• Patrick smiled sheepishly at his friend. "I...was going to tell you, Richard. But um...it seemed to have slipped my mind....until now."
    Richard instantly jumped on him at that pitiful excuse. "ONE, Patrick, that is MY constant excuse...I forbid you in using it at any point in your life, since you ARE the responsible one out of us both. SECOND, you promised, Pat, you PROMISED this girl was going to your Aunt, not to us."
    Pat sighed. "My aunt didn't want to take her- said she's too busy with her two kids for a third. And my mum's too sick to really watch out for her. And…really, Hat, I just TOLD you she was going to my aunt's...though the information wasn't true, I didn't promise you anything. So you can't be mad at me for this."
    Dormaline wondered if lying to your friend WAS really better than breaking a promise to them. She watched the twins, who both just looked between the two men with dramatic boredom, as if this sort of thing happened all the time. Chester just grinned at the fun.
    The drunken hatter instantly plugged his ears with his gloved fingers, as if he was a little child- "No, I won't listen anymore to you! You promised me this wouldn't happen, and LOOK, its happened."
    "Now, Hat," Patrick soothed. "Don't lose your head."
    "I'll eat my HAT before she stays with us, Pat! I will! There's no room, no room no room no ROOM for the likes of her."
    Pat looked suddenly extra sheepish. "There's plenty of room..."
    "...in my side of the building. I know, I know where this is going, you snake. And I still say NO!" He slammed his fist on the table and snarled at Patrick. "I let your brothers move in as a token of our childhood together...but now I'm putting my foot down!" He then stomped his oversized shoe on the ground and 'harumphed' haughtily. "I won't have women folk in my hat shop, I won't! I hold a respectable business!!"
    Dormy found herself thinking that everything this Richard fellow said sounded like complete nonsense. Yet her cousin seemed completely at ease with this madness, a soothing smile constantly on his lips.
    "No one said she was going to be in your hat shop, Hatty..."
    'Hatty' scoffed. "Oh really? As if that wasn't your sneaky plan all along, you snake. All this week you've been going on and on about how I need to employ a new pretty face in my shop, how it’s too much stress on me working it by myself during the day and making hats at night- and when I tried to hire that Liddell girl, all you did was criticize me!"
    Patrick 'hmphed'. "She just wasn't right for the job."
    "That’s your opinion," he muttered. He then suddenly gestured at Dormy continued his rant, "AND NOW, out of the blue, you have this orphaned cousin of yours I've never heard of, who suddenly needs something to do."
    Dormy felt this was her chance to say something, "Um, well," she said quietly. "I could just clean around the apartment and..."
    "Don't interrupt us, mouse. We're bantering." She was shushed by Richard's raised hand, while he still glared accusingly at Patrick. Dormy glowered. Had he really just SHUSHED her?!
    "Hat," Mr. Porter replied to his drunken chum, his hands up in an attempt to save him from the hatter's rage. "You cut me to the quick. True, my shop has no room for another employee, but...well no one SAID anything about her-"
    "Oh, shut up, you rat!" The Hatter violently got up from his chair onto his feet. "I'm done with this balderdash- I won't listen to any more of it! I'm going to bed."
    He straightened his hat and grabbed his bottle of brandy from the table. He then made a stomping charge to the door- Dormaline made an involuntary squeak of surprise as he purposely pushed past her. The parlor door slammed with a bang behind him, eschewing a couple of picture frames on the wall. A few seconds later, another bang was heard, seemingly the hatter ending his theatrics with a slam of his bedroom door as well.
    Dormaline bumped into the lawyer at her rough push aside. He instantly caught her in her arms. "Careful, Miss Little," he purred, looking down at her and smiling.
    Dormaline wasn't comfortable with how close their faces were, and got back up straight on her feet as quickly as possible, pulling from his grip on her. "I'm...I'm quite alright," she murmured, looking at the floor.
    Patrick Porter sighed as he got up from his seat- "Goodness, as ever dramatic as in Kingsenton University, isn't he?"
    Chester's smile showed some teeth. "Indeed. And that spoiled temper of his hasn't changed either."
    A pair of shiny slacks appeared in front of Dormaline's Mary Jane’s. She looked up to see Pat's beaming face smiling down at her. His hands clasped her shoulders in familiar greeting. "Welcome, cousin. Despite your understandable first impression, I assure you…you are most welcome here."
    With that expression of on his face, the orphaned young lady could believe it. Her reply was a thin, unsure smile back at him.
    Chester smiled- with satisfaction this time rather than mad mischievousness. “Well, it seems everything’s in order here…therefore, Miss Little, I think I shall be going now.”
    Patrick looked up from his dear cousin to his old college friend. “Aww, Chess…Do you really have to leave so suddenly?”
    “Afraid so, old friend.” ‘Chess’ regained the black top hat he had taken off and placed on an end table. He returned it to his head once more, and winked at Dormaline. “Goodbye, Miss Little. Do give me a call on the wire if something’s amiss.”
    The young men with cat like eyes and slick blond hair turned to leave the room. Dormaline frowned, not sure if she would miss the creepy man or not. He was odd, but he had been sort of a slight comfort, being a close friend of her father’s. She wondered at what she felt as he stopped at the door and turned his head back to look at her. “You can reach me at my office in Thortire; I’ll be back with information of what happens to your family’s inheritance in a little over a week. Until then, Miss Little…”
    With that and a low bow, the lawyer Chester Smith closed the door and left. She heard the sounds of his feet softly hitting each step of the stairs and the shop door closing. Dormaline looked up at her cousin, and slowly it sunk in- this was now her new home.