LAILAH
TWENTY-FOUR
There was no sleeping in when the house was as busy as the Dolton home was.
Hope raced around the house with David as Charlotte tried—and failed—to keep them quiet.
Kayley locked herself in the bathroom for what seemed like hours, so I had to find the one on the second floor to use.
As I made my way back to my room to change and get ready for the day, I ran into Charlotte.
“I’m so sorry if they woke you up, we’re a home full of early risers. Micah had to learn to wear earplugs growing up here if he wanted any peace,” Charlotte said, brushing a strand of her long, wavy hair out of her face.
“Please don’t worry about it, I am used to being up at the crack of dawn to go running, but since it’s snowed, that has changed to swimming laps or working out in the gym,” I said, resting my hand on her arm to reassure her.
Charlotte let out a huge breath as if she had been worried I would have been upset with her.
“It would seem the snow is exactly what is getting everyone in a tizzy this morning. It snowed all night, and there’s enough to go sledding.
David and Hope are beside themselves with excitement, trying to convince Mom to let them go. ”
I turned to look out one of the front windows on the third floor, and sure enough, the world had turned white. Tracks in the snow showed where people had walked or driven through it so far this morning. The sun glinting off the pure whiteness made the world look like a picture.
“Sledding in this would be amazing. Do you think your mother will let them go if Brayden and I go with them?” I asked, looking at Charlotte over my shoulder.
Charlotte worried her lip as she thought. “She might, but sometimes the decisions she makes don't seem reasonable. After she lost Michael…”
“Yes, that makes sense,” I said. Charlotte paused, giving me a questioning look. “Brayden told me about Michael, though it was more like he was forced into it when Kayley brought it up.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Of course Kayley needed to throw that in his face. Not like he doesn’t have enough on his plate to deal with, she feels the need to add more.”
“Siblings, right?” I said, giving her a light shove with my shoulder and a smirk. “Where is your mom? Let me go talk to her and see if I can get her to give us the go-ahead.”
“Guess it can’t hurt,” Charlotte said, leading the way upstairs to the fourth floor.
The space up here was much more open and only had three doors along the hall.
Charlotte walked to the first door and rapped on it, waiting a moment, then pushing the door open.
I followed her inside and found a large study filled with shelves of books.
There was also a large whiteboard taking up one whole wall that had math equations all over it.
Sitting at a large vintage desk, Adriana sat flipping through pages of a book and scribbling notes down in a journal.
Ink was covering her hands and had splattered on her white shirtsleeves.
“Mom,” Charlotte said, heading over to the desk. “Mother.”
Adriana acted as if she had no idea that we were even in the room, utterly focused on the work before her. Even with all my extra credit helping Hudson in his lab, I had no idea what she was working on. To me, it all looked like a foreign language or code to be deciphered.
“Charlotte, what are you doing in here? You know better than to bother your mother when she’s like this,” a woman said, walking in with a tray holding a tea set.
“Ms. Tabitha, I was just asking my mother if we could take everyone out sledding. She would never just let us leave without checking with her first,” Charlotte said, looking like this woman had taken the wind out of her sails, head bowed, voice soft and unsure.
Ms. Tabitha was tall and willowy, with sharp facial features.
If I had ever pictured a governess before, it would have been just like her.
Gray hair pinned tightly back in a French twist, face bare of any makeup, and piercing dark brown eyes.
Everything about this woman seemed rigid and cold.
She set the tea down on the desk and poured a cup for Adriana, setting it next to the journal she was writing in.
Without hesitation, Adriana paused in her work and took up the tea.
Ms. Tabitha then handed her a small dish that had pills in it, and Adriana took them all in one gulp.
Once done with that, she resumed her work, still not acknowledging anyone in the room.
As Ms. Tabitha picked up the tray and headed out of the room, she paused.
“Since I was charged to look after all of you, then I will tell her I gave you permission to take them out.
Go, enjoy time with your family. I know they aren't visiting for long, and getting outside will do the young ones good.”
This woman was giving me whiplash. I couldn’t decide if I liked her or not, she was full of contradictions. One moment she was upset to be here then she was sending us off for a nice day together. I decided to put a pin in that until I could get more information.
“Come on, before she changes her mind,” Charlotte said, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the room.
She led me down all the way to the kitchen, where everyone was eating breakfast. Everyone but Micah—he must have been wearing his ear plugs. Brayden smiled at me over his cup of coffee, which I returned as I was handed a mug.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Martin, I don’t drink coffee,” I said, in reflex.
The older man just smiled patiently. “Then it is a good thing I handed you a cup of hot tea. We don’t have any chai, but I hope this traditional Austrian Sacher blend is to your liking. They serve it only at the finest hotels in Vienna.”
I took a tentative sip and then another, letting the flavor roll over my tongue. “It’s wonderful, thank you. I might even need to get some so I can take it home with me.”
“I am pleased that I was able to guess your taste; tea drinkers can be a fussy bunch. Speaking for myself, that is, being London-born and all,” Martin said, ushering me to a seat next to Brayden.
“Now, let’s get you some breakfast. The cook is off on the weekends, but we all seem to make do with a simple fare. ”
Turns out their version of simple fare was far from simple.
I was given a plate with a roll slathered in butter, a thick slice of ham, two soft boiled eggs, and a bowl of something called muesli, their version of cold oatmeal with fresh fruit and berries finished off with milk.
Set on the table, there were also sweet pastries, croissants, and other small cakes with jam.
“Just for the record, this is not simple,” I muttered as I navigated my way around all the food. Not being a breakfast person, this was overwhelming.
Charlotte sat on my other side and giggled. “Here in Austria, we believe that breakfast on the weekends is the main meal. It fortifies you for the day of fun ahead. Speaking of, we talked to Mom, and we are all going sledding!”
David jumped out of his chair, whooping, punching his fists into the air. Hope let out a screeching sound to show her excitement, wiggling in her seat and knocking over her glass of orange juice.
“Have fun, losers, I’m going to stay at the house and relax. Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave Micah all by himself,” Kayley said, leaning back in her chair, sipping from her coffee mug.
“Why would you need to do that when I’m going with them?” Micah said, entering the kitchen and taking the proffered mug from Martin. “I promised David last night I would go if Mom said yes.”
I tried not to gape as I took in this new side of Micah.
One, he was being social and willing to participate in things, even making plans to do something fun.
Then there was the fact he called Adriana Mom.
I knew they had told me they would love it if I did that, but it was just strange to hear it come out of his mouth.
“Great, then I’m coming. I was only going to stay behind for you,” Kayley said, doing a complete one-eighty.
“I thought you said sledding was stupid and who wants to spend time out in the cold getting wet snow down their backs?” David taunted.
“Shut up, no one asked you,” Kayley said, slamming her mug down and storming out of the room.
Did she learn that from Micah?
“We should get ready, the sledding hill will only get busier the later it gets,” Brayden said, sliding back his chair and taking his and Kayley’s dishes to the sink.
“You really should stop doing things like that for her, she needs to learn responsibility,” Charlotte said, frowning at Brayden.
At her words, Brayden looked sheepish, ducking his head from being called out.
Shrugging his shoulders, he cleaned up after himself and headed out of the room.
Hope dashed after him, yelling the whole way to her room how excited she was to go sledding.
David finished his food and silently cleaned up and left the room.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something missing in him.
Almost as if he felt like an outsider in his own home and was used to doing things alone.
“You forgot to put earplugs in last night, didn’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t be up this early on break,” Charlotte said, giving Micah a knowing look. “Or was there another reason to be awake?”
I saw the sideways glance in my direction, but I wasn’t going to call her out on it. I was thoroughly intrigued by this new version of Micah.
“Like I said, I promised David I would go sledding with him. You and Lailah just beat me to asking Mom if we could go. The poor kid’s a loner, and being in a house with all girls, homeschooling doesn’t help.
He needs time with guys, not sitting around watching you all do needlepoint or whatever the hell that old bat is teaching you. ”
Charlotte rolled her eyes and sighed. “It’s not the middle ages, Micah. We don’t learn needlepoint—until senior year, that is.”