The cake was cut and now they were sitting at tables to eat, Ophelia and Cade were invited by his grandfather to sit at the same table as he was sitting because they were family just as Frances claimed, Frances had earlier planned to remove them from their table but Charles had insisted that Frances knew it was pointless to argue with him about it.
“Why haven’t you come with your wife to visit me one of these days?” Charles asked as they ate.
“We have both been so busy that we have not been able to squeeze out time”
“You scoundrels” Charles backed at them. “You should do better” he added.
“We are sorry about that and we shall soon come to say Hello, very soon,” Cade said. He knew that his grandfather was still very traditional in his thinking and there was no separating them, there was nothing he could do about it too.
“You had better” Charles added.
“Oh Charles, you are busy going on and on about Cade when it is Cael’s birthday today” Abigail said.
“Do you have to bring that up now?” Charles asked in a harsh tone.
“I mean, you haven’t even said happy birthday to Cael yet but you keep doting over your grandson who got married two months ago” Abigail knew it had not been up to two months but she knew that exaggerating the number of months would take up more sympathy for her son.
“Happy Birthday Cael” Charles’s tone was sarcastic as he looked at Cael who was super engrossed in his meal and was oblivious to his mother’s attempts to make him seen by Charles. “Are you happy now woman?” he asked turning to Abigail.
Abigail knew that this was the only time she would get to act like this ever. She knew that Charles was so calm and responding to her because of the crowd that was in the house. Frances had been adamant about having the party so big. She had constantly said the bigger the better.
When she had told Abigail that this was her way of introducing Cael to the world once again she would make sure that from then going forward everyone remembered him as the competent one she was going to make him be.
“Thank you Grandpa” Cael said and that was only because Frances had pinched him by the side and insisted that he said thank you. She wondered how much more work she might have needed to do on him to shape him into the man worthy of inheriting the Vale company at this point.
The table fell silent and a plan began to form in Frances’s mind. She had not been able to catch them in the act but she was sure that Ophelia and Cade were arguing even though she was not sure what they were arguing about. She had to somehow expose them.
“So Ophelia” she began and Ophelia rolled her eyes because she knew that Frances was about to pick on her like a bully. She could not believe that she had to sit at this table and pretend like her tactics were not obvious to her and then also play along with it.
“Yeah,” Ophelia said dropping the spoon she had been siping her soup onto the table and cleaning the corners of her mouth with the napkin. “I have to say, you have done a marvellous job with the party and the meal was superb” Ophelia wanted to compliment her at least to get her off her back for a moment.
“Thank you” Frances was flattered. Ophelia knew that the complimenting tactic was going to work. Who would not be happy to be complimented even better if it was coming from her?
“I am still a bit hurt that you did not bother to call me to help you” Cade could not help but glance at Ophelia. Ophelia had gone on and on about how fake Frances was but here she was being on the same level with this girl.
“Oh, I did not call you because I thought…” Frances trailed off gesturing to her with her head. Ophelia could hear the unsaid words a billion times but she did not want to act like she understood.
“You thought that what?” Ophelia said picking up her spoon and taking sips of the soup again.
“Oh, I did not know if you were pregnant or not and I did not want to put you through stress when I could not tell if you were and I did not want to offend you by asking directly. ”
‘You did not want to offend me but you asked anyway? She is trying to put me on the spot in front of all these people?’ Ophelia thought to herself. Frances smiled to herself as he felt her heart somersault for doing such a good job. Everyone at the table looked at Ophelia and Cade’s direction. They were all expecting a reply from them at least. It had been a month plus and if they were trying for a baby they should have news by now.
“Oh, that?” Ophelia asked leaning her head into Cade’s shoulders as they had found their way to his empty hand that had been on the table. “We aren’t trying for kids yet,” Ophelia said.
“You aren’t?” Frances asked. She felt mixed emotions about this. Was there something they were hiding? Is she being paranoid?
“Oh we are just trying to enjoy ourselves before we introduce kids into our lives” Ophelia said squeezing Cade’s hands. “Right honey?” she asked and he nodded.
Frances could not tell if they were telling the truth but she thought it was a very horrible idea, any wealthy person knows that a child is the easier way to secure wealth. A child meant an heir and that meant that it was easier to make the company theirs. When she gets married she was going to make sure that the first thing they did was to try for kids.
“That must be wonderful” Frances replied. Ophelia wished that she would just keep shut and that they could have the meal in peace. She was desperately waiting for the end of the party so she could go home and be free from all the madness.
“You know I just had the greatest idea Mom” Frances said turning to Abigail.
‘Can you just shut it?’ Ophelia screamed in her mind. It was obvious even to a blind man that Frances and Abigail were co-plotters.
“What is it darling?” Abigail asked. Ophelia just wondered how stupid they thought everyone was. They could see them planning and acting this out for them all.
“Why don’t we let Cade and Ophelia pass the night here, that way they can rest after drinking till dawn and we can all have breakfast in the morning”
“That is a brilliant idea, it has been forever since Cade joined us for breakfast. WONDERFUL!” Abigail exclaimed.
Ophelia opened her mouth to begin to lay down all the excuses she could think of. Since they wedded they had never slept in the same room before and she was sure they wanted to use this opportunity to try and prove that they were a real couple. Before the words left her mouth Charles was already speaking.
“I think that is a fantastic idea, we are yet to clear out Cade’s room so they can use that for the night and I can have a brief meeting with Cade tomorrow morning”
Ophelia knew now that it was a done deal and there was no going back for her again so she nodded with a smile. She turned to Cade who had been silent through it all and wondered why he was so silent he could not even do something about the situation.
“Let me ask a staff to help clean out the room,” Frances said excusing herself from the table.
“And this old man would retire to bed now, so you youngsters can get drunk” Charles said leaving the room as well.