GRACE ☾ G.BLYTHE

16| Before The Party

『 16| Before The Party 』
❝ I don't know them personally, but from your stories they sound like kindred spirits. ❞

"Welcome, my lovelies. This will be the scene of the crime." Aunt Josephine welcomes us and we walk through the hall to the ballroom. My jaw drops and I see that Olivia smiles as she makes her way to where Diana, Anne, Cole and I are standing.

"Oh, goodness me." Diana exclaims and we walk into the ballroom. It's filled with colorful flowers of al sizes. These flowers remind me of the flower field next to the G tree. "Oh, I've dreamed about parties before, and while I do believe I have quite a capable imagination it's never conjured up anything like this." Anne says as she gives me a side hug.

There is a man tuning the piano and Diana makes her way over to the man. "I'm exceptionally excited to hear Cecile Chaminade play." "Miss Barry spares no expense to get through the bleak winter." Some staff of the party take our luggage and disappears behind a door.

"I can't take credit for Gertrude's idea. This was her night. I couldn't bring myself to have this party last year without her." Aunt Josephine says with a spark in her eyes that I've seen in someone's eyes before. I just can't wrap my head around the person that I've seen it in before. "Well, time marches on, doesn't it?

"How... did you find yourself roped into this fiasco?" Aunt Josephine asks Cole with a playful smile. "Cole was our hero." Anne says thankfully. "Without him, we wouldn't have been permitted to come." Diana tells Aunt Josephine, and I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear.

"The artist in you must love all this-" Cole cuts Anne off before she could say another word. "Anne" he sighs. "It's still who you are." I tell him, but he shakes his head. "Not anymore." It's sad to see Cole give up his dream like this. If he practices his hand motions, I'm sure he would be the old him in no time. I don't think he knows how good he was before it happened.

"I'm happy to be here, even so." Aunt Josephine smiles and says, "let's get you some supper. And then, off to bed. Tomorrow is a big day."

I look around and see Olivia wondering off to a door that says staff only. "C'mon, we're not doing anything that's not on the program this weekend." She turns around and sighs, "I just wanted to see if there are going to be shrimps at the party tomorrow." I shake my head and take her back to the rest of the group.

➳

I knock on the bedroom door of aunt Josephine. Diana told me that aunt Josephine has a copy of Jane Eyre, and I've wanted to read that book for a long time. Plus, Olivia wanted to read a special part of it. She said that that part reminded her of a girl named Ruth.

Aunt Josephine opened the door and looked kinda surprised to see us this late at night. "Girls, what are you doing up this late?" We giggle and then tell her, "we were wondering if we could borrow your copy of Jane Eyre. Diana told us that you have one."

"Come in." Aunt Josephine steps aside and we walk into the room. She closes the door and walks over to her bedside. She picks up a dark green book en looks at it. "I suppose Gertrude wouldn't mind if I let you two girls borrow it. This was her book. They sit just where she left them."

"Is that what you meant by in your way, you were married." I say and I look over at Olivia. "Married Gertrude? So, you can marry a woman?" Olivia her eyes light up when she says that and aunt Josephine nods, "not officially, but you can still make it feel like you're married."

Olivia turns to me with tears in her eyes. "That means I could've married her. I could've married..." she takes a deep breath and swallows. "Ruth?" I say and her eyes light up. They have some kind of sparkle. The same kind of sparkle I've seen in Aunt Josephine's eyes. Now I see that Olivia and aunt Josephine have a lot of the same personality traits.

"Her favorite part was chapter ten. She told me that, but I never had the chance to actually read it." I open the book and try to find chapter ten. When I'm there, I see that it has a lot of notes on the pages. "It must've been one of Gertrude's favorite chapters."

"Would you like to read it to everyone tomorrow? I think it would make Gertrude very happy." Olivia smiles, "I think it'd make Ruth happy too." She runs her finger over the letters of the page and says, "I would love to recite it at the party tomorrow." I let out a soft chuckle and say, "I don't know them personally, but from your stories they sound like kindred spirits."

"They were" Aunt Josephine and Olivia said at the same time.

A/N:
Hello my dear readers. It's been a long time since I've uploaded and I'm very sorry that it took me so long. I've been very busy with school, new friends and love and stuff. But I still wanted to finish this story so here I am. It's a short chapter because I don't have much time this week but I'm gonna try and upload more often. As you may have noticed, I put some things in this chapter that are relevant to my book Olivia (which you can also read rn). Go check that out if you want. Thanks for coming this far. I'm so great full for all the people that vote and comment on my story. It means a lot to me so thank you.

Love,
Iris