Hands folded neatly in her lap, the older woman's eyes crinkled up, as they often did in thought. Her daughter had grown into quite the pretty woman. And she had taken the time to put gloves on her hands. She was surprised, briefly, but didn't let the surprise cross her face. The two looked good standing there next to each other. She, of course, smiled in greeting. "Hello."
Her eyes swept over the both of them quickly, as tough she couldn't make up her mind as to who to think over first. She finally gestured to the sofa. "Please, have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable."
Charles' smile was hard to contain. It had been far too long since he had seen his youngest daughter. He wanted to walk forward and hug her, but... Alyssa seemed to have a different tone in mind. He, too looked the young man up and down briefly and nodded his head once in greeting.
He looked past the two to Chester, who was still waiting. "Chester, you may bring in the tea," he nodded, dismissing the man, before taking a seat in his respective chair. He knew his wife would not start the ball rolling, and judging by the... frankly terrified faces of the... couple across from them, it was up to him to try to strike up a conversation.
Unfortunately, he didn't have, really, the slightest clue as to where to start. Before he could even think of what to say--
"So, Elinor, how did you come to neglect telling us about Mr. Garrettson for so long, and your sister had to be the one to inform us?"
Charles' wife had quite the way of making people feel at ease. Thankfully, Chester had only to take the tea off of the heat, and was back swiftly, setting the tray on the coffee table, before retreating once again. The older man tried to make his offer sound somewhat reassuring, but he had little experience in that, either. The question came out a bit flat. "How do you take your tea, Mr. Garrettson?" |