Cecily rose and dressed that day with more energy than usual. She was anticipating a most welcome event — a visit from her dear friends Mayhew and Carol Love. Carol had been her family’s housekeeper for many years, and Mayhew was a relative, being the cousin of Cecily’s stepmother Arianna. They had much history together, and not all of it pleasant, but they hardly spoke of the bad times now.
Instead of waiting in the house to receive them, Cecily stood on the porch with great anticipation, and walked out to greet them as they made their way up the lane. Their daughter Hannah, who was roughly the same age as Cecily’s twins, broke away from her parents almost immediately and ran shouting towards the backyard, where Madeline and Morgan happened to be playing.
Carol smiled as she embraced Cecily. “You’ll have to excuse Hannah; she got her manners from her father.”
“And her impertinence from her mother.” Mayhew stepped forward with a grin and kissed Cecily’s cheek. “You look well, Cecily.”
“Thank you. Maddie says it’s the ‘island magic’, but I think it’s just the passage of time. And maybe the serenity of the island. It’s so quiet here.” As Cecily spoke, she led them to the veranda at the side of the house, where tea had already been set out. “I’m sorry I missed your arrival yesterday; I hope Max was helpful. How do you like your new house?”
“We like it very much,” said Carol, “but it’s nothing compared to yours! How lovely! Mayhew, it’s even better than your drawings of it.”
“Outdone by the builders yet again,” he sighed, with a jovial wink at the ladies.
The three friends settled on the veranda and talked for nearly an hour about the people back in Seldenville (where they had all lived after leaving May Green), the island, the Dunnavants, and the new hotel, which included a spirited debate between Mayhew and Carol over what kind of food should be served at the grand opening.
“It should be light, not too heavy — we don’t want guests feeling ill on the very first night,” Carol insisted.
“But it’s a luxury hotel; they’ll be expecting a feast,” said Mayhew. “A sumptuous feast. It’s a ‘grand’ opening, after all, not a ‘ho-hum’ opening. But what do I know, I’m just the architect.”
Cecily smiled at the two of them. “I’m sure Max will want it to be extravagant, but maybe you can compromise — bread and soup served in diamond-studded dishes.”
They all shared a laugh about that, as it sounded just like something Max would do, and thus ended the debate.
“So when does your father arrive?” asked Carol. “I can’t wait to see him and Arianna again! And of course, little Paulina. Though I suppose she’s not so little anymore.”
“They should be here the day before Christmas Eve. The house is almost finished — Max checks on it daily. He says it looks so much like Brayton Hill, it’s unsettling.” Cecily smiled, but speaking of her father’s new house always made her think of the old one, the house she hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years, and the recollection brought with it so many other memories that she lost herself in them.
“It’ll be just like old times,” said Carol, giving Cecily’s hand a pat and rousing her from her daze. “Won’t it be nice with all of us living in the same town again? And your children so close to their grandparents.”
“Yes,” said Cecily. “I’m so grateful…so glad…for many things.” And I really should be, she mused. I’ve been so lucky…and yet…
Her reverie was deep but lasted only a moment. “Speaking of the children,” she said with a quick smile, “I wonder what they could be up to?”
“And the pirates almost made Dad walk the plank, but I pleaded for his life, so they decided not to, and locked us all in a dungeon as deep in the ship as you could go. It was dark and filthy and crawling with rats as big as my head! But Dad was so brave, he kicked the rats and kept them away from us. And then the navy came and overtook the pirate ship, and rescued us all!”
Hannah completed her tale by spreading her arms wide, then clapping her hands together.
“Oh, I wish I could have been there!” cried Madeline, playing along. “I would have shown those dirty villains a thing or two!”
“If there were pirates,” said Morgan, “how come Poppy never told us? He was at your house yesterday. And when he came home, he said you’d had a safe journey, and everything was fine.”
Hannah threw back her head and laughed. “Well, of course he would say that! He didn’t want to scare you, especially since everything turned out all right in the end.”
“Although,” she added, learning forward, “my dad will have a horrible scar from where the pirate captain cut his arm.”
Morgan couldn’t help gawking a little when she said that, but his wonder dissolved in an instant. “We’ll see about that,” he said with a snort.
(continued on Page 3)
O.O It’s Maxxy boy! Wowy, you’re still keeping us in suspense. *pant* I want the next update now!!! Hehe. Ok, enough rambling. I think I’ll go see King Kong now, maybe that will eat some of my excitement…but it doesn’t mean I’ll be checking hourly! ;)
*haha, correction: it doesn’t mean I WON’T be checking hourly :P
Oh, great update! I’m glad that we found out who Cecily married, but I wonder if the twins’ father is who I think it is… :D
YAY! That was wonderful.
Oh yay! The Braytons merging with Annabel Island! I LOVE it! Can’t wait till the next one!
Shock! Horror! Illegitimate children and a platonic marriage for Cecily! How exciting! Sorry about all the exclamation marks – I’m quite excited. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story. I’m not so fond of Flora though – what a mean-spirited windbag!
My goodness this story is certainly full of twists and turns! I can’t wait to find out who the father of the twins was. I have to say I like how you set up Flora as a character. I’m not sure if the back-story she provided was true but it was certainly entertaining! She seems to really look the part that she was set out to portray; she looks like the gossipy, slightly hateful, house help. Did she look that way originally and you wrote her to match, or did you create the Sim to look like the character you had in mind? I’m really enjoying this story and love your writing so much. Keep up the great work!
Max! MAX! She married Max! *cheers!*
.. but awww, not out of love. Poor Max! :(
Wow, so she married Max after all. They can’t be his children though, right? I can’t wait to see what’s actually happening. Keeping us in suspense all the way.
Flora is so mean. I mean…really MEAN. What did Nellie do?
Looking forward to the next update…
:o:o:o Cecily is married to MAX?? What happened to James?? The children must be James children, Morgan looks just like him!
What an interesting update, I love the way you have continued the Brayton’s lives while we havnt been seeing any updates, it’s really fun to read!
Can’t wait for nest update :)
Dito to what Claire said :) – what a suspense!! Though I still like the Ravelos and Shanleys more, I must admit that I continually get fond of your Victorian stories more and more! So – very good work :)
Oh my! Gossip afoot…. Smells like trouble brewing. Cicely is truly gorgeous, a breathtaking character, and lovely wardrobe too. Your style is consistent to every detail. A delight to read and view. More! More! More!
I knew Max would have something to do with it. Well, i did in the beginning. And i knew those kids belonged to that man, whose name i forgot. But it was a great update. We learn more each update, but we haven’t learned what has been going on all of these years. I can’t wait for the update, which will be tommorow, because you love us so much. :lol: That was funny, wasn’t it? I hope the update is soon though.
Max looks so respectable without his hideous beard. Where’s James, I hope his life went poorly. Grr… Poor Cecily and Max. She needs to learn to love him. Wow, what a great story. Double Yay! :)
Ewww feed that maid to the cowplant!
So glad to see Max in the picture again without that full beard now we can see his face better. So is James going come by for a visit too? Morgan has Sam’s eyes though? Hmmmm did Cecily have a romp with both brothers or did Morgan just take on his uncles eyes?
This story is getting good and maybe another little love story with Nellie and Tom when he becomes older?
Oh, no! I can see where this is going! Cecily’s going to go out and do something stupid like sleeping around! She’s unhappy with her great life and her just a friend husband! Then her children will be angry and confused and they’ll find out about their real father! And then…*head explodes*
—Cool : D
Max! I knew it!
Flora seems like a sneaky gossip…pretty mean sneaky gossip actually…
Something with Flora’s eyes sort of makes that “sour look” the sour look. They’re pretty though :D
(writing as I read the entry! It’s most fun that way!)
Oh holy fishpaste cow mr. saturns!
Drat you, taking me by another surprise!
MR. SATURNS, INDEED!
>_>; Little too much Earthbound for me. Adding Mr. Saturn to my list of surprised phrases? Uh…
I mean, I thought “what’s that about him? Nah, maybe he’s just a dinner guest…?” when I saw someone mentioning him in the comments on the main page’s sidebar. Then I saw all “oh, you mean CHARACTER!?” (Yeah, I’m trying hard not to spoil anything for anyone reading the comments before the entry. ^^;;; I’ve done that accidentally a couple of times, and been like “nooOoOOHOOHOOonoo! *weep*”. Or, um, more like “oh. *blink*”)
Anyway, what? Huh? Oh, right. “Oh, you mean our employer guy!”
So I was just like “duuuuuuude!” And then “duude!” And then “dude!”
And then I swam off with those Turtles from Finding Nemo! ^^;
Carol is looking great! Hannah is pretty cute, as well. :D
Oh, man, I barely even noticed until the third page, how Cecily’s hair looks the same way it used to. I guess that’s another thing of her changing, isn’t it? Her old friends and family being there, so that’s kind of symbolising that– for now, at least– things are more the way they were back at the old place than they were in the previous entry, right? What with the old friends and family visiting…
…or maybe her hair was down because she was sleeping.
You know, one of the two.
Oh, maaan.
I liked this entry so muuuuch. Makes me just want to hug you! Even though I Mr. Saturn hate you for making me say Mr. Saturn! But no real hate. :D
Great writing and picture-taking, both! I especially liked the brayton218.jpg one– the one beneath the text about how he hates gossips so much. The way the lighting is, and the angle that it gets him from are really nice.
Boing!
(um, I don’t know if you played Earthbound, but that’s something the Mr. Saturns said a lot, and I would have just ended my comment with Boing, but it would have been odd.
Zoom!
…which is another thing they said.
Funny game. :D)
Cecily’s husband is so nice.
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback. I especially like when you tell me what you figured out beforehand, what you enjoyed, or what’s still confusing, because it really helps me improve my writing, which means I can post better stories!
For some quick individual notes –
Vivi – How did you like King Kong? I saw it yesterday!
Bitsy – I had the character of Flora in mind before I created her, so yeah, I did try to make her look a little sour and snooty. I’m glad it was effective!
Amy – Hi there!! Thanks for commenting! And because it can’t be said enough, your site ROCKS!
Blu – You make me laugh. :-) And I have to add Earthbound to my list of games recommended by Blu (along with Harvest Moon). Is it a Super Nintendo game? We have a Super Nintendo system and a PlayStation 2.