Free Web NovelChapter 111: A house divided (4)
The very next day in the Hamilton household, Regina had awoken early to attend her dance lesson at home since Minnie was not allowing her to leave. She stretched her body preparing for a day of pretending everything was normal. "I need a vacation away from my family," she said, sliding her feet over the bed to start her day.
"Where’s my maid?" She asked herself, finding it odd that no one had come to wake her up like they did every time she had class. "Something’s wrong," she concluded, going to get a coat to wear outside to check what was happening.
Regina opened her door, finding no one on the outside waiting to serve her. "Did Minnie order them to let me fend for my own? I’m not that spoiled," she muttered moving to go inside but a maid running quickly down the halls captured her attention. It would’ve been completely normal if there wasn’t a rule for the workers to not run through the house. "You there, come to me!" She called the maid.
The girl’s face looked terrified now that one of the Hamiltons had called to her. She came upstairs to avoid the chaos brewing downstairs and now Regina saw her. "Good morning, my lady."
"Why are you running in the halls and why was no one there to help me this morning? Tell me what you are so scared of?"
The young girl wasn’t sure if she should tell Regina when Minnie hadn’t learned of the news yet. The butler collected the paper and went right up to Minnie’s room. It was only a matter of time before Minnie’s rage filled the house. "I-I’m sorry but-"
"Tell me this instant or I will tell my grandmother of your running adventures. It is only the two of us here." Regina was curious about what made the made so frantic early in the morning.
"When we collected the newspapers to place them in your family’s rooms, there was another newspaper talking about your grandmother on the front. It said she had an affair with Duncan and your father might be his son."
Regina was so shocked she couldn’t refrain her mouth from falling open unladylike. She was going to be the one to break the news in order to distract Minnie. How did someone else find out about it? Did a worker know about it and leaked the news or perhaps, had one of her family members do this? "Run along," she dismissed the maid. It was a good decision to hide to get out of Minnie’s way.
"T-Thank you." ƒrēewebnovel.com
Regina crossed her hands wondering who could’ve been the one to leak this news. It’s going to take a big blow at their reputation. Minnie was already livid about losing Aurora and now this will make her pissed. "Well, I don’t think I’ll be having my dance lessons this morning. I wonder how family breakfast will be."
Regina wished she could’ve been a fly on a wall when someone told Minnie the news. It was bad she wasn’t the one to expose the affair but she was satisfied with this. She wondered how Minnie was going to squirm her way out of this one. "All of our neighbors must be talking about this. What a surprisingly good morning."
Regina went back to lay on her bed until her family called a family meeting because she knew there would be one.
An hour later, Regina was awoken by a knock on her door. "Come in," she told the person. It was time for the show she had been waiting on to begin.
In walked a maid with her head down. "Good morning my lady. Your grandmother has requested your presence downstairs at the table for breakfast. She said to not worry about getting dressed."
"Well that’s rude, I can’t even change into a nice dress. Let’s go," Regina followed the maid outside of her room. To say she wasn’t nervous would be a lie. She wasn’t the one who spread the news but it felt like she did.
Regina played with her fingers as she found all of her family seated at the table waiting for her. Minnie looked pissed as she predicted, Samuel and her father looked calm, and her mother was trying her best to hide her smile. "Good morning," she greeted before taking a seat.
"Now that you’re all here, I’m sure everyone has gotten wind of what was posted in a newspaper today. To start off, it’s not true but everyone else won’t care to know that it was a lie. I would hope no one in this family had anything to do with this lie being posted because it would immediately strip you of your Hamilton name. You don’t try to mess with your family’s reputation. Isn’t that right Rachel?" Minnie had a feeling Rachel was involved in this. If she did, the woman was not smart because it would also ruin her reputation.
"I hope you aren’t trying to suggest I am the one behind this Minnie? I mean, it’s quite a surprise to me that you would have an affair with Duncan." Rachel always noticed a closeness between Minnie and Duncan but figured it was because of him working here for so long. It was laughable because Minnie loved to talk about Nathaniel marrying beneath his status but Minnie had been entertaining the butler.
"Forgive me but this is hilarious," Rachel couldn’t hide her amusement anymore and started laughing.
"It’s not funny Rachel," Nathaniel said, disliking how his wife was thinking of this as a joke. "I don’t believe this is a true mother," he said. He failed to believe his father was a mere butler. Nathaniel planned to find the person who spread this lie and torture them. How dare anyone try to tarnish Hamilton’s reputation with such a lie? He grew up watching his mother be deeply in love with his father. "I’m going to find the person who did this mother. They won’t get away with this."
"I already know who it is. This man has been writing about us for a long time and now he has come up with the idea to use a bigger lie to get some buzz for his business. I’m going to teach him a lesson on why you shouldn’t mess with the Hamilton’s. I’ve been too generous with these people. Now, we need to think of a way to make this go away."
"We can throw a party. Regardless of what people are saying now, they’ll fight tooth and nail to get an invitation to our party." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
"That will only show we are trying our best to buy our way out of this. The lie will only go away for that one night but increase the day after. They will talk of how we are putting on a show," Minnie disagreed with Nathaniel’s idea. She was even more frustrated by the second that someone had found out about her relationship with Duncan. She had been so careful that not even her son knew about it. She was suspicious of how someone on the outside knew her business.
Regina couldn’t believe the length Minnie was going to lie about something that was true. It was amazing how the woman was trying to convince herself that the affair she had with Duncan did not happen. Regina was happy whoever wrote the newspaper did what they did.
"The best thing to do is fight fire with fire. If we want to keep everyone around us from talking about us, we need to throw them into the burning fire with us. I know a lot of the housewife’s secrets and this is a good time to spread them around. Nathaniel, hire a bunch of men to spread what I know around. No one is allowed to leave home until this dies down," Minnie ordered everyone at the table. In this time, they all needed to remain out of sight. Since they had lost Aurora, none of them had left home so it wouldn’t look suspicious that they were not leaving home.
"Is this really a lie grandmother? You can lie to everyone on the outside but you should be honest with us," Regina spoke up. The woman couldn’t tell her family the truth which meant she trusted none of them.
"Of course, it is not," Nathaniel said in place of his mother. His mother is Hamilton and had a wealthy husband. After his father’s death, she could’ve gotten remarried to a man of good status. Why would she have chosen to entertain a butler of all people? How did that sound logical to anyone? "We should get rid of the butler when this blows over. I know he has been serving us for a long time but it’s not good that he stays here. He could’ve been the one to spread the lie."
Maybe Duncan was delusional in thinking he had a relationship with Minnie.
"Can’t you think straight for once Nathaniel? If we fire him, it’ll only add fuel to the fire. And no it is not true Regina," Minnie promised looking Regina dead in the eye as she lied.
