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Chapter 9
When Anne woke up the next morning, she could hardly believe that the day before had been real. When she had first been introduced to Mr Austen, she had naturally thought that he was quite handsome.
Now that he had come to watch her teach the children and they’d been able to have their discussion surrounding education after the fact, however, Anne felt a new feeling towards him growing inside her. She certainly did not allow herself to think that she might fancy a man such as Freddie, but it was awfully nice to think about him throughout the day.
In fact, the prospect of running into Freddie as she went about her day with the children made her time in the house all the more exciting. Anne had never been courted by anyone, nor had anyone ever shown any sort of romantic interest in her, and so she did not know what signs to look for in a man who might have feelings for her. However, she loved the way Freddie had held her hands yesterday, looked her in the eyes and referred to her by her first name. It sent a thrill through her that she desperately wanted to feel again, and so she spent much of the day hoping that he would just pop in on her and the children again.
When it was time to put the children to bed, and she still had not seen him at all that day, her hope began to fade. She knew she shouldn’t have felt disappointed at not seeing him, but she couldn’t help it. The sight of Freddie’s face brought her such joy that she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“Goodnight Andre, sleep well,” Anne said, pulling the covers up to his chin just as he liked it. “I hope that you have none of the dreams like you did last night.”
“Thank you, Miss Annie,” Andre said sleepily. “Do not worry; I shall fight off the stallions that are coming to take over the house...”
Andre closed his eyes and began softly snoring as Anne chuckled to herself.
Andre tended to fall into a dream before he fell asleep, and he would often narrate what was happening to Anne right before he dozed off. She thought of writing down all of the very amusing dreams the boy had told her the beginnings of and then giving it to him as a present when he was older.
She thought he would be thoroughly amused by it, but she also worried that he might find it to be a rather strange thing to do. Nevertheless, she had been taking down small notes about his more comical dreams in the book that she recorded her daily thoughts in, so if she ever decided it was a good idea, she had the notes at the ready.
After she was done saying goodnight to Andre, Anne went into the other room where the girls were preparing for their slumber. The word ‘preparing’ was used loosely in this case, as Amelie and Margaret were currently sitting on their respective beds shouting at each other.
“I did not take him!” Margaret was crying indignantly. “I think he’s utterly disgusting, and I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole. Why do you always blame me for everything?”
“Because,” Amelie spat furiously back at her sister, “you’re always trying to make me feel bad about sleeping with him. Well, he’s my dog, and I’m not going to sleep without him!”
“Amelie, Margaret,” Anne interrupted very level-headedly, “am I to understand that Rupert has gone missing, and it is believed that someone in this room is to blame?”
Anne eyed Margaret suspiciously, but when she saw the look on the girl’s face, she knew immediately that she had not taken her sister’s dog. She then looked over at Amelie, who had her back facing Margaret. Anne walked around to Amelie’s side of the bedroom and crouched down in front of the young girl. Her face was bright red from her anger, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“Amy darling,” Anne said softly, “I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I don’t believe that Margaret stole Rupert. I think that he went on a grand adventure today.”
Amelie whipped her head over to look at Anne and replied petulantly, “Well, I don’t want him to have gone on an adventure! I want him with me in bed!”
Anne had to bite her bottom lip to stop from smiling. “That works out quite nicely then, for you see Rupert is just about to return from his adventure, and he’d like to whisper his tales to you while you are sleeping. Does that sound like a good plan to you?”
Immediately, Amelie stopped looking quite as furious as she had before, and her face began returning to its natural colour. Anne wiped a few of the tears away with the cuff of her sleeve and smiled up at the little girl.
“He’s ... he’s coming back right now? And he wants to tell me about his big adventure today?” Amelie asked hesitantly.
Anne nodded. She rose from the spot where she was kneeling and walked over to the basket of freshly laundered sheets for the young girls. She reached into the pile, and when she felt the outline of the small, soft dog that Eponine had made for her daughter, she felt a flood of relief. She had been ninety-five percent sure that it was going to be in there, but there was always a chance that it wouldn’t. She hadn’t actually seen the dog poking out of the pile, but she figured it was the most logical spot for the treasured toy to be, as all the house staff knew how important it was to the little girl.
When she pulled it out of the pile and held it up for both Amelie and Margaret to see, Amelie cried out with joy.
“Rupert! Where have you been? I have missed you ever so much!” Amelie bounded out of bed, took the toy when presented to her by Anne, and then hugged it tightly to her chest and scurried back into bed. She immediately lay down in bed, pulled the covers up over her head, and began talking to the little dog toy.
Anne looked over to Margaret, who now looked even more furious than she had previously, and winked at her. Then Anne cleared her throat.
“Amelie,” she said seriously, “isn’t there something that you’d like to say to Margaret, now that Rupert has been returned to you safe and sound?”
Anne watched the small figure beneath the sheets freeze and stop her chattering. For a moment, Anne thought Amelie would try and get out of apologizing to her sister, as she had been known to try in the past. However, a few seconds after that, Amelie emerged from the sheets with Rupert still held tightly in her arms.
She looked sheepishly at Anne and whispered, “Sorry.”
Anne shook her head and pointed to Margaret. “To her, and please take your sister’s feelings seriously.”
Anne watched Amelie’s body deflate in disappointment the tiniest bit as she turned to face Margaret. The little girl looked down at her toy and thumbed his ears as she said louder, “I am very sorry for accusing you of stealing Rupert, Margaret. I should not have done that.”
Ordinarily, Anne would have made Amelie apologize again and look Margaret in the eye, but she could tell that was in large measure because the little girl was quite tired. Anne still checked in with Margaret on how she felt about that apology by making eye contact with her, but by that time, Margaret had already opened her book once more.
“Thank you, Amy,” Margaret said sincerely. “I hope you and Rupert have a restful slumber.”
With that, Amelie pulled the sheets back up over her head and began talking with her dog toy once more. Anne smiled to herself and then walked over to the littlest girl and planted a kiss on her sheet-shrouded head.
“Thank you, Amelie. Sleep well, my sweet,” she said quietly. Amelie, however, did not stop her chattering to her toy, and so Anne then went over to Margaret and sat on the corner of her bed.
“I shall not interrupt you for long,” Anne said, “but that was very mature of you. Thank you for being so respectful of Amelie’s feelings. Sleep tight.”
Anne gave Margaret a pat on the knee, and the girl smiled warmly at her but did not say anything, and then she returned to her reading as Anne rose to leave the room. When she reached the door, she took one final look at the two girls who were both wrapped up in their own little worlds, and she couldn’t have been prouder. She softly opened the door, stepped out into the hallway, and closed it softly behind her.
The moment that she rounded the corner, however, she practically ran straight into Freddie.
