“You finally made it down for breakfast,” Frances said as they entered the dining table area.
“We are sorry” Ophelia replied clinging onto Cade’s arms. Cade felt a bit scared because he had expected Ophelia to rain down hell on him for what his grandfather had done. Instead of being a pain she had been quiet and changed out of her clothes to the clothes Frances had prepared for her before telling him that they should go down for breakfast.
Now she was holding onto him and still pretending so well, maybe she was now okay with the idea of them being intimate and with the idea of them having a child. He dreaded the conversation they were going to have about this when they got back home. The only words she had told him as they left the room was that he had to make sure that they acted better than they had been doing up until now.
“We could barely keep our hands off each other” she added. She was going to act more now because she had a larger shoe to fill.
“We did not need to know that,” Cody said with a frown.
Ophelia looked at the direction the voice came from and saw the resemblance between all these boys. They could easily pass off as brothers. She smiled at him. “Oops sorry, it slipped,” she said pinching the inner part of Cade’s arm. She could not be working so much and he was not trying to put any effort into it. He needed to be more responsive to at least sell the story a bit to the public.
“Honey?” she asked tilting her head and pushing it forward so she could look at his face.
“Yes baby” he said and she was glad that he had snapped out of the madness he had been in since last night when he had turned her to be the one talking like she did not know what she was doing.
“Who are these? Your cousins?” she asked as Hsrper came out of the kitchen with a bowl in her hand. Harper stopped at the sight of Ophelia and Cade all cosy. She wanted to run in between them and tear them apart but she knew that she could not do that. She dared not make a scene here. How was she to explain it if she did?
“This is Cody, Caleb and Chase that I told you about” Cade replied pointing them out as he said their names. He had not told her anything about them because they had never come up in any conversation that they had but he had to make it seem like they had been talking about everything.
“What did he say about us?” Chase asked.
“Why should I tell you that” Ophelia replied taking her eyes off Cade for a moment to be able to make out each person to their names. She might not necessarily come up against them but if she did then she had to be ready.
“Are you just going to stand there?” Abigail said coming in after a while with a dish in her hand. “Come sit for breakfast, Frances had cooked up a storm” she added.
“Mother” Ophelia said leaving the arm of Cade and walking to where Abigail stood. Ophelia had turned and saw Charles coming to the table, she knew that Abigail would not be able to treat her badly if Charles was there so this was the best opportunity for her to cause a bit of trouble with her.
“Mother?” Frances and the boys whispered in amusement to themselves. They were so sure that Abigail was not going to take that from this girl and was going to put her in her place soon.
“What are we all doing standing?” Charles asked as he entered the room.
“I am trying to express my grievances to Mother,” Ophelia said and Charles sat down.
“Why don’t you come tell me?” Charles asked a bit of worry lacing his voice.
“No I have to say this to mother”
“What is it? Tell me and I will solve it once for you”
“Mother seems to hate me,” Ophelia said. She knew that Abigail was not exactly a fan of them but she knew this was a way to send a signal to them that Charles was on their side and that they should not try to cross paths with them. They were superior to them in all ways.
“Hate you” Abigail splattered in confusion. She knew this was just a plot by Ophelia to disgrace her in front of Charles. Charles was already not a fan of Abigail and her son but this was going to put them in an even tighter corner. “What do you mean? How can you say something so harsh and untrue” she added trying to act innocently.
“How can you say that about my mom?” Cael followed up in annoyance.
“Cael why would you raise your voice on a woman?’ his mom said to him to stop him from saying anything more. She turned to Frances and signalled her to keep Cael down while she tried to settle things with Ophelia. With the way Charels sounded everyone there knew that Charels was on her side and for no reason at all.
“But mom..”
“Honey,” Frances said holding Cael’s hand down as she shook her head.
“What did I do? Ophelia? What makes you think I would hate my daughter-in-law?” Abigail asked hating the way the words sounded in her mouth.
“You only favour Frances, you did not allow me to help you set up for the party yesterday and even allow me help you to clean up. This morning you could have asked me to help you prepare breakfast but instead, you asked Harper and Frances. Why would I not feel hurt?” Ophelia asked.
“It is because I wanted you to have a good first time here,” Abigail said. The answer was quickly out of her mouth as though she had prepared it beforehand to answer in case it came up.
“Still I wanted to help but no one wanted me to” Ophelia replied. “It makes me feel like you have not yet accepted me”
“Why would say it like that? It is nothing like that” Abigail said.
“Ophelia, come sit, next time they will fully involve you in all of their plans. Okay?” Charles said like he was talking to a child throwing a tantrum.
“If you say so” Ophelia went to hold Cade who had stood still wondering what ploy she was up to again. She smiled at him and dragged him to the table as she pretended to whisper to him.
“Cade honey, your family has finally accepted me now”