The first party is a nightmare.
Guests refuse to stay contained in the ballroom, drifting through the Estate wherever they please while security scrambles to keep up.There are breaches almost immediately.Staff-only areas wandered into.People fucking in guest bedrooms, against expensive walls, across antique sofas worth more than Lachlan’s entire childhood home.Drunk politicians stumble into restricted hallways.Two male guests wander close enough to the East Wing for Carrigan to physically intercept.
The worst part is that Lachlan can’t oversee any of it personally, hears it through comms.He’s trapped in the ballroom with Jules and Mimi well past midnight because Alistair refuses to let Mimi leave early despite the fact that she’s exhausted and overwhelmed.Every instinct in Lachlan’s body is pulling him elsewhere, towards the frequency in his ear, the mounting list of incidents.
There’s no winning no matter what Lachlan does, so he tries to walk a middle path, eyes on Jules, hands on Mimi, mind dealing with the incidents as they roll in through his earpiece.
Alistair’s styling transforms Jules into something closer to a prince than an eighteen-year-old boy.He isn’t dressed in a suit, so much as ceremonial wealth, dark embroidered silk threaded with gold, gems glittering at his throat and wrists every time he moves beneath the ballroom lights.
His smile never falters.
Lachlan watches him work the room for hours, greeting guests with perfect manners while people three times his age stare too long at his face, his voice, his body.Jules handles it all beautifully, radiant and composed in a way that makes Lachlan’s skin crawl because none of it is optional.Every gesture has been trained into him.Every laugh carefully measured.Every expression managed beneath Alistair’s watchful eye.
There’s no off switch permitted tonight.
At one AM, Lachlan makes his case for Mimi without saying a word.As he follows nearby, he makes sure to veer closer to women, smiling at them in a friendly way.Their attention is quickly drawn to Mimi.They coo and fuss over her, stroking her hair and Lachlan resists the urge to make theirbones go crunchfor the audacity because it pays off moments later.
‘Alistair,’ one of them chides playfully, ‘let your little girl go to bed.She’s tuckered out, look at her.’
The old man feigns ignorance, laughing happily.‘Oh, of course.Goodnight, my darling girl.’He kisses her cheek and then, much more quietly, tells Lachlan to escort her personally to her room, no handover.
Lachlan tries to be quick.
‘Control, this is Kestrel.I’m escorting Shimmer to Echo Bay.Keep eyes on Cascade.Repeat, eyes on Cascade.’
‘Heard, Kestrel.Eyes on.’
Lachlan tucks Mimi in her bed, grateful she has Blaire to stay in the room with her and then assigns four people to the Cove before he hurries back.Thus far, the East Wing is contained and untouched.When he returns to the ballroom, Lachlan scans thoroughly for Jules.He’d know that boy’s dark auburn hair anywhere, but Jules isn’t in his line of sight.
‘Control,give me a location on Cascade,’ he demands, already irritated, waiting for a response with a degree of impatience he rarely feels.
‘Kestrel, be advised Cascade is in the restroom.’
The private restroom he previously allocated for Jules was expressly forbidden by Alistair.There are four main restrooms.
‘Which one?’
‘East side, near service.’
‘Heard.’
By the time he gets there, Jules is coming out.
‘You OK?’Lachlan asks, gaze raking over him.‘Jules, are you—?’
‘I’mfine.I have to get back.’
Without Mimi, Lachlan can effectively shadow Jules from now on.
Around three in the morning, Lachlan very politely guides a woman away because she was trying to kiss Jules’ neck while hugging him.At four in the morning, Jules uses the restroom and Lachlan follows him inside, ignoring the looks from everyone else.
He’s not taking any chances.
Routinely, he checks in with Control, who confirm all quiet and safe inEcho Bay,but Lachlan can’t relax, won’t take own his eyes off Jules for a second.
Dawn eventually breaks and people trickle off to their guest rooms, but a small group of what Lachlan recognises as theelite fewmove to a luxuriously appointed greenhouse with Alistair while rain pours overhead.
Jules is brought along, so Lachlan goes too.
