A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Chapter Twenty One

Things didn't boil over for another few days, but tempers and hostility flared one night over dinner with sly and jabbing remark made about the food that George had prepared.

David had rudely spat the food out and grimaced whilst dropping the partially chewed meat unceremoniously back onto his plate.

"What is this slop?" He grunted, glancing down as if he had been personally offended.

"It's me mam's special beef," George replied with a disheartened frown.

"I wouldn't serve this slop to pigs."

"The only thing pigs wouldn't eat is you, even if you were the last food source available," Ben quipped, his dark and tired brown eyes shooting daggers at his supervisor.

David turned his glare to Ben, his fists clenching tightly around his cutlery.

"That is not how you speak to your superior."

"You get respect when you earn respect, boy," Nathaniel spoke, though he didn't look up from his plate.

The air around the table thickened and grew tense, everyone antsy and on edge, a quick look around the table was enough to give away everyone's mood.

Mother and Father kept to themselves, staying as close to one another and as closed off as they could, their attention was solely on themselves and their food.

Ben sat glaring at David, who was trying to stare him down in return.

George, Alexander and Hille sat in a solemn silence, the only noise from them coming from their cutlery scraping against their plates.

Nathaniel had taken it upon himself to start distracting an anxious Jonathan with a story about his first job, years where he fondly remembered making charcoal and the fun they'd try to instil using the bulls used to plough the fields.

Robert was the liveliest one at the table, eating with a gusto that I had never witnessed from him before. He was eating as if he were a starving man who had never seen food before.

His speed was matched only by China's, who had wolfed down the unseasoned meat that George had specifically set aside for her in no time flat.

I ate my food at a calm pace, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone to be sure that their stress wasn't passed onto me more than it already had been.

The slight disagreement I had had with Robert hadn't officially been settled, but it had breezed over naturally which left me feeling a little underwhelmed, but cleaning, tidying and sorting out my belongings that were gradually finding a place in the clean rooms kept me distracted.

Much like our disagreement, the one from dinner never got resolved and everyone retired to their rooms more disgruntled than they had been that morning.

That evening we all went to bed early, downtrodden and fed up, I don't believe it took anyone long to fall asleep.

It was hours later when I jolted awake, blinded and disorientated by the thick darkness that still enveloped my room.

China was whining and scratching at the door in a desperate attempt to get out, it took a moment for my lagging brain to catch up and realise that something was clearly wrong.

Loud thudding, yells and sounds I had never heard before lured a small crowd out of their separate rooms, from the corridor I could hear footsteps thundering past my door.

The grogginess mixed with adrenaline and kicked my senses into high alert, so I threw the covers away from my legs, swung them over the side of the bed and stumbled my way to the door.