Queen’s Garden

After the girls brought the drinks back to the table, everyone took a short break. Alex stood up to stretch his legs , holding his hand out for Lexi to take .Encouraging her to do the same. " sweetheart let's take a short walk."

Alex and Lexi stepped out the side door into a garden area . The garden they stepped out into had a small table surrounded by shrubs and seasonal flowers with a winding stone pathway to walk on .

It weaved through all the different flower beds leading back to the patio area.

She hadn't seen this side of the Castle before, Alex held her hand telling her about the flowers in this area " sweetheart this garden is called the Queen's Garden all the flowers in this garden have been chosen by every Eddington Queen that has ever lived in the castle . No one else has ever been aloud to choose a flower to be planted in this space , except for the Queen from the time the castle has been built . They all have their favorite flower planted in this garden."

Placing his hand on her lower back he guided her over to a new flower bed that had just recently been put in " sweetheart this is your spot it's right next to mothers,

Do you know what you would like to plant here?" He ask her .

She looked around at all the beautiful blooming summer flowers thinking to herself how empty this space must look in the winter time. Bringing up her hand she pointed to the different flower beds telling Alex her choice and explaining why she chose that particular one.

" I would like winter Aconite planted here, look at all the beautiful summer flowers , my space will give this garden some beautiful color in the winter, when the snow covers everything. It will be just a little pop of color

to cheer up this space in the winter time."

"What a great choice sweetheart you're right ,I have been out here in the winter and there's not much color .." He agreed , taking out his phone he sent the text to the gardener , so that Lexi's flowers can be planted right away.

They continued to stroll through the winding pathway ,Alex pointed out different flowers telling her how long each one had been planted in this little out of the way garden area.

Back inside the library Jackson set down beside Karmen putting almonds in her mouth with a tiny peck on her lips with each one. " Babe, I can't wait for you to get some meat on your bones, it'll give me a little more space on your ass to bite on." He teased her. " Maybe I'll just get bigger boobs, I have enough ass." She shot back.

Just as he was about to pop off again Lexi and Alex stepped back in the room and they all went back to the task at hand.

They were making a lot of progress and the next person to find one of the older Journals was Lexi . She held the Journal in the air over her head like it was a trophy she had just won in a sporting competition ,shouting out "woo-hoo, I found one."

When the other three glanced over at her she shared the first entry with them the same way Alex had done.

[January-01-1775

Last night the castle was full of people. They came from far and wide. To attend the New Years Eve Ball . Father said next year I will be old enough to take part in the celebration. But for now all I was allowed to do was watch from my window as the guest arrived dressed in the finest Imported silks. However this morning I will be having a wonderful time at the festival.]

As she read the first entry everyone listened carefully. But just like the journal Alex had found there wasn't any clues in the entry. Lexi closed the Journal and set it down at the end of the table with the other two historical old books.

Jackson gathered up the Journals the other three had already looked at and brought the remaining journals from the shelf. He placed a large stack in front of everyone and a large stack in front of the place where he set down to help in the search.

They all worked feverishly going through the remaining journals, after the last one was closed and stacked to go back onto the shelf. They only had four journals at the end of the table to read, along with the old gift log book.

Jackson stood up to gather the old Journals from in front of everyone so that he could put them in order and started placing the old keepsakes back onto the shelf.

The other three picked an old Journal from the end of the table to start reading the entire contents . When the stately old grandfather clock that was standing against the wall, across from the table chimed . Alex pulled his head up glancing at the time , making an announcement ." Let's go eat lunch, we can finish up after we eat."

Jackson stood up immediately pulling karmen out of her chair. teasing her.

"Come on bird it's time for me to feed you."

Alex stood up reaching his hand out for Lexi to take. The two couples strolled down the hallway together towards the dining room. Alex wrapped his arm around Lexi's waist gently rubbing calming little circles on her side with his thumb.

Jackson wrapped his arm around Kamen squeezing her rib cage making her squirm .

When they reached the dining room Alex took out his phone peering around the table at the other three.

Lexi was the first one to shout out what she wanted for lunch. "Alex , I want tacos with cheese dip and tortillas chips. Karmen glared at her from across the table but didn't say anything .

Determined to gain weight she politely told Alex what she wanted surprising everyone with her choice " Alex, I will have the same thing with a strawberry milk shake." Jackson chuckled telling Alex

" Don't order me anything, I will eat Karmen's food, I know she's not going to "

It's wasn't long after Alex had typed everyone's food orders into his phone. Brenda the kitchen helper came out with her cart full of drinks.

She stood between Alex and Lexi with her cart behind her handing Alex one of the silver goblets full of blood and Lexi her cola, then she poured Alex a glass of wine handing Lexi a tall glass of milk.

She then pushed her cart over to the other side of the table between Jackson and Karmen . She handed Jackson the same thing she gave Alex. Then she reached over to her cart handing Karmen her protein shake, a small strawberry milkshake and a small glass of ginger ale.

Brenda finally finished serving all the drinks and pushed her cart out of the room. Leaving the two couples to enjoy their time in the dining room together.

Karmen felt her phone vibrate in her pocket she brought it up to the table not even looking at who sent the email to her she slid her phone over in front of Jackson for him to open it.

" How can this be, I don't understand how it can even be possible." He stated sounding confused about what he just seen in the email she showed him.

"What's got you so baffled?"Alex ask him curiously .

" How the hell can someone who is 18 pounds under weight be in perfect health with out even having a vitamin deficiency."

Alex pulled his brows together thinking about what Jackson just said .Coming up with his own theory some type of logical explanation . " maybe it's because of the species she's mixed with .Perhaps they don't need much food to survive similar to vampires. But she's thin because of the witch blood ,that is no different then a human , and needs to eat."

" Your theory could be right, maybe the reason grandmother wasn't as thin as Karmen is because she was mixed with two species that didn't need a lot of food." He theorized , narrowing his eyes over in her direction speaking in a curious manner.

" Babe , when you lived in your apartment by yourself, just how many days in a row have you gone with out eating food?"

Shifting her eyes up to look at his face trying to see if he was going to blow up into a mad rage if she actually tells him the truth about what he just ask her. Deciding it's better to tell the truth than get caught in a lie she muttered her answer in almost a whisper. Just hoping not to see those damm blazing blue eyes burning a hole into her again like the last time . When he got all bent out of shape, because she wasn't drinking that gross protein shake .