Bedeviled

Chapter 5

We lounged in across various large couches and chairs, laughing and catching up with each other. Our parents were still occupied with the meeting, it had been a few hours now since we were excused.

"Gerard?" Elijah, my cousin, called out, leaning his head in the direction of the hall to project his voice. We were hanging in the commons room centered between the guest living quarters. This is the wing we would be staying in for the night.

Gerard stepped through the door "Elijah" he drew out his words in response. Gerard was one of the main workers in the Main Palace. He had been working here for as long as I could remember and was ecstatic the day we began moving out. Don't get me wrong, the old man loved us and we loved him, but we for sure shared a love-hate relationship with him.

"Remember those amazing, red cocktails you use to make for us?" Elijah said grinning.

"Cosmopolitans," Gerard said dryly, clearly not interested in making one for Elijah. Gerard had been serving us all night and I could tell he was over it. His crisp and neatly tailored suit was far too pristine to be serving partying children and he had far better things he thought he could do with his time.

"Could you make me one?" Elijah said, putting a massive, fake smile on his face. Gerard stared back at him in silence, face remaining just as stoic as before. "Pretty please?" Elijah begged.

The aged man forced a sad excuse for a smile and clasped his white gloved hands behind his back. "Very well," Gerard said and turned to leave the room. We all tried our hardest to hide our smiles. Elijah threw his hands behind his head and kicked his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.

We all broke out in laughter after a few moments. I laid my head and shoulders down on Christian's lap who sat next to me. He immediately began running his fingers through my hair, twisting the stands around.

I grimaced as I gulped down the remainder of the brown liquid in my glass, sitting my head up slightly to do so. As soon as it left my lips Christian pulled it out of my hand and reached for one of the glass decanters on the table behind us. His body shifted slightly under me as he reached.

"Thank you" I gazed up at him as he handed me the glass.

He leaned his face down slightly, eyeing the others conversing in the room, "I..." He paused for a moment to place his hand on my thigh, "am going to head to my room for a moment". His words were slow and sultry.

A smile crept onto my face. I felt the hand on my thigh tighten momentarily and I sat up, giving him room to stand. The other ten people in the room didn't notice him standing, probably too drunk to realize.

I waited a few moments before standing to creep out behind him. As I was passing behind the love seat the twins rested on, Alexandra reached out to grab my wrist.

"Vienna!" she said enthusiastically, "What do you think about getting a dog?"

"A dog?" I laughed back, crouching to the side of the chair to talk to them. "Like, one that stays with us in the West Vales Palace?"

"Yes!" They both said to me, almost in unison.

"Wouldn't that be so fun?" Georgia said, peering around Alexandra to look at me.

"We'll have to bring it up to the boys." I stood to leave but Alexandra reached to pull me back down.

"Where are you going?" She furrowed her eyebrows at me.

Georgia gasped, her face lighting up, "oh, I know." Her face settled into a smirk, looking at Alexandra. She must have seen Christina leave the room.

Her sister seemed to catch on, "Don't worry, we won't say a word."