AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mechanical bull?” Donna felt the colour drain from her face.
“Aye.” Sean was oblivious to her reaction. “And I can’t wait to try my hand in the casino.”
“Casino?” she squeaked.
He gave her a strange look. “You know, the one in the dining room?”
She grasped Mairi’s arm and held on tight. “There’s a casino in the dining room?”
Sean looked between the two of them. “Didn’t you organise this thing?”
“I’m going to kill them,” Donna muttered. “We talked about setting up tables in the orangery, and the buffet tables in the ballroom. We didn’t talk about a mechanical bull and a casino.”
“Take a deep breath,” Mairi said to her before looking up at Keir’s brother. “Please tell me there isn’t a bouncy castle in the garden.”
“No, but some old men are running a game of boules on the front lawn.”
“There’s no point in screaming,” Mairi said as Donna opened her mouth. “There’s Flora, let’s go talk to her.”
They didn’t bother saying goodbye to Sean. They just ran across the entrance to cut off Flora.
“Hello girls,” she said. “My you look pretty, Donna.”
“There’s a casino in the dining room. A bull in the library and men playing a boules tournament on the front lawn.” Donna’s eye twitched.
“To be fair,” Flora said as Joyce came up beside her, “the bull isn’t real.”
“What. Were. You. Thinking?” The words were squeezed from between clenched teeth.
“That we needed to keep people occupied and get the crowd circling so that the ballroom didn’t become too overcrowded.”
“That’s why we set up tables in the orangery.”
“Aye,” Flora said with a smile. “But we might have underestimated the numbers we expected tonight. Turns out there may be a wee bit more than a hundred and twenty in attendance.”
“How many more?” Donna said through clenched teeth.
“We don’t exactly know,” Flora said. “Joyce put out an open invitation. But don’t worry. There’s someone on the door making sure people pay to get in.”
Donna’s eye began to twitch.
“With all the extra people,” Joyce said, “we needed to provide some decent entertainment. Not to mention, we had to liven the place up. What sounds like more fun to you? Having tea in the greenhouse or seeing how long you can sit on a bucking bull?” She gave Flora a disgusted look. “I’m no’ allowed on it because I had a hip replacement last year. Apparently I’m a liability.”
“Group B,” a voice called. “Group B, assemble here.”
Donna’s head snapped around to see a woman standing at the bottom of the staircase holding up a placard with the letter B on it. People around them checked pieces of paper in their hands before some headed towards her.
“What is she doing?” Donna snapped.
“Guided tours,” Joyce said. “Everyone wanted to get a look around the mansion. Which reminds me, could you call off your guard dogs outside the studio, so we can get in? People want to see what Duncan’s working on.”
“No, I can’t call them off.” She was about to lose her mind. Right after she killed three old women and buried them under the bloody rose bushes.
“If it made you feel better, we could charge an entrance fee to the studio,” Joyce said. “It would raise a lot more money for the wee sick babies.”
“That’s it! I’m going to kill her!” Donna launched herself at Joyce, but Mairi held her back.
“Witnesses,” her sister hissed. “Nothing happening here,” she said loudly, through a fake smile.
