It’s Make Me Laugh Wednesday, so I’m sharing a scene from the rough draft of Fanning The Flames, book 4 in the Going Down In Flames series. In this scene, Bryn, Valmont, and her grandmother visit Lillith at Westgate Estates, and Bryn get’s a glimpse of her possible future.

When the driver pulled up to Westgate Estates, Bryn had to bite her tongue to keep the snarky comments welling up inside of her under control. The black wrought iron gate in front of the drive which lead to the house had three foot tall scrolling W’s worked into the metal. The front door had a giant W engraved into the wood.

Bryn pointed at the front door. “That’s unusual.”

Her grandmother cleared her throat. “That is one way to phrase it.”

Maniacal egomaniac was another.

“The theme carries on throughout the estate,” her grandmother said.

“In case you forget whose home you’re in,” Valmont muttered.

“Even the silverware is monogrammed,” her grandmother said. “And you’ll probably receive a replica of that set as a wedding present.”

Whack! Every time she managed to forget about the nightmare of an arranged marriage to Jaxon something like this popped up and smacked her in the back of the head. “That might be one present I accidentally lose.”

***

Her grandmother hadn’t been kidding about the inside of the house. The marble floor of the foyer showcased a gold W in the center, as in shiny looked-like-it-was-made-of-real-gold type of gold.

Valmont pointed at the ostentatious display of wealth and bad taste. “Do you think that’s fourteen carat?”

“I’m hoping it’s just paint,” Bryn said.

The staff member who met them wore a crisp white shirt with W embroidered on the front pocket.

“If you’ll follow me, Mrs. Westgate is waiting for you in the arbor-arium.”

What in the heck was an arbor-arium? Didn’t arbor mean tree? Bryn had visions of a forest encased in glass like a giant terrarium. What they walked into wasn’t far from that image.

Rather than containing plants liker her grandmother’s indoor green house, this glassed in area contained trees. Bryn stood, stunned for a moment at the impossibility of what looked like an indoor park. “This is amazing,”

“It is an agricultural feat,” her grandmother said. “Ferrin hired Orange dragons to create an indoor park, and this is the result.”

Lillith came toward them on a slate path between the trees with a rather large baby bump under her pale blue silk dress. There was a genuine smile on her face. She was practically beaming happiness. “Welcome to Westgate Estates. What do you think of our forest?”

“It’s lovely.” Bryn said.

“You have to come see the baby swing we installed for Asher.” Lillith said. “It’s this way.”

Bryn, Valmont, and her grandmother followed Lillith down a side path to a huge oak tree. Hanging from the lowest branch, which was easily a foot thick was a tiny basket swing.

“It’s so cute,” Bryn said.

“Isn’t it?” Lillith’s hand went to her stomach.

How could anyone married to Ferrin be this happy? Then again, he wasn’t here at the moment, so that probably had a lot to do with it.

“Would you think me rude if we visited the nursery before dinner?” Lillith asked.

“No,” Bryn said. “I’m excited to see how your snowflake theme turned out.”

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate showing it to someone that actually wants to see it. Ferrin avoids talking about the nursery and Jaxon pretends to care, but men just don’t seem to understand.” Lillith pointed back the way they came. “We’ll take the main stairs.”

The main stairs led to another landing complete with the requisite W in the center of the floor. Although this W appeared to be made of silver.

“How many W’s are in this house?” Bryn asked.

Lillith sighed. “Ferrin is very proud of his lineage and rightfully so but don’t worry Bryn, after you’ve lived here awhile you won’t even notice them anymore.”

Oh, hell no. Was the first response that came to Bryn’s mind, but what she said, was, “Here? Why would I live here?”

Lillith tilted her head. “I assumed you and Jaxon would want to live here while your estate is under construction.” She sniffled like she was about to cry. “Unless you’ve made other arrangements with your grandparents.”

“No,” Bryn jumped in to stem the tide of hormonal tears. “It’s not that. It’s just that Jaxon and I haven’t talked about it. At all. So, no need to cry.”