by Bella Bryce
“There’s someone I should like you to meet,” Bennett said, as Elisabeth neared them.
Brayden left Colin to meet Elisabeth for a moment and retrieved Alice by the hand.
“There are a few gentleman I need to reacquaint you with. Do you see with whom Uncle Bennett is speaking? That’s Mr. Colin Maxwell; we were Prefects together at boarding school. He was at Uncle Bennett’s dinner party in September.”
“Yes, I remember,” Alice replied nonchalantly. She remembered perfectly well that he’d stared at her all evening.
Upon Colin discovering that Alice was eighteen years old having been adopted by Brayden, who was only ten years elder than her, he found it intriguing that Alice had been in a sailor dress, looking rather young and demure for a girl in the modern world at her age. Colin Maxwell also felt instantly attracted to her. The sight of her holding Brayden’s hand, looking innocent and juvenile but was legally mature made Colin pay Alice a lot of attention from across the room. Brayden had also known Colin since they were boys and knew that he found such things attractive, so he made it very clear he was to keep distance from Alice.
“The other is Mr. Alexander Patterson. I’m going to take you over to say hello. Greet him properly just as you know to do and make polite conversation for a little while. There are several other guests arriving, whose names I’ll remind you of.
Alice nodded, “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl. Here we go, then,” he said, and took Alice’s hand before leading her to Colin.
“You remember my daughter, Alice,” Brayden said, letting go of her hand.
Alice stepped forward and gave a small bob with her hand on her dress and then waited for him to bend down to receive a greeting.
“Good evening, Mr. Maxwell,” she politely said.
Colin bent down and kissed her once on each cheek, ensuring he put his hands on her arms to hold her close for just a moment.
“Good evening, little Alice. It’s lovely to see you again. Are you still ten years old?” Colin asked, looking at Brayden.
“She is,” Brayden said, raising an eyebrow. That was Colin’s warning for the evening that he’d better remember. Alice wasn’t eighteen, she was ten and that meant she wasn’t available for courting or flirting or anything else ending in ‘ing’ that wasn’t as pure as snow.
“Are you well, Sir?” Alice asked, interrupting Brayden and Colin’s non-verbal communication.
Colin looked down at Alice and gave her a rather amused smile with only the corner of his mouth.
“I’m very well indeed, thank you. I hear this is your first ball,” he said, keeping his eyes on Alice.
“Yes, Sir. I hear you’re not keen on the waltz,” Alice replied bluntly.
Brayden had to stifle a laugh.
“That’s quite a cheeky remark to make to your elder,” Colin replied, looking at Brayden in blame.
“I apologise. Alice,” he said, squeezing her shoulder.
Alice gave Colin the most demure eyes she could manage and spoke, “I’m sorry, Mr. Maxwell.”
Colin excused himself and went to speak to someone else. Brayden turned Alice to face him and gave her a warning look.
“Consider this your telling off,” he said, referring to his face.
Brayden wasn’t completely annoyed with Alice considering how slimy Colin’s behaviour could get. Alice smiled.
“But it was a little bit funny,” he said, and took Alice by the hand.
Both ballrooms and the corridors were full of people by half past the hour and the small orchestra had been convincing enough that countless couples were on the dance floor. When Alice saw the couples waltzing, she glanced about the room and spotted Colin nearby – staring at her. Alice stuck her tongue out at him and then ducked amongst several people, forcing herself underneath Bennett’s arm where she figured she could hide. Bennett looked down and lifted his arm.
“Alice, stand up properly. You remember my niece,” he said, pulling her out from where she seemed to be hiding and reacquainted her to another Prefect she’d met at Bennett’s dinner party in September.
Brayden was on the opposite side of the ballroom greeting his guests and making at least ten minutes of conversation with each of them. Many of his more distant acquaintances weren’t aware that he’d adopted or that he had a daughter and so several times he’d glanced around the room and spotted Alice to nod in her direction. Bennett eventually joined Brayden – it was the host’s responsibility to greet everyone and the birthday boy’s responsibility to smile and echo his thanks, which is what they did until they knew they’d reached most of the guests.
At precisely seven o’clock, the guests were called through to dinner by the ringing of a gong. Place cards ensured everyone was seated quickly with a fresh round of champagne and sparkling cider. The top table, where Brayden, Alice, Bennett, Elisabeth, Jon and Evelyn Fowler sat, was a round one like all the others overlooking the rest of the smaller ballroom.
Ana appeared whilst the guests chattered and the drinks were still being distributed. She bent down beside Bennett with a battery pack and asked him to slip it into his inside blazer pocket and then ran the cord discretely along his blazer and clipped the tiny microphone along the piping of his jacket. Ana didn’t notice Brayden watching her, but she averted her eyes before she stood up and disappeared.
Bennett stood up after Ana signalled that all the guests were seated and had their drinks. It didn’t take long for complete silence to cross the room and all attention was on him. Bennett left his champagne glass on the table but stood up confidently, Elisabeth looking up at him admiringly before he even spoke.
“Good evening.” His voice echoed at the perfect volume throughout the beautifully formal and historic ballroom. “Thank you for your company this evening to celebrate the birthday of my oldest and dearest friend, Brayden James.”
A round of applause sounded and Bennett waited until it ceased. Alice was holding Brayden’s hand but she leant in and cuddled his shoulder at the start of Bennett’s speech.
“This year in particular has been one of immense change. As many of you know, Brayden adopted his daughter, Alice, earlier in the spring.”
Alice blushed and pressed her face into the arm of his jacket as Brayden gave her knee an affectionate pat.
“I haven’t seen him this happy in a very long time. And it goes without saying that this is the first year we have all convened for his birthday ball since 2010, so I trust you will all take the time to enjoy yourselves, and to drink the champagne because it’s been sitting in Wellesley’s pantry for far too long.”
Unexpected laughter erupted across the room. Many people had thought a curt “Thank you” were the only words Bennett would speak. Brayden couldn’t help but laugh at the latter statement.
“And if you wish this speech to be different from any potential, future best man speech, then I’ll finish there. Let’s raise our glasses, shall we?”
Another eruption of amused and surprised laughter waved across the room. Several people were shocked and laughed whilst looking unbelievingly at their neighbours – Bennett had come across as being incredibly funny and charming, which was most unlike him.
Elisabeth giggled with everyone else and made eye contact with his parents who laughed along. Brayden smiled and shook his head. He raised his champagne glass as the guests followed suit.
“To your twenty-ninth year, that it’s as fulfilling as the last. Happy Birthday, Brayden,” Bennett said, as everyone toasted at their table, sipped and followed the toast with a round of applause. Brayden shook Bennett’s hand and thanked him. Bennett reclaimed his seat and said something quietly to him.
The first course was served by a large team of uniformed wait staff; the second and third courses followed. After the third course, the entire ballroom sang Happy Birthday as Wellesley wheeled in a nine-tiered birthday cake with twenty-nine candles proudly burning until Brayden and Alice blew them out. Cake was accompanied by coffee and tea and the
n after dinner drinks and more dancing in the adjacent ballroom.
At nine o’clock, Brayden stood in the ballroom scanning the room for Alice, intending to walk her upstairs and leave her with Celia to ready for bed. He couldn’t see her so he wandered out into the corridor and down toward the foyer. He frowned and walked back down toward the ballroom and as he did, Ana’s voice over a microphone caught his attention. Bennett nodded for him to re-enter the ballroom and as he did, Ana addressed him.
“Mr. James, your daughter tells me that it’s nearly her bedtime so she wants you to have your birthday present now,” she said.
Brayden walked through the crowd and appeared at the edge of a line of people who had formed around his Steinway, which he was shocked to see in the middle of the ballroom. And there was Alice, seated at it. She spied Brayden at the front of the crowd, gave him a smile, then turned and placed her hands on the keys. To his utter surprise, Alice began playing River Flows in You, by Yiruma from memory. Flawlessly.
Brayden was in shock and couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he listened. She played every measure correctly; she nailed every rest, every pickup note. He had to blink back tears when she hit the bridge and he watched her play effortlessly without a hint of nervousness or reserve. Alice was a confident, content daughter who had everything she needed to thrive and he saw it in that moment. When she finished and the applause roared, Brayden walked across the ballroom and before Alice could even acknowledge the audience, Brayden picked her up and hugged her for a long moment. The applause continued as he held onto Alice. River Flows in You was one of the songs played at his parents’ funeral.
“I told you my present was too big to be wrapped,” she said, smiling.
“Thank you,” he said in her ear. “I shall never forget it.”
Brayden put Alice down as the applause faded and walked her by the hand toward the rest of the guests who immediately either dispersed back into groups to socialise or surrounded them. His guests and friends wanted to know how long Alice had been playing piano, when and how she learned the song, who was her teacher, did he really teach his own daughter, would she play another song, did she give recitals and could they be invited to the next one. The questions were enthusiastic and supportive, but nonetheless delaying her bedtime. Brayden excused them and walked her out of the ballroom and down the corridor toward the foyer.
“You’re really going through with it. I thought for sure you’d change your mind and let me stay up,” Alice told him, as they walked hand in hand.
“I’m a man of my word,” he said.
“I wouldn’t think less of you if you bent the rules tonight.”
Brayden laughed and shook his head as they began up the staircase. “I’m afraid not. Come along.”
Alice didn’t complain outwardly, although inside she was slightly annoyed. She hadn’t said goodnight to her Uncle Bennett, Elisabeth or the Fowlers. Or Ana. “I didn’t say a proper goodnight to everybody,” Alice added, as they reached the top of the stairs and turned right to reach her bedroom.
“I will tell them you said goodnight. Celia will be along in a moment, but go and brush your teeth until she arrives. I will see you at breakfast in the morning.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said.
“Good girl. Goodnight, then,” Brayden said, giving her another cuddle and a kiss on her cheek.
“Night, Father. Love you.”
“I love you, Alice.”
Brayden closed the door behind him and Alice sighed as she slipped off her Mary Janes and walked to her wardrobe to put them back on the display shelving inside. She removed her tights and carried them with her across the spacious room to the screen and went behind it to deposit them in the wash basket. Celia would scrub them by hand, not that there was much to scrub beyond the imprint of where her feet had been inside. She’d only worn them for five hours.
Alice went into the bathroom and audibly gasped when her bare feet crossed the marbled floor of the bathroom. She retrieved her toothbrush and toothpaste from the wardrobe, turned on the tap and hummed part of River Flows in You as she brushed and splattered suds on the mirror.
“I’m in here, Celia,” Alice called, when she heard the faint sound of the bedroom door click.
Her room was huge and her en-suite bathroom was on the far side, yet Celia had been awfully quiet considering the wooden door was quite heavy and had a very distinct sound when it was closed. Alice turned off the water; a quickening in her instinct told her that it wasn’t Celia.
“My my, we certainly play the part of a ten-year-old rather well, don’t we? You’ve got toothpaste all over your face,” Colin said, blocking the doorway as he stood there with his tall and confident stance. His hands were in his trouser pockets and he was extremely good looking, but it was rather spoiled by his arrogant creepiness.
Alice just stared at Colin standing in her bathroom doorway in his tuxedo and as he pointed out, with toothpaste around her mouth, in her bare legs and feet on the cold marbled floor and the short ball gown stopping at her small knees. She couldn’t believe he had the nerve to be standing there at all.
“Let’s wash your face, Alice,” Colin said, keeping his eyes on her as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
She didn’t move or speak; her eyes just followed him as he took three measured steps toward her. Colin’s shiny black shoes were deliberate on the marble flooring and then stopped abruptly when he stood over her.
“Did you hear me?” he asked quietly, as he bent down to her slowly.
Alice nodded a few times.
“I want you to respond to me the way you respond to your father.” There was a very uncomfortable edge to his voice and Alice felt her stomach turn.
“Why?” Alice replied, practically whispering.
Colin slowly reached up and took her toothbrush out of her hand and placed it on the marbled countertop. “It isn’t polite to question your elders. Did you hear me?”
“Yes, Sir,” Alice replied quietly.
“No. Call me Father.”
Alice’s eyes widened and she shook her head slowly.
“Say it.”
Alice looked at the floor. She felt a panic sweep over her chest.
“Say, ‘Yes, Father’,” Colin told her as he lifted her chin.
“Why?” she asked quietly.
“Because that’s what good girls say. You’re a good girl, aren’t you, Alice?”
Alice nodded with what little freedom she had with her chin caught between his fingers.
“Then do as I tell you,” he said quietly, as he let go of her chin.
“Yes, Father,” Alice replied. She felt ashamed as the words floated out of her mouth and through the air to delight Colin’s ears.
“Now be my good girl and go get a flannel. I’m going to wash your face before I put you to bed.”
Alice’s eyes stayed glued to him, wondering if Brayden had indeed sent Colin up to put her to bed. Something inside her stomach told her he hadn’t. She obeyed slowly, taking her time walking to the wardrobe across the bathroom, and retrieved a cloth from the meticulously folded stack and closed the doors. She began to wonder if Colin had been sent upstairs to put her to bed, although she highly doubted it. He was so confident that she was confused about the situation.
“You were rather untidy about brushing your teeth, Alice,” Colin told her, in a bit of a warning voice as he wet the flannel under the warm tap then slowly and gently washed around her mouth. Alice stood still, watching him take great care in the task. He was quiet as he did it and watched Alice watching him.
Colin left the flannel beside the sink and led her out of the bathroom by the hand the way Brayden often did.
“Where’s Celia?” Alice asked, as they crossed her bedroom.
Colin glanced at the closed door; he hadn’t realised Alice was expecting someone.
“Never mind Celia,” he replied. “Let’s have a chat.”
Colin walked to one of the many window se
ats that overlooked the front of the estate and pulled Alice to sit on his lap. She frowned and squirmed but he’d folded his hands so she was securely locked into his embrace. She looked up at him and frowned still. “Why?” she asked.
“I like you, Alice.”
Alice’s eyes visibly softened and she was taken aback. “You like me?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I’ve liked you since the moment I first saw you in that sailor dress at your Uncle Bennett’s dinner party three months ago. You were so sweet and well behaved,” he said quietly, his face extremely close to hers. “Your father told me you were eighteen, and I knew I had to have you.”
Alice pulled back slightly. She was so shocked she didn’t know how to respond.
“You’re everything I’ve been looking for. You obviously have a taste for discipline, you’re rather submissive and you know you need to be strongly led. And your wardrobe – I can’t stop thinking about you. I haven’t since.”
She tried to pull away further. “Colin, let me go,” Alice said, in a measured tone, realising that his words had every reason to make her nervous.
“I finally have a moment alone with you, I’m not letting go.”
Alice couldn’t pry his strong fingers laced together from around her waist. She wouldn’t be able to get off his lap unless he let her.
“What part of I’m ten-years-old don’t you understand?” Alice asked, getting impatient. “This is extremely inappropriate.”
Colin pulled Alice a little closer and secured her more tightly on his lap. “No more inappropriate than it is for Brayden to have adopted you at your age and then regressed you. Talk about strange behaviour.”
Alice’s eyes widened and she responded as if on autopilot by freeing one hand and smacking it hard across Colin’s face. “How bloody dare you,” she said angrily.
Colin’s eyes widened as he glared back at her. “You’re going to pay for that.”
A fresh round of discomfort welled up in her chest when he finished speaking.
“I know your father puts your over his knee when you misbehave, Alice.”
