• The floor creaked under her slippers while she walked up the large staircase. Grace glanced down, with surprise and than looked back up.
    tab "It's a large house, isn't it?" She whispered to Alice. Alice nodded her head. Then she frowned. "Must you always be upset whenever I say anything?" Grace added firmly. She was angry, but not accepting the idea in her life that her parents had died from that fire. Alice made a cross face and kept walking up the stairs.
    tab They were led by the maid, who was a small skinny women. Not attractive at all. She was very sickly looking, and the big wart on her chin didn't help that much. She was leading them to meet their old family friend who they hadn't met in ten years.
    tab They finally got up the staircase and met him. Sir Hanon. He was fiddling with an old clock, when he noticed they were there. Now, what you must know about Sir Hanon was that he meant perfection, and if something wasn't perfect, it was broken. So, when he met these girls he was very surprised. Grace had thick black hair which was pulled back in to two long braids. Her eyes were the emerald stone. And she had freckles, many freckles. Alice, however had brown hair, and brown eyes, without any freckles at all. A much clearer, prettier face. Their clothes however were just ordinary dresses. They were long and white. Sir Hanon grimaced.
    tab "What is this?" He said in a stern, proud voice. He understood how special he was.
    tab "These are the two girls. Alice and Grace, master," The maid said in a ruffled voice. Sir Hanon took one look and pointed to the door.
    tab "Take them to their rooms, they must be tired anyways," he said quietly.
    tab The days that the girls stayed there were not as pleasant as they had hoped they would be. The house was far away from all the others, and they didn't get out much. They did enjoy being with Victoria, however. That was Hanon's daughter. One night when they were all alone Victoria was with the two girls.
    tab "You might remember, my brother -" She started. Alice nodded. "-Well, I might as well tell you what happened, but you mustn't tell a soul. It was a long while ago. A few strange things started to happen around here, and Will was rather confused. That's why we stayed out of the house for a while. One day, when we were at the beach, Will found a stone. Well, actually-" She paused. "-It was a diamond. He kept it in his room, and refused to let father sell it. I recall seeing father yell at him on December twenty first. That's in a few weeks. Anyways father was yelling and after that, when he went to his room, he stayed. Never came for dinner. The next day when we went to see him in the morning he was gone. The maid told me that he ran away, but I think something else happened. I believe something happened, something to do with that diamond," Victoria finished. Alice smirked. She didn't believe a thing. Grace was interested, but wasn't sure.
    tab Weeks went by, and when it was December twenty first, Grace was reading a book in her room, when she realized she left her sweater in the other room, but she found it in an old room. A room full of cobwebs. All she could hear was the ringing in her ear. Suddenly, something caught her eye. It was a stone. No. Not a stone. What caught her eye, was a diamond.