Once I’d finished discussing the flowers with Bellis, I decided to join Violet in cleaning her room. It was already looking pretty tidy thanks to the help of Mimosa, Daisy, and a few other maids, but it was hard to find a place for all her toys.
“What should we do with all these toys she doesn’t play with anymore? No matter how big Lettie’s room is, we can’t leave them lying around.”
So far we’d kept all her baby toys in a box for safekeeping. I wasn’t about to throw away stuff that someone could still use! And for your information, no, I wasn’t ever going to lose my instinctual need to scrimp and save.
“Your next baby can always use the same toys Lettie played with. Why don’t we put them in storage for now?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea! I like it.”
Nice one, Mimosa! Suggesting a solution that assumes we’ll be using them again? You really get me!
“Got that, guys? We’re going to leave Lettie’s favorite things here and move the rest to storage.”
“Okay!” the rest of the team agreed.
Though I rarely had a moment to spare for thinking of anything but Violet, there was a good chance she’d have a brother or sister one day. The idea hadn’t even occurred to me until Mimosa said it.
“Do you want to keep this, Lettie?”
“Yeah!”
“How about this?”
“Hmm... I don’t play with that one much. Right, Daisy?”
“Yeah, I think so,” her friend replied.
“Then off to storage it goes.”
I divided Violet’s toys into piles of those she was using and those she wasn’t, checking in with her to determine what went where. Daisy was her playmate most of the time, so Violet made sure to get a second opinion from her friend as she sorted her things.
Just as we were scurrying around looking for places to store the keepers and carting the storage-bound stuff away, Tinctorius popped his head into the room. “Hi, Miss Lettie! I’m home!”
“Oh, Uncle Tin!” both girls greeted him.
“Miss Lettie! Daisy! I missed you girls!”
Tinctorius pulled the duo into a bear hug, rubbing his cheeks against theirs in a show of love. And yet...
“Go away.”
“Stop it, Uncle Tin! That tickles.”
Both girls pushed him away, making their displeasure known. Then came the finishing blow.
“I have work to do,” said Lettie. “Come back later.”
“Me too. Bye,” Daisy dismissed him.
And with that, they went right back to their work(?). Talk about blunt.
Mimosa, the maids, and I burst out laughing at the stark difference in enthusiasm between Tinctorius and the girls. It was too funny.
“Ouch... Why oh why does my love never get through to them?!”
He watched as Violet and Daisy went about their work, a look of misery in his amber eyes. He actually looked so dejected that you couldn’t help but think of a kicked puppy.
Given that Tinctorius was still in his mid-twenties, it felt a little mean to have the kids call him “Uncle,” but back when I had originally told Violet to call him “Tinc,” her childish lisp had turned that into “Inkie.” Delighted with the cute nickname, Tinctorius had encouraged her to keep on using it, and thus it had stuck to this day—in its final form of “Uncle,” that is.
It was a tragic state of affairs; Tinctorius loved the girls to pieces, yet the objects of his affection always gave him the brush-off. Then again, that overzealousness of his was part of the problem.
“Don’t let it get to you,” said Stellaria, going over to her heartbroken brother and giving him a pat on the shoulder.
“I love them so much! It’s not fair! But I’ll never stop loving them no matter how mean they are!”
“What a strong baby brother I have.”
The maid continued to comfort Tinctorius. He was one tough cookie, keeping his chin up in the face of the cold shoulder.
Having bounced back already, Tinctorius rummaged through the bag he’d brought with him and fished out a bottle full of golden liquid.
“Oh, Daisy, Miss Lettie! I brought you some yummy honey as a treat! Why don’t I whip you girls up a honey custard pie?”
“Yay! We love you, Uncle Tin,” the pair replied like they were reading from a script.
“That didn’t have much feeling in it, but you know what? I’ll take it!”
The whole room lapsed into a judgmental silence.
Trying to win their hearts through their stomachs, Tinctorius?
Unbothered by our patronizing looks, Tinctorius left to go bake his pie in high spirits. The guy had nerves of steel, that was for sure.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once he’d left, we resumed the cleaning session that had been interrupted by Tinctorius’s arrival.
“Oh, ’member this? It’s so fun!”
“Yeah!”
The girls had stopped to play with some of their nostalgic old favorites.
Did they get bored with cleaning?
That was only natural, really. Nothing could hold a little kid’s attention for too long.
“Lettie—that doesn’t look like work to me.”
“I know...but I’m tired.”
“Already? You still have a lot of cleaning up left to do. And you haven’t even had your afternoon snack yet.”
“Ugh...”
All the signs seemed to be pointing towards an incoming tantrum, but right in the nick of time a maid showed up to report: “Miss Lettie! Quince has arrived!”
“Quin’s here?”
“Yay! Quin’s home!”
Violet and Daisy cheered up the instant they heard the news of his arrival. These girls were nothing if not predictable.
“Indeed he is. He’s putting his luggage away at the moment, but it shouldn’t be too long before he comes to say hello.”
“Hooray!”
Violet pounced on the maid, stars in her eyes. It was a far cry from the cold reception she’d given Tinctorius earlier.
“Sounds like you’d better finish up that cleaning as fast as you can.”
“Okay!”
Hearing Quince’s name had given Violet a sudden rush of motivation. Thank goodness we’ve got you around, Quince!
The maid was right; a little while later, the guest of honor put in an appearance at the nursery.
“I’m home, Madam Fisalis.”
“Welcome back, Quince!”
“It’s good to see you, Miss Lettie, Daisy.”
“Wewcome home, Quin!”
“We missed you!”
Violet and Daisy abandoned their posts without a second thought and flung themselves at the boy.
Quince was Rohtas and Amaryllis’s adopted son, an eleven-year-old boy attending a vocational school in the royal capital. He would come home to the Fisalis manor whenever he had time off from his studies, and each time we saw him he seemed to have grown a little bigger.
“Wow, have you gotten taller since the last time we saw you, Quince?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“It won’t be long before you shoot up past Amaryllis.”
“Perhaps.”
“Ooh, did you grow your hair out too?”
“Yes. Father told me I’m to get it cut as soon as possible,” he replied, twirling a lock of his silky, caramel-brown hair around his finger and offering me a shy smile.
“No! Don’t go, Quin!”
“Come play with us!”
Violet and Daisy clung to him in protest.
“Goodness, the difference between him and Tin is night and day.”
“Let’s keep this our little secret, shall we?”
It was all Stellaria and I could do to stop ourselves from laughing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Just as I was thinking we should take a break for tea, one of the maids came by to tell us that Tinctorius had whipped up a snack with the honey he had on hand. I put our cleaning session on hold, and we all went to the dining room together.
The pie was ready for us when we arrived with Tinctorius standing beside it, awaiting the kids’ reactions with bated breath.
“Omigosh! It’s sooo sweet!” I cried upon having a bite.
“The boss let me bring some of that honey back when he heard I was going home to the manor.”
“It must be a real treasure, then. We’d better savor it.”
Given Tinctorius’s place of employment, the “boss” he was referring to had to be the head chef of the royal palace. If the honey was a gift from a VIP like that, it had to be super high-end! I was sure of it.
The honey filling was to die for, but the crust was no less exquisite. The fresh-out-of-the-oven pies were light and flaky, the fragrance of the butter and the pleasant sweetness of the honey filling the mouth with each bite. What an amazing chef! He was definitely Cartham’s son, no doubt about it.
“Yum!”
“Yummy!”
“It’s very good.”
It even had the girls’ mouths watering.
“Do you like it, Miss Lettie?”
“Yeah! It’s yummy! You’re good at this, Uncle Tin.”
“Why, you’ve made my day!”
Violet’s compliment moved Tinctorius to tears, but his joy was short-lived.
“Want more pie, Quin?” Violet asked.
“I’m all right, thanks.”
“I can eat this all the time, but you can’t. Have more.”
“Eat up, Quin!”
The chef watched in silence as Violet and Daisy fussed over Quince.
“What happened to winning their heart through their stomachs...?” he muttered.
“Don’t let it get to you.”
There was really nothing else to be said.