A Jewel in the Dirt - 19. New members in the Mitchell household

Dante slept really bad, tossed from side to side, and more than once had trouble separating dream fragments from reality. Consequently, it took him a moment to realize that the strange cry was coming from the here and now. Puzzled, he got up and went over to Mistress Alice's room- she herself was sitting up in bed, bedside lamp on- and listened for a moment to the voices in the hallway.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, and his mistress shrugged. Again, a shout.

"Oh..." she made, as if suddenly everything was clear to her, and slid out of bed. "Wait here..." She slipped out into the hallway, where Miss Carolyn was just talking to someone in a soothing tone.

"... it's going to be all right, you hear? You've been through this before..."

He heard Mistress Alice's voice, the hum of Blaise, and then she came back and closed the door.

"The water's running."

Confused, he blinked at her. "Excuse me?"

"Sarah's water broke. The baby's coming."

"Oh..."

She climbed back into bed and yawned. "Pa's taking her and Daniel to the hospital..."

"I thought it was supposed to be taken the day after tomorrow..." he said quietly.

"Seems to have a mind of his own, the little one..." She yawned again. "Go back to bed..."

"Okay..." He had never served in a household with a baby; in fact, Jack, at five, was the youngest child on his experience list. Presumably Daniel would be even less available to general household duties now than he had been before. Thinking, he pulled the covers up to his chin, yawned into the pillow, and curled up.

~

To Dante's great surprise, his mistress joined him and Frank as they prepared their sumptuous omelet.

"Is it a boy or a girl?", Frank wanted to know curiously while Mistress Alice was working on her tea. She gave a very unladylike grunt.

"Boy." she then grumbled wearily. "I don't know his name."

Dante chuckled and took the cup from her. "Why don't you sit down, I'll handle it."

She obeyed, burying her face in her hands.

"Are you all right?" Frank continued to ask, touching her gently on the arm. Dante saw her pat his hand and then the two exchanged a smile full of affection.

"Just tired..."

He took care of her tea and continued stirring the pan.

"Are you sad?" Frank then suddenly asked into the comfortable silence.

"Why should I be?" she asked back.

"Because you don't have children. And now Val is... gone."

She laughed quietly. "This has nothing to do with Val. I could do like Sarah and-" She broke off and Dante felt his face warm up. After she'd told him she didn't want to call him into her bed, he hadn't questioned the decision further. But things could change...

He glanced over his shoulder; Mistress Alice was flushed, Frank looked decidedly curious.

"I... um..." she cleared her throat, "I'm in no hurry with kids." Her gaze flickered to Dante and they both blushed even harder. The thought of sleeping with her was beyond exciting, and her embarrassment certainly didn't just originate from the fact that Frank supposedly had no idea where babies came from.

He glanced at Frank, who was looking at him with wide, curious eyes- quite the child waiting for answers- but there was a strange line around his mouth. Dante might have called it uncertainty, but the moment vanished when Mistress Alice sniffed.

"Your omelet..."

"Oh, damn!" Dante turned back around and snatched the pan off the stove.

"I'm sure Dante would make a wonderful Pa..." Frank muttered in an odd tone, but the conversation was interrupted by Blaise, who stomped in heavily.

"Does anyone mind making me a coffee?"

Dante almost found it funny how Mistress Alice and Frank jumped up at the same time.

~

At lunch, the news arrived that little Sebastian would probably have to stay in the premature baby ward for a while, so the mood was rather anxious. They were already serving themselves when Dante was ordered to get Jack's favorite water cup, and no sooner had he gotten up than the doorbell rang.

"I'm going," Seth said with a sigh.

As Dante returned to the dining room, Matthew was just entering through the other door, looking like he didn't want to be here at all.

"Matthew," Miss Carolyn greeted, a little surprised, "what brings you here?"

"I really don't mean to intrude, Miss Carolyn..." he assured, pulling a thick envelope from his jacket, "but I was given documents for you at the Town Hall."

"Ah, yes, thank you..."

On an impulse, Dante asked: "Shall I get another plate?"

"Yes." confirmed Miss Carolyn at the same moment Matthew protested:

"No need."

"Sit down." both Mistress Alice and Miss Britney said at the same time, and as Dante went into the kitchen again, he could have sworn that Matthew would have somehow squirmed out if not for Mistress Alice's request.

"By the way, I'd like to give best wishes from all of us for the new member of the family," Matthew said stiffly into the somewhat tense silence, after he'd taken a seat.

"Thank you very much. How is Maggie?" Miss Carolyn asked.

"She's... she was... I'm afraid she wasn't..."

"She wasn't prepared for the full extent of the problem?" Miss Britney politely assisted.

"No."

"How are the documents coming along?" Miss Carolyn wanted to know.

"Slowly but surely wins the race," Matthew sighed. "There are still a few things missing and... may I ask your advice about that later?"

"Of course, dear."

"I hope once that's settled, you'll find yourself a wife," Blaise then piped up.

Seth rolled his eyes, TJ and Mikey grinned. Dante wasn't sure why, but if Blaise was going to try to push Matthew in the right direction, it could only end up embarrassing.

"This... Well, I..." began Matthew awkwardly.

"An heiress doesn't fall from the sky, you know."

"I'm aware of that, but-"

"And just between you and me, being married isn't a bad thing."

"Blaise, my dear, don't overdo it." Miss Carolyn was obviously amused.

"I-"

"Or don't you like women at all?" Frank chipped in. "Because some of them are pretty daft."

Dante sent a quick prayer to the Great Mother to please not let the situation escalate, and looked to Seth, who seemed almost shocked.

"I-I like women, it's not like that... but you're right, some are... daft." Matthew sounded like he was forcing himself to smile. "Your sisters are adorable."

Mikey had to cover his laughter with a coughing fit, and Dante wasn't the only one giving him a deadly look.

"No, Britney isn't," Frank declared seriously.

"Frank!" She was understandably outraged while Flynn was spitting his water across the table- but who was also stupid enough to want a drink at a moment like this? Dante agreed with Frank, but feared he would get a nice slap for it.

"But Alice is great," Frank continued unconcernedly, and she sighed.

"Frank, please..."

And then Jessy topped it off: "You know, Matthew, he's right. I'd rather have Aunt Alice than Ma..."

Flynn continued to cough for quite a while, while the others were wrapped in icy silence.

Dante could barely get another bite down, and apparently poor Matthew felt the same way, because Mistress Alice said at one point:

"You need to eat properly."

"You of all people are telling me that?" It probably wasn't meant half as critically as it sounded, and Mistress Alice probably didn't take it that way either.

"Well, unlike you, I don't do any physical labor."

"I guess it's a different story in bed..." muttered Miss Britney, and Miss Carolyn immediately said sharply:

"No such discussion at the table!"

"That's what the one with the pleasure slave says?" Mistress Alice muttered back snidely, and then turned to Matthew and added, completely ignoring her mother: "You know, unless my dear sister grabbed poor Dante and raped him, he's still as virginal as the day he was born. I don't call slaves to my bed."

"Grandpa," Jack started, and Blaise interrupted him:

"Not now, Jack."

Dante, on the other hand, was blushing.

"I didn't really want to know that much..." Matthew muttered highly embarrassed.

~

"You're really out of your mind," Dante grumbled as they left the house.

Frank grinned despite the reddened cheek- he had, as Dante had prophesied, actually caught a slap in the face. "It was funny, wasn't it?"

"What was funny?" Tom asked curious, joining them.

"Frank asked Matthew at lunch if he liked women."

"You asked to get a plate to make him stay in the first place," Frank shot back.

"Great Mother, Frank, you don't ask questions like that in public," Tom also sighed. "Even if he was into men, he couldn't have said so."

"Why not?"

"Because he's the heir to the Horner farm now and needs an heir himself. They don't fall out of the sky," Tom said seriously, almost angrily, giving Dante a quick look. "Dante explained to you how this works, didn't he?"

To Dante's surprise, Frank blushed. "He did."

"There you go..."

They continued trudging across the frozen ground and Frank asked quietly: "But... he's in love with Alice. He can't like men then, can he?"

"That's not impossible..." Dante said slowly, trying to hold Frank's gaze as calmly as he could.

"The world isn't all black and white," Tom agreed, smiling encouragingly; Dante almost imagined getting a wink to this.

They worked rather silently along, which was probably mostly due to Frank's thoughtful silence, but also to Tom, who Dante thought was getting almost nervous. Just as Dante was about to return to the house for dinner preparations, Tom asked:

"Dante, could you give me a hand?"

"I got it," Frank said faster than Dante could open his mouth.

"I can-"

"No, go on, before you get in trouble."

"I'd like to-" began Tom, but Frank was already stepping around a corner.

"Gone!" Dante shouted at the same moment as something wooden cracked.

"What's that?", Frank wanted to know, dumbfounded.

"Uh..." Tom made sheepishly, and Dante, guessing what it was, grinned as he stepped out into the darkness.

It was now Tom's turn to explain.

~

After dinner, Miss Carolyn called Dante in, and with an anxious question in his stomach as to what he might have done wrong, he entered her office, the door of which was open.

"Miss Carolyn...?" Judging from the look on her face, the news for him personally probably wasn't quite as bad as he had feared.

"You heard about two slaves escaping from the chemical park in Westshire a few days ago?"

"Yes, miss." He nodded. "But they were caught, weren't they?"

"No. That was a hoax." Miss Carolyn's lower jaw twitched. "But they shot a woman and stole her car."

Stunned, Dante looked at her. "Where did they get a gun?"

"That's exactly the award question. Next to where they are now, of course." Lips pressed into a thin line, she pulled open a drawer and, to his amazement, laid a pistol on the table. "You know how to use that?"

"... yes." Uneasily, he looked at the black thing. He was a fully trained bodyguard, of course he had a license, but he didn't like those things at all.

"A smaller version is deposited in the red car, in a secret compartment in the center console; Matthew is installing it now." She looked at him forcefully and he swallowed before nodding; it was a strange feeling that she was confiding this to him, that she was almost officially trusting him with her daughter, but on the other hand it also betrayed how she was afraid.

And if a woman of Miss Carolyn's caliber was afraid, things were probably worse than slaves would be told.

~

Since Mistress Alice had later ordered him unusually gruffly to stay in the house the next day, Dante did just that. There had been no explanation, but orders were orders and so he gave Seth a hand.

With a strange feeling in his stomach, which could have been due to yesterday's news but also to the green beans from lunch, and a stack of files in his hand, he went to Miss Carolyn's office.

"- is going to break him!" Blaise's voice boomed through the closed door.

"You got a better solution?" Miss Carolyn hissed back angrily. "Blaise, we've been over this so many times now... If Britney hadn't been so stupid as to buy that floozy, I'd sleep more soundly, believe me."

"But Alice-"

"I fucking know!" Miss Carolyn's roar would probably have silenced any man who was at least half in his right mind, and Dante seriously considered just turning around and leaving, but while he was still standing there in shock, his matriarch- muttering angrily to herself- was already yanking open the office door. "You!" she hissed, using him as an outlet.

Defensively, he raised his files. "Seth sent me."

"Bring them here..." Blaise said, sounding infinitely tired.

Dante would have loved to know what exactly the argument had been about- after all, his mistress's name had come up- but he would certainly keep his mouth shut.

With a sigh, Blaise looked at his watch, then gave Dante a thin smile. "Go up to Alice, will you?"

Dante nodded silently and hurried away.

Mistress Alice was tidying her desk, and at the expressionless look she gave him, he kept his mouth shut. Something was up.

He watched her, standing unobtrusively in a corner, waiting, and finally she turned off the monitors and went to her closet. "Are you going out?" he wanted to know cautiously.

"No. Grab your jacket."

In slippers but wearing his heavy work jacket, he followed her out into the hallway; she, too, had only quickly put on light sneakers and thrown on a jacket. They stepped onto the porch in front of the house, where Miss Carolyn was already waiting, displaying a similar blank face as her daughter.

Dante felt damn uncomfortable.

A moment later, Miss Carolyn pointedly looked at her watch, but a car appeared among the trees.

Mistress Alice hissed quietly.

The small silver car approached and stopped in front of the house, two women got out; from the age and faces probably mother and daughter, matching Miss Carolyn and Miss Britney. The older one held a thin file folder and bowed slightly after stepping closer to the porch. "We'll abide by the agreement, Miss Mitchell," she said.

"I wouldn't have accepted anything else, either," Miss Carolyn replied coolly, but Dante's brows moved upward as a chubby boy got out of the back of the car, a backpack hugged to his chest and tear streaks glistening in the sunlight on his round cheeks. The younger woman, most likely his mother, put a hand on his shoulder and led him to the house; his gaze was fixed solely on the ground.

Now life came to Mistress Alice's motionless figure and she stepped down two steps.

"My- my son is your son, Sister," the woman said as if choked.

"Your son is my son, Sister, I will take good care of him," Mistress Alice said calmly but coolly.

The woman pushed her son on, who was now trembling as he climbed the steps; his reddish-blond hair stuck to his forehead, soaked with nervous sweat, and his freckles shone on his pale face. Mistress Alice touched him on the shoulder, walked with him back up the two steps, and Dante shuddered when he saw the laboriously controlled expression on her face.

"Let's go into the house."

The boy gave a suppressed sob and for a brief moment Dante was twelve again, taken by Sister Larissa to his first mistress, and he shuddered before putting on a smile.

"Come into the house." he said softly, making an inviting gesture.

They entered; the boy sobbed and shuddered.

"Dante..."

"Yes, mistress?"

"You take care of him." She didn't even look at him, but simply disappeared. With a suppressed sigh, he watched her go.

"What's your name?" he then wanted to know kindly. The boy who would spend the next thirteen years as an education slave in Mistress Alice's care sniffled.

"H-Henry, sir."

"I'm not a sir, Henry, we serve the same mistress. My name is Dante."

Henry nodded, his round cheeks trembling, and only very briefly did the gaze from his dark blue eyes twitch upward to Dante.

"Come on, I'll show you the house."