Rose was the first to notice that John was no longer among them. She held up her hand, cutting Pete off in mid-rant, "where is he?" she asked looking around the room.
The butler had just come back, and was clearing some of the thrown dishes and overturned glass wear, "the young man went for a walk," he offered as he softly hiccupped, expelling a slightly whiskey scented puff of air.
Rose leaned in close to the man, this walk, did it involve a bit of shoring up beforehand? she asked quietly.
The butler looked at her, sizing her up, trying to decide how much to confide in her, then shrugged, he had a wee drop, he held up his fingers to indicate a small-ish measure.
At that Rose was out the door of the dining room and off in search of John.
He wasn t too hard to find, he was still sitting on the floor of the butler s pantry with a strange half grin on his face and his eyes unfocused and blurry.
You are drunk, Rose declared as she tried to help him into more upright position.
Rose! he laughed, and tried to embrace her but his doubled vision made him instead elbow her in the chest and almost knock her over.
Come on, she grunted, pulling him up to his feet, let s get you into bed.
Is it bed time already? he slurred, I thought it was he broke off with a frown, um not really sure what time it is to be honest.
Now there s a surprise, Rose shot back. Once he was mostly standing she put his arm around her shoulders and her hand around his waist, let s go the back way, really don t think you re fit for company.
The stairs were a challenge and several times along the way Rose had to grab on to the railing to stop the two of them tumbling down the curving staircase. She was covered in sweat as she finally managed to get John onto his bed, and coaxed him to lie down.
Why is the room spinning? he asked holding onto the bed as if he expected to go flying off at any time.
It s not spinning, she smiled down and him, brushing the hair out of his face, your head is spinning from the drink.
I don t think I want to do that again, he closed his eyes, tasted nasty and it makes me feel a bit he stopped and went pale.
Sick? Rose prompted.
He clamped his mouth shut in a desperate attempt to keep himself from retching but Rose knew it was inevitable and ran to the bathroom to fetch a waste basket.
After things had settled to just the dry heaves, Rose wiped his face with a cool cloth and got him to lie back down again, you re going to feel like hell in the morning, she sighed, snuggling in close to him as he drifted off into an uneasy alcohol soaked sleep.
John woke sometime in the early hours of the morning; his mouth felt like he had been gargling with sand and his head was pounding in time with his one heart. This was all made tolerable by the realisation that Rose was holding him in her arms.
At first he didn t know where he was, but once that was sorted he couldn t recall how he had gotten from the pantry to this room. Closing his eyes, partially in the vain hope that it would lessen his headache, and partially to try to remember he tried to work it all out.
It was no use, he decided, and letting Rose s warm embrace take him back to dreamland he hoped when he woke again, he d feel less like he d been thrown down a flight of stairs, and be able to enjoy Rose s company.