced herself not to frown again.
"Miss Hamilton, would you care for tea?" she asked, taking the teapot in her hands, her tone changing to a more pompous one.
Caroline shook her thoughts away, and smiled curtly.
"Oh, thank you Ms. Lara, I shall have no tea"
She decided to deliberately omit the part where 'proper ladies' turned their cups upside down, to give the widow something to ramble about.
"Aha! Now see, if you don't want tea, you simply—"
Caroline followed along with her instructions but, for the life of her, could not make the back of her mind stop wondering how much time sunset would take to arrive.
After a couple of minutes in which Ms. Lara talked, and talked some more, she decided to get distracted by trying to guess if the sound she was hearing was a carriage, or a cow plowing the patch of dirt she had seen outside.
The door suddenly opened and Ms. Lara, Caroline noticed curiously, jumped back from the table slightly.
"Ms. Candie—"
"You do not barge in here like that!" she yapped, abandoning the spoon and walking towards the slave.
Caroline regarded them both, forgetting about the movement outside.
"A'm sorry ma'am, but Stephen said to come tell you that Monsieur Candie's carriage is coming"
Lara's hands clasped quite funnily in front of her mouth, and her lips slightly opened. It reminded Caroline of the atrocious plays the her brother's school often made, where they had one of the boys play horribly exaggerated princesses. She tried to pass her snort as a cough, but Ms. Lara seemed to not have payed attention.
"Oh, how wonderful! He was not expected back until tomorrow! Come, Caroline"
The elder woman grabbed and pulled on her hand harshly, and Caroline only had a spare second to hastily place the cup on the table, glancing back at the black woman one time before following Lara's quick steps.
She nervously remembered the pages on her old etiquette book, and chanted to herself, making sure she would use the correct meeting expression:
"Proper etiquette calls for a pleasant 'How do you do?'
upon meeting a new acquaintance."
How do you do? How do you do? How do you do?
"There he is!" Lara explained, finally releasing her hand, and fumbled with her dress instead, trying to straighten the wrinkles that her maid had ironed the night before. "Don't be shy"
"No, Ms. Lara", Caroline managed.
The ceiling-less carriage, (a wagon, really) stopped straight ahead of them but Ms. Lara waited, until the same black man that had helped Caroline out of her own carriage caught two very big dogs, before moving towards it.
"Calvin!" she exclaimed sweetly, opening her arms to greet him, though he was still inside the wagon, quite a few feet away from her.
Caroline wasn't sure whether she should follow the lady or not, and she awkwardly looked at the black man, who was glaring at her already. She dropped her gaze to the ground, and rubbed a couple of tiny stones against the dirt with her shoe.
Suddenly, though a very awkward hour seemed to have gone by, Ms. Lara and Mr. Candie were walking towards her, and she straightened her back, and discreetly wiped her hands on her skirt.
"This is she!", Ms. Lara's yappy voice was telling the man. Once they were very near her, she added. "Caroline, this is my brother, Monsieur Calvin Candie"
He met her by climbing the last step of the porch, and Caroline did a small curtsey, offering her hand as she nervously repeated:
"Monsieur Candie"
"How lovely" he began, pausing smoothly, glancing at her from over her hand, which he kissed. "-to meet you, Miss Hamilton"
She looked at him and spurted:
"Nice to meet you, too"
Mr. Candie chuckled, and a split second later, Lara did too.
"We say 'How do you do?', Caroline" she said, and Caroline didn't like her knowitall tone at all.
She fetched her hand back from Candie's and nodded, scolding herself for letting it slip.
"Caroline's here for me to teach her the lessons" Lara explained, touching her brother's arm. "Ain't that precious?"
Caroline clutched her skirt angrily, and she felt her jaw tighten at the sound of her tone. She was getting really tired of it, and very fast.
But Mr. Candie's was lighter, and after he gave a small snort, he said:
"Yes, I'm sure the poor girl is delighted"
Caroline wasn't sure if he had winked at her, or if he had quite the awkward way to blink, because a split second later, he was facing his sister again, as though he had done nothing.
"Let's go inside, ladies" Calvin suddenly smirked. He swiftly reached into the inside of his coat, and pulled out a long cigarrette holder that he placed to the right side of his mouth.
He then offered his right arm to his sister, who beamed and hooked her fingers around the inside of his elbow.
"Miss Caroline?"
She blinked but caught him smiling at her, offering his elbow for her to take. She gave him a small one in return, and gingerly placed her hand on his crook. Clutching the cigarette between his teeth, he beamed.
His eyes were one of the prettiest she had seen, but she hastily wondered why she'd noticed them so quickly, when his teeth gave quite the bad impression.
And Calvin Candie led then inside, and suddenly Caroline forgot about her hurry for the sunset to come.
.
