Gift Record

The atmosphere inside the library was calm and relaxing. Everyone set at the long table only reading the date in the first entry in the Journals that had been placed in front of them, automatically pushing them to the side, after confirming the date wasn't before her wedding date to Crown Prince Henry Eddington.

Jackson busied himself by distributing the journals on the shelf to the other three and placing the journals that had already been gone through back on the long table beside the book shelf in numerical order .

Alex picked up the last Journal in the stack that Jackson had placed in front of him a few minutes ago. Bringing his head up to tell everyone the good news, " I finally found one of the older ones." Opening the Journal he read the first passage out loud for everyone.

" 01-01-1776

The New Years Eve ball was simply magnificent last night . Kings , Queens , Lords and Ladies from different countries and Kingdoms strolled around the Castle putting themselves on display like peacocks in the Garden , dancing and mingling with each other. I laughed until my side hurt when King Cornelius ask my good friend Eleanor to become his tenth wife . I do believe if King Cornelius could have found her father in the crowd last night, poor Eleanor would be living in his Castle this morning. He was willing to pay a huge wager for her perhaps even more then Lord Martian ,who has already ask her father twice for her hand. Any way Mary is here to help me dress. But I'm sure today will be just as adventurous .The New Years festival will be kicking off right after breakfast this morning . I'm sure poor Eleanor will be hiding in every bush and corner, trying to stay away from King Cornelius today.

The others hung on his every word hoping to hear a small clue from the short passage in the old Journal. He didn't brother reading any further he simply slid the Journal to the end of the table to be read later and started going through the next stack ,that Jackson had placed in front of him.

Jackson walked over to the table with another stack of Journals for Karmen noticing she hadn't even opened the small bag of almonds. He picked them up off the table and pulled open the small bag placing them in front of her ,lovingly reminding her to eat them. " Babe, if you don't eat, we may never have any beautiful babies.We will forever be called Aunt and Uncle never mommy and daddy."

His tender voice and heartfelt words touched her hart, making her long for the large family she has always wanted. She picked up one of the almonds from bag and put it in her mouth . But the salty nuts made her thirsty.

She pulled her head up, glancing around the library for a wet bar. She had noticed a few days ago, every room she had been in so far had one . As her eyes wondered around the wall she spied it over in the north corner beside a wooden book stand .

Standing up she pointed towards the wet bar asking everyone " Does anyone else want something to drink?"

Right away Lexi shouted out " I want a cola."

"Karmen do you know how to make a martini? Alex ask her.

" Yeah, my dad drinks them all the time"

Jackson was bent down gathering more journals off the shelf to pass out to everyone, and shouted over his shoulder at her " Babe can you make an old fashioned, if you can't it's okay, I'll take some whiskey on the rocks."

" No , I can make an old fashioned, that's no problem. She said.

Lexi stands up volunteering to help.

" Karmen, You make the drinks and I will bring them over here."

Standing up she stretched her arms over her head , bending backwards at the waist a bit to stretch her back out. Then walked over to the wet bar where karmen was .

While Karmen worked on mixing a martini for Alex , Lexi fiddled around white her hair and stretched her legs out.

Karmen finished Alex's martini and set it down on the counter, immediately getting started on Jackson old fashioned .

Lexi glanced around for something to occupy her time while Karmen was making Jackson's drink.

She glanced around the room looking left and right. She piddled with the old book on the stand beside her, flipping through a few pages, then she quickly flipped the book over to look at the cover, then swiftly turned to the first page.

Shouting over to Alex about her discovery.

" Alex, this book might be able to help, it's a wedding gift record from your grandmother and grandfather's wedding shower."

" Sweetheart, bring that over here, and put it on the end of the table with the old Journal I found earlier." He said, instructing her what to do with the old gift log she had found.

Stalking back over , she gingerly set the precious keepsake on the table beside the Journal Alex had found. Then she walked back to wet bar to help Karmen bring everyone's drinks back .