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[h3]Rosaline Hall 10:14 A.M.[/h3][/center]

[i]“Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. The strains of the piano and violin rose up weakly from below.”[/i]

With a short exhale of breath, Kate let her long, nimble fingers close the now finished binding of the book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It was a relatively new book, published just a few years ago but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be a classic. Within the first few pages she had immersed herself in just yesterday, having borrowed it from Rosaline Hall’s very own library, she was hooked on the story of the successful surgeon, Thomas, a womanizing bastard that had everything coming to him and more when the woman he loved was also involved in an affair forcing him to stop and chase after her. It was such a silly thing really, to be so engrossed in a fictional drama. But the ink-pressed words on a paper page had always brought Kate comfort, even more so now when more than half of her family was missing. In that whimsical, romanticized mind of hers, she knew that she would find them one day. After all, everyone deserved a happy ending.

Now that she had been pulled out of ‘book land’ Kate’s mind had a chance to take in her immediate surroundings but more important than remembering that she had shut herself in the provided bedroom in the East Wing for the morning, Kate was able to catch onto the very tail end of something she could only assume was important.

[i]“In case you didn’t catch that, please come to the meeting room. Now, please. See you in a moment.”[/i]

Kate blinked her large, brown eyes, staring at a vacant space on the wall in front of her. That was Alberta Ashdown, unmistakably. How on Earth did she manage to block out everything else beforehand? At least, she was [i]assuming[/i] there was a beforehand message in relation to the latter, it would only make sense. The brief thought that Bertha might have been asking someone specifically to meet her in the meeting room had crossed her mind, but the last thing Kate wanted was to miss yet [i]another[/i] meeting because she had been lost to her books. No, it was better to assume that Bertha meant everyone than not, even though most times she was excluded from the definition of ‘everyone’ given her unique position within Rosaline Hall. At least this way, if she was wrong, she could return the book she borrowed to Viktor.

Uncrossing her legs from her position on the edge of her bed, Kate pushed herself up onto her feet, finding her pair of black strapped heels she would have put on later that day to complete her simple [url=http://www.shopyourtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/belle-skirt.png]outfit[/url] she had already dressed herself in. With [i]The Unbearable Lightness of Being[/i] pressed firmly to her chest by crossing her arms over it, she quickly crossed over to the door, muttering a quick spell so the enchanted door would open for her and stepped over the threshold into the hall. Perhaps if she hurried, she wouldn’t be too terribly late…

She was wrong.

The voyage from the East Wing to the meeting room wasn’t particularly a long one, however when Kate found that the solid oak doors were already shut up tight, she hesitated before them, wondering now if it might be better to just wait out the meeting and get the details from someone else or if it would just be better to interrupt what she was sure had already started. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, uncrossing her right hand from pressing the book to her chest to tuck a curled strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear. Worrying her lip between her teeth gently, Kate took in a deep breath, pushing caution to the wind and opened up the doors quietly.

She slipped her lithe frame inside the room, having only opened it up just enough to squeeze her body inside, her fingertips pressing back on the door behind her so that it would shut quietly. Immediately, as she looked around the room, her suspicions had been confirmed when she quickly counted the number of heads within the room. Not only was she late, again, but she was indeed the very last. A small, twisting knot formed inside of her stomach, a soft blush creeping across her cheeks as she slid her body to the left of the doors and rested her back against the wall, keeping to the sidelines as she tried to pick up on what was so important.

[color=00aeef][i]"If you do wish for one of us to go to McCarthy Manor, may I humbly request that it is not me? I have... too many memories attached to that place that I find rather unpleasant. Also, Sir, if I may request, may I speak with you alone later?"[/i][/color]

McCarthy Manor? Kate kept her eyes on Alora as she spoke, trying to surmise quickly what might have already been discussed while still paying attention to what was still happening presently, though was unable to hold any luck. There wasn’t much that Kate knew about Alora, save for her healing position here at the mansion, therefore the ties she spoke of towards McCarthy Manor went unexplained leaving Kate to try so solve the puzzle of conversation on her own by whoever spoke next. If she was so lucky.

She should have just apparated. Perhaps that would have saved all this confuddled mess of confusion she had put herself into. The small knot that had formed in Kate’s stomach prior tightened a bit at the thought, reminding Kate then just how sick apparating had made her the last time she did. No, not even being on time to a meeting was worth that pain.