Araceli sat in the deserted playroom. It had become quieter last year and different. Effie had always led their play and it simply hadn't been the same without the three of them. However, they had adapted. Delphine sometimes made her feel clumsy or silly but she never meant to, she just sometimes made the games too hard. Now Delphine was gone too... Even though the middle sister was being home-schooled, Araceli rarely saw her. Their levels were different enough that they had classes separately and, after dinner, Delphine retired with mother to the drawing room where they did.... Ladylike things. Perhaps working on their embroidery or having fine conversation. Or both at once. They were probably both sufficiently advanced at each skill to do them simultaneously. Araceli still stuck her tongue out in concentration as she made her clumsy stitches, and every word of fine conversation had to be planned in her head.
Being still a child in the eyes of the family, she spent the time after dinner playing. Or rather, the time after dinner was free for her play. She struggled to do so. She worried that she would set the table out wrong if she played tea party and she struggled to think what words she should put into the mouths of the dolls. Plus the imperious doll with the red braids and the green taffeta dress seemed to have got even more haughty looking since Delphine had left. Even if she left her sat in the cupboard, Araceli could feel her hard glass eyes boring into her. If she happened to look up, her eye always went straight to the doll's face, which seemed to smirk at her. Any semblance of a game she had managed to make for herself tailed off as Araceli's self-consciousness flared.
She sat with her back against the toy chest. All of their games had been for three. They had adapted down to two. But they didn't really work for one.