Tea would be divine. Tea and a bath. And a long nap in her very own four-poster bed…
“Yes, please. I mean, no, thank you. About your father. Surely, five minutes of his time is not too much to ask?” Arabella got up, picked up her papers and paused.
The girl fidgeted and pulled on her braids.
A sharp clanking came from the back of the house, making Arabella jump. It sounded like the hitting of a hammer on iron. Before she could ask what that was, the door crashed open, and the kitchen was filled with havoc and mayhem.
A little girl came shrieking into the kitchen, followed by a boy with tousled auburn hair, who was shrieking with equal force. They ran around the table two, three times, before Katy caught the little one.
“Joy! Robin! Quieeeeet!” she shouted.
There was a momentary silence.
“I say, Katy, I just needed to try out my newest experiment on Joy, but she won’t let me!” Robin said after he’d caught his breath.
“No!” Joy screamed with all the full force her lungs could muster.
“Yes!” Robin shouted back.
“Quiet!” Katy shouted over both of them.
“But she won’t let me try out the experiment!” Robin threw up his hands.
“Because I don’t want to!” Joy crossed her arms and stomped her foot. She wore an odd contraption on her head with several antlers.
“What on earth are you trying to accomplish, Robin Merivale?” Katy asked, sternly.
“It’s my newest invention. An invisibility machine! All I have to do is attach that wire there to this wire here, and she’ll be invisible!”
“Nooo!” Joy wailed.
“Fine,” Robin threw his hands up. “Then give me the machine back. I’ll try it on Whitepaw.”
“No! Don’t you dare hurt Whitepaw!”
“Don’t be a goose, no one’s going to hurt that cat. Try it yourself and you will see!”
“No!” Joy wailed as if the world was about to end.
“Will you just stop shouting, both of you? We have a visitor here.”
Both children froze and turned, wide-eyed, towards Arabella, who clutched her reticule and bonnet. She stared back at them, horrified.
“This is Robin, he is ten. And the little one is Joy, she is four. This is Miss Weston. She is going to be our new governess,” Katy explained.
Both children’s eyes grew round. Joy’s mouth dropped.
“Now, that hasn’t been finalised — ” Arabella took a slight step back.
“It’s as good as decided.” Katy set her mouth stubbornly.
Arabella sighed.
Master Robin looked at her, scepticism written all over his face. “Can you teach me about the mechanics of engineering?”
“Engineering? Well….” How to answer that question? It looked like her second round of interviewing had begun, and it might be more demanding than the first.
“Do you know anything about steam engines?” he demanded.
