Fiancé

Chapter 6

Familial Practices

"Marrying a man is like buying something you've been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get it home, but it doesn't always go with everything in the house."
- Jean Ke

"Where is she? I want to see her. I haven't seen her in ages."

I groaned as my brain dimly registered the nearby voice and shifted in my covers to avoid the sound.

"Mum, really, there's no need."

"Nonsense. Her sister managed to greet me downstairs. What makes Lily any different? Who sleeps till eleven in the morning, honestly! My granddaughter is a complete sloth."

I vaguely heard the sound of a door opening before I felt hands slapping at my face.

"Get up, you," I was ordered.

I groaned as I swatted away anything near my face in self-defense. "Stop," I pleaded grouchily. "Not face. Hit, bad."

"It is time to wake up, young lady."

Groggily, I slowly eased my body into an almost seated position. "Leave me alone," I requested, blocking my face with my arms. "Frinklestarten."

"That's no way to speak to your Grandmum, young lady," an aged voice scolded me. "Why do you let her get away with such sass, April?"

A voice that I recognized to be my mum's sighed. "Lousy parenting," she muttered under her breath.

"I heard that, dear," Grandmum spat.

Mum shot me a pleading look of help.

Sitting up in bed, I began to slowly wipe the sleep away from my eyes.

"Finally," Grandmum Rose said as she paced in front of my bed. Her graying hair was dyed a brown color that was a bit darker than had been her original shade. She must have been experimenting at the salon. Her thin lips were covered in a bright pink lipstick that smudged at the side and matched the color of her cheek rouge. She adjusted her large glasses before smoothing the adjoining chain down the front of her blue and green dress. "Lily Marie Evans, get up and kiss me hello."

Dutifully and with a desperate look from my mother, I pushed my covers away and walked over to kiss her soft cheek.

Grandmum Rose tutted at my attire. "What are you wearing?" she demanded. "April, you'd think I found her at some pub, or something."

Hastily, I pulled down the hem of James's shirt as far as it could go. Today, I was wearing the dark Puddlemere shirt he had just bought. "It's just a shirt," I answered quickly.

She narrowed her blue-lined eyes at me. "I've heard you're engaged."

I nodded with a sigh.

"At eighteen."

"You've got me," I replied lazily.

"You should know that an engagement does not mean that suddenly you're allowed to start shagging. You can't mount the boy till the Lord says it's okay."

"Mother!"

I hid my enflamed face. I tried to stutter out a response, but words failed me.

"She should know!" the old woman insisted unabashedly. "Seems propriety might already be too late, though," she added with an eye on my shirt.

"Mother, I assure you that I have complete control over my daughter. Lily's a good girl. She would never do anything reckless. Let's go downstairs. There's tons to disapprove of down there, too."