Liz wanted Victoria's first dinner in the house to be as close to normal and comfortable as Collinwood had to offer. It wouldn't do to scare her away on her first evening here. As usual though, no one else in the house seemed terribly on board with the idea.

Roger sat down at the table and proceeded to give Victoria the most lecherous look Liz had ever seen him give, which was quite the accomplishment. Indeed the leering didn't let up for the entire meal.

Carolyn has apparently taken an extra care to be as obstinate as a teenager could possibly be.

They had settled in over yet another charred brick of pot roast courtesy of drunken Willie, and David…poor David.

David was David, bless his heart, and at least he and Vicky seemed to like each other, which was ultimately the most important thing. Although Liz would have been a little happier had Vicky not already taken to encouraging David in undoing all of Julia's hard work with him.

Julia.

After the way she had behaved earlier in the evening and the way she was presenting herself at dinner, Liz almost wanted to turn to David and say that she had personally spoken with his dead mother that morning just to spite Julia.

But she didn't though. Ever the only calm and collected person in the house, she bit her tongue and rolled her eyes.

She knew it was best for David, and using him to get at her…Julia was the sort of juvenile thing her dead-weight brother would do, and besides, somebody needed to look out for the boy. And annoyingly enough, she didn't really want to undo the arguable progress Julia had made with the boy. It was subtle and slow-going, but it was noticeable if you knew what one knew what they were looking for. For instance, they had managed to go seven months without a single patricidal incident.

Even if the progress weren't there, Julia was still her friend; her friend who was clever and funny, observant and insightful, and even (under layers of a drunken cynicism) caring. Julia was also a spectacular bedmate who after a few quick barbs could fuck Elizabeth into the ground, which could very often be exactly what was called for to alleviate the worries of a long day plagued by Collins luck.

So it was very much a shame that Julia had decided to behave so childishly about the new governess, even if, loathe as she would be to admit it, Elizabeth had hired the pretty young girl as a bit of a barb to her vanity obsessed housemate. But to be fair: the girl was highly qualified otherwise.