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Rafe, Genny, Eloise and the few parents who’d stayed pitched in to keep the excited guests corralled With twenty-three of theht fall in the lake or run off into the parkland, never to be seen again
The water sports ell enough The twins dominated, as always They shouted the loudest and pushed the other children aside so they could go down the waterslide first
Fiona kept telling the not to hear her She finally gave them a five-ot up and ran away froo
Geoffrey see up pretty well He avoided Dennis and Dexter And he got along ith the children fro, his head tipped back, the space where his baby teeth were , as he went down the slide
They played Marco Polo in the pool and batted various water toys around Frances and a couple of the women who came in twice a week to clean served cold drinks to anyone anted them That meant there were several trips to the toilets and back It was hectic, but it sees considered
At a little past four, they moved on to paintball on the archery field It started out well enough, with the children hiding behind boulders and hay bales and ju out to splatter each other with paint fro at first But the twins quickly becairls in the face mask—and some of the boys, as well
Geoffrey started looking gri Genny and Eloise took charge of co the off the paint and then herding theirls’ tent to put their on their dry clothes
As the paintballing progressed, Brooke’s teured out that inviting the Terrible Twins and then handing theht paint probably wasn’t the best brainstor, “No, now!” and “Careful, now!” and “Dennis, you stop that this instant!”
She and Fiona traded angry words when Brooke demanded that Fiona control the twins and Fiona insisted it wasn’t their fault “They’ve had nothing but sugared drinks since noon What do you expect? They need nourishing food”
Finally, Eloise whipped out her Acme Thunderer Titanic Commemorative Whistle and blew a halt to paintball They hosed off the children who reot them all dry and dressed and moved on to the east side of the terrace, where there were banners and strea about and the sandstone walls of the house had been decorated up to look like an old-tieBob lunch boxes to everyone, adults included
The food was surprisingly healthy, Genny thought, and gratefully dug in They had sandwiches and fruit, each with a bag of crisps and a bottle of water Of course, there were also the candy floss and popcorn oodies sat in bowls and on platters, available for the taking
While they ate, the s out of a top hat and made animals with balloons Genny found him a bit lackluster and the children, simultaneously overstimulated and worn-out, quickly lost interest The twins started throwing things
By then it was half past five They’d yet to do the cake and presents The ician took his final bow Brooke had blue paint on her white skinny jeans and her Jimmy Choo ballerina flats were splattered with yellow And she was shouting a lot
“Frances, the cake!” she called, grabbing a very so him down into the chair of honor, which had been done up to look like some kind of circus clown’s throne “Settle do, everyone It’s ti Happy Birthday to Geoffrey!”
The children quieted But only for about a half a ain when Frances finally eures froure with three fla from the top of its head
Dexter shouted soirls let out a yelp Eloise hustled over to settle the Happy Birthday, a few of the children catching on and joining in
Frances set the cake in front of Geoffrey Genny didn’t think he’d ever looked so miserable in his life
“Make a wish, darling!” Brooke shouted “Make a wish and blow out your candles!”