The dining room was very elegant, but mostly white as they entered. There were also placements for where they were sitting. Lavender was hoping next to her spot, there would be Miss Peach, but there wasn't, it was that woman, Mrs. Peacock, something about that woman bothered her for some reason, but she decided to grin and bear it.
Wadsworth stood by the table, waiting for them all to take their seats. Mrs. Peacock smiled at Lavender. Peach looked for her place at the table. Peach had been sitting next to Professor Plum, who was minding his own business. Lavender smiled at Mrs. Peacock in return. Wadsworth allowed Yvette the maid in to serve everyone shark fin soup. Peach smiled at the Professor, then looked at the soup. She felt a little ill, she liked sharks. The colonel looked unsure. Mrs. Peacock looked at the soup, wondering when to start.
"This is for the other guest, Mr. Boddy." Wadsworth stated, answering Colonel Mustard's question about the head of the table's seat.
"I thought Mr. Boddy was our host?" the ironically named Mrs. White declared.
The others agreed with her, that seemed logical. Wadsworth still seemed to ignore answering any questions about Mr. Boddy. Peach didn't touch her soup, she just couldn't risk it or even the thought of shark eaten. Mrs. Peacock looked. Lavender stared at her soup, feeling a little sick to her stomach since in her final year of high school, the science classroom next door to hers were dissecting sharks and it left a very unpleasant scent in the hallway.
Everyone was silent after they eventually ate their soup and it was very uncomfortably quiet for everyone, it seemed to be really getting to Mrs. Peacock. Peach fiddled with her napkin. Mrs. Peacock started to ramble about how she could host it a while, used to hosting parties.
Everyone else stared at Mrs. Peacock. What was that all about?
"You say you are used to being a hostess as part as your husband's work?" Mrs. White conversed.
"What does he do, ma'am?" Lavender asked, finally speaking up to talk with a complete stranger, than silence herself around other people like she used to before Katie came along in her life.
Peach folded her napkin into a frog. Mrs. Peacock was about to say, but then remembered they shouldn't tell about their normal lives.
"I know who you are," Mr. Green smirked, which got everyone else's attention. "I work in Washington too."
"Oh, so you're a politician's wife." Professor Plum concluded.
Peach looked at the woman then. Mrs. Peacock sighed, but agreed. She couldn't lie to them if they knew.
"And what do you girls do?" Professor Plum looked to Miss Peach and Lady Lavender.
"I'm not sure what to say..." Lavender said as she poked her soup with her spoon.
"I'm not in the vicinity to answer that question." Peach says softly as she made the frog hop along the table.
The others continued to discuss. Lavender looked to Peach's frog, curious of it. Peach aimed the frog at Lavender and made it jump over to her. Lavender blinked, but smiled at the frog.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm a little accident prone..." Mr. Green said quickly as he tried to wipe his drink off from Miss Scarlet after he got startled again, he seemed to be unluckier than 'Lavender' herself.
"Don't touch me." Scarlet says, lowly.
Yvette was now serving the food with help from Wadsworth with a peculiar meal, but it was never told to them what it was. Scarlet looked at the soup. Mrs. Peacock happily started to eat it. Peach looked at it, curious. Mrs. White and Professor Plum appeared to be slurping their soup. Mr. Green was being pestered about his job and he shuffled nervously, trying to keep himself quiet, it didn't help that Mrs. Peacock rambled again.
"You like to talk, huh?" Lavender spoke up as soon as Mrs. Peacock finished another one of her endless topics.
Scarlet hid a smirk. Peacock looked embarrassed a little. Peach ate quietly, to try this new soup.
"I think Mrs. Peacock suffers from what we call 'pressure of speech'." Professor Plum diagnosed.
"We?" That got Miss Scarlet's attention. "Who's we? Are you a shrink?"
Lavender looked back down as no one was now talking to her and looked to Peach, trying to cheer up a little. Peacock ate. Peach grimanced, but pulled a funny face to Lavender.
Lavender snickered, putting her hand to her face. The adults kept talking about their jobs which kind of bored the girls, but then Wadsworth left to bring in the other guest, who was behind him and wasn't dressed formally like them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mr. Boddy?" Wadsworth came in with the man who they had waited for longly.
Peacock, Mustard and the others looked. Peach looked over to Mr Boddy. She didn't recognize the guy. Wadsworth had Mr. Boddy sit down at the head of the table. Boddy looked at everyone, he didn't look like the mansion type, this could not have been his place. Lavender merely glanced, unsure of what to say or do around him.
"What are they all doin' here?" Boddy looked around, then his eyes landed on Miss Peach. "Well, hello there..."
Peach looked at him and glanced away nervous of the stare, blushing slightly at the attention.
"Okay, someone wanna tell me why we're all here?" Lady Lavender couldn't hold it in any longer, she had to know now.
"Well, I believe you all received a letter," Wadsworth fiddled with papers taking his own out. "My letter says, 'It will be to your advantage to be present on this date because a Mr. Boddy will bring to an end a certain long-standing confidential and painful financial liability'. It is signed, "A friend."
Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet agreed, also getting such letters. Peach looked at Lavender wondering if their letter had been the same or something different. Lavender saw something similar on their letter, they may have been the same, but right now she couldn't think, she left their invitation back home.
"No thanks, Yvette, I just ate." Boddy told the maid.
Yvette backed up a step, curtsying. Peach glanced at Mr Boddy. She felt off put by him a little. Wadsworth briefly discussed Mr. Boddy's invitation if it said the same thing, which he declined.
"Can I interest any of you in fruit or dessert?" Wadsworth offered to the nearly dead crowd as they stared back at him.
Peach wondered what the dessert was. She would've spoke up, but felt nervous a little.
Wadsworth glanced at her, then looked to everyone in the room. "In that case, may I suggest we adjourn to the study for coffee and brandy?"
Lavender looked disgusted at both, but got up and followed the others into this study room after Wadsworth led them into there. Peach followed too, sticking by Lavender.
The study looked to be the most comfortable room of the house as everyone took a seat and lit up their smokes. Plum with his cigar, Scarlet with her cigarette... Wadsworth had mentioned they would reveal their host, but they saw no one new and only each other that they were already acquainted with. What a confusing evening so far.
"Well, there's no one here." Mr. Green observed.
"Please help yourself to some brandy and be seated." Wadsworth instructed.
Lavender looked at the book shelf in curiosity. Peach sat down, looking around. Professor Plum and Miss Scarlet shared a smoke together as they relaxed a little in the study.
Lavender continued to look around in the bookshelf and couldn't find any interesting books that caught her attention, she pouted and walked off. "Boring..." she mumbled towards Miss Peach about the book selection.
Peach chuckled quietly.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Wadsworth returned their attention to him after opening an envelope. "I'm instructed to you what you all have in common with each other. Unless... You would care to do the honors, Mr. Boddy?"
"Why me?" Boddy got defensive. "They know who I am?"
Wadsworth smirked at him. "I don't think so, you've never identified yourself to them, I believe."
"It's a hoax!" Mr. Boddy stood up and started to run. "I suggest we all leave!"
"I'm sorry, sir, but you cannot leave this house!" Wadsworth chased after him.
The others watched them go, then they looked back plainly.
"He's an interesting man..." Lavender blushed, referring to the butler and not the plain man in the highly civilized group. "Kinda... Sorta..."
Katie giggled quietly.
Lavender glanced at her, looking away awkwardly from the other guests who seemed to have 'taken her hint'. "What?"
"I don't blame you..." Mr. Green mumbled under his breath.
"Nothing." Peach says quietly, smiling. She looked at the door.
Lavender went to get close with Peach as the other guests were minding their own business. Peach smiled at her friend. The other guests could hear Wadsworth and Mr. Boddy arguing a bit. Mrs. White looked a bit concerned and suggested they all go see to it. Lavender stood with Peach for when they would go. Peach went straight ahead.
The other guests went to see the source of the argument between the two men.
"This is an outrage!" Mr. Boddy yelled. "You can't hold us prisoner!"
The other guests agreed to this, even if they didn't fully understand the situation.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please, return to the study," Wadsworth demanded sharply. "Everything will be explained. You too, Mr. Boddy."
Mr. Boddy then continued to try and make an escape, despite the butler's constant protests. Peach looked at them. She prepared to move back to the study.
"What's with that guy?" Lavender whispered as she followed Peach and the others back into the study as instructed.
Mr. Boddy and Wadsworth were slowly behind them all.
"I don't know..." Peach says softly. She went and sat down.
Mr. Green was looking at the bookshelf himself while Peach and Lavender went to join them.
Miss Scarlet glanced at the girls. "Who invited you two anyway? Only people of high class like us folk are allowed in."
"We received a letter too... we don't know why though" Peach says. "And who said we aren't high class?" She asks, crossing her arms.
Mustard looked at them.
Scarlet merely laughed at them. "Please..."
"Now, now, give them a chance." Mrs. White insisted, giving the girls a little bit more of a chance now, even if she seemed a bit rude to them before.
Lavender smiled small to the woman in black, at least someone was being supportive.
"Well, I like their company, they seem like harmless women." Mr. Green included, much to Scarlet's annoyance.
Peach smiled at Mr. Green. She liked him too. He was friendly. Mustard snorted.
Wadsworth came in, which caused instant tension in the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, you all have one thing in common, you're all being blackmailed. For some considerable time, all of you have been paying what you can afford and, in some cases, more than you can afford to someone who threatens to expose you. And none of you know who's blackmailing you, do you?"
'Blackmailed?' Peach thinks to herself. She didn't know about blackmail.
Mustard agreed, he didn't. Mrs. Peacock gave a rather long speech about how she wasn't and refused to accept it.
"Anyone else wish to deny it?" Wadsworth looked at all of them.
The guests were all quiet like students in a classroom just as their strict teacher returned for lessons. Peach looked confused a little, but annoyed at the fact of blackmail. Lavender herself felt shrunken in her seat. Professor Plum came out with his confession of how he would have affairs with his female patients. Miss Scarlet didn't seem to be bothered with what she was being blackmailed for like a naughty vixen. Mrs. White then added that her husband disappeared on mysterious circumstances, only because he was a magician and wasn't very good at his job which is why he never came back and thought all men should be like Kleenex's: Soft, strong, and disposable.
"I have something to say..." Mr. Green spoke up nervously, then decided to get this off his chest, though he was worried what the others would think of him.
Peach looked at him and went to pat his hand to give him courage.
Mr. Green smiled softly to her, then decided to get it over with. "I'm not going to wait for Wadsworth to unmask me... I work for the state department... And I'm a homosexual."
Wadsworth's eyes widened as he flipped through the papers while everyone else looked disgusted. Lavender was not one of them, she was not angry or annoyed with his life decision at all.
Peach smiled. "That was very brave." she mouths to him.
Mr. Green smiled at Peach and Lavender. "I feel no personal shame or guilt about this, but I must keep it a secret or I will lose my job on the security grounds... Thank you..." He sat back down, then smiled again, feeling confident.
Professor Plum glanced at him, then quickly stood up, away from him. "Well, that just leaves Mr. Boddy."
"Yeah, what're you hiding?" Lavender glanced to the mysterious man.
"Oh, haven't you guessed?" Wadsworth replied nearly sarcastically. "He works for Arthur Slugworth and he's the one who's blackmailing you."
Thunder and lightning suddenly came.