[Previously: Cassie and Helena have returned home to find out that cousin Jack is blackmailing them. Worse to come, Cassie discovers a terrible secret? Can they keep their adventures alive?]
*
Dinner was almost a formal affair. Aunt Maddy had taken over mom's kitchen, and had everything set just so. Mom had been reduced to a servant in her own house once again, but was treating the whole episode with good humour. Once or twice, when Aunt Maddy wasn't looking, she would pull a face, or snigger, then wink over at me. It seemed that the more Aunt Maddy tried to take control, the more mom became young again. I liked the change. Liked the way mom acted younger, smiled more. I could relate to her better; see her as the young woman I myself felt like, rather than the middle aged non-entity that she seemed to work at being. I liked it a lot. Even Rachel had warmed up somewhat, and was smiling more freely with me.
Helena didn't come down until dinner was almost prepared, nor did Jack make an appearance until dinner was almost on the table. She came down to the dining room gracefully, wearing a long crinkled skit, with a white vest top with wooden beads on the shoulder straps. She had pulled her hair up into a clip and had put on just a little bit of make up. I felt my heart jump a little when I saw her and felt slightly foolish about it. But she looked so beautiful! I could have ran up to her right there and then and hugged her, kissed her. I wanted to tell her out loud that I loved her. But I knew that I couldn't. She looked over at me and smiled. It was a little half smile, like the one she gave me as we lay in bed together the other night; a little smile that said 'I'm yours and you're mine, and I'm gonna fuck your brains out'. I smiled back, hoping my smile would convey the message 'yes please!'.
Jack, by contrast, stormed into the room as though he owed the place, and expected us to acknowledge it. He smiled over at Aunt Maddy, ignored his sisters, then sent a wicked grin both my way and Helena's. There was something there, but I couldn't work out what it was, and didn't find out until later, when things had gone downhill dramatically.
Jack sauntered over to me and grabbed me in a hug.
"Hey cuz." he said, all sincerity until his hand - out of view from both mom and Aunt Maddy - reached behind and squeezed my ass cheek (there was something frighteningly sincere about that gesture).
"Hi Jack." I said, gritting my teeth.
"Wow." he said, standing back a step and looking me up and down.
"You just get sexier and sexier, huh? Still do that cheerleading thing, cuz?"
"Yes." I said primly, thinking how much I suddenly disliked the word 'cuz'. While he looked at me, I apprised him back. He was still short; an inch or so shorter than Helena or I. But since we'd last seen him he'd turned a lot of the fat he had into muscle and, while he still looked stocky, he was more compact, less flabby. He still had a ridiculously messed up crow's nest of brown hair, and hadn't yet been released from the teenage bondage of facial spots. The torn jeans and hoodie deemed entirely appropriate.
"Yeah I bet you're a real star turn. Must get lots of looks huh, from all kinds of people, right Hels?"
Jack looked over to my sister, grinning wolfishly.
Helena threw him a look that could have killed, then sent the briefest of glances my way; in that micro-second, I saw real fear and worry in her eyes. I wanted to ask what had happened, but knew better.
We had dinner in the main dining room, at the big table. Something we had not done together in years. It was very stiff and formal, and no-one really noticed the food much; nice as it was. As dinner ended, Aunt Maddy directed me and Helena to clear up the plates while she and mom went to 'retire' to the sitting room. I wondered if Aunt Maddy was going to call a chambermaid from the world of the English Victorian novel she seemed to live in. But then I forgot that she had one already.
"Rachel? Rachel! Fetch me my travel bag. There's the photos I want to show to your Aunt Phoebe."
"Yes mom."
Rachel scuttled off to run her errand. Of Jack there was no sign. He left dinner when he had finished eating, got up, then threw a syrupy smile over toward Aunty Maddy to ask if he could be excused.
"Of course darling." Aunt Maddy had said, adding "Such a well-mannered boy." as he disappeared.
Helena and I staked up the plates and removed them to the kitchen. I rinsed, and Helena stacked the plates, pots, pans and cutlery into the dishwasher.
"Rachel's nice." I said, trying the break the uncomfortable silence.
"Uh huh."
"She's actually pretty sweet underneath all that-" I aped someone being bookish "-you know."
"Yeah."
There was silence again, and I was worried. Eventually, I walked over and rested my fingers against Helena's arm. "Lena, what's going on?" I said. Helena looked sharply toward the doorway, then back at me.
"Sis. We, uh, we need to talk."
"Okay, so let's talk."
"Not here. Let's finish this then I can, um. I can explain."
We finished out chores, saw that mom was suffering Aunt Maddy's photographs, and slipped away upstairs. Rachel had retreated into my bedroom, so we went to Helena's. As we went into her room, Helena, shushed me with a finger pressed to her lips, and took a 'Murder, she wrote' examination around her room, checking it was empty. She closed the door behind me, locked it from the inside, then went down and sat on her bed. Smiling, I joined her. But instead of sitting next to her, I sat across her lap, my knees spread either side of her hips. I couldn't help feeling horny around my sister, and wanted her to know that our last little episode was definitely 'unfinished'.
But Helena didn't hold me, or touch me. She just stared at me for a moment, then started to cry. At first, it was a little teardrop running down her perfect cheek, then it was sob after sob. She cried hard, holding her head in her hands. I got off her and knelt on the floor at her feet and rubbed her thigh.
"Hey hey hey," I said. "It's all right. It's okay." But I knew it wasn't. I just sat there with her for a few moments, letting her cry it out. Eventually, Helena dried her eyes with the back of her hands and looked up at me.
"You're going to hate me." she said. I admit I was pretty stunned, and immediately wanted to know what was so bad that it would have brought on such an episode.
"Why? What's- What's, happened, Lena?" I asked.
It still took a few minutes of Helena to calm down enough to tell me.
"I was right." she began. "I was right, even though I was being an ass about it all. I was right, but you were the one right to be worried."
"Worried about what, sis?"
"About being caught."
"Huh?"
"On the lawn, outside our bedrooms. Jack was out there. He saw me coming out of your room and into mine."
I felt my heart lurch a little, then settle. I gave my sister a big grin.
"Hey it's okay!" I said, trying to cheer her up. "Don't worry about that dork. He saw you coming out of my bedroom window. So what? That doesn't say anything. And whatever he thinks he knows, he's an ass and it'll be his word against ours."