CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Despite knowing the quality of parties that Sean threw, she was still taken aback with the opulence and service every time. He introduced her to a few more people, some more “friends of friends,” and occasionally had to stop to talk with a gaggle of his cousins, but for the most part he did his best to spend time with her and her alone. The next few hours were a blur of music, food, and staring into Sean’s eyes as they talked. He showered her with compliments at every turn, making her blush despite her best efforts not to. Whenever she needed anything, a servant was immediately at their side to attend to her every wish. It was magical. Everyone should live like this, she found herself thinking more than once. She felt good, and that went a long way towards keeping her mind off Dylan and her ulterior motive for being at the party. Besides, there was a whole week this time, seven whole days in which she would probably find herself temporarily abandoned while Sean tended to “business”—whatever that was—and played courtier to his father. Time enough to snoop around when she was alone.
Tonight, she wanted just for herself. Was that too much to ask? Of course not. Ever since she had arrived here, she had had to be the responsible one. She was making sure there was food in the fridge, and that Mom paid the bills on time. She did the housecleaning, the laundry. Heck, she had gotten together with Sean, who had pretty much safeguarded Mom’s job! All after being thrown in the deep end from the only life she knew in New York City. She deserved something for herself, and this was it.
So she enjoyed the fantasy of being part of a fabulous party right out of a movie. She wasn’t the star of the movie of course, that was Sean. But she was part of it, and she liked being part of it.
When about half of the partygoers had drifted off…to bed, she presumed…she found herself fighting back yawns, to her chagrin. And to her even deeper chagrin, Sean caught her at it. But he just smiled. “I was looking for an excuse to call it a night,” he said, and pointedly looked around the poolside, which at this point was all but vacant. The only actual group of people still awake were Sean’s father and his cronies. He stood up, and offered her his hand to get her to her feet. “Let’s both get some rest. I hear that lounging by the pool is a very exhausting activity; we’ll need our energy. I’ll see you in the morning, Staci,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and turning to walk to his poolside “bachelor pad.”
Well, a kiss on the cheek was better than no kiss at all.…She glanced at the group still standing, conversing and drinking together, but they didn’t seem to notice that Sean had left. She made her way to her room, yawning the entire time, and fell into bed.
* * *
Staci was having a surreal dream when she started to wake up. Through the haze of her sleepiness, she could only remember the barest details of the dream; Sean and Dylan were both in it, as were her friends. It all seemed shrouded in mist, though. She would see Dylan’s face, turning away from her with a half-smile, and then Sean’s, fading away. Her friends all looked worried, even terrified, but vanished just as quickly. Even Tim was there, looking stern and staring down at her. She knew that there was something beneath it all, but the sense of the dream retreated from her as she came back to consciousness.
Her eyes drifted open, and she could see a dark shape in the chair by the window across from the foot of her bed, silhouetted against the dim light coming through the curtains. It took her a few moments…until she realized it was a person. Then her eyes shot open fully. Panic ran through her entire body like a bolt of lightning as she focused on the person, until she recognized who it was.
Sean sat there, staring back at her.
“What are you—” she squeaked, mouth dry and throat tight, still frightened by the unexpected intrusion.
“Staci, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” He smiled, and suddenly all her fear just washed out of her. Of course there was nothing wrong. This was Sean! He would never hurt her! “I came to see if you wanted to come down to breakfast with me, and you were so pretty lying there, like Sleeping Beauty, I just sat down to watch you for a moment.”
Self-consciously, she pulled the covers up a little further, and put her hand to her head. “What, with bed-hair?” she replied, trying to sound funny. She squinted at the light from the windows. It seemed awfully dim. “What time is it, anyway?”
“About five-thirty,” he replied. “I’m a lark, I always have breakfast before everyone else does. Even Father, workaholic that he is, waits until eight. It gets kind of lonely.”
“I’ll meet you down there, okay? I need a couple of minutes at least to get presentable, throw something on other than a nightie.”
“Of course! I’m glad you’re awake enough. I’ll see you there.” He smiled again, and although she was both afraid and hopeful that he would approach her, he went straight out the door, and closed it softly behind him.
As soon as he was gone, she jumped out of bed, grabbed the first approximately reasonable thing she saw in the closet and retreated to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. And then she chided herself for being silly. What did she have to fear from Sean? He had been nothing but gentlemanly towards her the entire time she had known him. He hadn’t tried to ply her with alcohol—though plenty was available—or otherwise force her into anything she didn’t want to do. He was everything he seemed to be, expect for the elf thing. Wasn’t he? Still, she kept the door locked, some tiny voice in the back of her mind winning that much from her.
This wasn’t one of her own outfits, which she was obscurely grateful for. With Sean’s father lurking around the edges of the weekend, she wanted to look…well…Blackthornely. It was silk, she could tell that immediately: finely pleated palazzo pants and a matching sleeveless tunic in a soft turquoise. She took extra care with her makeup, and all but ran down the stairs to the huge dining room. Staci paused for a few moments before rounding the final corner of a wall that opened up into the dining room, catching her breath and putting her best smile on.
Sean was sitting alone at one end of the empty table, with a woman in a maid outfit at his elbow. He waved Staci to the seat beside him. “The buffet will be when everyone else is up,” he said, as Staci looked at the empty tables in curiosity. “Just tell the girl what you want; she’ll bring it up for us.”
Staci suddenly felt tongue-tied. “I think—I’m still too foggy to think—” she said.
He chuckled, and turned to the maid. “Steak and eggs for both of us. My usual side dishes. Chamomile tea and pomegranate juice.”
For a moment Staci wondered why no coffee…it was going to be hard to get her brain started without it. Then she remembered: the Blackthornes, and presumably a lot of the cousins, were allergic to caffeine. Oh well. Caffeine deprivation is a small price to pay for a week of all this…
Breakfast was heavenly. She didn’t think that she was going to feel quite up to something as hearty as steak and eggs until she took the first few bites. Every item was done to perfection, and somehow exactly the way that she preferred. Staci wondered how much of that was magic or just good service. Staci and Sean passed the meal quietly eating, enjoying each other’s company and the food without need of small talk; there would probably be plenty of time for that later.
After they had finished the meal and the dishes were cleared away by the servants, the two of them sat for a spell, finishing their drinks, until Sean suggested that they take a walk on the grounds since the weather was pleasant. Staci agreed to the idea enthusiastically; if nothing else, it was more time alone with Sean, and away from the possibility of Finn interrupting them. She hadn’t seen Finn since she had arrived at the estate, and hadn’t pressed Sean for any information on him; part of her didn’t want to show that she was afraid of his cousin, but she also just didn’t want to know, as if the mere mention of his name would summon him to them. And to tell the truth, she not only was not sure if Sean could protect her from Finn, she was not sure if Sean could protect himself from Finn. Now would not be the time to fin
d out, not when everything was so perfect.
As they walked, Sean firmly took her arm and placed it under his. Staci stiffened for a moment, but quickly relaxed. The sun was still low in the sky, and the air was cool and slightly moist. Here and there she saw gardeners tending to the lawn or potted plants around the pool. After walking for a few minutes, Staci noticed that Sean was leading her towards the hedge maze. Memories of the night when she had followed Finn there came unbidden to her mind, and she felt a well of coldness build in her stomach for a moment. It’ll be okay. Sean is here. If anything happens, you can just use the moves and tricks that Dylan showed you. Relax, girl, she told herself. Staci willed herself to calm down, and it started to slowly work. The maze wasn’t nearly as frightening in the daylight; just like everything else on the estate, it looked magical, as if it was from a princess fairy tale instead of something from a nightmare.
Sean took her through the maze, showing her plaques and statues that she hadn’t noticed the first time she had gone through it. At one point they became separated for a few moments…until Sean jumped from around a corner, shouting “Boo!” and causing her to yelp. But he was laughing, and a minute—and a few mock punches into his arm—later, so was she. When they got to the middle of the maze—something she hadn’t managed to do on that scary night—she found that the center was occupied by an amazing gazebo. She would have expected wrought iron, but this was wood, all carved into what looked like lacework. It wasn’t painted; the wood itself was a strange silvery color and lacquered to a glasslike finish. Actually, it looked as if the wood had been coated in ice. It was breathtaking. “Oh wow, it looks like it would break in a high wind! Aren’t you guys scared the first storm will take it down?”
“Here, take a look at this.” He pulled her along, taking her hand and placing it against one of the upright braces. The surface felt…natural, but at the same time much more firm than it should have been. The material of the gazebo was extremely dense, whatever it was; a few experimental raps from her knuckles didn’t give the usual knocking sound that wood did, but a flatter, almost muted whud. “It would take quite a bit more than a storm to come close to harming this. It’s been in my family for…many, many years. Before either I or my father were born. The wood comes from a kind of tree that is incredibly rare. But of course”—he laughed—“that didn’t matter back in those days. If people with money came across a tree that was rare, that was just all the more reason to cut it down and make something out of it.”
Sean started to lead Staci away. Something made her look over her shoulder towards the gazebo one last time; a funny feeling running up her spine and down her arms. As she was turning away, she caught a glimpse of something in the corner of her vision. It looked as if the gazebo floor was covered in symbols…and blood. There was a dark figure standing in the middle, clutching something; a person, also covered in blood. Staci drew in a sharp intake of breath, ready to scream as her head snapped around. Whatever she had seen, it was gone now; the gazebo was as pristine as it had been moments ago, no sign of blood or menacing figures. She quickly quashed her fear when it became apparent that Sean had noticed her reaction. “Thought I saw a bee on my shoulder,” she said, trying to brush it off. Sean looked at her strangely for a moment, then smiled, and put his hand over hers on her shoulder. Immediately she felt reassured. Of course she hadn’t seen anything! It was just her own overactive imagination, fueled by that night when she’d been so frightened here. She let him take her hand and lead her out of the maze again.
When they came out, she suddenly realized that the sun was high overhead, she was ravenous, and there were lots of people poolside. How long had they been in there? She glanced at her watch. Noon? Already?
“Time seems to do funny things in the maze,” Sean laughed, seeing the expression on her face. “I think it’s because there is so much artwork and so many interesting things in there that you just lose track of it. Time, that is. Look, they’re serving lunch, and Father and his friends are off somewhere so we won’t have them lurking like vultures over us.”
The afternoon went by in a blur of music, pool games, food, and lounging. For a change, this evening, the whole group dressed for dinner, and gathered around that enormous table for a full formal meal with the senior Blackthorne and his guests. Staci was grateful that she’d been to a couple of dinners like this with her father—pre-Brenda, of course—and knew how to use all the silverware in the right order. She hardly tasted the food, though, she was so acutely aware of Bradan Blackthorne’s watchful eye on her. It was an acute relief when dinner was over and Bradan announced that he and his friends would be retiring to “the lounge” for the rest of the evening. “You all enjoy yourselves,” were his final words, tempered with a kind of…sardonic look.
The partying was just a bit more subdued, probably because of the knowledge that “the lounge” had windows that overlooked the gardens and pool. Finally everyone went to the pool house to watch Sean and three of the cousins kick ass on another one of their fantastic video games. Which was yet another one that Staci couldn’t identify. It seemed to involve horse-riding and hunting something, using packs of scary-looking hound-things. She got sleepy early, probably because of the really early morning. Sean gave up his seat on the couch and his controller to give her a kiss goodnight. A real kiss this time, though it wasn’t what she would have called a “passionate” one. Still, that let her float back to her room, and fall asleep with a smile on her face.
* * *
Friday went much the same as Thursday had. Staci and Sean had breakfast together, went for a walk for conversation and taking in the beauty of the grounds, then lunch and more socializing with the rest of the family. After lunch and spending time by the pool with Sean, she had retired to her room to get ready for the party that evening; her friends were finally going to be coming up, and she wanted everything to be perfect when she saw them. They all arrived together in a car that Sean had sent for them, and everyone was all smiles and hugs; even Wanda, in her own semi-sarcastic way.
Sean had promised “costumes” for all of them; she checked her closet and found exactly that, only not tacky polyester stuff. And lest there be any mistake, each one was in a garment bag that had their names on them. Jake was a “greaser”—chinos, white T-shirt, black leather jacket with a bike gang patch on the back and black motorcycle boots. Riley matched him with tight pink capri pants, a pink T-shirt and a matching black leather jacket and boots. Before she checked Seth’s bag, she had been afraid the costume was going to be a jock—but it wasn’t! In fact, it wasn’t a high-school type costume at all…it was a typical ’50s scifi scientist, complete with lab coat and goggles! Wanda—again, she was afraid that Wanda was going to get something she would never agree to wearing, but Wanda was a beatnik: tight black capris, little black ballet slippers, tight black turtleneck sweater and a beret. Since beatniks were basically ’50s Goths, Staci figured Wanda would like that just fine.
And as for her…her costume half-filled the little closet. And when she opened the garment bag it turned out to be a strapless full-length pink prom dress, with about a hundred petticoats. It looked like something Audrey Hepburn would have worn. But instead of being scratchy it was all soft as anything she had ever felt, because it was all silk.
And there was a note: Staci, let your friends know they can keep these costumes. You too. I’m sure you can find a use for them!
Her first instinct was to tell Sean that it was too generous of a gift, but she checked herself. This was how he showed that he cared; he could certainly afford it, if nothing else. And really, what else could he do with a handful of ’50s costumes? She rather doubted any of the cousins or friends would wear something that anyone else had worn before them.
Staci, Riley, and Wanda all dressed and prepared together; Staci filled the other two girls in on what she had been doing for the past two days, for the most part, while they did their makeup and made sure each others’ hair was behaving correctly. Once
they were all ready, they met the boys out in the hallway; Jake and Seth were busy arguing about the portrayal of faster-than-light travel in films as opposed to in books, but both of them fell silent when they saw the girls.
“Hubba hubba!” Jake wrapped his arms around Riley and planted a kiss on her lips, causing her to giggle and playfully slap him a few times.
Seth blushed bright red, looking at the floor for a moment. “Black really is your color, Wanda. I mean, you look nice.”
Wanda looked taken aback for a moment, then blushed. Staci had never seen her blush before. But Wanda didn’t let that stop her from making a wisecrack. “And you actually look intelligent! But I’d rather have Jake fix my car.”
Jake popped two thumbs up in imitation of the Fonz. “Ehhhh!” he said. “Just hand me your carburetor, baby! I’ll rev you up.”
Riley elbowed him. “You aren’t touching anybody’s carburetor but mine!”
They all laughed, and headed for the pool, where, somehow, in the time it had taken to change, someone had put together a complete “themed” setup. There was a “malt shop” arrangement instead of a buffet, with a counter with stools and a couple of stand-alone booths and tables, a jukebox and a dance floor. And off to the side, a “drive-in” with a screen and half-cars, just phony front ends and bench seats.
Staci was getting used to this, but her friends’ eyes all got big. “How—” said Riley, finally.
Wanda was the first to recover. “Lots of money and lots of servants can do anything,” she said dryly. “If some rich dude can completely make Lothlorien for his wedding, this is like, child’s play.” Staci found herself wondering again how much magic had to do with what she was seeing. It amazed and frightened her at the same time how much there was to the world that she was only now beginning to learn about.
Sean met them shortly after they got to the party proper, greeting each of them in turn and complimenting everyone—especially the girls, and most especially Staci—on their costumes and appearance. She couldn’t help but notice that he was in a ’50s tux—the match for her prom dress. The food, while fitting in the theme, was still clearly gourmet and expertly prepared. The servants were similarly in costume; the women were dressed as carhops complete with skates, and the men as mechanics in vintage coveralls. Both sets of costumes had the servant’s name printed over the breast.
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