Afternoon Tea-

Miss Hunter had saved a table for seven at the Queen Elizabeth Tea Gardens, a lovely quiet spot for afternoon tea, pastries, and talk. Though she had a feeling this day would be far from silent, having invited- The Kraege children, Miss Blastside, and Monsieur Porter to meet her at the front gates at 3 P.M. sharp. She glanced at her pocket watch- it was now at this moment, fifteen past, but perhaps they were having a hard time taking a second to…ah there was Louis. Popping out of thin air beside a large willow tree and dusting off his wonderful green coat and top hat.

“Mister Kraege, you are the first to arrive! Welcome, welcome!” The oldest Kraege smiled down at her and took her arm almost immediately with a laugh. “Would you like a walk around the garden before…” A small pop came from behind them and Art stumbled out of a blueberry bush wearing an elegant blue day dress and had her hair tied up nicely with her one golden lock swinging loosely by the side of her face.

“Good afternoon miss Blastside.” Louis called over at her and held out an empty arm for her to take. “I didn’t know you’d be joining us today. Who else is coming miss Hunter?” Salina just laughed and shook her head wanting to say nothing. Everything would be peachy until Serena and Sinclair showed. Maybe there was a slight chance that they would be busy now seeing how happy she could feel with just Louis and Art’s company. Smiles graced all their happy faces as they turned about the garden, both her guest’s catching up with one another. Blastside was in the best mood, saying something about Nicki wanting her to come with him once they reached England. This seemed to be thrilling news to Louis and he remanded quiet about the fact he was proud of her for not taking this pirate obsession too far.

Clare and Rebecca joined them minute’s later smiling and waving. More then half her guests had arrived and everyone thought that would be it, so Salina sat down at the lovely table surrounded by blooming flowers and a spectacular fountain that was flowing nicely beside them. Then ordered what tea they would be having when out of the corner of everyone’s eyes Sinclair came walking over to the table a slight smile on his face. It was pretty obvious what he must have been smiling at, the fairest Kraege, Rebecca. He sat down pushing the tail of his coat out of his way.

“Mister Sinclair Porter, this is… Art Blastside of Toulon, Louis Kraege of Bristol, and his two sisters, Rebecca and Clare. I believe you have met the other.” She pointed to each in turn and gave a worried smile. Everyone seemed to ignore Salina’s last sentence, Sinclair nodded his head and curled his lip.

“So you are the Louis, I have heard of so many times. I dare say, Nicolas has said many terrible things about you, I do have to wonder if any of them are true.” Salina looked over at Louis waiting for his reply, but right when he leaned in to say something Sinclair turned his attention to Rebecca. “My dear.” His French accent was clear as a bell as he spoke and brought up her hand to lay a pleasant kiss on the back. Art squirmed in her seat next to Louis and muttered an ‘Ugh,’ before turning to her plum tea. Louis glared around the table and stopped at the Frenchman and his sister.

“How kind.” Rebecca replied and took a sip of her tea. “You have manners that are rare for a Frenchman.” The Kraege family laughed behind their cups and Art scowled a little. Sinclair looked a little taken aback as so did the host, but all said nothing after that for Serena had popped in front of the fountain. She looked tired and rather messy. Her ribbon in her hair threatened to fall out as it grew closer to the last strands of yellow, uniform was wrinkled, and she smelled terribly of salt and wine.

“Serena…um…”

“Yes, I know. I’m late and it seems none of you had the decency to wait for me, how nice.” She said bitterly trying to fix her hair as she sat down next to Sinclair. Who was crying he was laughing so hard. The rest of the Kraege’s did not seem to find her being alive or the fact she had joined them to be any laughing matter, on the contrary they seemed to want to leave. “Louis, Clare, Rebecca.” She nodded her head towards them in a friendly fashion and they all nodded back without a word. “Sinclair will you quiet down? Who’s this?” She pointed over to Art who squeaked.

“Art Blastside…sir...madam…um…”

“Don’t know you.” Serena said drunkenly turning to Salina who was patting Art’s shoulder for comfort. “Why did you drag us all here?”

“For tea, Miss.” I answered smiling a little at the witch who was partly speaking in French. “…and chat. Times are hard to keep up on, when war is taking family members against each other.”

“What have you been up to, Serena?” Asked Rebecca who was eyeing her French uniform with mild surprise and a little fear in her voice.

“Aye, Kraege tell them what happened today!” Sinclair chuckled nudging her under the table with his foot. Serena scowled over at him and Louis raised his eyebrows with the rest of the group.

“Something interesting?” He asked Mister Porter who seemed to be much more likely to give the tale then his drunken sister.

“Quite interesting indeed! I shall skip all the morning duties, don’t wish to bore the ladies that I don’t. Well miss lazy over here went to take a nap as I was up on watch, then when I came down to wake her a few hours later, for we had spotted a friendly ship. She woke up cursing me as normal then to my great surprise and disgust she kissed me! Well I hate her as she now is fully aware of, but I had to get back at her. So when we went over to this other ship, which was Captain Agnew’s, well I told him that she was a woman. I knew he wouldn’t hang her. Sailors get desperate out on the ocean not being able to have the company of the finer sex, I knew he wouldn’t pass up the chance. What happened after I left the room Kraege?” He asked smirking as she took a sip of her green tea. “I’m sure we would all like to know.”

“I don’t…” Muttered Art and Serena gave her a small smile.

“I like this girl and Sinclair what I talk about or do with Henri is my own business not yours.” ‘Oh dear, I called him by his first name.’ Serena buried her face into her arms and didn’t look up after that.

“What do you do, Mister Porter?” Inquired Clare as she stared blankly down at her sister and took a sip of her tea, Rebecca did the same.

“I’m a Privateer Captain for Napoleon, but my dears, my dears, no need to fret. I’d still love you even if you are on a different side.” He gave a charming smile and Rebecca snickered as Clare smiled pleasantly. One has to be calm with dealing with the people you hate most.

“No thank you, Monsieur I am…how do you put it these days, Miss Salina?” In a humming tone she looked over at the very quiet and forgotten host.

“She’s ‘seeing someone’ Sinclair.” He looked dreadfully disappointed but smiled over at her sitting across the table. Salina shook her head. “Sorry, dear I’m not looking for anyone at the moment and if I was I’d be looking for someone who didn’t hop.” Louis was drinking at the moment she said this and nearly spit out his hot tea on Serena’s head, for a quick laugh took him and he raised his napkin. Art joined in on a little laugh herself, so did the rest of the table.

Serena looked up and giggled. “Hop, hop, hop, Monsieur Porter?”

With a glare he hissed down at her in a mocking tone, “Hop, hop, hop…yourself Kraege. Go back to sleep you drunk fool. You don’t know what you are saying.” She scowled and let her head slip back down to rest. “What about you, Miss Rebecca?”

“Monsieur I am a proud supporter of England and I could never like anyone that could support Bony.” Her hands fell into her lap gracefully as he mumbled that he had lost his touch and went to sipping his tea. “Now dear Clare, what is this about ‘seeing someone?’ Oh you must tell me his name!” Salina laughed and ordered a basket of strawberries for them to share.

Other then a few slams against each other their meeting seemed to be going quite well. Clare told her sister all about Sam and everyone soon found out that he was just someone she liked nothing more yet. Sinclair jumped at this opportunity but was pulled back down by a sleepy Serena. Louis remained fairly quiet not sure where to add his advice between the girl’s hopes for men. By the look on everyone’s faces it was clear that no one was enjoying this type of talk other then Clare and Rebecca. Art was fading in her chair and had put her head on Louis’ shoulder nodding her head every now and then to agree with the chatty women. Serena was resting her own head against Sinclair’s shoulder and he was surprisingly allowing it. Salina rested her head against her hand waiting for the girl talk to come to an end. It never did, so not wanting the more nontalkative to get too bored with the continuing subject she picked up a small strawberry and got up clearing her throat.

“Well, thank you everyone for coming, I do believe if I don’t get you back to your own time, something might happen. So I bid you Farwell for now and we can continue this tomorrow afternoon.” Art sprung up all too happy to get back to Nicki but shook hands with Louis before disappearing behind a portal. Louis smiled sweetly at Miss Hunter and thanked her before he and his still talking sisters disappeared. Sinclair held Serena up as they made their way to the portal not saying anything but a swift thank you. Porter went through and Serena looked back.

“I don’t want to go back to that old, ugly, Frenchman.” Salina didn’t say anything just pushed the moaning pirate through the swirling portal with a slight chuckle.