*****
By the time they finished, it was nearly time for lunch, so they each went their separate ways to wash up. Benji admitted he felt grimy from his trek around the farm. Jessie showed Benji and Sarah a stone stairway imbedded in the side of the stone tower. It led first to Jessie’s balcony, then to Sarah’s. Sarah went into her bedroom through the glass door on her balcony and Benji went to his room through hers. He couldn’t help but think the farm and house were awesome.
Despite the irate feelings he’d gone to bed with, he woke up that morning feeling rested and fine. Jessie knocked on his door to tell to come to breakfast, but he was already up by then. He dressed, nearly forgot to brush his teeth, and went down to breakfast quickly, meeting Tyler in the hallway.
They found they were the last stragglers of the morning and Tyler groused a bit about the cold eggs but ate two helpings anyway. Benji gathered some ham, eggs, and toast and made a breakfast sandwich. Jessie told them she had errands to run before they set off on their tour and left them to it. Benji and Tyler lingered over their food in silence until she came back.
When his laughing sister came through the door with Jessie, Benji had just finished his sandwich. That was fortunate because he might have choked on it otherwise. Remembering his unkind thoughts about her robot-like personality, he had a hard time believing it was really Sarah laughing with Adam and Jessie. For a brief moment, he’d actually thought it was his mom entering the kitchen. The lost illusion left him sullen and resentful again.
The tour began before the shock wore off and Benji found himself traipsing along after the older teens through the house and then across the grounds. He thought the pool and the giant chess board were alright and liked all the animals they had around, especially the horses. He wondered if maybe Uncle Matt or Grandpa would teach him to ride over the summer.
Aunt Rachel’s workshop smelled like an incense shop. It was overpowering, but also comforting and homey. The orchard was nice, but what he really wanted to see was the inside of the equipment shed. He regretted they hadn’t been able poke around inside. Benji was curious as to what all that stuff actually did.
The gardens were sickeningly beautiful, Benji thought. It was something out of a fairy-tale with the stone tower rising up on one side and the hedge maze on the other. But Benji didn’t put a lot of stock into fairy tales and tried to ignore the bright flowers waving in the summer wind. They irrationally annoyed him.
Now he washed his face and hands, relieved to get rid of the grime, but aware that he’d probably accumulate more dirt after lunch. Unless he went swimming. Perhaps he would dig out his swim trunks after they ate. Unlike Sarah, who he noticed had either unpacked or shoved all her suitcases in her closet, Benji’s things were strewn about the room. His duffle bags and boxes were half empty and lying in the corners. He’d unpack later. Maybe.
He didn’t meet anyone in the hall on his way down. Of course, Tyler and Sarah both had balconies with stairs that led to the yard so they could have gone down that way and Benji wouldn’t have been the wiser. That wasn’t really fair; Benji didn’t have any outside stairs, but he began to hope his room had a secret passage or something equally remarkable waiting to be discovered. The way this house looked, it had to have at least one secret passage.
In the kitchen, Aunt Rachel recruited him to carry a heavy tray of fruit outside to the table on the patio. Most of the family and staff were there already, David Landy, Uncle Matt and Grandpa were sitting at the oblong table already. Sylvie Landy had Kimmy by the hand and was leading her over. Jessie and Adam seemed to be having a thumb war at one end of the table while Tyler slouched at the other next to Grandpa.
Benji set down his tray and took a seat followed by Sarah, Aunt Rachel, and Sylvie. Once everyone was seated they began passing plates around and piling them with food. There were three trays on the table, one with grapes and strawberries, one with turkey and ham sandwiches, and another with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and various dressings.
“Where do you eat lunch if it rains?” Benji asked around a mouthful of turkey sandwich.
“Sometimes the dining room or the conservatory,” Aunt Rachel answered. She was sitting between Benji and Sarah gathering the makings for a ham sandwich. “Sometimes the breakfast table or we set lunch out on the buffet table in the parlor and we fend for ourselves.”
“Do you ever eat out here in winter?” Sarah asked with a nod toward what looked like a large outdoor fireplace at one end of the patio.
“Not deep winter, no. Sometimes spring and fall, though. It can be quite picturesque with a blaze going, but winter up here is still a bit too cold for an outdoor dinner party.”
“That’s right,” Sylvie piped up in surprise, “I completely forgot that you kids are from such a warm climate. Winter will be something of an extreme for you, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it.”
“None of us has seen much snow,” Sarah admitted.
“Really?” Jessie asked curiously.
“Nope,” Tyler answered her before Sarah could. “We went to Switzerland with our dad once for a conference. There was still snow in the Alps despite it being high summer, but we didn’t really get out in it or anything.”
“It’s snowed a few times in Mobile,” Sarah added, “but it never sticks to the ground and doesn’t last long.”
“You’ve been to Switzerland?” Jessie exclaimed.
The conversation seemed to bounce around the table, going rapidly from one subject to the next with so many people involved. It was nearly like a high school cafeteria, Benji thought. They never had meals like this back home. The thought made him bitter despite the energy of his table-mates. Even Tyler entered the fray and was talking to Jessie and Sylvie about places they’d traveled.
When the noise died down and people began to clear their plates, Grandpa cleared his throat for attention. He asked Benji, Sarah, and Tyler to come with him to the study after they helped clean up the table. It sounded slightly ominous to Benji, but the others seemed to think it was not unexpected. Uncle Matt and Sylvie and David Landy carted the now empty trays back to the kitchen. Aunt Rachel commandeered Kimmy and Jessie to help wash the dishes and threw a wet rag at Adam, telling him to wipe up the mess on the table. Since they didn’t seem to be needed, Tyler led the way behind Grandpa to the study.
Grandpa’s super-secret private study didn’t look like anything special to Benji. It had a huge desk sitting between two wide windows paned with dark green glass. There were bins and book shelves along the walls interspersed with filing cabinets and what looked like old library card catalogues. It felt messy and crowded in here despite the fact that the desk was clear and the shelves uncluttered. It was actually a large room, but the desk took up a lot of space and the rest was taken up by four bugundy leather chairs and tattered blue couch in the far corner, so it felt much smaller than it actually was..
When Sarah entered behind Benji, Grandpa motioned for her to close the door. He took a seat behind the desk, propped his elbows on the surface and steepled his fingers. Benji suddenly felt like he’d been sent to the principals without knowing exactly why. He hoped none of them had done something wrong, they’d barely been here twenty-four hours. They weren’t in trouble already, were they?
Tyler slouched in one of the burgundy chairs and Benji followed suite. Sarah sat gingerly on the edge of the chair farthest right, as if she, too, were suddenly afraid they might be trouble. Tyler also looked more than a little nervy and Benji was sure his own face betrayed his discomfort. Grandpa did that throat clearing thing again until he had their attention and lowered his hands, palms down, as if he was pushing against the desktop. He made a forbidding figure seated behind the massive desk.
Grandpa’s sharp blue eyes rested briefly on each of them before he finally spoke. “We need to talk,” he declared.
*****
Chapter 9: The Rules