Double Trouble: Twenty Four; the sticky situation.
by Cariad
 
 

Double Trouble
~Twenty Four~
“It still smells like Ethan in here,” Theresa whispered. Julia stood by the door, waiting for the axe to fall, waiting for Rebecca to find out about both their trap and Theresa’s wedding to Julian. Keeping secrets was so damned hard!

“Don’t say that too loud, Theresa, or they’ll fumigate it. If you ask nicely, Daddy might let you stay here after the Ball. And stand up straight, like we practiced yesterday.”

Theresa immediately complied. “What does Mr. Crane have against Ethan?” Theresa asked.

“Something about finding out your favorite child is really another man’s son, and no man likes being cuckolded. It’s a male thing.”

“Oh. The first thing I’ll do after I move in here is to get Mr. Crane to give more money to Ethan’s law practice. That will make Ethan love me again.”

“Theresa, weren’t you paying attention? Ethan doesn’t want money from the Cranes. And he doesn’t seem to want much to do with you.”

“He saved me from falling out your window,” Theresa stated proudly, unknowing that Julia and Holly had eavesdropped on her confrontation with Ethan. “That proves he still loves me. He just has to realize it again.”

Julia grabbed Theresa by the shoulders. “Face it, you’re stuck! Even if, by some miniscule chance, Ethan will forgive you and take you back, even on the smaller infinitesimal chance that he will raise another man’s child as his own—which being Ethan, he might, and I stress ‘might.’ Even after all that, there is no chance in hell that my father will give up a baby conceived in wedlock, which could be raised to be the next Crane Heir!”

Theresa clutched her stomach. “Ethan loves me. He always has, just as I’ve always loved him. This is only a temporary setback to our eternal happiness. Fate will smile upon me once more! Mr. Crane will still get the annulment, and Ethan will marry me then. Just like we planned.”

Julia put her ear back to the door. Her stepmother was headed for Bellevue if she kept talking like that.

Rebecca’s shrill voice drifted, muffled, up into Ethan’s room. “I can see the muddy footprints you left on my newly refinished hardwood floors… not to mention the carpets!”

“I don’t want to take the stars out of your eyes, Theresa, but the sad truth is that you’re entangled in this family, and nothing is going to get you untangled. Daddy made up his mind, and he’s not going to let you go, not while you’re having his child. And if it’s a boy, that kid is going to be raised to take Ethan’s place. If you want out of this family, you better pray it’s a girl, and then you better go far away. A son will not leave this house with you.”

“What about Aidan? He talks like he’s in line after Julian.”

Julia rolled her eyes. “I don’t presume to know my grandfather’s mind, but I do know that Aidan is not even being considered for a stake in the Crane Empire. He’d blow through the money way too fast, and all of this would crumble.”

“That’s not what Aidan says,” Theresa insisted, shoving her chin out.

“And when do you talk to Aidan?”

“He took me out to lunch today, and he’s said I can have dinner here tonight.”

“No!” Julia yelled, then realizing Rebecca was still on the prowl, she lowered her voice. “You’re not ready for dinner in public yet.”

“I hardly call a family dinner ‘public,’” Theresa declared in her false ‘society’ voice.

Julia gritted her teeth. At the ball, she would have to be mute! “This family dinner also consists of Rebecca and Gwen. Do you want to make a fool of yourself in front of them?”

“Aidan said…”

“Aidan was not given the charge of training you for your debut. I’ll tell him you felt ill.”

“But I don’t feel sick. I couldn’t lie!”

Julia rolled her eyes once more, not believing what her ears heard come out of Theresa’s mouth. “Why did you come here, anyway?” Julia asked.
 

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

“Get your hand off of me, Jonathan,” Holly hissed in the darkness, relaxing only when the glue-roughened disappeared from the tender spot on her arm.
“The window,” he whispered back.

Noah swore.

“Someone needs to create a diversion while we get the window shut,” Holly said under her breath.

Rebecca’s shrill voice drifted to them in the closet. “I can see the muddy footprints you left on my newly refinished hardwood floors… not to mention the carpets!”

“Mother!” they heard Gwen say, “did you conveniently forget the workmen Julian hired this morning?”

“They were NOT to go in the main part of the house!” Rebecca shrieked. “No, I see several pairs of muddy footprints.”

Holly sucked in a breath and grabbed Jonathan’s arm. “Look, you go distract your mother. Noah, you shut the window. I’ll be back to get you into the secret passageway.”

“Got it,” Noah replied while opening the closet door a shade to get a good view of the room, and to map out his way through.

Holly already found the hidden trigger to slide open one of the closet walls. Jonathan followed her into the darkness, feeling in the general vicinity for the latch.

“So the snow princess is back,” he murmured.

“Hush. We’re on the other side of the hallway. How do you think we played tricks on Pilar and the other servants?”

Jonathan chuckled under his breath, but nearly ran into Holly as she stopped abruptly and quickly opened the hidden door to Julian’s closet. “Distract your mother long enough to let Noah shut the window and get out save, and I swear I will think about being civil to you at the Ball.”

Already heading back to Rebecca’s room, she did not see Jonathan’s smile. Nor did she hear him say, “You will be more than civil. Julian’s not the only one with a surprise that evening.”

Holly reached Rebecca’s closet once more, finding Noah ready to dash out as soon as they thought it was safe.

“Mother, what a surprise!” they heard Jonathan’s voice boom. Noah was already crawling on his hands and knees.

“Why would it be a surprise to see me, I live here. What are you doing her? Have you changed your mind and decided to follow your mother’s coattails and move up in the world?”

“I would never betray father like that. I’m here because, as you well know, Holly Crane is going to be part of the upcoming Crane-Hotchkiss merger. I can move up in the world without your help, Mother.”

“Ungrateful brat!” Rebecca huffed. “You are spending entirely too much time with that child, Jonathan, I am forbidding any future relations. I will be the key to the Crane Hotchkiss merger.”

“Mother, you have to know by now that the only reason you are sitting pretty at the moment is because of Julian Crane’s money. You have no connection to Hotchkiss Enterprises anymore, Mother.”

“My own son would not turn me out in the cold, would he?” Rebecca pouted.

“Your ex-husband, did.”

Noah returned to the closet, feeling for Holly as his eyes adjusted. “Ready,” he said, slightly out of breath.

Holly said nothing, but steadied a trembling hand on Noah’s arm and lead him down the passageway and into Julian’s room. Finally emerging into the light, Noah noticed Holly’s face was white beneath her stony outward mask.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Holly nodded. “I’ll get you back to my room. Julie probably has Theresa in hers.”

Peeking her head out of her father’s room, Holly decided the path looked clear, and she darted down the hall to her room, Noah in tow.

“You can use my bathroom to clean up in,” she said, directing him to the proper door. He stepped in, but turned around to ask Holly a question. She was gone. Shrugging to himself, he started to wash his hands from all the foreign substances they had used in the prank.

As he finished, he saw that Holly had reappeared, freshened up, and wearing a new shirt which looked odd on her, though Noah could not figure out why. Then he realized she was wearing something more akin to what Julia would wear.

“Where did you go?” he asked. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Jules’s room,” she replied, and indicated the half-hidden adjoining door. “What did you want to know?”

“You’ve never really been apart, have you?”

“No,” Holly smiled, “we haven’t. Is that what you wanted to know?”

“No, I want to get to know your sister better,” he said, blushing a little.

“You don’t need my permission,” Holly said. “Jules does whatever she wants to. But she’s been fixated on Johnny Hotchkiss for a long time. And she doesn’t exactly have a track-record of staying with any one boy.”

“Then you don’t mind that I’ve invited her for our family tree decoration tomorrow night?”

The unspoken words hung between them, “that I’ve invited her and not you?”

Holly brushed off the unease that formed in her stomach—that she and Julia would grow apart. “No,” she lied. “I have other things to do,” she said, turning away. “Stay here, I’ve got to find Jules, and then we can get you out the back and on your way home. Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?”

“For helping, of course. And for showing Jules the stud-finder. She’s going to use it on every boy that crosses our paths now.”

Noah laughed. “I’ve created a monster!”

Holly’s smile seemed more relaxed, and Noah felt better. Holly felt like a little sister, he thought, but not Julia, despite their mutual adoption of each other as siblings. He was very glad that Jonathan explained in the ride over that Jonathan had no interest in Julia—at least not in that way.
 

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

“Of course your friends are going to be mad at you,” Julia explained once more. “They got caught in the lie too! And because they did it for YOU, they are going to be mad at YOU.”
Theresa buried her face in the pillow. “This room always used to make me feel better,” she sobbed. “This room always used to have Ethan in it!”

Julia silently wondered how many times exactly Theresa had come in this room before she had even known Ethan. “Well, you’re a big girl, you’ll get over Ethan.”

“I’ll never get over Ethan!” Theresa wailed. “I’ve loved him all my life!”

Julia rolled her eyes. There was no reasoning with the girl. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder?” she ventured.

“You think that’s true?” Theresa asked, hope tinting her voice.

“Yes,” Julia said slowly. “Yes, but you’ll have to stay far away from Ethan so he realizes how much he misses you.”

“Yes! Oh! That’s wonderful!”

“So you have to wait, and be patient and not go near him until he comes to you.”

“Oh, I swear to God I will!”

“Don’t swear to God, swear it to me, that you will no go near Ethan until he comes to you.”

“I swear, Julie! Do you really think he’ll realize how much he loves me?”

“Give him time and space.” Julia hoped it would work, though it seemed as though Theresa’s mind ran only in a few tracks: Ethan, Mrs. Crane, and Aidan.

The door opened, and Julia jumped to her feet. In comforting Theresa once more, she had forgotten that Rebecca was in the house. Ready to face whatever punishment meted by the vengeful ex-Mrs. Hotchkiss, she breathed a sigh of relief as Holly’s head popped in the doorway.

“There you are!” her sister said. “I’ve got something waiting for you in my room, but it should be outside. Hello, Theresa,” she added as an afterthought. “She’s not going to make the situation any better.”

“What situation?” Theresa asked.

Julia turned. “Don’t you remember, Rebecca’s here, and it sounds as if she’s out for blood. Do you know where the servant’s stairs are nearest here?”

“Of course!” Theresa said.

“Good,” Julia replied, “Then we’ll continue this discussion on Wednesday, when we pick back up your training. We’ll teach you how to eat properly then, so when Aidan next asks you to dinner, you’ll be able to stay.”

“Ok,” Theresa mumbled.

“And remember what I told you,” Julia said in a ‘lecturing’ voice.

“Oh, I will!” Theresa said, brightening, and nearly bounding out of the room.

Holly waited until the stairway door closed. “Get Noah out of here,” she whispered. “I don’t know for how much longer Jonathan can distract Rebecca.”

“Got it!” Julia replied, and the sisters took off down the hallway in different directions.