Double Trouble: Twenty One; in the saga of the Crane Girls
by Cariad
 
 
 
 

Double Trouble
~Twenty One~
Holly wearily climbed up the stairs. She had just finished with the seamstress, detailing exactly what she wanted in Theresa’s gown. She carried the package with her New Year’s Dress in it up the stairs with her. She used it as a pattern for Theresa’s gown, and now the poor woman they had hired would work furiously in the days between Christmas and New Years to finish it. Holly had insisted that the woman spend Christmas with her family.

Julia had sent Theresa home for the night, their poor stepmother exhausted from breaking all her bad posture habits. If Julia was feeling nice, she would have called for one of the Crane masseuses to ease the aches from Theresa’s back and shoulders. Julia had not felt nice—besides a few aches and pains would be good for Theresa’s moral fiber.

As Holly returned to her room, she found it cluttered with several of Julia’s prized possessions—including her television. Some video was playing while Julia reclined on Holly’s bed.

“What’s going on here?” she asked before realizing that only this morning, Ethan had confronted Theresa and Theresa had managed to trash Julia’s room. “Never mind,” Holly said, “What are you watching?”

“The Parent Trap,” Julia replied. “The original. I’m getting ideas.”

Holly grinned.

Julia grabbed the VCR remote and paused the tape. “So Johnny picked you out a dress?”

“Jonathan picked out a dress for me—and I hope you like it.” Holly sat down on the bed and handed the parcel to Julia.

Julia unwrapped the dress and held up the folds of white fabric. “Johnny picked this out?” she asked, amazed that the object of her pursuit had good taste in addition to being able to provide her in a comfortable lifestyle. True, she would not have picked the dress out for herself, but she recognized a pretty garment when she saw one.

“Try it on,” Holly urged. Julia quickly donned the gown.

“That’s what I looked like in it,” Holly confessed. “Jonathan’s jaw hit the ground. If you wear that dress, with a little encouragement, I swear to you, that he will not be able to keep his hands off of you!”

Julia hugged her sister. “Thank you so much! But to keep him from getting too suspicious—until after—I’ll have to pick out a Jules dress for you.”

“Something red,” Holly said. “We can be naughty and nice!”

“I like that idea,” Julia giggled. “How did your talking to go?”

Holly rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that bad except I kept putting my foot in my mouth. That Noah seems really protective of his sisters. He and Aidan almost went at it again, but no violence this time. And Kay doesn’t mind that much if Reese and I still study astronomy. What is this thing on Christmas Eve?”

Julia smiled. “Well, to start from the beginning, Noah is now my honorary big brother. Since he is Ethan’s half-brother. And it seems as though it’s a tradition in the Bennett family for them to decorate the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve, and Noah invited me along. It’s a pretty sad story this year. Apparently Sam’s wife, Grace, has amnesia, and she was married before she married Chief Bennett. But after Grace had forgiven Sam for his past with Mother and said she wanted to put their marriage back together, this other guy—her first husband showed up. And Grace decided to work on her marriage with Husband Number One.”

“That is sad,” Holly murmured. “Terribly tragic.”

“But what’s worse,” Julia continued, “is that apparently their house was destroyed a little before now, and it was just rebuilt—supposed to be as Sam and Grace were rebuilding their marriage. And the house was finished and they were ready to move back in, when Grace had a flash of memory or something, so she took Charity—her niece—and the biggest bitch in the world, by the way. So she took Charity and moved in with this other guy in the local Bed and Breakfast Grace owns. And now Sam and his kids are going to be celebrating alone.”

“Kind of like Mama,” Holly said. “She’ll be all alone in that house. I wish she and Father were still married. I wish Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane had never decided she wanted Ethan.”

“That’s two of us,” Julia sighed.
 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sunday morning dawned bright and cold. Julia woke up disoriented and freezing. Damn her sister, the cover-hog anyway! It was definitely a day to stay in bed and avoid the wind-chill at all costs. She idly wondered what shops in the small, and seemingly religious town would be open on a Sunday. She felt she should, at least, get something for the Bennetts since they had invited her to their holiday decorating party. And if what Noah alluded to was right, she could avoid the bitch Charity who caused her public humiliation in the first place. Ah, but today’s weather boded well for turtle-necks and sweaters, making it impossible for that flaxen-haired whey-faced bug-eyed… Julia stopped her mental catalogue of Noah’s cousin. She was getting unfocused from the problems at hand—Rebecca Hotchkiss and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane. Julian had said that he would be taking care of Rebecca, but that did not mean a couple of well-meaning elves could not make the woman pay for being on Santa’s “naughty” list. Even if she was Johnny’s mother, Julia thought.
Johnny, Julia had noted with disappointment and Holly noted with glee, had chosen to remain living with his father. Even with as much affection shared between Gwen and her younger brother, the older Jonathan was less than pleased with his daughter, and the younger had no great affection for his mother.

Julia looked at the clock, noting the numbers ‘six fifty-three,’ and wondered what had made her wake up at that hour. She shivered and remembered the blanket-thief next to her. Stealing the covers she had brought with her from her room, Julia rolled over and prepared to warm up and go to sleep when the sound of tromping feet echoed in the hallway. She squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring them.

“Yes, that is the room!” she heard her father’s voice yell, and she put her pillow over her head. The pillow could not drown out the noise of Rebecca Hotchkiss’s shrill orders.

“And hurry up!” the woman yelled, “This room is throwing the whole thermostat off! Do you know how much heat this is wasting, and how much money it costs?”

Julia winced as she heard the sound of glass shattering.

Holly’s head raised off the pillow. “Jules,” she yelled in a half-sleep, “keep it down, it’s the middle of the night!”

Julia poked her sister’s flannel-clad shoulder, recognizing the shirt as the one she had worn home their second night in Harmony—the first night she went star-gazing with Nerdly-boy. “Holly, it’s the morning,” she said in a quiet voice, “and it’s apparently the construction workers who are making such noise in my room.”

“When is the Terror showing up?” Holly mumbled rolling over and trying the pillow trick.

“I’m hoping not until after noon. Can I wear some of your clothes today? I don’t want to run into my room in my nightgown… not with all those construction workers there.”

“Did they have to start so early?” Holly groaned.

“At least you slept through the worst of it.”

The door burst open, revealing Rebecca Hotchkiss looking none too pleased to be awake at the hour—even though she was dressed and made up for the day. “Get up you lazy good-for-nothing moochers!” she shrieked. “I know you two are up to something, and I intend on keeping an eye on you.”

“Just because you plot and scheme an lie as easily as you breathe doesn’t mean everyone in this house does.”

Rebecca looked between the two of them. “Which one of you brats said that! When I’m Mrs. Julian Crane, you both will suffer the consequences of such insubordination—as if anything whelped from Ivy could be salvageable.”

The twins looked at each other innocently. “Thus speaks the woman who had no background and no pedigree whatsoever until she slept her way into a good marriage.”

“That’s it!” Rebecca stormed, “Both of you are going pay for this!”

“Mother!” Gwen shouted, coming into the room to pull her overbearing parent out. “This is not appropriate. Save the threats until after you’re married. I’m sorry girls, she’s been a real bitch this morning. She woke me up too.”

Rebecca shot the twins a glare of hatred. “They should know who is in charge in this household.”

“And how will Julian react to know you are verbally abusing his daughters,” Gwen countered. “Honestly, Mother, I don’t believe you think. Threatening them and making their life miserable is not going to make Julian want to marry you!”

Rebecca’s mouth curled into a self-musing smile. “Oh, he will marry me regardless of what I do,” she told her daughter. “Do you think I’m counting on something as fickle as his affection? Hah!”

“Father will not be blackmailed,” Holly snapped.

“This will be the last holiday you are coming home to. Once you’re eighteen, you’re out of the house!”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to make that decision,” Julia said.

“Mother!” Gwen said again, pulling once more on Rebecca’s arm. “At least wait until you’ve said ‘I do.’”

“You watch it, brats,” Rebecca warned, “I don’t take kindly to people getting in the way of my plans.” She whirled on a heel and stormed out into the hallway.

Gwen waited a bit more. “I’m really sorry,” she began.

“Not a problem,” the twins said in unison.

“I should have warned you. But I had my own problems to deal with. Mother almost caught me with Ethan this morning.”

“The dimwit spent the night?” Julia asked. “Again?”

“And why would your mother be upset by that?” Holly asked, “Hasn’t she been pulling for you to reunite with Ethan?”

“She has,” Gwen confessed as she sat heavily on the bed. “And so have I. But that’s the problem. It wasn’t the same as before. After last night, I don’t think I want him anymore. He came to me again, just like I had planned, but it wasn’t the same. He was ready to start back up, and I thought I was too, but… I was waiting for him to say ‘I still love you, Gwen,’ and he did, but it didn’t seem as sincere as before.” Gwen sighed. “Julia, I’ll still take you to the ball. I don’t think I want to go with Ethan—he asked, but I said, no.”

“Gwen,” Julia began, “Ethan is an idiot.”

“You’re too good for him,” Holly said.

“Funny,” Gwen said, laughing bitterly, “That’s what GQ has always told me since, well, since Ethan dumped me.”

“Much as it galls me to admit it,” Holly remarked, “he’s right.”

“That’s what I first thought too,” Gwen confessed. “I wanted to forget him and move on. I wasn’t going to beg for him. But then Mother came and started talking, and I started to second-guess myself, and I’ve ended up making a fool of myself going after someone who didn’t want me anymore.”

“Not that,” Julia said. “He may be Sam Bennett’s son, but Daddy raised him. He was going after something new and fresh and exciting, just like Daddy, only Ethan can’t tell the difference between ‘new and exciting’ and ‘love.’”

“So let him wallow in the biggest mistake of his life,” Holly added, “He’s found out that everything Theresa ever presented about herself was a lie. He deserves to flog himself some more. If you want out permission to dump our brother, you have it.”

Gwen smiled. “I guess I didn’t want to disappoint your family too, like I’ve disappointed mine.”

Julia thought for a moment, running through relations in her head. “Gwen, how would you like to be fixed up with a local young man, if I can arrange it. Not a country club member or anything like that.”

“I guess,” Gwen conceded.

“I’ll have to see what I can do.”
 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

After breakfast, Holly and Julia were both called into their father’s study. Filled with trepidation, knowing that they would be facing another call from their tyrannical grandfather, they put off the meeting as long as possible. As they entered, they saw their father seated at his desk, looking very formal and forbidding.
“Girls,” he said. “I thought you should know about the entertainment for the Ball on New Year’s Eve. We’ve had to rebook our dinner show,” he declared sadly. “After searching for something, I received a tip from some source or another—it came through the rumor mill, of some singer who is also a dance instructor. She’s played several venues down around the Caribbean.” Julian flipped up a poster displaying a pair of well-shaped female legs.

“Diana O’Leary,” Holly read aloud. “Is this all there is to the advertisement?”

“Yes, Ivy dear, we don’t know what she looks like, but those are a great pair of legs,” he purred.

“Holly, Father,” Holly reminded, “And we should remind you that you are in enough trouble with women so don’t add another one to the list.”

“You think she’s any good?” Julia asked. “I’ve never heard of her.”

Julian snatched the poster from her grip. “Neither have I, but I do have some friends in Bermuda, infernal island, and they tell me that she is something to see.”

Holly arched an eyebrow. “Father, I know about the type of people you hang around with, so she’s got nice legs, large breasts and a pretty face, but that doesn’t mean that she’s any good.”

“She’s better than nothing!” Julian snapped.

“The orchestra could play during dinner!”

“That’s not part of the orchestra’s contract!”

“Then rewrite it!” Holly explained. “We are Cranes.”

“Ivy, will you never cease…”

“It’s Holly, Father, when will you learn my name?”

“STOP!” Julia cried, separating her sister from her father. “I’m sure she’ll turn out to be fine. Just don’t drool too much on her. Can I spend a few thousand dollars on a new dress and some things for revenge?”

“Yes, of course,” Julian said, relieved that the noise had stopped.

“Thank you Daddy,” Julia said, “You’re my favorite daddy.”

“I better damn well be your only daddy,” Julian muttered and waved an arm releasing them before he realized what Julia had asked for earlier. “Wait!” he called, “Revenge on whom?”

“Not you, Daddy,” Julia said, batting her eyelashes.

“All right,” Julian muttered. “Just don’t do anything that the Crane money cannot buy you out of.”

The girls walked out of the study. “He’s not teaching us very good morals,” Holly observed.

“He’s Daddy,” Julia replied. “He’s teaching us the only morals he knows.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right, I’m always right, and if you don’t agree, I’ll just tickle you into submission.”

“Bitch.”

“You love me.”

Holly rolled her eyes and laughed.