by Bella Bryce
The party had come at a rather inopportune time, in Jonathan's opinion, because he was 'right in the middle of training', or so he remarked when the invitation appeared on his desk days before. They couldn't miss it, of course, but nonetheless, between the breakdown between his wife and eldest son, and the dramatic alterations of his marriage, the party had forced the Fowlers together in one room before any of them really wanted to speak to each other.
* * * * *
Alice couldn't help but eye the table of presents at the far end of the conservatory. There were more than one hundred stacked up on an impressive pyramid display that Wellesley would add to, and two uniformed maids spent the party thus far organising and reorganising to accommodate each new addition. She could hardly believe they were all for her.
"Don't stare at the gifts, Darling, it's rude," Brayden said, when he took her hand and gently led her away.
"But they're my gifts," she quietly protested.
"They are, but no one should see you looking at them as though they are."
Alice rolled her eyes, glancing at the floor, so her father wouldn't see. Manners, manners, manners.
"I need to have a word with Wellesley before they serve; will you go and sit in your chair for me?" He kissed her hand and nodded in the direction of their table.
"Yes, Father," she replied, and walked between the tables and chairs to the one she knew she and Brayden were seated at. As she passed the place cards at their table, she wondered where Anabelle was going to sit. Alice looked around at the place cards as she passed, but Anabelle's name was nowhere to be found. She went to the next table and quickly scanned the cards, easily squeezing through occupied chairs where some guests had already taken their seats. Some of them wanted to chat and ask her questions, but she just smiled and quickly walked around the other tables. Elisabeth turned around when she felt Alice brush up behind her.
"Alice? What are you doing?" she chuckled.
"Looking for Miss Greyson's place card," Alice whispered, cupping one hand over her mouth.
Elisabeth looked across the room and spotted Brayden.
"If your father sees you moving those," she raised an eyebrow and lowered her voice.
"I know, so help me!" Alice grabbed her hand.
Bennett looked down when he felt Elisabeth being tugged away from him.
"Girls," he said, turning from the conversation he was having.
"Alice just wants to see me for a moment. Excuse me." She smiled at Bennett and the other gentlemen.
"I apologise," Bennett turned back to them. He'd make sure Elisabeth learned later that evening that she couldn't just leave conversations whenever she pleased. Although, he had a feeling Alice was the one doing the influencing. Pretty soon, someone would need to teach Elisabeth how to discipline Alice as her niece. Sooner rather than later.
"What are you going to do with it?" Elisabeth asked, as Alice pulled her by the hand through the crowds, keeping an eye on every card at every place setting they passed.
"Put her beside Father," Alice replied, as she carried on her mission.
"Alice, you can't just move the place cards about – what if she's already found where she's meant to be sitting? You'll embarrass her if she has to walk around looking for it."
"Aunty Evelyn and Uncle Jonathan already left; just switch theirs with hers."
Elisabeth slowed down, using her weight to pull Alice to her. "Darling, I don't want you getting into any trouble, especially not on your birthday. Why don't you just leave Anabelle wherever she is?"
"Because Father likes her, but he hasn't the guts to say anything," Alice spoke in a hushed whisper to Elisabeth. "You know he does. We all do. Please? Just find her card and put it beside him where Aunty Evelyn was."
Elisabeth heaved a sigh. "If I get into trouble for this, I'm not keeping schoolgirl honour for you, little miss."
"Yes, you will," Alice replied, and walked away.
Elisabeth turned and began checking the nearest tables' place cards, being as subtle as possible, all while smiling and saying hello to guests who were already seated. Alice wasn't afraid to be a little impudent, and Elisabeth could only put it down to the implied age; Elisabeth wouldn't dare to have been so bold about their mission.
In a slight panic at still not having found Anabelle's name, Alice removed Evelyn and Jonathan's place cards from the gold clips in front of their plates, and slipped them into the pocket of her pinafore. 'Thank you, Harriet,' Alice thought to herself, at the addition of pockets to the frilly thing. Elisabeth appeared moments later with a card in her hands, and made a point of raising an eyebrow at Alice as she clipped it to the seat directly beside Brayden, where Evelyn had been. She then returned to Bennett.
Alice quickly sat in her chair and straightened her face so as to appear indifferent. She should have been smiling, but the look would have been ridiculously giddy just because pork was about to be served. Rather, that would have been her only reasoning if Brayden asked.
"Good girl," he said, when he returned to the table and took his place beside Alice.
Wellesley hit a gong in a discrete corner of the conservatory to alert the guests the meal was about to be served. He then abandoned his place and began walking about the room to ensure everyone found their seats. Alice had to look away; she didn't want to see if Anabelle was looking for her place, or if she looked confused because she'd previously found her seat and it had mysteriously moved. Soon, their table began to fill up. Elisabeth sat on the other side of Alice, and Bennett beside Elisabeth. Jon's seat was empty, and where Evelyn would have sat, was empty, and next to that chair was Brayden. Then Elisabeth pinched Alice under the table. She gritted her teeth and then realised her indication; Wellesley was leading Anabelle to the chair beside Brayden. He tried not to look confused and only a glance at the place card as she approached was enough to explain.
"Thank you, Wellesley, I don't think I ever would have found my chair." Ana smiled as she sat down.
Bennett looked over at Brayden, trying to be subtle about his surprise. Why was Anabelle Greyson sitting at the host's table, beside the host, when she was supposedly nothing other than a 'professional acquaintance'? The fact that she was there – regardless of Jon and Evelyn Fowler leaving before the meal – suggested her association as either a member of the family, or highly esteemed in Brayden's eyes, such as someone he was courting. He raised an eyebrow at Bennett as if to suggest it was news to him that Anabelle Greyson had just put her napkin in her lap at their table. Elisabeth side-glanced at Alice, who was biting the inside of her cheek and avoiding eye contact with everyone.
Brayden smiled at Ana, although it wasn't as easy a smile as it had been when she first arrived that morning. He hadn't prepared himself to sit so close to her. Alice thought she would enjoy seeing her father force himself to carry on without any indication of anxiety, as expected, yet having been at Waldorf for a length of time, she realised just what the situation looked like with Ana at his side. Alice found it so awkward that she wanted to laugh, but she daren't. She bit her lip to keep from doing so.
When all the guests had been seated, Brayden glanced at Bennett again, and then turned his attention to Wellesley.
"Thank you," he replied, as the butler handed him a small microphone.
Alice's eyes widened and she covered her face with one hand. Brayden kissed her forehead as he stood up.
"I'd like to thank you all for being here today to celebrate my daughter's birthday."
Elisabeth removed Alice's hand from her face and nodded toward Brayden. Alice looked up at him as he continued.
"Many of you know the circumstances which brought Alice here to Waldorf, and some of you may not, but I'd like to thank you regardless of your familiarity with our situation because I don't know anyone who deserves a loving home and family more than the little girl I've adopted as my own."
Alice couldn't help but give a shy smile, as most eyes transferred to her from all directions. Most of them returned t
o Brayden as he continued.
"I've watched her embrace the very things my late parents passed to me, and you all know how much they advocated the sustaining of traditional English family values." Brayden paused when several people clapped. Oliver and Kathryn James had been deeply loved amongst their circle. "Thank you for being part of my daughter's life, and I hope to see you all again next year, but I can't promise she'll be thirteen. I might just leave her where she is."
An eruption of laughter crowded the conservatory, mainly from the people who had children and had most likely, reluctantly watched them grow up. They'd all said or thought those very words at one point or another.
Brayden looked down at Alice when he said his last words. "Happy birthday, my darling girl, and don't grow up too quickly," he said, and bent down to kiss her.
Alice put her arms around him. "I won't, I promise," she replied, looking up at him from where she sat. He kissed her again and held her for a moment. Brayden didn't want to let go and no one at the table even tried to interrupt them.
"Thank you, Father," she said, quietly.
Elisabeth couldn't help but wipe one eye as Alice pulled away from Brayden. She leant over and put her arm around Alice's shoulder, offering a look of encouragement. Elisabeth knew that Brayden and Alice had a bond most people envied, and sometimes even she did.
Anabelle smiled. "That was lovely," she told Brayden, as he lifted his wine glass.
"Thank you," Brayden replied, after he swallowed. "She's a lovely little girl."
Ana looked over at Alice as she was speaking to Bennett, with Elisabeth observing between them, and the buzzing of the wait staff as they served the first course. There was something so captivating about Waldorf Manor, but it wasn't any one thing she could describe. Except for, of course, the people who lived and worked there. She loved being at Waldorf, whatever the occasion. It felt like home.
When the main meal was served, Alice ensured she was in conversation with Elisabeth or had her head turned away from her father, so that he had no choice but to speak to Anabelle. It wasn't difficult getting him to speak to her, but the fact her place card had obviously been moved beside him weighed on his mind. Whoever did so, obviously didn't understand the implications of what that would put into Anabelle's mind. Surely, she must be thinking Brayden had done that strategically, to try and communicate something to her without actually having to tell her in plain English. Brayden spent most of their intermittent chat through luncheon trying to think of what he might say to her. Anabelle had been to enough posh events and she knew how it went too – even in 2014 – one didn't sit beside the host unless he wanted her to. That spoke volumes. Brayden hoped he wouldn't have to untangle himself from some kind of humiliating misunderstanding, especially when he hadn't even put Anabelle there in the first place. He'd actually had her seated on the other side of the room.
A light dessert was served and was only meant to cleanse the pallet because the real dessert, a twelve-tiered cake made by Waldorf's three chefs (and three of Alice's biggest fans), was wheeled into the conservatory with sparkling candles. She gasped when she saw it being pushed by the senior and two junior chefs all the way to her table, then looked at Brayden unbelievingly.
He chuckled at her reaction. Bennett couldn't help but smile a little, and the entire room rang out in tune singing, 'Happy Birthday to You'. Alice was encouraged to stand up by her father, and blow out the candles at the end. She managed a few and then received help from the chefs. A photographer, who Alice hadn't noticed before, appeared out of nowhere and snapped several shots of her blowing out candles. Brayden made a mental note to look for those, because she looked just like a little doll as she performed the ritual of childhood.
"Thank you!" she exclaimed, giving the chefs a big cuddle before they began expertly slicing through the layers, and handing them to the wait staff to be served.
There wasn't much else Alice felt she needed once she'd eaten her cake. She was a very happy, very loved and very full up girl. A small orchestra discretely appeared at the front corner of the conservatory and sat in the few vacant chairs and began to play. Several people stood up and made their way to the open space on the floor in front of the strings, and began to dance. Alice nearly blushed when her father asked her, but she couldn't say no. He led her to the dance floor and told her to stand on his shoes.
"I don't want to mark them. Besides, I'm twelve now!" She grinned.
Brayden smiled, then took his daughter's hand and put his other on her shoulder because in order to reach her waist, he would have had to bend over. Her words stung a little, but he hid it. He didn't want Alice to ever think she was 'too old' to dance on his shoes, or sit in his lap, or to do any of the things they did.
Anabelle watched from the table as Brayden led Alice in their dance, unaware that Bennett was watching her. He had a feeling he knew who had moved the place cards. Bennett looked at Elisabeth, who had also been watching Anabelle watch Brayden, and she looked away. He realised why Elisabeth had been pulled away from him earlier, because Alice had enlisted Elisabeth's help in planting Anabelle at their table. Ingenious. He loved it. Bennett only hoped his niece's little efforts paid off.
"Would you like to dance?"
Anabelle looked up and noticed a very handsome man in a suit standing beside her.
"That would be lovely, thank you." She smiled as she took his hand.
Bennett couldn't help but exhale and look away. If Brayden wasn't going to pursue Ana, another man would. And he just did.
Alice tried not to make it obvious that she was shocked when she saw Alexander Patterson dancing with Anabelle Greyson, right beside her and Brayden. Alice looked across at Elisabeth and widened her eyes. Elisabeth put up her hands innocently and gave a sympathetic look. Brayden's smile faded when he saw Alex and Ana. He plastered it back on when they looked at him and Alice, but inside, he was regretting every missed or ignored opportunity he'd had up until that point.
As soon as the orchestra finished, they began the next song, which meant Alexander and Ana didn't get more than a handful of seconds to dance before the tempo slowed right down. Alice let go of her father and walked right over to Alexander.
"Mr. Patterson, would you like to dance with the birthday girl?" she asked sweetly, ensuring she fluttered her little eyelashes.
Alexander chuckled.
"Miss Greyson won't mind; you can dance with Father," Alice said, and put an encouraging hand on Anabelle's arm as she nodded in his direction.
Brayden and Anabelle looked at each other, unsure of what had just happened, as they stood in front of each other. The song was slow and Alice was secretly thanking the orchestra from the bottom of her heart for having done the whole 'layering effect' with their song choices. It wouldn't have done at all for the song to be another waltz.
"So Mr. Patterson, what book are you currently reading?" Alice inquired, most seriously.
Anabelle was still standing in front of Brayden, her eyes slightly lowered from his. He held out one hand and waited for Ana to take it before he slipped his other around her waist, then gently pulled her closer. Ana breathed inward, and her eyes darted to his. She'd never stood so close to Brayden James before, but she liked it. A lot. He looked down at her and offered a smile before he began to lead.
"I apologise for my daughter interrupting your dance with Alexander. I think she fancies him," Brayden replied.
Anabelle couldn't help but laugh; it certainly helped with her nerves. "It's quite all right." She glanced over at Alice and Alex, who appeared to be in rather deep conversation.
"Interrupting is not all right, I'll be speaking to her about that later," he confirmed.
Something about his paternal response with that tone of voice made Anabelle blush. He hadn't even been speaking to her, and yet it felt as though she were in trouble. "But thank you for being gracious," Brayden added.
Anabelle smiled in response. "I was twelve once, and I fancied a boy much older than me."
/> "Did you?"
"It ended in heartache. Perhaps I'd best warn her." She looked over at Alice.
"He was a silly boy," Brayden replied, when Ana's gaze returned to him.
"He was my Maths teacher."
Brayden raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear."
Ana nodded. "Nothing but heartache."
"I'm not terribly disappointed," Brayden replied, after a moment's hesitation.
The song drew to an end, but they remained in the same position as they stood still.
"Would you like to keep dancing?" he asked, searching her eyes. Anabelle only nodded.
Alice took the opportunity to dance another two songs with Alexander before Bennett cut in.
"You are going to give your father a heart attack, young lady," Bennett said, as he picked Alice right up off the floor and slow danced with her. She wrapped her legs about his waist and leant back so she could see his face entirely. "Mr. Patterson is old," was the first reason Bennett could think of to discourage her.
"Aren't you two the same age?"
Bennett raised an eyebrow. "Birthday girls are supposed to get spankings. I can give it to you now if you like."
"I'd much prefer Mr. Patterson to oblige." Alice glanced over her uncle's shoulder at him.
Bennett closed his eyes momentarily. He definitely hadn't expected his niece to take his light-hearted threat seriously at all. Or rather, in equal humour.
"Now you're going to give your Uncle Bennett a heart attack."
"Please not, I like you now," Alice replied, then planted a kiss on his cheek. He couldn't help but smile a little.
After four songs, Brayden suggested they get a drink. Anabelle smiled in reply, and followed him over to the table where champagne was still being served by the flute-ful.
"I don't think I need any more champagne. How about one of those drinks I saw Alice with earlier?"