"No, I don't. And none of you should be forced either into marrying men you haven't even met. And who may never love you."
"And you," the holder of the room carried on, as if she hadn't heard the recent line of argument. "You're not even engaged. We all know. You were gonna stay and take care of Mama, like old maids do. But, since she's taken her own life, you're afraid of being here alone, and you've convinced her to run away together. When it was Mama's and your fault that we are under a spell. The witch got angry with you both and her curse affected all of the family. What now? You thought we didn't know, did ya? Well, we do. We've known for a long time. But Father told us to pretend we didn't. Because disdain and rejection would be the best punishments for you. Although, I suppose that, for the moment, the only one that's been truly punished is Mama."
Roxanne arose from the floor - the only chairs in the castle were in their father's rooms, which were forbidden areas for the girls - and walked towards the bed, where Dora was sitting, looking down at the rest of them. The slap resounded in the quiet room.
Her first instinct was to fetch the rifle, but she had second thoughts and decided to take advantage of her newly acquired role as a victim in front of the others.
"The meeting is over," she said slowly, glaring defiantly at Roxanne.
"That's too bad. It was quite entertaining."
Nobody had heard the two men arrive and carefully push the half-open door into the room.
Celeste smiled in relief when she saw them. The others were frozen in place. Lack of knowledge made them unable to react. No person had ever come to the castle unless escorted by their father. Even Mr. Harris had taken more than a decade to do so, and only due to the mishap of the two runaways in the absence of the head of the family.
Roxanne didn't share the same reasons for her immobility. She was afraid of being pleased, for what it could involve. And, of course, she was surprised.
"Drop that, Goldilocks, before you harm yourself."
It was again Alan speaking. Roxanne had missed, shocked by their sudden arrival, the seconds in which Dora had opened the closet and grabbed the weapon.
Joseph quickly approached her and took it away from her without hesitation, before the girl had even attempted to properly aim it.
Right at that instant, Blanche felt like running out to her room and the others followed her example. Soon, three slams were heard.