[MaC] At the party - Richard, Marty, Nicola, the Skeffington-Nottles

[Katie Fulton]

> "I'm certain Hodges will make everything right."
> Richard took a sip of his own drink. "Struck me as a
> terribly competent fellow, and even if he is pouring,
> I don't think he's sampling. Nothing worse than a
> drunk steward, trust me." He laughed to himself.
> "Reminds me of Christmas three years ago, back
> home..."
>
> "How so?" James asked, Richard, as he walked up to the
> small knot of people.
>
> "Yes, do tell us, darling - I love holiday stories!"
> Nicola said. Discretely, she kept one eye on Nola
> while listening to what Lord Richard had to say.
>
James turned to the sound of Nicola's voice.  "Miss Douglas." he said
with the largest smile he had displayed at the party yet. He gave a nod
and then turned his attention back to Richard for his answer.

Richard seemed to smile a bit brigher with every new face that joined their
cluster. "Oh, really, it's nothing... but if you insist..." He set his drink
aside.

"I suppose it was three or four years ago-- Yes, when Winston had the flu,
and couldn't attend us on Christmas. He sent his son instead, since the rest
of the staff was already too harried to worry about our imbibement.

"Jack, the boy's name was, and he was just shy of eighteen. Bright eyed
chap, but I feared his father bore down on him a bit too much. Every time
Mother so much as coughed, he was cringing, and every time he slopped a bit
I swore he looked like he had killed someone. So, feeling the generosity of
the season, I told him he should crack one of the other years of wine and
have a taste, to calm his nerves. We'd be giving it to the servants anyway,
so what was the harm?

"The boy took a sip, and he did seem a bit calmer, so we carried on. Dinner
was running late, so we had more time to drink, and drink we did. I wasn't
keeping an eye on our steward, naturally, having an eye on someone my mother
had some idea to marry me to..."