The car ride over to Willow Creek was
long and silent.
Kelly tried asking the driver a few
questions about where she was going, but he never really answered her other
than a nod or a muttered ‘Don’t know Miss.’; so she let the half conversations
fall into silence.
Finally the car stopped, the driver came
and opened her door letting her out, then he got back in the car and drove off
across a small bridge and down the road.
Standing on the curb for a moment
slightly confused about why he hadn’t taken out her bags and given them to her,
Kelly turned and began to walk up the long driveway towards the biggest house
she had ever seen, it looked to be even larger than the collage.
The gardens were extensive but not
overcrowded, and as large as the house was it wasn’t overly extravagant in its
architecture.
She felt her heart
beating faster and faster in her chest as she walked closer the house, Kelly
didn’t think she would be nervous meeting her grandmother, but it appeared her emotions
had other ideas.
Halfway up the garden’s u-turn cobble
stone type driveway, a well dressed, older woman came out the front door with
surprising energy and walked right up to Kelly with a smile on her face so warm
and kind that radiated from her sparking green eyes. The very same colour as
Kelly’s, her grandmother seemed very pleased to meet her.
“You must be Kelly.” He smile never
faded as she spoke, it seemed to glow even more. “Oh my dear child, I had no
idea how much you would look like your mother.” She seemed ecstatic looking
like she might burst into tears at any moment.
Kelly felt herself smiling back, her
nervousness slowly melting away. “Dad looks a lot like you, my brothers got his
looks, I guess I got mums only now I know where I got my green eyes from. Dad
never told me you had green eyes, actually he...”
The front door opened and young man in
casual work wear came outside, he moved to the bottom of the stairs and seemed
to be waiting.
Kelly’s grandmother glanced around at
what Kelly was looking at; she gave a small wave before turning back to Kelly her
smile a bit softer now than before.
“Come and meet one of the boys. Sadly their
parents and older brother, who was a first generation cupid of their family
line, died when they were younger in a car accident. Their parents had made me
their guardian, so I took them in. They’ve been like my own children ever
since.”
“Oh.” Kelly gathered talking about her
father was a sore point and decided to leave the subject alone for now; her dad
had never spoken much about his mother except to explain why they didn’t speak,
that was all that had ever been said. “Alright, I guess I have a lot to get use
too.”
Her grandmother gave
a slight chuckle and nodded. “I think you might dear.”
At the steps, the young man adjusted his
posture to stand up a bit straighter than he had been, then spoke straight to
her grandmother before acknowledging Kelly.
“Eliza I’ve fixed the coffee machine for
you, the steamer was just clogged up. It’s back to being as good as new.”
“Thank you so much Reese. I’ve been
looking forward to having my morning mocha again. Now introductions, this is my
youngest... Oh no that’s not right any more is it dear, this is my oldest grandchild,
Kelly, I told you would be staying with us while she completes her studies.”
Reese smiled at Kelly, his shoulder
length, black hair was partly tied back and shone like smoothed out silk in the
sun and he was fit looking with a bit of a five-o’clock shadow. His dark brown
eyes didn’t show any emotion though, as if he was guarding himself.
“Ah of course the one with the same eyes
as Eliza. Defiantly an heiress to the Andrews’s name.” He gave a slight
chuckle; his smile still didn’t reach his eyes though.
Kelly smiled feeling unsure. “Uh yeah. But
I don’t think I’m any kind of heiress, thanks for the compliment though.”
The awkwardness was
so thick Kelly was sure her feet had stuck to the spot from it, she couldn’t
help but be silently thankful when Reese excused himself to go and finish off
another odd job he was working on.
Inside the house, Kelly’s grandmother
began the tour of the ground floor.
“Well, obviously this is the foyer. I
know it’s a bit showy with all the framed certificates and what not, but I
think it’s good to show ones achievements, don’t you?” Eliza’s face seemed to
light up as she looked over the framed certificates, pictures, medal and
trophies hanging on the walls.
Kelly admired how much pride her
grandmother had in the house and all the little pieces that added character to
it added from generations past.
Her ancestors glory in full display for
anyone who came in the front door.
To the left of the foyer, Eliza led
Kelly out to an open planned family room.
A cosy sitting area
was in front of a small but elegant fire place, the double doorway off to the
side Kelly was told lead to a small gym, sauna room and the downstairs bathroom.
A sunken lounge area with some cosy couches and the biggest television Kelly
had ever seen were at the far end of the room. Lastly at this end of the house
was a grand piano accompanied by a violin and electric guitar which stood
basically in the middle of the would be room, just off the side of the grand
staircase leading up to the second floor.
Eliza then took Kelly to the other side
of the house, a huge open area kitchen made Kelly pause and hold her breath for
a moment.
Every tool, spice, herb, seasoning and
piece of equipment she could have ever put on a wish list was laid out casually
to be made use of.
“The baking machine is the newest piece
to be added to the kitchen, I thought maybe later you might like to be the
first to see how it works out? I’m not usually one for machines but the boys
insisted that you’d like using this.”
Kelly glanced at the huge machine beside
her and she was speechless and let out a small “Oh...” in her surprised state.
The dining room was off to front of the
house from the kitchen and following the rest of the house’s design, was simply
decorated but elegant none the less with velvet covered mahogany chairs and
fine linen cloth table cloths and matching velvet curtains.
Kelly followed her grandmother in a sort
of daze; Eliza went to the tea pot and made a fresh pot of tea for them both.
“So then, do you think you’ll survive
here?” She poured the out the first mug of tea not looking at Kelly who was
still looking around the kitchen half mesmerised by everything.
“Well it’s very, um... red.” Was all
Kelly could seem to manage to say as she slowly came back to her senses, her
grandmother handed her the mug of tea which she took giving a small smile.
Eliza gave a small
warm chuckle. “Yes it is isn’t it?” She sighed with a small smile on her face
and motioned for Kelly to follow her once more. “Well, it seemed appropriate in
my youth to stick with the traditional colours of the lineage."
Eliza then led Kelly into the
conservatory, brimming with beautiful exotic plants and flowers of various
shades of reds, pinks and white.
The heady floral scents were soft but
Kelly was hit by them as soon as she came into the room.
Sunlight flooded in through the large
pane glass windows. These looked out over the backyard and to the side of the
house; there was a dreamy looking landscape with a slow flowing river boarded
with weeping willows, which seemed to wind its way past the house and into lush
grove.
A marble and wrought iron, hand carved
chess set with a small glass and marble serving table with nectar fountain gave
away that this room was used to entertain from time to time.
“Wow.” Kelly found herself whispering as
she sat on a bench next to her grandmother, she gave another warm chuckle. It
seemed to be her way of showing her happiness.
“I have a feeling, despite you slightly
disapproving of my choice in decor colours that you’ll do just fine here. So
then, tell me all about yourself. Seeing as how I already know you’ve inherited
the Andrews’s family traits and skills, what about the actual you hmmm?”
Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Kelly wasn’t
really sure what to say.
“Well, I... I’m not really sure. I mean,
in all honesty last week I was just sixteen and this week I’m twenty. I thought
I’d just get a job while I was a home figuring out everything. And now, I’m
here, with you and...”
“Oh my dear child.” Eliza smiled shaking
her head softly before she had a sip of her tea. “If anything I envy you.” She
sighed still smiling.
Kelly felt even more confused.
“Figuring out who we are is one of the
hardest things to do in life, and you just got a short cut to all of that. It
may not feel like it right now, but I assure you, the council did the right
thing by allowing this to happen to your collage.”
“You know about that?”
Eliza nodded as she sipped at her tea
again.
“You knew where I was this whole time?”
Again Eliza nodded, her eyes never
leaving Kelly’s. “I forgave your father and mother a long time ago, but rules
are rules and they both accepted that with heavy hearts. Which is why, we are
where we are right now. Because of how much I love him and how much they love
you.”
It was Kelly’s turn to nod and sip her
tea, she did her best not to make a face at finding the tea had a strange
bitter taste to it that seemed to linger on her tongue.
“Um, you know grandma; I might go and
try out that baking machine you showed me... do you mind?” Kelly stood up glancing
back at her grandmother as she began to walk off.
“Not at all dear, I can understand this
all might be a bit daunting for you. You’re bedroom is up the stairs and it’s
the last door at the end of the hall by the window with the ferns and candles. Maybe
tomorrow you can help me in the garden?”
“Ok, sure that sounds
nice.” Kelly half nodded as she left the conservatory, leaving her grandmother
amongst the beautiful plants to finish her tea.
After pouring out the bitter tea into
the sink and putting her mug in the dishwasher, Kelly went over to the baking
machine and looked it over for a while, the levers and buttons were a bit
confusing and she frowned for a moment.
After seeing that all the containers
were full of the required ingredients needed for baking, Kelly took a deep
breath and grabbed the first leaver pulling it down to begin the machines
process of baking her chosen choice of mixed fruit tarts. “Here we go.” She
muttered to herself.
After a few minutes of whirring, bells
chiming softly and finally a high pitched ‘BING’, a plate of mixed fruit tarts
came out of the machines oven on a small convener belt stopping on a small
platform at the end.
Carefully picking up
the plate, Kelly found that although the tarts were oven hot, the plate itself was
just warm enough for her to hold.
She couldn’t help but feel slightly
pleased with the machine as she took the tarts over to the counter island and
put them down, as she looked up there was another man standing in front of her
and she started slightly.
“Oh, hi. Who are you?”
Something was familiar about him, but
Kelly couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you; I
assumed you heard me walking around. I’m Kurtis, Reese’s older brother; the
handsome one.” He gave a small chuckle at his own joke.
Kelly gave him a weak smile in return,
her mind was trying to put everything and everyone together, she recalled her
grandmother telling her of the accident and gathered that Kurtis and Reese must
be twins, like her own brothers. Kelly was beginning to get a rather sharp
headache from all the information she was taking in over such a short span of
time.
“Ok so, you and Reese are my
grandmother’s god-sons and you two stayed on to help her around the house?”
Kurtis gave another small chuckle nodding.
“Got it in one, well Reese mostly does the dirty work; I take care of
retouching up anything that needs it in the way of painting or cleaning any of
the art pieces up from time to time. The important heirloom stuff is my
department.”
Nodding Kelly realised that this was why
the house looked almost new, not to mention the modern appliances and light fixtures.
With the house being so large, it was lucky
Eliza had help from the two men who were both handy in the different areas that
complimented each other.
“So, have you had the grand tour yet?”
Kurtis speaking again shook her out of her thoughts. “I’d be happy to show you
around on a private tour if you’re not busy?” His voice was smooth and coaxing.
“Ah, thanks but my grandmother already
gave me the main tour downstairs earlier.” Kelly felt a weird lump in her
throat, like she’d not swallowed a piece of food correctly.
“Ok, have you been upstairs yet?”
“No, I was just about to.”
“Well I could...”
Kelly shook her head cutting him off and
gave him another weak smile as she moved around him. “Again, no thanks. I’m
sure I can find my room, my grandmother told me which one it was.”
“Ok, just wouldn’t want you walking into
the wrong bedroom by mistake, now would we?” He gave her a cheeky wink as she
walked off.
Not saying anything
else, Kelly felt her cheeks grow hot and her mind raced as she envisioned
herself sprinting out of the room. But she kept her composure and calmly walked
away; though her heart was thudding in her ears like a drum.
Upstairs, a long corridor type room
stretched out along the houses length, it was mostly sparse save for the three
doors that were off to the right side of the staircase and then two more that were
off to the left of the staircase beyond a cosy sitting area with fire place and
bookcases that were nestled under a narrow staircase.
Kelly felt that she
should wait for her grandmother to show her what was up there rather than being
nosey and moved onto the door that was supposedly to her room.
It was obvious that her room was the
original master bedroom of the house. Red was still a prominent colour in the
room, but at least the wallpaper was a pleasant subdued dark cream.
Two piles of presents were piled up, her
name on all the tags, the red pile was from Kurtis and the smaller blue pile
was from Reese. No doubt welcoming gifts to help make her feel more at home,
but she was feeling very far from that as she looked around giving a sigh
feeling like she might burst into tears at any moment.
There was a knock at her door, she
turned seeing Reese actually smiling properly at her, he gestured to ask if he
could come in, she nodded and he opened the door.
“Hi, I just wanted to apologise for
earlier when I half rushed off on you. I’m behind in a few of my repairs around
the place.”
Kelly nodded not really sure what to
make of the unneeded gesture, as sweet as it was. “It’s fine, really.”
“How are you settling in?”
“Oh, fine I guess. I only just got up
here, so I’m getting there, slowly.”
Kelly sat down feeling a little bit
flustered and suddenly found Kurtis was knocking at her door and then he came
in before Kelly barely had time to respond.
“Hi, just wanted to see how you liked
the room, and the gifts we left for you too.” Kurtis half looked at his brother
and then at his rather large pile of red wrapped gifts grinning.
“I was just telling Reese I’m getting
there. But thank you both for coming to check how I’m doing.”
“No worries.” Reese seemed to realise that
Kelly really just wanted to be alone and made the move to leave. “I’ve replaced
all the washes in your bathrooms plumbing but let me know if anything starts
leaking or acting up.”
“Thanks.”
“Same here just let
me know if anything needs touching up or reupholstering and I’ll come fix it.”
To Kelly’s relief her grandmother now came
into her room after knocking lighting on the door, she again gave her
proverbial warm chuckle as she came and stood beside the two boys. Reese calmly
glanced at her but Kurtis jumped slightly as if he’d been caught doing
something he wasn’t suppose to be doing.
“How did I know you boys would be
acquainting yourselves with my granddaughter so soon?”
They both gave half sputtered excuses
seeming to become flustered and embarrassed. “Alright boys, come now, off you
go. Leave Kelly be, can’t you see she’s exhausted and doesn’t need either of
you badgering her? Shoo! I’ll see you downstairs for dinner in a little while.”
Without another word
both Reese and Kurtis left, Reese glanced back giving Kelly a true eye shining smile
before closing the door behind him.
Eliza moved to stand in front of Kelly
and they both smiled at each other.
“Thanks, I wasn’t sure how to tell them
to go away without sounding rude.”
“Oh my dear, I keep forgetting you’re
still thinking like a sixteen year old. You must be firm and direct with
people, if they don’t like you being honest, then that is their problem. You’ll
learn in time that everybody gets offended at something or other, but just
remember, being offended actually doesn’t do anything other than bruise our egos.”
“But, I can’t be offensive to everyone
just because I want to be honest.”
Eliza put her hand on Kelly’s shoulder.
“Again, don’t worry. You’ll figure this all out soon enough, and being an
Andrews, that will come sooner rather than later.”
Kelly smiled and then gave a small yawn
covering her mouth with her hand. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine dear. Are you hungry or
would you just like to get some sleep?”
Thinking for a moment Kelly realized she
wasn’t hungry and just wanted lots of sleep. The day had been too long and a
definite whirlwind of emotions.
“I’ll have a good breakfast in the
morning; I’m just too tired to eat right now.”
Eliza nodded. “Alright then, goodnight
and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night and thank you grandma, I really am
happy to be here.”
As she left Eliza she nodded at Kelly.
“I know dear, goodnight.”
With that she left
Kelly’s room, leaving Kelly to change and crawl into her new bed.
The bed smelt faintly of jasmine and
strawberries as Kelly snuggled down under the sheets and comfortable doona.
She fell asleep
quickly, but her dreams were a confused mash up of strange places and a person
she felt she knew but couldn’t see who it was.
Kelly was in a forest standing by a large peaceful
lake.
Somebody was standing right by the water’s edge,
a man, she felt herself smiling affectionately at him.
The sun was shining down in warm streams of light through the
pine trees, birds flew overhead chirping happily and wild forest critters
darted past her feet where she stood.
The wind rustled gently through undergrowth for a
moment.
Something told her she needed to be where she was seeing, pulling her
there... but she couldn't place where she was dreaming of.