And there are games in the evening...

Brandon had already grabbed a plate of food for Vicky by the time she reached the dining hall, and she sat down between him and Liz to eat.

“How did it go?”

“Good,” said Vicky, trying to shake off the general weirdness of the conversation.

“Always tough having to talk to someone from another generation,” Brendan said, putting his fork down to give her a quick hug.

“Yeah,” Vicky agreed with relief. That’s what it must have been: The generation gap. “When are we rostered on next?”

“Breakfast. Hopefully you’ll get a better night’s sleep this time.”

Vicky wanted to tell him about the dreams, or to ask exactly what she did in her sleep. Was she restless? Did she say anything? Had he tried waking her up? He seemed worried about it, but as far as she knew all he could see was her tossing and turning at night.

She was about to ask him when Helena rung a glass for attention from the main table with Leon beside her.

“I hope everyone’s enjoying themselves so far. It’s a tranquil affair and I understand it can be easy to get bored if you don’t have anything to do, so tonight I had a dig through the attic and found some games for everyone to play. You’ll probably recognise more than a few of these titles, so please feel free to pass the time with these if you’re feeling restless.”

Vicky caught herself smirking at the very obvious attempt to stave off a certain someone’s boredom, and the zeal with which Garnet immediately suggested staking their inheritance on a game of Monopoly was almost grotesque.

Liz was actually browsing the collection with something verging on interest, and at Brandon’s suggestion had picked up a few traditional titles to bring back to the table.

Thomas had half-heartedly picked up a chess set and dumped the case of pieces in front of him without even opening them before sitting down and staring off into the middle-distance.

Leon watched with a faint smile, Helena standing by his side. He caught Vicky’s eye as he looked out across the tables and gave her a mischievous wink.