Double Trouble: Thirty Four; Final preparations
 by Cariad
 

Double Trouble
~Thirty Four~
Lunch was sitting in a large lump in Holly’s stomach. Jonathan had been very quiet and solicitous of her well-being their entire ride back. He had been so serious as he had explained everything, yet he could not yet see that Julia was the better twin for him. Couldn’t he understand that Holly did not want to be part of the jet set? She sighed as the car pulled up in front of the Crane Mansion. Jonathan left the engine running. Graciously, he walked her to the door.

“Thank you for getting rid of the flowers, Holly,” Jonathan said in his superior tone, “that was just what I expected you to do with them.”

Holly’s fingers clenched into fists. “Just when I think there’s something more to you, you show me your true colors,” she snapped.

Jonathan made a short bow and kissed her hand. “I will see you this evening, promptly at six thirty. You know how I abhor being tardy, so I would suggest you show up in something more appropriate.” He noticed the door opening behind Holly. “Mr. Crane,” he said to the figure in the door, “as you see, I have returned your daughter to you, no worse for the wear. Six thirty,” he reminded Holly.

“Insufferable vat of lard,” she hissed back and stormed inside.

“Ivy, er Holly,” Julian observed, picking up a box from the table near the door. “Why have you not opened your gift from Jonathan?”

Holly snatched the offending box from her father’s hands. “It’s my present,” she said, catching herself from yelling at her father. Jonathan would not ruin her standing in the family. “I will do what I wish with it.” Before her father could chastise her further, she ran up the stairs. “You heard him,” she said, “I have to be ready at six thirty.” She disappeared into her room, forgetting for the moment that Theresa was skulking around the house.

A light tapping on her door interrupted her private fuming. She would not be quite as upset at Jonathan’s crude treatment had he not just opened himself up to her half an hour previous. She wanted to throw up. Instead, she answered the incessant tapping on her door.

“Is Julie back yet?” Theresa asked in a small voice. “She promised she’d bring lunch, and I’m terribly hungry. I don’t know why. I don’t usually eat so much. And is it true what she said that we can’t eat much at the party?”

Holly squeezed her eyes shut to deal with her step-mother. “Julia isn’t here?” she asked.

“She got an important phone call and told me to stay in her room until you got back or she did. I just heard you come in.”

Holly calmed herself with a few deep breaths. “All right, well if she said she’d bring you lunch, she’ll bring you lunch. Until then, I guess we should get your makeup on.” Holly then looked at Theresa. “What in God’s name have you done to your hair!” she screamed.

“I-I put it up,” Theresa stammered. “Don’t you like it?”

Holly crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You look like a five-dollar whore,” Holly said flatly.

Theresa began to tremble and tears filled her eyes.

“I’ll fix it,” Holly promised, bringing Theresa inside. “We may have to wash it again, but we’ll fix it.” Holly sighed deeply. How many headaches was she going to have to deal with before the day ended?
 
 

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Julia snuck around to the servant’s entrance, Reese in tow. Making sure the coast was clear, she stole inside and up the stairs to the second floor. She carefully stalked down the hallway, aiming for her brother’s room. She put her ear to the door to make sure there were no sounds. Gently, she twisted the knob and ducked inside, followed in an instant by her co-conspirator.
Aidan’s room was decorated in a deep blue. Celestial designs hung on the walls, and candles and cobalt blue glass covered the surfaces. The room was unearthly neat. Pairs of candles on his desk were aligned with the grain of the wood. Square objects were tilted at exactly thirty degrees. A book was centered on top of a notebook, square to the frame of the desk, and a pen sat on top, aligned perfectly on the diagonal.

The bed looked as if it had not been slept in—in over a month. Julia knew the maids were not allowed to do the minute cleaning in Aidan’s room, for Aidan claimed they left the bed too sloppy and when they moved his objects to dust, they did not return them to their proper places.

Laid out on the bed was the tuxedo Aidan planned to wear for the evening, the pants and socks folded with exacting neatness.

“Even I’m not this anal-retentive,” Reese whispered, as if a normal tone would disturb the vibrations of the air and rearrange the dust-motes.

Julia had no compunctions about disturbing things in his room. On her way to the closet, she rotated candles and pushed things slightly forward or back from their original positions. “It drives him crazy,” she noted mischievously to Reese. Reese grinned and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Julia opened the closet doors and walked in, turning on the light inside. She walked past all the clothes arranged by season and color, everything hanging in the same direction. The suits hung on the back wall of the closet—celery, purple, blue, red, brown—next to the tuxedos. None of Aidan’s clothes were hung on wire hangars.

Knowing Aidan had already made his clothing choice, she grabbed what appeared to be the largest of the tuxes. “Try on the jacket,” she whispered.

Reese took off his coat and shrugged into the jacket. It was only a little tight across the shoulders, but should work fine. Reese looked at the size in the pants. “There’s no way I’d fit in them,” he hissed. “Way too small.”

Julia twisted her mouth in thought and dug through more of Aidan’s old tuxedos. She brought out another one. “Will this work? It’s from when Aidan was a chunky boy.”

Reese checked the size and gave an ok to the pants, but the jacket nearly tore across his shoulders. With a wry smile, he shook his head.

Julia drummed her fingers on her thigh. “That’s what we get for Aidan being such an unnatural size. He’s got such a dainty waist, you should see him in drag.”

“Why don’t you take the first jacket and the pants that should fit. I’ll hang up the rest on one hangar and really piss him off!”

“I wouldn’t want to upset your brother,” Reese said.

Julia smiled widely. “It’s not that you’ll upset him. It’s just that little things like this annoy him, and he’s such a priss.”

“Didn’t he…” Reese put a hand to his throat.

Julia waved it away. “That doesn’t matter now. There’s a difference between him being annoyed and him being totally irate. I don’t plan on making him irate again—not unless we need a quick getaway.”

Reese held the objects in his hand. “If you say so.”

Julia handed him a tuxedo shirt and fished around for a vest and tie. She heaped them on Reese’s waiting arms and gave him a big smile. “I hope Holly finds you ravishing in this!” she said. “Kay too,” she added as an afterthought.

“Thanks. I hope so too.”
 

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By the time Julia had gotten Reese safely out of the mansion and back to her own room, she discovered that Theresa once again had wet hair, and that she had forgotten about lunch. Holly quickly volunteered to run down to the kitchen and have a plate prepared. Julia busied herself by removing the nail polish from Theresa’s fingers and putting only a clear coat on. The coat dried as Holly returned with a tray of finger sandwiches and some vegetables—no broccoli. In her other hand, she carried a pitcher of water. Theresa’s eyes widened as she saw the food, and set to devouring it like a pregnant woman handed exactly what she was craving. Holly then proceeded to pull some small glasses out of her pockets with a flourish.
After their lunch, the twins retired to their separate showers to begin getting ready for the evening. While their hair dried, together they wrestled Theresa’s locks into some semblance of order and began working on her face.

“I’ll never know how to thank you girls,” Theresa babbled, “you’re making me feel so special and welcomed into the family. It’s how I always dreamed it would happen, except I would be married to Ethan. Oh I wish I had never scanned those stupid documents into my computer. Then this mess wouldn’t be happening, and Ethan and I would be married and this baby would be his, and…”

“Shut up Theresa!” Julia shouted. “I have to do your lips!”

Theresa remained quiet for a moment.

“When will I be able to wear the Crane pearls again?” Theresa asked. “Ethan had given them to me when we were engaged and everyone thought him still to be a Crane, and I wore them everywhere…”

“Theresa, hush!” Holly yelled. “You’re going to have to behave yourself. You can’t go blathering on like this. As Mrs. Crane, you are required to be silent and echo your husband’s—that would be our father Julian’s—sentiments. Do you want everyone to know your lack of pedigree?”

Theresa opened her mouth, but closed it a moment later.

In the blessed silence that followed, Julia and Holly assisted each other—as they always did—with hair and makeup, only this night, they were especially careful.

“What if Jonathan figures out it’s you in there instead of me,” Holly pointed out when they were alone.

Understanding dawned in Julia’s eyes, and a grin appeared and widened until two identical expressions reflected back at the sisters from the mirror. Thus they helped each other so that their hair was each swept back into a French twist and their makeup was as identical as they could manage. Wicked grins echoed each other. There would be no repeat of the Seascape incident if they could help it. At first sign that Jonathan knew, they would switch dresses and shoed. In light of that necessity, the only accessories they wore were matching purses. Tucked into the silver purse bought to coordinate with Holly’s snowy dress was the unopened gift from Jonathan.

They helped Theresa into the green velvet gown before they proceeded into their own.

“Jules, I feel naked,” Holly whispered as she donned the red gown, trying to cover the amount of cleavage she showed with a hand.

“Remember, you’re Julia, I’m Holly,” Julia said with a swish of a trailing sleeve.

“Fine. Hollis, I feel naked,” Holly whispered.

Julia laughed. “Ah, but Julia would not feel naked in something like that,” she pointed out. “You’re definitely going to give someone a heart attack in that!”

“And you’re going to have to give Jonathan his present. And remember to call him ‘Jonathan,’ please. As much as I don’t like this dress, I really don’t want to deal with him tonight.”

“Fine by me,” Julia replied with a smile.

A knock on the door brought both of them to attention. Holly carefully opened the door a crack to see who was there. She sighed when she saw the ugly visage of her brother.

“Theresa,” you’re date’s here.

Theresa rose from the bed. Aidan’s whistle of appreciation caused her to twirl her dress and break out into a sappy smile.

“You look good enough to eat,” Aidan purred.

Theresa blushed. “Again?” she asked quietly.

The twins looked at each other as their brother and stepmother left the room. “Again?” Holly asked.

“I don’t even want to think about it.”

“She couldn’t be that stupid to sleep with him!”

Julia arched an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“Don’t be. You’ll ruin my dress!”

Holly sighed. “I suppose we should go downstairs and wait for Jonathan to arrive.” She glanced at her clock. “He’ll be here any second now.”

The ring of the doorbell echoed through the house.

Julia gave her sister an excited hug. “Here goes nothing!” she said.