House of Salt and Sorrows(55)

Everyone looked up as I entered, their heads turning in jerky unison. I blinked at the unnatural movement, and for a terrible second, my other sisters materialized into the scene. Octavia stood in front of Honor, reading the book right side up. Elizabeth sat at the piano, playing a song for Camille to sing. Eulalie was between Verity and Mercy, snatching up a handful of jacks, and Ava was next to Lenore, completing their eerie tableau with her fingertips on Ligeia’s shoulder.

“We’ll take care of everything, Morella,” Camille mimicked, breaking the moment.

Everything returned to normal. Only seven of my sisters were now in the room. I squinted, trying to re-create the monstrous image, but the vision was gone.

“Aren’t you the dutiful daughter today? Taking care of your poor, ailing stepmother, stepping in to oversee First Night. You’ll be volunteering as the Thaumas masthead before we know it.”

I ignored her barbs, joining the triplets in sorting through the notes on the coffee table. “I didn’t see you racing in to help.”

“Nor will I,” she quipped. “She brought this on herself.”

“She can’t help what the babies are doing.”

Camille shrugged. “Such ambitions and all for naught. She dreamt of running this estate, and she can’t even handle putting together Churning. I’m not helping her. Let her fail, and Papa will see what a miserable and useless creature he married.”

“Camille!” Rosalie exclaimed. “Whether you like her or not, that’s hardly a way to speak about our stepmother.”

“She’s no mother of mine.” She stormed out of the parlor. Her pounding footsteps echoed through the hall.

Rosalie blew a strand of hair from her face, glaring at the doorway.

“What set her off?”

“She’s not been getting much sleep,” Lenore murmured.

I sniffed. “Because of the dancing? Why doesn’t she take a night off?”

Lenore picked at her skirt. “She’s desperate to find a beau. Last night, she kept going on and on about how you’d already found someone on Astrea and she was going to be a spinster for the rest of her life.”

“Oh, Camille.” I chewed on the inside of my mouth. Right now there were bigger issues to deal with. I thought of Morella, left alone in that big bed, waiting for Papa’s return. I’d never seen her look so small and lost.

I shook my head. “Churning begins next week. We only have six days to make sure everything is prepared for First Night.”

Ligeia shrugged. “So?”

“Let’s take a break from the dancing—”

“What? No!” Rosalie exploded.

“Just this week, so we can be well rested and focus on making this run as smoothly as possible. You saw how much pain Morella was in. She can’t take on such a large project.”

“We can do all that and still go dancing,” Ligeia protested.

One eyebrow rose up. “Can you really? We all slept past noon today. Again.”

Even Lenore looked upset, crossing her arms over her chest. “So?”

“We need our rest. We’ve all got circles under our eyes and are snapping at each other. It’s not the end of the world. Just one week.”

Rosalie narrowed her eyes. “And we’ll all go dancing after Churning?”

I promised we would.

The triplets exchanged glances.

“Fine,” Rosalie said with a huff that didn’t leave me wholly convinced she meant it.

“What do you need us to do?” Lenore asked.

“If First Night is planned, that leaves nine more dinners for our guests, assuming they don’t spend any nights on Astrea. We’ll need to write up menus. Mercy, Honor, you spend so much time in the kitchen with Cook. Can you take this on?”

They nodded eagerly.

“What about me?” Verity asked.

“You can help me with the East Wing. We’ll make sure the rooms are ready. There ought to be some winter pansies blooming in the solarium. You could make little posies to greet the families when they arrive.”

“I could draw them something too!” she exclaimed.

Remembering the last series of pictures Verity had created, I gave her an encouraging smile but promised nothing.

What else was there? I filtered through memories of Churnings past. “We’ll need some sort of entertainment. Perhaps we could organize some rides through the forest? It looks so lovely in the snow. We’ll also need to be sure to have boats and crew on hand to ferry the guests back and forth to Astrea for all the activities at the festival.”

Every Churning, there was a play showing Pontus mixing the oceans with his great trident. The players created waves using yards and yards of iridescent fabrics. One year, a wave flowed too close to the footlights and caught fire. That was the year Acacia had come to Churning. One of Pontus’s daughters, she summoned a waterspout to rain down its fury upon the flames. When the fire was out, the stage was a mess of puddles and soot, but everyone cheered for the goddess’s quick thinking.

“Can you think of anything else?” Lenore asked.

I twisted the silver ring on my pointer finger. “Remember when we were small and Mama held a Churning contest for the best snow castle?”

“Snow castle?” Honor asked, too little to have taken part. “Like a sandcastle?”