The woman peered at them. ‘Such skinny girls!’
‘Greta is our head chef,’ the Countess said.
‘Nice to meet you,’ Olivia and Ivy said at the same time.
‘And she makes the best beef stroganoff in Romania,’ said Mr Vega from the back of the group.
Greta gasped. ‘My mititei!’
The Count chuckled. ‘She’s always called him that,’ he said to the twins. ‘It means “little sausage”.’
Ivy couldn’t help laughing with her sister.
Greta pushed past everyone to squish Mr Vega in a hug. ‘Are you hungry? What can I make for you?’
Mr Vega laughed. ‘Nothing, Greta. Thank you. I am saving room for dinner.’
Greta clapped her big hands and hurried back to the kitchen table. She picked up a rolling pin and waved it in the air. ‘Yes, tonight! Everything is prepared for your formal dinner this evening, Madam, including the vegetarian meal.’
‘F-formal?’ Ivy stuttered.
‘Of course, my darling,’ the Countess replied. ‘We are keen to introduce Ka– Charles back into society, and present his gorgeous daughters. Tonight is just a little dinner for thirty.’
‘Thirty!’ Ivy said. As the Countess continued to direct the staff, Ivy whispered to Olivia, ‘I didn’t know! I didn’t bring anything.’
Olivia’s eyes widened. ‘Your dad did say . . .’
Ivy closed her eyes, picturing the sniggers if she came to dinner in one of her Goth outfits. She’d brought some nice clothes, but nothing formal. The word made her cringe.
‘Don’t worry,’ Olivia whispered. ‘You can borrow one of mine.’
Ivy sighed. Olivia had everything under control, and Ivy couldn’t help feeling like she stuck out like cotton candy at a funeral.
‘Come, my granddaughters,’ the Countess said. ‘I shall show you to your coffin room.’
Olivia was loving every minute of their tour. Greta seemed really nice, and Olivia had already decided to call her dad a little sausage at some point.
The hallway from the kitchens opened up to a spiral staircase. Olivia guessed it must lead to one of the round towers she’d seen when they were approaching the house. Paintings of forests and castles were hung on the walls and ornate vases stood in little alcoves. As they ascended, Olivia noticed that the dark wooden hand rail had the family symbol carved into it. On the next floor, heavy scarlet curtains with golden tassels framed the window, which showed glimpses of the lake and gardens with hedges in long curving patterns.
Olivia felt like she was on a movie set, everything was so immaculate and extravagant. That idea gave her heart a pang. What’s Jackson doing now? she wondered.
After the stairs had curved past four flights, Grandmother stopped at a door. ‘I thought you might like to share a suite.’
She pushed open the door to reveal two four-poster beds with billowing white curtains in the middle of an enormous attic room. A pair of large antique wardrobes faced each other and matching desks with computers were tucked into two corners. Their suitcases had already arrived.
‘It’s so beautiful!’ Olivia whispered.
‘Tessa, one of our maids, will help you with anything you may need.’ The Countess pointed to a cord near the door. ‘Just pull on this.’
‘How many people work here?’ Ivy asked.
‘Well, we have two maids, a valet, Greta the chef and one assistant, a groundskeeper and, of course, Horatio is our butler, but he’s really more like family.’ The Countess smiled. ‘And we are all going to make sure you have a wonderful time this week.’ She swept both of them up in another hug. ‘I’m just so delighted to have you here.’
She left swiftly, shutting the door behind her, and Olivia flitted from one piece of furniture to the next.
‘This totally sucks!’ Olivia exclaimed with a grin, knowing her sister would get the vampire terminology for ‘totally awesome’. ‘It’s even better than I could have imagined.’
But when she saw the look on her sister’s face, Olivia hurried to the bed where Ivy was perched.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘I stick out like a spider on a ballet shoe,’ Ivy confessed. ‘I mean, that vase . . . and did you hear my boots clunking with every step?’
Olivia laughed. ‘Those boots make a great racket whenever you wear them – and you didn’t break the vase.’
Ivy shook her head. ‘It’s different here. They have servants! And this formal dinner . . .’
Before Olivia could stop her, Ivy unzipped her suitcase and started rifling through clothes. ‘Wrong, wrong . . . No good . . . No!’ Ivy declared pulling things out. She pulled out her sweatshirt that said ‘Do I scare you?’ with a cute little cartoon of Dracula underneath.
Olivia chuckled but Ivy wailed, ‘Why do all my clothes have stupid slogans on them?’
Olivia knelt down and gently took her sister’s hands. ‘Calm down. It’s all going to be fine. You just need to relax.’
Olivia took Ivy over to her suitcase and opened it up. She took out the garment bag where she’d packed several nice outfits and pulled away a pink knee-length dress, a green empire waist dress and a light blue sleeveless ballerina-style skirt.
‘Those are all pretty,’ Ivy admitted. ‘But they are utterly you.’
‘Luckily . . .’ Olivia paused for dramatic effect. ‘I have this!’ Underneath the ballerina skirt was another one, darker blue and floor-length with a corset waist and cap sleeves.
Ivy reached out and tentatively stroked the embroidered hem.
‘But does it come in black?’ Ivy asked.
‘You can totally rock this dress,’ Olivia declared. ‘Black or not.’
‘OK.’ Ivy took the blue dress and held it up to her body, running her hand down the fabric. ‘You’re right.’
Ivy unzipped the dress and started to try it on, but from her sister’s frown, Olivia could tell Ivy was still worrying.
‘Ivy, remember what you told me?’ Olivia said.
‘Don’t let the coffin bugs bite?’ she replied, zipping up the side and twirling in the mirror.
‘This is our family,’ Olivia reminded her, ‘and they are going to love us just the way we are.’
Ivy took a deep breath and Olivia could tell she was forcing her smile. ‘You’re right. They will love me just the way I am . . . while I’m wearing one of your dresses.’