Winter Break And A Trip to Switzerland

"I can't."

"Yes you can." George sat in the arm chair as Annabel packed.

"George, I appreciate the invite, but no. I've already overstayed my welcome. Margot's been better for a while now, but I kept coming to check up, just in case."

"The younger ones think you'll be coming." He said in hopes she will change her mind.

"I've already told them I won't." She victoriously smirked at him while he groaned.

"You need a break. Take one this winter break and come with us to Switzerland." He frustratedly said and got up.

"I took a break. It was a week long, right after your father told me to leave." She put a dress inside her bag only for George to pull it out.

"That doesn't count. You were sick because of the rain for the entire weak."

"Who told you?"

"I heard you and Samantha talking."

"Well technically it is a break from working. Now Georgie fold that dress and put it back in the bag."

He groaned but did it anyways.

"Thank you. I'll be off."

She grabbed her scarf, wrapped it around her neck, took a hold of her bag and headed out her room and down the stairs.

"Leaving mama?" Margot walked up to her and held her bag to help carry it, although it was much too heavy.

"Unfortunately yes, but Maggie will bring you to visit, don't worry."

Margot nodded and focused really hard on slowly going down the stairs.

"Well, I'll see when you come back from Switzerland, if you don't forget about me." She winked at Maggie who was waiting down by the door and ruffled Sam's hair.

"Never!" The twins said at the same time.

"I'd hope not, see you then." She kissed all of their heads and they hugged and kissed her in return.

She walked outside and down the front steps.

This time, her leaving was a lot better than the time before. There was no pain, no tears, no rain, no screaming and shouting, and leaving things on a bad note. This was better.

Richard was waiting at the bottom of the front door stairs, leaning against his car. He watched as Annabel made her way down the stairs carefully, being mindful of the snow.

"Thank you for letting me stay and check up on Margot and the kids, but I'll be leaving now." She said and walked right past him.

"Umm Annabel."

She paused and glanced at him.

"Would you like a ride to the Wilton's?" He motioned to the car.

"I'm alright. I've been walking back and forth everyday. I also don't trust car tires in the snow, they're always slipping."

"Right, well, um, yeah, okay, be safe."

She found it amusing that he was slightly flustered.

"Thank you, you as well. Safe travels."

*

Tiffany and George hung up on the phone. They had just went over their plan and it was fool proof. It was bound to work.

"Father." She walked into her parents room where her father was sitting up on the bed and leaning against the head board. He had gotten better and was able to move around slightly.

"Ah, Tiffany. How have you been my daughter?" He lifted an arm as an invitation and Tiffany sat down beside him.

"I've been well. Thank you for asking. You're also looking better."

"I'm feeling better."

"That's good. It's great, really, so because you're feeling better and I'm also sure a change of scenery will make you feel even better. What do you-"

"You want us to go on a trip?"

"Yes! Precisely, wait how did you know?" She looked up at him with surprise while he chuckled.

"I may be getting slightly old, but I have still have very good hearing. You and that Pelton boy are planning something."

"If you must know," she shrugged and changed her position so she was sitting in front of him, but cross legged. "we are planning something."

He gave her a look to keep going.

"We're trying to sabotage Mr.Peltons engagement with Rebeca." She said happily while her father looked at her with horror.

"Tiffany!"

"Wait! I'm not done talking. We want Mr.Pelton and Annabel to get married instead. They are a much better match, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't know. I've been sick for a while."

"Exactly why we need to go to Switzerland next week with the Peltons. You're good friends with Mr.Pelton, aren't you? We could call it a big family trip. A bonding trip if you will. But father, you have to see Mr.Pelton and Annabel interact. It's so frustrating. They're clearly so in love with each other but neither one of them would like to admit it. We're just helping them. You'll see, Mr.Pelton doesn't even care about Ms.Von Eckerman. Whenever Annabel is around his attention is solely on her."

"I'm slightly concerned with how invested you are in this relationship."

"You would be too."

Mr.Wilton thought about it for a little while. He would like it if what his daughter said was true. He'd tease Richard all the time about it and he'd love to see his friend find love again.

"What do you say father?" Tiffany looked at her dad with pleading eyes and when he gave her the look that said yes she jumped up and cheered in happiness. "Yes! You won't regret it! I promise. You'll be wanting them to get together in no time!"

She kissed her fathers cheek and ran out the room to go call George and tell him the good news.

*

"I can't believe you got your father to agree to go on a trip to Switzerland." Annabel said as they were loading the cars to go to the airport. "With the Peltons."

"It wasn't even that hard." Tiffany had a smug look on her face.

"Sure, whatever you say." They shut the boot of the car and got in.

*

"It's good to see you up and walking again." Richard greeted Mr.Wilton with a hug when they finally meet up with them after getting their bags checked in and past security.

Mr.Wilton was about to reply but he noticed that something caught Richards attention over his shoulder and nothing he would have said would snap him out of his trance.

"Annabel..." He went around Mr.Wilton to her. "Let me."

He reached forward and plucked her bag out of her hand, ignoring her protest and turned around to face the rest of the group.

"Shall we, everyone?"

Rebeca gave Annabel a dirty glare, understandably so, and huffed on.

"What did I tell you?" Tiffany said as she walked past her father so she was next to George.

"Ugh since your hands are empty, you can carry this now, here." Amelia, Mrs.Wilton, said and gave Annabel her overly packed carry on bag.

"Yeah, sure, break my back while you're at it won't you?" Annabel said under her breath when she fell down slightly from the weight of the bag.

"Did you say something?"

"No ma'am." She gritted her teeth, stood straight, adjusted the bag and followed everyone while occasionally herding the Wilton children away from running into other people and from just running away.

*

"Will you be joining us for this evenings ice skating?" Richard asked Annabel from across the round dinning table they were seated at the hotel they were in.

"Mr. Pelton I think you keep forgetting that I am actually not on vacation, but still looking after Mr. and Mrs. Wilton's children." She coolely replied.

"Exactly, so you don't need to keep worrying yourself over her Mr. Pelton. I understand she used to work for you, but that was a long time ago." Amelia laughed like what she said was hilarious and Rebeca joined in.

"I'd argue that a nearly month and a half aren't that long of a time." George said.

"That's right, it only has been a month and a half of you being with us Annie. You must miss the Pelton children and Mr. Pelton very much." Tiffany said.

Annabel looked up at Richard then her eyes went back down to her plate.

"Yes, I do miss the Pelton children, but I've been seeing them recently and we're all here on the same trip together, aren't we?" She gave Maggie, George, the twins, and Margot a warm smile that they all returned.

"And we've also missed you mam-" A look from Annabel got Maggie to change what she was saying mid sentence, "Ms.Annabel. It's really different when you're not around."

Richard looked up at his daughter with confusion written across his face.

"Ms. Annabel? Ahh, since when did you call her that?"

Maggie looked at Annabel for help and she spoke up.

"I asked the children to stop calling me by the other name."

"I'm-I'm confused. Why would you do that?" He looked slightly hurt that she would ask them to stop calling her mama.

"Well, I'm sure it makes Ms.Von Eckerman extremely uncomfortable seeing that she is about to become their stepmother. And I don't work for you anymore, so they shouldn't be calling me that."

"Thank you for finally understanding. Yes, it made me extremely uncomfortable." Rebeca said with a too large of a smile on her face. Annabel gave her a smile in return and avoided Richards gaze that was penetrating through her.

"Umm, Ms. Annabel." Thomas, Mr.Wilton's eleven year old, tuged on her dress. She turned in her seat and looked at him.

"Do you need help with anything Thomas?"

"I'm done eating. What do I do now?"

"Oh, well, I'm also done and it looks like Oliver and Grace are also finished, so we could go back up to the rooms and get some sleep. How does that sound?"

Mr. Wilton also had five children, the oldest being Tiffany who was twenty three, then it was James at 20, Oliver was 14, Grace just turned 13 and the youngest, Thomas, he was eleven.

"Okay." He nodded and got up from his chair.

"Where are you heading off to Tom?" Mr. Wilton asked.

"I'm going to bed, good evening everyone."

Oliver and Grace followed their younger brothers lead and also got up.

"Us too."

"Can we go to bed?" The twins asked and without an answer, they got up and dashed to Annabel's side, each holding one of her hands.

"Me!" Margot hopped off her chair, stumbled and then got up and ran to Annabel, she held on to Tams hand.

"Since Grace is going to bed, then I should too." Maggie got up and that left all the adults sitting at the table.

"Don't worry Ms.Von Eckerman, I'll take them all to bed so you just enjoy yourself while out skating." Annabel said and took all the children with her back up to their rooms.

*

"I don't understand. Why can't we go skating with the adults? George, James and Tiffany are all going." Grace whined and fell back on the bed.

"That's because they're adults." Annabel said, walking in with Margot balanced on her hip.

"When will we become adults!" She huffed and turned to Maggie who was laying down on the other side of the bed. "When we're adults, we'll go skating as many times as we want."

"Then we'll get bored." Maggie replied.

Sam and Tam came crying, running away from Thomas and Oliver who had sheets over their heads and were pretending to be ghosts.

"Here you go." Annabel handed them each a pillow and they used it to beat the two boys up.

"Annabel have you ever gone skating before?" Grace sat up, a pillow in her lap.

"No I haven't."

"Oh, I didn't think so. Anyways Maggie, what do you say we go up on the big hill tomorrow?"

"I don't mind, but can you ski properly?"

"I can, can you?"

"Of course I can."

Annabel let the two girls be and went out into the living room to check on the two boys and the twins.

Mr.Wilton and Mr.Pelton both reserved the entire floor which was divided into two. Richard reserved one half and Mr.Welton the other. So, it was large and fit everyone, the doors between the two were always open seeing that they were the only rooms on the floor. Both suites consisted of living rooms, a bar, and more than enough bedrooms. The children decided to sleep over in Grace and Oliver's rooms. The two rooms also happened to be adjacent to each other, a door connecting the two, so it too was open and they were running back and forth between the rooms.

"If you keep jumping on the couch Thomas, you will hurt yourself."

Just as she said that, Thomas fell off from the couch.

"I told you. Time for bed everyone, let's go."

Thomas stuck his tongue out at her and ran to his room.

"Hey! That was awfully rude!" Sam shouted at him and then ran after him on his much shorter legs.

Annabel sighed and took Tams hand and led her to the girls room ; she was going to sleep with Grace and Maggie. She tucked the girls in and then went to the boys room where Sam, Oliver and Thomas were sleeping.

"Don't be too loud now." Annabel told them, and turned off the lights. "Come on, I guess you'll be sharing with me tonight." She said to Margot and they headed to her room.

"I'm not sleepy." Margot said, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"I could read you a story?"

"Okay."

*

"You seem awfully fond of Ms.Annabel." Mr.Wilton casually said when Richard stepped off the ice to warm up by the fire.

"Where's this coming from?" Richard avoided direct eye contact.

"It's just an observation."

"I'm not. She's just a good governess or whatever for my children." He mumbled and quickly went back on the ice.

"Oh? You're definitely in love my good friend." Mr.Wilton smirked.