"Hello." Hunter said as soon as the mini ceremony was done.
"Hello to you too. Is there anything here that looks interesting?" Esmee asked, indicating to the table laden with food.
"Not as interesting as you." He replied as he kissed her hand. "However if there is something that you would recommend, then I would gladly sample it."
"How about we get a sample of everything?" She suggested, grabbing a plate. "Then we can go and sit down over there in the shade." She pointed to a hole in the hedging that bordered the garden. "There is a bench over there. You can't see it from here, but it is there."
"Seen as you know this place better than I do, I will take your word for it." Hunter replied, taking the now full plates from Esmee as she served them both up some dessert. "Have you always lived here?"
"No, we haven't." Esmee replied, setting down the spoon for the ambrosia and picking up a few tarts. "My sisters and I were born in New York." She picked up the plates and started walking across the lawn. "We moved here with our father when we were eight, at first living in a trailer. Then Dad got a really huge client at his law firm, he got married to Sadie, and somehow we ended up living in this mansion."
"It must be nice living here." Hunter commented as the pair reached the grove.
"Not really. It's a pain to keep clean, not to mention the electricity bills. Plus, living here in Sacramento is so expensive and loud, it's a wonder Dad hasn't decided to pack it all up and go and live in the woods." Esmee said as she sat down. "What about you? Do you live around here?"
"No, I don't." He replied, picking up a skewer. "I live in a village just outside Sequoia national park called Hulter."
"Hulter, huh. Why haven't I heard of such a place?"
"We mostly don't concern ourselves with politics outside our borders, and thus we get left off most maps."
"So what is your business involved in?" Savannah asked Fletcher, desperate to stir up some kind of conversation as she finished plating up her dessert.
"Huh? Oh, pharmaceuticals and the administration of medical services, mostly." he replied.
"What does that mean, 'the administration of medical services'? Do you own a staffing company for hospitals or something?"
"No, although that could be an interesting business model." He answered. "No, I own things like doctor's practices and hospitals and such, including all of the equipment in them."
"That sounds like a lot of work." She stated as she led him over to a shady spot beneath a tree. "Do you enjoy it?"
"To a certain extent, yes." He replied, taking a bite of the pulled pork. "It helps to have hobbies."
"I like your dress." Angus told Claudia as they went to find a quiet place to sit, their plates heaving with food.
"Thank You." She replied. "It's homemade."
"It suits you well."
"So does your hair." Claudia responded as she sat down on a patch of grass. "Why do you have blue hair?" She asked, genuinely curious.
"It's more of a sign of silent protest." Angus replied, sitting down next to her. "I do not like anything about this arrangement, so please forgive me if I come across as rude."
"I don't like it either, but getting married to you might be the only way to secure my escape from this hellhole." Claudia replied in earnest. "So I don't blame you for not being happy about it either."
"What happens here, behind closed doors?" Angus asked, picking up his plate of kebabs and pulled pork.
"I have been working in some capacity since 4 am this morning." She said, picking up her own plate. "First, I made breakfast while Esmee made lunch for your father and other guests and Savannah and the boys scrubbed the entire house in preparation. Then, after school, all three of us sisters made dinner and our brothers cleaned the house again."
"Where was your butler and servants in all of this?" He asked, alarmed at the revelation.
"Our butler only works during school hours." Claudia sighed. "And both Sadie and Dad are too money hungry to give us a decent childhood, so here we are." She took a bite of her salad. "So what about you? What is your home life like?" Angus took a deep breath.
"Not a whole lot better, although instead of cleaning dishes I am often cleaning up messy business deals that have gone wrong."
"What kind of business deals?"
"The illegal kind." He let that sink in for a moment. "Bribery, extortion, that kind of thing."
"Your family wouldn't be the Viper clan, would it?"
"Well done for putting it together. Yes, I am a Viper. I don't want to be, and I hate every job that I have to do for that accursed organization, but I don't have a way out." Angus admitted.
"So what is the song that you are most proud of?" Jeremy asked Peia as he ate a piece of capsicums off a skewer.
"You know, that sounds like a question that an interviewer would ask me." She replied. "But my favorite piece to perform is Butterfly."
"And what is your least favorite?"
"Once in a lifetime." She replied as she picked at her potato salad. "Do you have a favorite song of mine?"
"Rose in thorns." Jeremy replied, continuing to eat his dinner.
"So what is the most interesting fact about you?" Joshua asked Genifer as he started to eat his dinner.
"How about the fact that I don't have to live with my mother?" She replied. "We don't have a very good relationship."
"Really? Why?"
"I would rather not say. What about you? What is the most interesting fact about you?" She asked, taking a drink of her soda.
"When I get a chance to have some time off, my favorite hobbies are digging up interesting pieces of pottery and replacing them with interesting native plants above ground." He replied.
"Sounds like you would do well on our farm." She responded, eating a spoonful of ambrosia. "Wow, this ambrosia is really good."
"Esmee has always been good at making desserts. I believe at some stage she really wanted to become a pastry chef."
"Does she cook often?"
"My sisters are forced to cook every day, twice a day." Joshua replied, putting down his custard tart. "While they are doing that, my brothers and I are either cleaning the entire house or doing some kind of yard work, sometimes both."
"And who handles dishes in your house?" Genifer asked.
"The girls do." He replied, taking another bite of his tart. "They rule the kitchen, and Mom never lets us help them."
James might as well have been having a conversation with a brick wall. Skylar had not said a peep since her argument with her father, and didn't sound like that was going to change. Not that he minded, of course. He wished that he had her guts, to stand up to the very authority that was hampering his dreams. But I guess I will have to be satisfied with just trying to survive until tomorrow, he thought as they ate their meals in silence.