Alice smiled at herself one more time before she decided she was ready.
"The party has begun." she whispered to herself.As she turned to go, she found herself facing a tall man wearing a dark coloured suit.
Due to the low illumination in the garden, she couldn't quite make out the exact colour of the suit but that was the least of her problems.
"This was not mentioned in the book" she thought?
"Oh My God, Did he hear me?"she asked herself and before she could think of what to do, she saw his hand moving towards her and without giving it a thought, she screamed at the top of her lungs
"Why are you screaming when you are the uninvited guest?"he asked her tightening his hold around her arm.
Alice shut her mouth out of shock immediately she felt his hand around her arm, confused as ever , she didn't know what to do.
Then she heard his question and relief washed over her.If he was asking this, there was a high chance he was just some wandering guest and he hadn't heard anything.
What better opportunity could she get to practice her confidence lessons, ,she looked at the man and though she couldn't see his face clearly, she gave one of the most arrogant looks she could muster and asked him.
" What do you mean uninvited? You are the one intruding in my privacy."
She raked her eyes over his cloth and it was obvious he was dressed up.
' He is truly a guest' she thought.
"If you were invited to a party, you stay put in the hall, it's rude to roam around another person's house without permission, now if you would leave me alone, I have guests to attend to." she snapped removing her arm forcefully from is hold and storming out of his sight.
Adam stood there transfixed, unsure of what was going on, she didn't look harmful, at least from what the dim light had allowed him to see, but she was ill-tempered, that's unarguable.
'Looks are deceitful, I should better keep an eye on her.'he thought. And in contrary to how he came, he hurried out of the garden. Catching sight of the white Jumpsuit as it disappeared into the Hall.
Alice took a breath as she reached the exact same place her father had left her, happy at her performance earlier, she felt surer that she could pull this off.
"This time I wouldn't think much and I would definitely not chicken out." she whispered to herself and as dignified as she could be, she walked into the party.
"Alice where have you been?"Her mother asked her.
"The guests have been waiting to see you."
Before Alice could reply, Mrs Emma dragged her to the podium in the hall and signaled the DJ to stop the music.When she had gotten the attention of everybody, she released Alice's hand and said.
"Hello once again my friends and family. I and my Husband want to share with you a beautiful news. We have finally gotten back our first daughter from the foster home after many years of struggle. I present to you, the first Child of The white's family Alice White."
Alice could barely hear the applause by the people as her eyes caught a tall man's gaze in the crowd, he was looking at her with confusion and suspicion, on the other hand, she was trying to disbelieve he wasn't who she was suspecting.
He had the jet black hair, the Black iris, the height, the great build, and the most distinguishing feature the writer had mentioned was a cut in his eyebrow and a very deep philtrum.
'This can't be him, no, he didn't attend the banquet in the story, and why was he glaring at her?' she thought.
" Alice, say something." her mother whispered trying to get her attention subtly.
Alice turned to her and gave her a smile before she turned to the audience.
"It's really good to be back home and to get to meet those my parents and siblings consider friends and family. I hope our relationship lasts for many years to come. "
After the speech,Mrs Emma took her hand back and whispered to her.
"I'm going to introduce you to high dignitaries, if possible, keep your mouth shut, I'll do the talking."
Alice only smiled at herself, Mrs Emma won't accompany her to anybody, in fact the person about to call her, the maid was approaching and hurriedly she would excuse herself and point the people to her, to go on her own.
And so it happened with only one thing changing.
In the book, Mrs Emma was apologetic she had to go,she even hugged her assuring her that she would be okay. However now, she was just blank, simply pointed them to her and said "all the best".
Alice proceeded to Mr Antoine Pierre, who was having a conversation with another guest, as she approached them, she excused herself before pleasantly greeting them.
"Good day, hope you are having a good time." she asked .
Mr Antoine's company was very polite as he replied.
"We are,it is a really good party."
While Mr Antoine just whispered in frencht.
"c'est impoli d'interrompre les gens en conversation."
(it's rude to interrupt people in conversation.)
His company jabbed him subtly with his elbow as he tried to make conversation with Alice.
"You are Alice White right?".
"I am, May I know who you are, I'm sorry just that everybody is busy so I wanted to get acquainted myself."
"Ohh it's okay, I am Josh Evans."he replied to her sweetly.
Alice smiled at him before she replied.
"Je suis désolé d'avoir interrompu votre conversation plus tôt, je suppose que j'avais trop hâte de connaître tout le monde"
(I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation earlier, I guess I was too eager to get to know everyone.)
Antoine Pierre looked at her unable to hide the surprise in the eyes he had widened while Mr Josh Evans burst into laughter.
"Je vous ai dit beaucoup de temps pour arrêter le badmouthing des autres en français juste parce que vous pensez qu'ils ne comprennent pas la langue."Mr Evans said in between laughter.
(I've told you a lot of times to stop badmouthing other people in french just because you think they don't understand the language
Antoine just blushed as he looked at her.
"Votre français est impressionnant, avez-vous déjà été dans un pays français?"
(Your French is impressive, have you ever been to a French country??
"Non monsieur, je n'ai jamais été dans un pays français avant"she replied smiling widely at them.
(No sir, I have never been to a French country before.)
" Are you serious? but your accent is so natural"Mr Evans commented.
"Thank you sir, I took French lesson and had sleepless nights practicing" she replied chuckling a bit.
Mr Evans smiled at her.
"You must really love the language" he said.
"I do sir, I love the idea of being multilingual and french is so classy."
"Super, quelqu'un qui pense comme moi, pas étonnant que vous ayez un bon sens de la mode"Mr Antoine interrupted, now his face holding a proud smile.
(Great, someone who thinks like me, no wonder you have a good sense of fashion)
"Wow, is this real? The Antoine Pierre complementing somebody! My dear you should be proud and so should your friend."Mr Josh exclaimed looking at the approaching figure.
Alice turned to see not just her father, but two more people were approaching.
"Josh, Antoine, I see my daughter is a good host, I shouldn't have bothered."Mr David white said a small smile lining his features.
"She is wonderful,formidable" Mr Josh replied and Antoine gave a small nod.
"Thank you for your kind words,Si vous le permettez, je vous donnerai la vie privée avec père" Alice asked, a fulfilled smile on her face.
Not only had she managed to impress Antoine Pierre, she had also met this very nice man Josh Evans and to top it all, her father was obviously swelling with pride.
"Ofcourse dear, I hope we'll meet again."Antoine replied her for the first time in English, he even gave a mischievous wink at the end of his statement, making the others laugh while her father grunted.
Before she left, her father introduced her to the two people he came with who seemed already impressed with her.
Alice was elated, her smile wide as she approached the 3 witches who were already smiling at her.
'The effect of Pleasing Antoine." she thought.
Impressing the witches was a walk in the park,they only bullied those they perceived as weak and Antoine's favour had given her more privilege than she imagined. They just kept on asking her what she talked about with Antoine and Josh, that was when they told her who Josh was and she couldn't help but admire the man. He was so humble, from his dressing down to his temperament, he gave her his smiles and kind words freely without the normal judgement by people of his caliber. Alice thought about the characters in the book but there was no one with such exceptional traits, though his name sounded familiar, she simply couldn't place him.
After an exhausting discussion, Alice sneaked out of the Banquet hall, hoping to rest her tired legs somewhere quiet and peaceful. Her mission was almost successful and she couldn't help but feel nostalgic, she just had to avoid Bethany at all cost and that was the easiest part, apart from her father, none of the family members had made any efforts to talk to her, she had only seen Bethany from a distance, peter was out of sight and their mother, she must have not gotten used to the idea of having another daughter.
Alice sighed as she opened the door leading outside the house for the second time today, this was soon becoming a habit, that tree, that garden was soon becoming her niche.