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Chapter 6
Their meal that evening was perfectly splendid. Anne thought it was incredibly kind of the Graham family to invite her to eat with them, but she supposed she was only invited because it was the new property manager’s first night in the house, and she happened to be in the right place at the right time. The food was as luxurious as it always was upstairs; they ate goose seasoned with rosemary and pepper, a seasonal vegetable soup, and a delicate pastry for dessert. By the time they finished all three courses, Anne felt so full she thought she might explode.
As she pushed her plate away, however, she looked slyly at Freddie. He was seated between Andre and Amelie, who were both taking great delight in fighting for his attention. Amelie was currently trying to get him to guess what her favourite animal was, and he was doing simply horribly.
“A... Romanian goat,” Freddie jokingly guessed.
Amelie giggled. “Noooo, keep guessing!”
“An... Eastern European Antelope,” Freddie proposed.
It was Andre’s turn to laugh. “Is that even an animal?”
“All right fine; I give up! What is it?” he asked the little girl.
Amelie giggled some more before she finally said, “An owl! A plain old barn owl!”
Freddie did a marvellous job of seeming incredibly disappointed in himself. “Owls? I don’t give a ‘hoot’ about those birds!”
That made both Amelie and Andre laugh as well as Freddie, and Anne delighted in seeing him smile. If she were being honest with herself, she thought the new property manager was not unhandsome. He had hair that was unlike any other shade she’d seen before, somewhere between black and brown.
Whatever it was, it made him look very distinguished. His eyes were a moody brown, and he had the most adorable button nose that Anne had ever seen. When he smiled, as he was now, two perfect dimples appeared in the apples of his cheeks, and the sight of them made Anne want to pinch them.
“What are you looking at, Miss Annie?” Margaret asked quietly from beside her.
Anne snapped out of the daze she had not realized she was in and looked to the young girl sitting beside her. Margaret was looking up at her, but not expectantly. She was not the type of child to expect a great deal from people, but this was not because she had been repeatedly let down. Rather, this was because it was in her nature to be quite content with nearly everything all the time.
Luckily for her governess, this meant that Margaret was very easy-going. While Amelie and Andre tended to be quite outspoken and overdramatic, Margaret was reserved, soft-spoken, and radiated calm. If anyone else were her governess, this likely would have meant that Margaret would get overlooked while they tried to manage the other children. Anne, on the other hand, found that Margaret’s inherently timid nature made her stand out in opposition to her siblings.
Anne never liked to admit that she had a favourite child of the three that she cared for, but in her heart of hearts, she knew that Margaret was the apple of her eye. She revelled in the few afternoons the two of them could spend together when Andre was at his lessons, and Amelie was following her mother around.
They would sit in the library, and each would have a book resting on their lap. They would hardly move or make a sound for hours on end, and yet they were both happier than they would be able to explain to anyone who was not like them.
“To tell you the truth, Maggie,” Anne said in a whisper, “I was noticing our new property manager. What are your thoughts on him?”
Margaret looked across the table at the man who called himself Freddie Austen and was silent for at least a few minutes. Anne studied her face to see if she could tell what her charge was thinking, but Margaret kept her emotions very closely guarded. It was only when the young girl turned to face her that she could tell that her sentiments about Freddie were mirrored in her face.
“He seems quite nice...” Margaret said slowly.
“But...” Anne prompted her.
Margaret took another quick glance at Freddie. “Miss Annie, don’t you think he is a little too well-groomed to be a property manager?”
Anne stifled her laugh. She could not believe that a girl of six could understand her sentiments so perfectly. But then again, the Graham children never ceased to amaze her with their awareness of the world.
“I would have to say that I agree with you, Maggie.” Anne picked up her goblet, took a drink, and then turned her attention back to the little girl. “There is something about him that seems far too... polished, don’t you think?”
Margaret nodded thoughtfully. “I would have expected a manager of properties to be more... what is that word? Can tunk... cantrunker...”
“Cantankerous?” Anne suggested quietly.
“Yes, that one. I read it in a book somewhere, but I’d never heard it said aloud. Cantankerous.” Margaret smoothed out her dress and picked at a small piece of lint that was hanging off of her skirt.
“I’m not sure I would expect him to be quite what that word means,” Anne said, “but I would say that I did not expect him to have such a thorough knowledge of exotic animals.”
Margaret looked surprised. “That hadn’t even crossed my mind. Miss Annie, were you aware of Mr Freddie’s arrival before this morning?”
Anne shook her head. “I was not aware his position even existed until I bumped into him while we were playing. Your father is far too detail-oriented to omit to mention a change as major as MrAusten’s position being created.”
