CHARLES

As I waited with Dad for our guests to arrive, I found myself pacing furiously. Almost everyone was here, but a few people were running a bit late. Nervously I looked into the hall mirror again for what must have been the ten thousandth time and combed my fingers through my dark hair. Dad must have seen me because I heard him laugh and come up behind me.
"Charles, I've never seen you like this...calm down." He said in his gentle way. I turned to him, desperately.
"What if she doesn't come? Then what?" I knew I sounded like an immature child, but maybe earlier had been just a fluke. Maybe she didn't really want to come at all and was just being nice to get rid of me. Dad put a hand on my shoulder.
"If she doesn't come, then it's her loss Charles. You will just move on..." He said and I shook my head.
"I don't know if I can..."

He chuckled,
"You know who you remind me of?" He asked with a grin and I could only look at him.
"Who?"
"Your mother. She always used to get herself worked up when she was worried and when things finally turned out all right she would laugh at her silliness." His eyes glistened with tears at the thought of Mother. "I do miss her so." He said wistfully and I smiled sadly.
"Me too Dad..." Suddenly someone cleared their throat in the doorway and both of us turned to see her standing there in her delicate blue dress. I could have sworn I heard Dad say under his breath,
"If I hadn't known better I could have sworn it was..." He stopped suddenly and smiled politely at her.
"Hello dear," He said, heading toward the dining room. "Dinner will be served very soon, so don't wander far." I nodded at him and turned to her. She smiled shyly and began to look around the hall.

"Your house is...beautiful..." She said, in awe looking at high ceiling and marble floor.
"Thank you..." I said, unsure of what else to say to her. We stood just in silence for a few minutes, neither of us meeting the other's eyes.
"I...um. I was worried you wouldn't come..." I said hesitantly and she laughed, nervously.
"Well, I suppose I hadn't really given you reason to think I would..." She looked a bit embarrassed and flushed, "I really am sorry about being so rude to you...um...Charles." I walked toward her,
"As I said, it never happened." She smiled again and looked at her feet. Suddenly I saw her jump and noticed Aida was rubbing along Madeleine's feet.
"That's just Aida...my cat." I said, and she nodded, looking a bit relieved.
"Will she bite me?" Maddie asked and I shook my head as she crouched down and scratched behind Aida's ears, making her purr.

"She's a good girl..." I said as Aida grew bored and slinked away gracefully.
"She really is a gorgeous creature." Maddie said, smiling. "Sorry we're late. Deirdre and her brother were having a fight and took ten extra minutes to get out the door."

"That's quite alright." I said, laughing at Deirdre and Alex fighting. Alex was a year older than Genevieve and loved to aggravate his sister. He drove Aunt Meg and her husband William crazy, but Charles could safely say their home was never dull. I was just so relieved that Maddie hadn't decided not to come. I didn't know what exactly it was that I felt for her, but I knew it wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced.
"Well, we had better get into the dining room before dinner comes out."I said and offered her my arm, which she took, and I could feel her arm shaking a bit.

"Well there you two are! We thought you might have gotten lost on your way in here..." Gabe said, sitting across the table from my cousin Camille and winked at her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him.
"Gabriel Ames, when are you going to grow up?" She asked him and he cringed.
"Ugh, don't call me Gabriel, you know I hate that!" He whined as his mother Laura came up behind him and kissed him on the cheek.
"You don't hate the name I so carefully picked out for my baby boy, do you?" She laughed messing up his blonde curls.
"Mo-ther!" He said, grinning and kissing her cheek too.

Aunt Laney came into the room and sat next to Uncle Garrett near where Dad was sitting.
"Mother and Papa are on their way..." She said to Dad, who nodded. All of the seats at the table were filled except for two seats beside each other in the middle. I gestured for Maddie to sit and sat next to her. She was now between Gabe and I. He leaned over to her and said with a grin,
pointing to his cheek,
"Got these scars when a few thugs were harassing some poor innocent girls...they got me good but at least the girls got away safely." He said, and I shot him a look of death.
"Gabriel Ames!" Laura cried from her seat near Aunt Laney as Maddie just looked at him and I wasn't sure if she believed him or not. Suddenly she grinned.
"That's the biggest load of bull I've ever heard." He looked surprised and winked at me, but I still glared at him. He shrugged.
"She's bright!" He exclaimed and Camille grumbled something under her breath at him across from us.

"Is there something you would like to share with the whole class Miss Reynolds?" He prodded her and her blue eyes shot fire at him like bullets. Henry Ames looked up at his son and tried to hold back a laugh as he said,
"Gabe, you are twenty-eight years old. Please act like it." Aunt Laney laughed,
"He's just like you, you know..." She pointed at him and laughed with Laura and Aunt Meg. Dad cleared his throat, trying to get everyone's attention.
"I just wanted to thank you all for coming here tonight to celebrate Charles's twenty-fifth birthday and it is just so great to have all of our friends and family together."
"Well, almost all of your family!" Came a voice as everyone turned to see my Grandparents standing there along with my great uncle, Christophe.

I stood to give them all a quick hug as Uncle Chris gave Aunt Laney a peck on the cheek.
"How are things, dear?" He asked and she nodded.
"Fine, fine...it's good to see you Chris." She said, motioning for them all to sit down. The truth was, Aunt Laney didn't call him "Uncle" because he wasn't her uncle. He was her biological father. Still she couldn't call him "Father" or "Papa" because Grandpa Georges was the man who had raised her. I still didn't know the whole story, but Dad has told me bits and pieces. Still, I love them all. They're my family. My cousin Dan was sitting across from Deirdre and he was discreetly trying to look at her without her noticing. He'd developed a crush on her since he'd noticed she was no longer an awkward young girl but a developed twenty-one year old woman.

After dinner, I asked Maddie if she wanted to leave the chaos of the post dinner chatter and she'd agreed kindly, taking my arm as I took her into the library.
"Your family is great you know..." She said, looking a bit sad.
"Thanks," I said nodding. They really were great. She turned to trail her finger along the glossy edge of the piano.
"I don't have any family..." She said quietly, sitting softly on the bench. I sat beside her, feeling horrible for flaunting my family to her.
"I'm so sorry..." I said, toying with the idea of taking her hand. I opted not to for fear she would pull away.
"Don't be," She said, sighing, "It's better to be alone anyways...at least I don't know what I'm missing."

I stared at her, but she wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You can't mean that...you would really choose to be alone?" I asked her, and she shrugged looking at me seriously.
"Honestly, Charles. Who would want me? First of all I am an orphan. Second, I am a ballet dancer at an opera house, and third, I am not pure." I was taken aback by the third confession. How could someone like her not be pure? It just didn't make sense. She sighed.
"The man I worked for before I came to the opera house, he let me stay in his café at night, but for...for a price." She said, closing her eyes at the memory.
"For you..." I said, finishing for her and she nodded painfully. "How long did this go on?" I asked her, horrified.
"From the time I was seven until I was twelve so five years..." She murmured. "I can still remember every detail of his face. His fat cheeks and double chin covered in stubble. And his breath. It always smelled like alcohol."

She gulped, staring straight ahead. I could only look at her, horrified. What kind of people treated children like that?
"Who was he?" I asked her, wondering if I knew him. She almost whispered.
"Monsieur Louis Dupont." I didn't know the man, to my relief and only nodded at her.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" I asked her and she shrugged.
"Who would have cared? They just would have hauled me into an orphanage and I vowed never to see the inside of one. He finally just threw me out one winter and here I am...Madame Giry saved me." I closed my eyes, shivering at the image of a young girl wandering the cold streets of Paris after dark.
"Why am I even telling you this?" She said aloud, looking upset. "I hardly know you..."
"Maybe we knew each other in another life..." I offered with a small smile and she shook her head.
"I'm sorry for rambling...I really am not looking for pity." She muttered and I leaned closer to her.
"Pity you shall not receive but only admiration. You are one of the strongest people I have ever met Maddie." I said and she shrugged, looking away.
"I only did what I had to for my survival. That doesn't make me strong."
"Yes it does..." Even closer I leaned and she turned to look at me. Her big hazel eyes were surrounded by long dark lashes. I stared down at her perfectly formed lips as her eyes began to close. That beautiful mouth had pouted and was waiting for me to finish what I had begun as I wanted to so badly. Instead I froze, my eyes opening suddenly. She opened her eyes too, looking confused. She backed away, obviously a bit hurt.
"What's wrong?" She asked uneasily and I sighed, trying to get enough oxygen in my lungs to answer her.
"I...um..." I sighed again. "I've never done this before."