"So tell me, George," said Murdoch as he scooped up some delicate pea soup, "where is Harriet?"

"I'm afraid that mother finds these sorts of things too fancy for her tastes." Glancing at Ruby's myriad's of friends, "It makes her uncomfortable being around well to do types." Smirking, "Well, other than me, especially when she is accepting my gifts."

"Yes," said Murdoch also smiling, "she was never one to say no to handouts. If I recall correctly, almost the first thing she did was ask you for money."

George laughed a bit at the remembrance. "Ah yes, my two mothers! That was quite a pickle! It's awfully lucky that the case we just happened to be working on at the moment helped me solve that dilemma!"

Murdoch nodded. "Very fortunate indeed."

Julia had been listening in on the conversation as Ruby was preoccupied with her friend Clara. "And what of your other family? The ones that raised you? Why are they also not present?"

"We had a more intimate gathering yesterday. Well, as intimate as it can be when you consider all of my aunts."

"Remind me how many you have again," she said, ignoring Murdoch's annoyed stare. "I met most of them at your wedding but for the life of me, I can't remember their names."

George became more animated. Counting on his fingers, "Oh, well, let's see, there's Aunt Amaryllis, April, Aster, Alyssa, Azalea..."

Julia was smiling and nodding here and there and winked at Murdoch when she saw just how irritated he was becoming. Murdoch didn't understand why she insisted on being such a trouble maker this evening. Then it hit him. Was this pay back for almost ruining her hair? Or did she think it was his fault that they had been a bit late?

This list went on for so long that Murdoch had finished eating his soup by the time George had concluded his recital. He sighed internally, extremely grateful for that monologue being over. His celebration was short lived.

"I'm sorry, George," said Julia mischievously, "I think I've already forgotten a few of those middle ones. Would you care to refresh my memory once more?"

"Hmm, I think I'll have to start from the beginning then."

Murdoch clenched his hands underneath the table top and screamed internally. However, for once Ruby was of good use. Since her attention was no longer diverted to others, she witnessed the scene unfolding before her with increasing disapproval.

"George, you have barely touched your soup! We can't go on to the next course until you finish! You are the master of the house after all!"

That snapped him out of that good and proper. "Terribly sorry, dear!" Then he began hastily consuming what by now must have been dreadfully cold fare.

Julia refused to show any signs of remorse and because of this his eyes wandered across the dining hall. He caught Brackenreid's eye as he was doing the exact same thing. They nodded at one another and then his boss got caught up in some other conversation that his wife had started.

When George had finished his soup, Ruby rang a bell and an army of servants jumped to everyone's sides, taking away the used dish. The next instant they were serving out oysters that were already opened. Ben looked at his with utter revulsion, poking the meat over and over again with his fork.

"Ben, stop playing with your food," said Julia.

"But it's so gross! What is it anyway?"

"That's an oyster, son," said Murdoch. "It lives under the sea."

"What does it taste like?"

"Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Ben studied it for a bit and said, "How do you eat it?"

Murdoch demonstrated by bringing his own oyster to his mouth and tipping the loose meat inside. Hesitatingly Ben followed suit. He chewed once, made a face and spit it out.

"Yuck! It tastes like dog poo!"

"Oh really?" enquired Julia. "And how exactly do you know what that tastes like?"

Ben narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, refusing to answer or look at the partially masticated food on his plate.

"I understand you, Ben," said George. "I still don't much care for that fare myself. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to."

"Well, Ben, don't you have something to say to your uncle?" said Murdoch.

"Thank you, uncle George," he grumbled.

After that light drama, small portions of filet mignon were served. Ben was much more receptive to such food and quickly devoured it. Next was lamb and vegetables. Then there was some Foie Gras of which Ben would not even taste. The deserts came next. A rich chocolate pudding, Christmas chocolates and fruitcake. For whatever reason, barely anyone touched the cake.

Once they were all contented, there was about an hour in which they mingled, exchanged presents and digested their food before the dancing portion of the evening began. As if out of nowhere, a quartet appeared and a waltz was heard out in the enormous entry hall. Though Murdoch was still a bit ticked off at his wife, he held out his hand and they twirled around the room, couples on every side of the gigantic tree. Olivia and Holly had previously been stashed away in the latter's bedroom, away from all the noise so that they could get some sleep. A servant was on duty watching them. Ben, John and Bobby sat in the corner looking bored and Murdoch couldn't blame them. At their age, he would have found such a thing incredibly dull indeed.

After the first song concluded and before the next one started, he saw Ruby approach the boys with several young girls in tow. She introduced them and then rather begrudgingly, they offered their hands to them and took their places on the dance floor. Ben looked the most out of place as he was the youngest and had never had any dancing lessons. Murdoch couldn't help but smirk thinking that his son was probably just as bad a dancer as he used to be, disregarding the fact that they weren't even blood related. He caught Julia's similar look and then decided to break the silence.

"I hope you've forgiven me for before, Julia. I just couldn't help myself."

"No apologizes are necessary, William. I was the one behaving like a child."

"Yes, you certainly know how to push my buttons...in more ways than one."

They smiled at one another, the music started and they watched as Ben immediately stepped on the little girls feet. She shrieked at him and ran away to her mother, leaving Ben alone and feeling foolish. His parents went to him then and took him aside.

"Never mind her, Ben," said Julia. "Your aunt should have known better."

Eyes downcast, "How come I'm no good?"

"You just need to practice a bit," said Murdoch. "I'll have you know that I too was once a hopeless case."

Looking up, "Really?"

"Yes, he was absolutely dreadful," said Julia. "Nearly broke my toes!"

Ben grinned at that and hugged both of their waists. The three of them then pranced around like children, eliciting many stares and some laughs. But they were enjoying themselves too much to care what others thought.

When another three songs concluded, George came over to them with The Brackenreid's in tow.

"Have I got a surprise for all of you!" he exclaimed as he approached them. They shared a look amongst them. "Come on then!" he said leading them further into his mansion. "You won't believe your eyes!"

And he was quite right. George had built a bowling alley in his own home! (granted it was just a single lane but still).

"Bloody hell!" said Brackenreid, garnering an annoyed look from his wife.

"George," said Murdoch, "why on earth did you do this?"

George made a face. "Why not, Will? It's loads of fun! And the only other bowling alley in Toronto is not exactly close by!" They were all staring at him dumbfounded and he got a bit defensive. "Have any of you ever even played it before? I'm sure that if you had, you would understand!"

"How do you play Uncle George?" asked Ben excitedly running over to the two balls present in a bin. With difficulty he lifted one of them out and promptly dropped it on the ground narrowly avoiding his toes. Murdoch and Julia released a sigh of relief.

George smiled at that and went over to him. "It's very simple, Ben." He picked up the other ball, stuck his fingers in the three holes and walked over to the foul line. Then he swung back his arm and as he brought it forward, released the ball with surprising speed. The ball veered off to the side and he only managed to strike one pin down.

He turned around to face them but avoided eye contact. "It takes some practice," he mumbled, embarrassed.

Ben came over and with both hands rolled the ball slowly down the lane way. It took so long as to be a torment to witness. Finally it collided with the pins, knocking the rest down.

"Beginner's luck," muttered George.

The older among the group held back their laughs as best as they could. Ben was jumping around celebrating, and the boys were joining him.

"Well done, son!" called Murdoch.

"Yes, excellent form!" said Julia.

George was still grumbling as a servant finished repositioning the pins, allowing the next person an attempt. Another servant ran over to them with the two balls under his armpits and handed them to their master.

"Who's next?" he said more normally.

"Oh, I am, I am!" yelped John and Bobby at the same time.

They got angry at each other and started to fight but Brackenreid easily pulled them apart, telling them to stop that nonsense. Regardless of their misbehaving, he released them and let them take turns at the sport. So far, all the children had done much better than George but at least now he didn't seem to mind so much. Brackenreid and then Margaret went next. She struck down eight pins and her husband only got six. Julia hit nine down. Murdoch went up to the line, surveyed the almost non-existent slopes to the lane way for some time and then released the ball, slightly off centre. The speed combined with the trajectory made for a fearsome combination. He had gotten the first strike of the evening!

Everyone congratulated him and now that the practice round was over, the real game began. With only one lane and so many players, it took over an hour to complete. By the end, and to no one's surprise, Murdoch had won by a landslide. However, if he was taken out of the picture, the others scores were all fairly close. George had improved later on but he was still close to the tail end of that list.

Ruby came in then and scolded her husband for abandoning the party for so long. She had another purpose in being there though. She informed her sister that Olivia wouldn't stop crying.

Murdoch said, "I suppose that's our cue to leave then." He glanced at the large clock nearby and saw it was past ten o'clock. "Yes, we'd best be going now."

"Us as well," said Margaret, noticing how sleepy her boys were getting. They had not had a nap earlier in the day and had been up since six o'clock.

The Crabtree's escorted them back to the magnificent hallway were dancers were still about, though there were far fewer than before. While the Murdoch boys were getting their coats on, Julia went upstairs to tend to the baby and Ruby ordered a free carriage to be brought around front. A few minutes later, Julia returned with a contented Olivia, they said their goodbyes and were out the door. Christopher followed close behind with their presents. Once everyone and thing was settled, the coach driver took off at a brisk pace.

Back home they put the children to sleep, though as usual Ben was the more difficult of the two. He claimed he wasn't tired. Perhaps he wasn't. But that didn't change the fact that they expected him to go to sleep. Julia had to read him several bed time stories before he finally drifted off to sleep.

She found William busy reading an actual novel in bed. It was Dracula of all things!

"I'm surprised at you, William," she said as she took off her string of pearls, exposing her neck fully. "I always thought you were above such forms of entertainment."

Without looking at her he replied, "Things change, my dear."

"Oh?" she said as she removed her earrings. "And what may I ask elicited such a drastic change?"

"Ever since I arrested that prankster on Hallowe'en, I decided that I wanted to learn what the vampires allure was about first hand. Call it a scientific experiment if you'd like."

Releasing her hair from its entrappings, "And how are you liking it so far?"

"It's much more exciting than I was expecting. For a business man, Stoker had quite a vivid imagination."

Smiling, "Yes, that he does." She slipped out of her dress, so that she was mostly nude. "William, could you help me with my corset?"

"In a minute, Julia," he said, distractedly. "I'm at a crucial point. Harker's attempting to escape!"

"William."

The second he glanced over top the book, he tossed it aside and went to her. And this time nothing interrupted them.