I'm sorry about the girl's death, and as for Mrs. Warren not wanting to celebrate Christmas, it's just part of a character.
Jamie stared out of his window, feeling rather gloomy. His mood matched that of his surroundings, the house was dimly lit once more without a single Christmas decoration in sight nor a tree, and outside, the winter wind was howling once more.
Unlike most other 14- year olds, Jamie didn't have any gadgets of his own as his father had forbid them till he was at least 15, and therefore, he was often bored and had to resort to books or films. Today, however, no book could help take his mind off recent happenings. It was Christmas Eve. Estella died. Mrs. Warren wanted to call of Christmas.
"But no one can call off Christmas, right, Sophie?" Jamie asked his sister, who was playing with a toy on her bed. The girl just shrugged.
"Is it okay to celebrate Christmas after a recent death?" she responded.
Jamie looked out at the blizzard. He wished Jack could come along right then and there. The boy exited his room and hurried to the living room where his parents sat, conversing in low voices.
"Mom? Dad?" Jamie called.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett turned. Jamie walked over to them. "Are we really not going to have Christmas?" he asked.
"We wish we could, but we can't now," Mrs. Bennett said. "I'm sorry, Jamie."
"But Estella would've wanted us to go on with the celebrations! We can't not have Christmas this year! Why don't we just go back to Burgess?"
"Son, do you know that there's a blizzard outside? Do you think we could travel in that?" reasoned Mr. Bennett. "And your aunt is not in the mood for Christmas. Would you be if your closest companion or a good friend died right before Christmas?"
Jamie tried to imagine Jack leaving him for good right before Christmas. It did seem pretty terrible. But Jamie didn't want to just forget about Christmas. He didn't say another word and left for the library. The library and his bedroom were the two most-visited places of his in the whole manor. The place was gloomy and Jamie wondered how it would seem like, covered in Christmas decorations, with a brightly-lit tree and stockings hanging all around. It would probably still seem gloomy.
A thought crossed the boy's mind as he pushed open the large heavy (but fancy) door to the library and gazed at all the books sitting gloomily in their shelves. What if he took Christmas into his own hands? Decorated the house on his own, put up the Christmas tree and hang the stockings, perhaps with Sophie's help and what about Jack? He could get the winter spirit to help out as well, in between his busy bringing-joy-to-children schedule. If Jamie was not mistaken, his aunt kept most of the Christmas decorations in the attic.
He raced out of the library and headed to a flight of stairs which would take him to the third-floor. He wasn't very familiar with the place, but he had taken a wrong turning a few days back on the way to the bathroom and ended up near the attic. So he had a pretty vague idea of its location. He hurried down the third-floor corridor. It was the most gloomy part of the whole manor, as with only Mrs. Warren and her daughter living there, not every part of the house was visited every day. The portraits lining the walls were covered in dust and cobwebs. It seemed the servants rarely came up here. But then again, there weren't many servants. The doors were chipped and looked pretty worn. Some were shut tight, others stood ajar, revealing empty, unused, dusty rooms beyond. Jamie hurried on till he came to where a metal spiral staircase wound up, leading to the attic. He slowly ascended, wondering how he was going to bring a whole load of Christmas decorations down.
He sneezed a few times upon entering the dusty attic and brought his scarf up around the lower half of his face and began looking around all the boxes cluttered up. Opening up a few unsealed ones, he noticed that most of them held books. Fantasy books. They were from the library. And they were all here. Jamie guessed that was why there had hardly been any fantasy books in the library. He searched through a few more boxes before finally spotting a few in the corner with the words 'Christmas decorations' printed on them. Jamie was delighted to find baubles and other Christmas decorations inside the boxes. He was about to go through another box when he heard footsteps on the metal stairs leading up to the attic. He froze, wondering who it was. The footsteps grew louder and louder and then someone entered the attic.
"Master Jamie?"
The 14-year old heaved an inaudible sigh of relief as he turned to face one of the housemaids. She was looking at him in a rather curious way and noticed that some of the boxes had been opened while others had been moved around. She noticed him standing near the Christmas decorations.
"Master Jamie, you do know that your aunt has forbidden Christmas this year," she said, sighing. "Poor Miss Estella. She's always suffering, even since she was a little girl." The housemaid began shifting the boxes back to where they formerly were. "There's no use in trying to change her mind, Master Jamie. I've worked here since before Miss Estella was born and I know very well that when Mrs. Warren has made up her mind, there is nothing which can change it."
"Maybe it's possible," Jamie said. The housemaid looked up in surprise. "Maybe if we decorate the whole house and filled with festive spirit, maybe she will change her mind. You can't forbid Christmas. Probably even Santa Claus can't do that!"
The housemaid raised an eyebrow. "You believe in Santa Claus?" she asked, a small smile creeping across her face. Jamie nodded. "My dear boy, you're already fourteen, surely you don't believe in all these fairy tales any longer? I thought they were nothing but figments of our imagination."
"They're real," Jamie said, firmly. "You don't see them because you don't believe.
The housemaid smiled, shaking her head. "Oh I used to believe in them, alright. But I never saw any of them. Santa Claus? My family and I celebrated Christmas for so many consecutive years without fail; in fact, last year was the last year we celebrated Christmas together. We were never visited by Santa Claus. Easter Bunny? Well, I guess I wouldn't know much about him seeing as I don't celebrate Easter and could never be bothered about egg hunts when I was a kid, but I know for sure the Tooth Fairy isn't real. I had all my teeth till about four years ago when I threw them all away."
Jamie frowned. "But they're real. I saw them. Perhaps on Christmas night, Santa Claus will come."
The housemaid looked up at Jamie. "You remind a lot about myself when I was younger. When everyone would tell me those fairy tales weren't real, I kept insisting they were. Of course, I was proven wrong year after year." She paused as she continued moving the boxes. She reached the Christmas decorations, but Jamie blocked the way.
"I'm not just throwing my Christmas away," he said. "Just like you and your family, my family and I have never failed to celebrate Christmas every year. I'm not going to not celebrate this year."
The housemaid sighed again. "Mrs. Warren thinks celebrating Christmas will be an insult to Miss Estella's memory. Holidays have been gloomier than ever since the master died. Mrs. Warren might never celebrate Christmas again because it will always remind her of Miss Estella. But, if you really want to celebrate Christmas this year, there is someplace I should bring you to."
Jamie looked up. "Someplace? But I was talking about Christmas here! And what about the plague?"
"I seriously do not think it is the snow. Mrs. Warren has gotten it all wrong. Miss Estella is hardly ever allowed to go out anyway. And there's no way you can celebrate Christmas here, Master Jamie. Perhaps you could bring along your parents and sister to a town nearby. It is where I live and I used to go back every year for the festive season."
"You mean, join your family?"
"No, not really. You can join the townsfolk there in caroling, giving presents to the poor... after all, Christmas is a time of giving, is it not?"
"But what if my parents don't want to go? That's pretty likely seeing that they don't want to hurt Mrs. Warren, blah blah blah..."
"Why don't you think about it?" the housemaid responded. "It's between wasting Christmas and celebrating it with strangers. Get out of this attic as soon as you can, and don't move anything." With that, the housemaid left. Jamie listened to her footsteps on the metal stairs. He moved his gaze to the grimy attic window, outside where he could see the snow falling fast.
Not a very good chapter, in my opinion, but hope you liked it! So, gloomy manor or cheery town?
Thanks for reading and please review!