Chapter 4- Visitor!
A/N: I'm not very thrilled with this chapter. If you don't like it, I'll agree. I've been pretty busy with school and all that good stuff so... enjoy!
A/N 2: Serena: Sorry I didn't e-mail this to you. I just really wanted to get it up!
Dinner is a very silent affiar. Cecily, Martha and Elizabeth are silently smarting. I am carefully studing my food. Mashed potatoes can be very interesting if you look hard enough.
Ann eats as she normally does, although she sometimes looks at me, shakes her head and concertrates on cutting her roast beef into small lady-like bites. Felicity keeps on shooting dark looks in the direction of Cecily, Martha, Elizabeth and sometimes Mrs. Nightwing, who appears oblivous to it. The younger girls feel the tension between and do their best to be quiet, as much as fifty girls can be quiet.
As always, after dinner we are ushered into the great hall for 'valuable socializing time' as Kartik so delicatly put it. I sigh as I settle into a chair in Felicity's private section. Ann slides into the chair across from me and says "What a day."
"You can say that again." I close my eyes and think about Karik... but not for long. Ann repeats "what a day" and Feicity decides to throw a pillow at her... or so I think because of the squeals. I open my eyes as Ann retaliates, throwing an even larger pillow at Fee. She shrieks even louder than Ann. Not wanting to be left out, I grab a pillow and throw it at whoevers closest to me. That would be Ann. Pretty soon, we hitting each other with all of these pillows and laughing, as well as screaming, when one gets caught on one of my hairpins. The expensive silk rips, sending feathers flying everywhere. It also manges to dislodge other pins, and my unruly hair comes undone.
Attracted by our screams, we have a group of people watching us. In the front are Cecily, Martha and Elizabeth, tight lipped with dissapporval... and maybe jesously? Behind them, the younger girls are trying to get past and catch us proper girls misbehaving. Looking even farther down into the great hall, near the middle of the room, I spot Mrs. Nightwing talking to a man. With a start, I reconize him. It's Tom
Ann and Fee notice that I am no longer interested in pillows and look at where I am looking. "Is that?" Ann says nervously. "I-i-i-i-t has to b-b-be."
"Yes. It's my br-mmph!" Felicity's hand clamps over my mouth suddenly. "Quiet!" She hisses, jerking her head at the crowd. "You want them to know?"
Our crowd is giggling at us...except for the front three. They are studing Tom. "I think he's handsome." Cecliy states, looking directly at Tom.
"Oh yes, he is quite handsome isn't he?" Martha simpers. Elizabeth checks to make sure her hair is fine. Ann taps my shoulder and I turn to face her, forgeting Fee's hand. I seem to be doing a lot of forgeting lately. "Ow." I say quite loudly after she drops her hand with a shurg. "Your own fault." She says.
Ann hands me the pins that came loose from my hair. I fix it as well as I can, without a mirror. Martha, Cecily and Elizabeths comments about my brother are becoming unbearable at this point. "For heaven's sake..." I mutter as I shove the last pin in my hair. I force myself through the gaggle of girls. For a bit of fun with the grusome threesome (you have to know who I'm talking about) I say "Tom!" and walk up to him and give him a hug. He stiffens for a bit and then hugs me back. I feel the dissapointment from the corner and say "It's great to see you again brother."
For some reason, the disapointment grew in intensity...
"Good to see you again, Gemma." Tom steps back and looks at me. "You look well... except for this" his hand goes to the gash on my hairline "and these." He brushes off some feathers.
"Oh, those." I laugh a nervous laugh. "I was just having fun with my friends, Miss Bradshaw and Miss Worthington. Bit of school-girl fun really." I hear a snort of very unladylike laughter that I know came from Felicity.
"I see..." he raises his eyebrows at me. "Who instigated this 'fun'?"
"Um..." I see Mrs. Nightwing looking at me. Oh, blast. I have no idea what to do. I can tell Tom about our pillow fight and have Mrs. Nightwing punish us. I can not say anything and still get punished for not answering my guest. "Would you like some tea, Tom?" I think that that is the safest course, remembering Mrs. Nightwing's scene of decroum. "You must be cold from you ride over here."
"Tea, yes. That sounds lovely." Tom sounds impatient. I tell a maid to bring tea into the parlor and I lead him into there.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?" I sit down on an overstuffed, but still uncomfortable, chair. Tom takes the sofa. He laughs and says, "Do I need an occasion to come to see my sister?"
Yes."Tom, wh-"
"Ah. Look, tea!" The maid comes in and sets down the set and backs out quietly. "I forget, Gemma. How do you like your tea? Do you milk, sugar, or honey?" He busies himself over the cups with all the enthusiasm of a lonely spinster who has just gotten an unexpected visitor.
"Tom." I still his hand. He looks up at me. "What happened?"
He sighs and leans into the sofa. "It's father." He says quietly. "Something's wrong."
A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger. I just really wanted to get this chapter done. I'll explain more in the next chapter. I've just started High school and I have honors classes and TONS of homework, not to mention, making stage band, so... (sorry if I sound like I'm complaining!)