FicWad

6. The Dinner Party

I smiled widely. It was Jim; even though his face was shaved and his hair cropped short, it was impossible to mistake those gray eyes. He stared carefully at me for a moment.

“Yes? I’m sorry, but who are you?” He asked, confused.

“What? You mean you don’t recognize the horribly disfigured nose and the ‘characteristic’ scar on my forehead?” I teased. His eyes popped.

“Imari!” His face was trying to show several emotions at once. “You’re—how did you—what happened—look at you—why didn’t you—! Yes!” he said finally resolving on what he wanted to say first. He took two angry steps toward me. “Why didn’t you stay on the ship?”

I leaned back, feeling his anger radiating off of him.

“I was bored so I just went out for a walk.”

“And you just happened to walk twenty miles without noticing?” He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for an explanation.

“No, of course not. Nicholas Bryant wanted to help me after he thought I was trying to kill myself.” I smacked myself inwardly for saying it.

“What?! Kill yourself?! What exactly were you doing?!” His fists moved to his hips.

“I was just cliff diving. There was this really good swimming spot and—”

“I swear that I’ll never understand how your head works!” He ran a hand over his short hair. “You accepted his offer without knowing a single thing about him? How could you be so foolish?” He shook his hands at me.

He’s very expressive with his hands, isn’t he? I smiled to myself.

“Now what? Why are you smiling? This isn’t something to be laughing about!”

I giggled.

“I’m sorry Jim! I’m just so glad you’re here; I was really worried.”

“You were worried? I was the one who had to go through the shock of finding that you had left without a trace and without a word to Barbosa!”

“Barbosa was still on the ship?” I asked surprised.

“Of course! Did you think that I would leave you completely alone?”

I watched his frustrated eyes for an instant before I looked down at the ground.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I should have known Jim better than that.

“Now what’s this about my—”

“What is it, James?” We both looked over to see Lord Bryant striding towards us.

“James?” I asked looking at Jim.

“What could possibly be so important that you have to drag me away from my guests?” Nicholas seemed to not see me. He held his head high and he was literally looking down his nose at Jim. The tension between them was growing thick.

“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, sir, but,” Jim looked over at me hesitantly, then continued, “the matter has just been resolved.”

Nicholas sniffed. “Such annoyance.” he whispered. He turned to walk away and noticed me standing awkwardly to the side. He smiled brightly. “Ah! Miss Russel, what a fine picture you are! The apparel of a lady suits you. But why should it not? Shall I introduce you to my guests?” He held out his arm. I looked uncertainly at Jim. His angry gaze was focused on the extended arm. Nicholas noticed my hesitancy. He lowered his arm, stiffly.

“Well, I suppose it can not be avoided,” he grumbled. “Miss Russel, let me present to you my son, James Bryant.”

Whoa! What?

“I didn’t know your real name was James!” I said surprised. The name ‘James’ was such a mature name. Weird.

“Well, Jim is short for James. I assumed you already knew.” Jim smiled innocently at me, making me blush foolishly.

Jim—James…duh!

“What?” Nicholas said unexpectedly. “You have met before?”

“Yes,” said Jim, frowning again.

“Have you indeed? Well, I hope nothing will come of it.”

“And when did you meet her, sir?” Jim’s dark face gave me the chills. There was definitely something going on between these two.

“On the road today.”

“And so you decided to just take her home like some lost animal?”

“No indeed. She seemed to know exactly where she was and what she was doing. I merely offered to repay her for a small misunderstanding we had by taking her here to Harrington for a good meal.”

“And what will happen to her after that, sir?”

Nicholas grabbed my hand and placed it on his arm. “That is none of your concern.” He smiled strangely as he said it. He led me to a new room and Jim followed closely behind. The room was full of people, men and women, and they all looked up as we entered, though they quickly returned to their individual conversations. As Nicholas led me to the first group of people I noticed that Jim went silently to another and sat down next to a beautiful woman with hazelnut brown hair.

Jim’s Sandra, I thought sullenly.

“And who is this lovely creature, Lord Bryant?” said an elderly lady with a fat calico sleeping on her lap.

“Mrs. Sullivan, let me introduce to you, Miss Imari Russel.” He let my hand go and I smiled awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

“Imari? What an unusual name.”

“Yeah, well, my parents were very unusual, so it was fine with them.” I heard a small snort, as if some one was suppressing a laugh. To the side, sitting next to another lady, who was maybe in her late thirties and was much thinner than the first, was Anthony. He was trying to rub away the smile on his lips. He sat up straight and his eyes smiled at me. Nicholas introduced me to the others quickly—he seemed not to like long introductions because after I learned the name of one he moved on to the next immediately. Mrs. Sullivan was sitting next to her plump husband, Mr. Sullivan and I was told that they had brought their children with them and they were staying in the nursery on the top floor so as not to disturb the other house guests. Anthony was sitting next to his mother, Mrs. Blaine, who had been widowed for nearly four years. Her children were also staying at the estate for the visit. Nicholas guided me to the group where Jim sat staring intently at Sandra who was telling some gossip to her listeners. Sure enough, Nicholas introduced her as Miss Sandra Cox. She was just as beautiful as Jim had boasted.

Perfect.

Across from Sandra was Miss Harriet Parker, the girl who had fainted in the carriage when she had witnessed a lost soul throwing him self off a cliff. Next to her was a Mr. Edward Longwood, who was also quite enthralled with being able to sit so near Miss Cox. The last set of people included Miss Maria Hampton, Miss Claire Southam, Mr. Gregory Cox, Sandra’s older brother, and Sir Henry Clarke. The image of Jim and Sandra stuck to my brain and I barely noticed Nicholas lead me over to a man who stood by one of the large windows.

“And lastly, Miss Russel,” Nicholas’ voice had lost all it’s warmth, “Captain Frederick Manheim.”

My head snapped up. There he was, smiling coolly down at me. He didn’t seemed disturbed to see me at all. He took my hand and kissed it. My hand was frozen.

Just then someone called for Nicholas. He bowed shortly to us.

“Please excuse me.”

I kept my eyes on my hand which was still entrapped in Manheim’s fingers.

“And how do you do, Miss Russel? It seems so long since I saw you.”

“It was only yesterday,” I said, pulling my hand to my side. I tried to hide it as I attempted to rub away the dead feeling that his lips had left in my fingers.

“Indeed.” He stared down at me, making me squirm.

“What is it?” I scratched my neck nervously. He touched my small sleeve and let his fingers fall softly down my arm. The aweful weight slid into my stomach and I shivered.

“I never thought I would be so fond of the color violet.” He smiled and pulled his hand away. “I’m surprised that Jim was so bold as to bring you here. I rather thought he would have found you another place.”

“So you’re thinking it too,” I snickered. “You don’t think that I’m good enough for people like this. Well, guess what? Jim didn’t bring me here, Mr. Bryant did! At least he doesn’t seem to be ashamed of having me here like the rest of you.”

“What?” His eyes flew over to Nicholas. “How . . . unfortunate.” He continued to stare at him without another word to me.

Several minutes passed in silence—at least for me. I let my eyes glide over the small groups. They were all animated with conversation and I couldn’t help watching how Jim’s face concentrated on Sandra’s. Now that his face was shaved, he looked a lot younger. My eyes followed the outline of his square jaw and long nose. His lips were downturned. I sighed inwardly.

A frown doesn’t suit him. Why isn’t he smiling? He should be happy that the love of his life is right in front of him, shouldn’t he?

I saw a figure in the corner of my eye and I turned to find Anthony standing next to me. He smiled and gave a short nod. I returned both. He cleared his throat.

“I saw you standing over here and thought that you must be tired from being so long in one spot. Would you care to take a seat with me?” He held out his hand. I gave a short glance to Manheim, who still hadn’t moved, and one to Jim, who was still staring at Sandra.

“Absolutely.” I placed my hand in his and his smile spread over his teeth. He led me to a far corner where no one would be able to over hear us. Drawing a chair closer to the one I sat in he glanced back to his mother who was watching us closely.

“I’m sorry for taking you away,” he started.

“Oh, please don’t apologize! I’d much rather be talking with you than doing anything with Manheim. He’s too weird.”

“Yes, he is very odd, I must say. I’ve only seen him twice before and he’s always standing alone in some corner and hardly talks to anyone, other than Lord Bryant. But I saw him talk to you just now.”

“Well, we’ve met before. Let’s leave it at that. So, anyway,” I smirked. “Will you have any stories to bring back to your comrades tonight?”

“I’m not sure I understand you.”

“Well, for instance, have you gambled with every gentleman in the room or perhaps you’ve stolen the hearts of every girl instead?” He blushed instantly.

“You heard all that?”

“Yes, my room is close to that one you came out of. I wasn’t sure where to go so when you happened to come out I decided to follow you. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry! I’m glad to have met you the way I did. Honestly,” he whispered, “I don’t think I could have sat for more than five more minutes in such company as this. It’s so boring! I wasn’t allowed to join the men in their game last evening. So you see, I am very glad you are here.”

“Thank you.” I smiled gratefully.

“Would you like to play some cards?” He motioned to a small table next to us with a deck of cards stacked on top.

“Um, sure.”

“Excellent!” Anthony jumped to his feet and went for the table. My eyes wandered over again to Jim. This time his eyes weren’t on Sandra. He was watching Anthony. His eyes glanced at me for a moment. I smiled and he turned back to his lady. Just then a servant entered to announce that dinner was ready to be served. Anthony sighed sadly and sat the table down.

“I suppose we’ll have to wait till after you’ve had your dinner.” My stomach growled its approval. “Till then.” He bowed slightly.

“You mean you’re not coming?” I asked.

“No, I’m afraid not. My mother says I’m only allowed to come down when everyone is in the drawing room and that I must eat all my meals in the nursery, even though I’m almost sixteen.”

“I’m sorry. Until after supper.” He nodded and left the room.

I mournfully watched him go. He was the only one in the room who I could talk to while Manheim was in a daze and Jim was hypnotized. The group began to leave in twos; Jim with Sandra, Nicholas with Miss Parker, and so on. It took me a while before I realized Manheim had come to stand next to my chair. I shot up like a rocket and stepped back. He grinned.

“Is something amiss?”

“No! Nothing.” I said quickly.

“Yes, well, I’m sure you are hungry so would you care to join me?” He held out his arm. I said nothing but let my arm hover above his as he led me into the dinning room. He pulled out a chair for me and sat on my right and Mr. Sullivan was on my left. Nicholas sat at the head on the opposite end of the lavishly decorated table and directly across from me was Sandra Cox. As Jim pulled out her chair and then his own his eyes never left Sandra’s face. I forced myself to look away, but in my effort I only succeeded in meeting Manheim’s gaze. Now I really couldn’t look away. He seemed determined to keep me staring at him.

The dinner began with a light soup and then a few courses of different meats and some cooked vegetables. Everyone made small chit-chat with their dinner partners and smiled politely to others. Manheim was especially very talkative. He asked me several questions about my interests and places I had visited. He was trying to distract me from something, but I wasn’t sure what. Whenever there was a pause in our conversation I found myself watching Jim and Sandra. They talked very little but Sandra had a cocky, pleased attitude about her and she often caught me watching them. She seemed very critical about what she saw—whatever that was. Once everyone had eaten their fill everyone stood. The ladies were going back to the drawing room while the men stayed behind.

When we entered the drawing room the others all found seats and began conversations about the men. I walked slowly around the room to a small bookcase that stood next to one of the large windows. My eyes glanced at the titles, none of which seemed familiar to me. None of the women came over to me so I stayed silent while I watched the stars from the window. Almost a whole hour passed before the men entered. I watched as they walked to their own dinner partners but saw that Manheim sat down with Nicholas and Miss Parker. Jim was moving to Sandra when he saw me. He hesitated for a moment, but before he did anything Anthony came through the door and walked briskly to my side. I smiled in relief. At least someone wanted to talk to me.

“I wish I could have come in sooner but I could not enter until the other gentlemen had. But why do you sit alone? Did not any of the ladies speak to you?”

“Nope. But that’s okay, I wasn’t interested in what the were talking about anyway.”

“And what was that?” he asked curiously.

“Men.” I smiled teasingly. He laughed. “So why didn’t you eat with us?”

“My mother thinks I’m too young. I should be away at college now, but Mother does not want me to go. She said I’m not mature enough to be on my own. But I want to be away as soon as possible.”

I almost laughed to think of him as a college student at fifteen, but remembered that that was probably the norm of the time. Plus it would have hurt his pride had I laughed in his face because of it.

“I’m sure your mother will let you go soon. She’s probably afraid of loosing her son. Right?”

He sighed.

“I suppose.”

He was silent for a moment. He was staring out the window. While he was occupied, I turned my attention to the rest of the company. They were separated into several clusters. Manheim had managed to monopolize Miss Parker and was sitting with her in a corner and Nicholas was now standing alone with Sandra, though he looked far more bored than she did. Jimmy was leaning against the large fireplace and was staring vacantly at them. He looked very sad standing all alone. His eyes suddenly darted over to me. I smiled encouragingly. He stared blankly back.

“Hm. Well, I’m glad to see they finally got a new shipment in. It was starting to stink down there.”

“I’m sorry, what did you say,” I asked, turning back to Anthony.

He pointed to a few servants who were packing in full sacks into a side door.

“What is it?”

“It’s lime. They use it to cover up smells.”

“You mean that smell that was coming from that door?”

“Oh? You’ve been near it too? Can you guess where it leads?” He teased. I shook my head. “The family catacombs,” he whispered.

“Whoa. You mean where they bury everyone?”

“Well, it wouldn’t smell so bad if they actually buried them. No, they put them in either stone or metal coffins and then stack them on eachother or on pedastals depending on how liked they were by the head of the family. It’s odd, but it’s tradition I suppose.”

“Weird,” I laughed a shiver out. “We should go check it out.”

“What? Why?”

“Don't you think it'd be cool? Aren’t they supposed to be really big? We could explore it. I'm sure there's something hidden down there.”

“Those reasons are exactly why we shouldn’t go. You could catch cold if it's too damp, we could get lost if it's too big and we certainly shouldn't be prying into anyone's secrets especially Lord Bryant's." His lit up slightly. "Though it would be very exciting, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could—”

“Miss Russel, Mr. Blaine.” I gasped and jumped back, startled at how close we had gotten during our whispering. Nicholas was walking towards us. “Would either of you like to join us in a game of Whist?”

I shook my head. “Uh, no thanks.”

“Oh, come now! I’m sure you’re an excellent player and we would all benefit from seeing you play.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe later though.”

He nodded and walked back to where the others were setting up a large card table. I turned back to Anthony who was frowning dejectedly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I suppose you don’t want to play cards anymore.”

I remembered that we had almost started a game when dinner had been announced.

“Sure I do. It’s just that…” I leaned in closer, “I have no idea what Whist is.”

A smile jumped onto his face and he tried to suppress a laugh.

“But I really like Slap Jack.”

“What is that?”

It was my turn to smile. “Come here.” I led him to the small table he had prepared earlier and sat him down on one side while I took the other. I dealt the cards and told him the rules but he didn’t seem to understand the object of the game.

“Well, let’s play for a little and you’ll catch on. Just remember speed. It’s all about speed.”

I put my card down quickly and Anthony put his down on top. He soon matched my speed but he jumped when my hand slapped the cards hard.

“Why did you do that?”

“It’s Slap Jack remember? You slap the Jack’s and doubles.” He nodded, determined to do better.

I almost had all the cards before Anthony saw that I was completely serious. He started slapping just as hard. He won back half of the cards. It was an intense battle. We were entirely engrossed in our game that we didn’t notice everyone staring at us. We were laughing and slapping so hard that our hands and faces were bright red.

“I slapped first!” Anthony said as we stared at each other.

“No way! It’s mine!” I said trying to calm my laughing down.

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” someone said. Neither of us looked away. “Anthony, that’s enough.”

We looked up to see Mrs. Blaine, Anthony’s mother, hovering over us.

“I’m sorry Mother, I didn’t hear you. What can I do for you?” Anthony said trying not to laugh.

“You can come and sit with the rest of us.”

“But Mother! I’ve almost won!”

“No you haven’t!” I interjected. “This stack’s mine!”

“Oh no it’s not,” he laughed. We pulled at each others fingers with our free hands, trying to force one another off the cards.

“Anthony, I demand that you come and have some intelligent conversation for once and stop this foolish card playing! It’s disgraceful!” Mrs. Blaine was furious. I was definitely not the type of person she wanted her son to be around.

“It’s okay, Anthony. I’ll clean up here. You go on.” I winked with the eye that Mrs. Blaine couldn’t see and Anthony bit back a smile. He nodded and stood to follow his mother back to one of the sofas. I watched the group as I restacked the cards. They had gathered the sofas and chairs around the large fireplace and were now conversing with one another. Jim was standing next to Sandra's seat and Anthony was sitting next to his mother. I stood and went to the empty chair farthest from the flames. A few of them glanced at me as I took a seat but no one said anything.

The subject at present was dinner; what they had just had for dinner, what other estates seerved for dinner a few months back and how they compared. Of course, everyone agreed that Lord Bryant's dinner and dining hall were too fine to be compared with any other. The subject slowly turned to the weather and then how excellent or poor everyone was at riding.

Anthony seemed about to doze off. I smiled.

Poor kid. If this is what is mother considers intellectual conversation then no wonder he wants to go away to college. The only thing anyone accomplishes with talk like this is an overblown ego. I sighed softly laid back in my chair. Nicholas turned to me during a small pause in the conversation and smiled.

"I'm afraid I've be neglecting you, Miss Russel." There was an audiable shuffling sound as everyone turned to look at me. I sat up straight and glanced at Anthony who was now wide awake with interest.

"Don't mind me, I'm good."

"I wasn't implying that you are bad." He said confused. I snorted.

"I meant it's alright, don't worry about me."

"Well, since this is your first time to my estate I would like to know what you think. Does it please you?"

My eyes darted to Anthony for a second and then to Jim who was looking at the fire. I forced myself to look as serious as possible before I spoke.

"Yes. And I must say that I noticed you have an excessively fine front staircase. How do you manage to get the banisters to be so straight and smooth?" Everyone appeared confused but Anthony had both hands pressed against his mouth and his shoulders were shaking. Jim looked up and smiled curiously. Manheim smirked from his position behind Miss Parker.

"Pardon me?" Nicholas asked.

"Never mind."

"Where are you from?" asked Sandra suddenly.

"Far away."

"Who are your parents?" asked Mr. Cox. He sat next to his sister and they watched me critically.

"No one you'd know."

He sniffed and whispered to Sandra.

"Do you draw, Miss Russel?" Mrs. Sullivan asked politely.

"No."

"Do you play the piano? Or perhaps you play the harp, instead?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"Do you sing?"

"I'm afraid I don't."

"Do you have any talent at all, Miss Russel?" asked Sandra with a small smile. The word 'witch' popped into my head as I watched her contented face whisper to her brother. Several other comments swirled in my mind but I held them back.

"Well, yes. Among other things I can whistle exceptionally well." I smiled politely. Jim covered his smirk with his hand. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan also smiled at my comment. They seemed like pretty decent people to me, especially compared to the rest of the assembled group.

"Now if you'll excuse me," I stood and looked down at Nicholas, "I'm going to whistle myself to bed, for I'm quite tired." I curtsied and walked right out of the room.

I laughed all the way back to my room.