A Family Tradition

I was only little when I realized that my life was going to be pretty different to any other young girl in Cardiff. My father died when me and my brunette twin sister were young, around sixteen years old. We stepped through to his study and found him on the floor. Along with his brain matter and a pistol in his hands.

We never learned why he had killed himself, but we hadn't seen our mother for a few weeks. One of the family's maids had picked up the telephone and the local police had told us that our mother had been found lying in an alleyway in the middle of Barry. She had gone out and destroyed her liver with pure alcohol.

Our Uncle Michel was on the next of kin list to take us in, so he took us away from Cardiff about three months after the funeral and into London, Oxford Street.

Me and Annabelle stood outside the large maisonette with her most beautiful dresses, our family was incredibly wealthy and Uncle wanted to keep that reputation at it's best. I looked up at the house, pushing a piece of stray blonde hair out the way of my Sapphires and they widened. There were only several posh houses in Oxford Street, it was a nice place considering it was just down the road from Selfridges & Co.

"So ladies, what do you think?" Uncle's forty year old features grinned, and Annabelle also smiled at him.

"It's perfect, we'll be able to shop at Selfridges, I've always wanted to go there!" Annabelle told us with a large smile, her Welsh accent thicker than mine. Annabelle defiantly had more of Father's stronger features, considering he was a butch Welsh man who usually would anger merchants around the docks. He was a top-market trader and would bring in fish, fruits and different meats yet he was quite a different man. Annabelle took most of his traits, I on the other hand had Mother's. She was of French origin, perfect golden hair and bright blue eyes which I directly inherited. Not to mention my accent wasn't thick at all, Annabelle always said she was quite envious of me.

"Time for the tour then," Uncle took our suitcases and handed them to the two petite maids who had come out of the house. As he lead us through, he introduced us to his butler called Alb and the cook called Janice. We walked up two flights of spiraling staircase and down a few hallways until we reached the west side of the house. Annabelle was placed in one of the big rooms down the corridor, considering she had a lot more items than me and Uncle placed me in the slightly smaller room opposite. "This was your fathers room before he married, nothing has changed,"

"Thanks Uncle," I gave him a short smile and he gave one back before he made his way out of the bedroom and shut the door. I turned back around, seeing that the room had a basic double bed, an armorie with a chest of drawers beside it and a vanity on the other side of the room. I simply sighed, placing the bags on the bed and then sitting down at the vanity, just staring back at my blue eyes in the vanity mirror.

Uncle came by every few hours to see how I was getting on, I had never really moved around in my life so I wasn't quite sure on what I should have expected. So I just unpacked and kept to myself, I heard Annabelle giggling with Uncle's other two daughters, who were nineteen years old. I then heard Uncle's heavy footsteps up the stairs.

"Amelia, dinner is on the table," Uncle called through the heavy wooden door and I turned around.

"I'm not hungry," I muttered back, continuing to place my summer dresses up in the wardrobe and then the large hat box on top. The door opened and Uncle popped his head around the door.

"Come on you have to eat something, just a piece of toast at least," He offered and I sighed sighed with a slight smile before placing the suitcase on the floor and following him out the door and downstairs to the dining room where everyone was seated. Janice had cooked a full-blown roast with a practically a baby lamb on the steel dish. My stomach grumbled lightly at the for filling smell.

"Haha, hungry now!" Annabelle laughed as she came into the dining room, placing the chin plates on the table along with the other two girls. "Come on, sit down!"

After having dinner when I was pretty sure I wanted none, I was quite full and I remembered that I should probably unpack everything by tonight. "May I be excused Uncle?" I asked politely, wiping my mouth with the white napkin.

"Of course, that's if you don't want any cake," Uncle laughed and Cook brought in a large plate of pudding, dripping with dark chocolate and I almost grimaced. I didn't think I could have eaten anymore.

"I'll have some in tomorrow," I told him with a small chuckle and went back upstairs, giving my twin a short hug as I went. As I went back into my room to unpack, I noticed that I had the hatch to the attic in the ceiling. Curiosity always got the better of me in this situations, that is what lead me to going into Father's secret study the day he had died. Now I always wondered how the curiosity killed the cat.

I pulled the wooden stool from the vanity, placing it just below the over see of the hatch and I stood on it, balancing and then my finger tips caught the lever on the hatch and pulled. The wooden stairs came flying out, so I quickly jumped off and held the web covered ladder from thumping to the floor. I placed it down slowly and wrapped my hands around it and made my way into the dark attic.

I pulled up my blue skirts as I crawled on my knees onto the creaking flooring, and slowly got up, squinting my eyes to see through the darkness and only the light from the bedroom was showing. I reached up to where I saw a piece of string hanging from a light bulb and pulled it, and instant light lit the room and my vision adjusted to the sudden brightness.

I looked around at the dusty and wide attic, portraits laid carelessly across the place, boxes and crates had been stacked on top of each other and looked as if they hadn't been touched in years. There was a stack of books scattered on the dirty, webbed floor so I approached them and knelt down, not really caring if my skirts were even more dirty now.

I pulled the stack of books and rested against the wall, placing them in my lap and brushing the dust of the covers to observe them. Loads of children's books like Little Women, The Adventures Of Pinocchio, and so many others, I noticed my father's young signature along with Uncle's on the first page. Until I opened the book The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, three pieces of paper fell out onto the floor. I cocked one of my thin eyebrows and picked the page up from the floor, narrowing my eyes and I saw that the name on the top of the page was my father's; Auguste R. Browning.



My crystal eyes widened, my father wasn't going to make me marry in nine years surely? He wasn't even here, how on Earth was he going to do it? Unless my Uncle knew...no, no. He can't know that I've been snooping around the attic, I have to hide the papers, keep them to myself before I find the right time to show Annabelle. Well, at least it's not right now.

I stuff the letters in the front of my bodice and crawled back towards the opening hole, turning off the light and slipping down the ladder swiftly before pushing it back up. I had to hide this for a while, behind the mirror, or the wardrobe maybe! A few years, that's all I need just a few years and then I will show Annabelle. It's too early to focus on this, I miss my parents like mad and it's going to take us a while to settle down. I just need time.