AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 12
The next day, Robert began his first lesson in arithmetic with the children. When he arrived at the time that he and Anne had agreed upon, it seemed that everyone was delighted to see him.
“Freddie!” Amelie cried once again upon seeing him. This time, however, she remained in her seat. “What are you doing here? Are you here to gaze at Miss Annie again?”
Robert was caught off-guard and stumbled to find the words to respond to the little girl. Anne, however, did not seem surprised by what Amelie had said, and so she responded for him.
“He did not gaze upon me the last time that he was here, Amelie,” Anne gently corrected her. “He was observing what we were learning so that he might be able to better assist us all to learn. And now that he is here, we have a surprise for you three.”
All three children gasped.
“A surprise?” Andre asked excitedly. “Do we not have to continue with the rest of our lessons? Are we going on an adventure?”
Anne laughed gently. “Not today, I’m afraid. This is a different kind of a surprise – we are beginning a new subject today.”
Margaret clapped her hands, but Amelie and Andre looked incredibly disappointed.
“Will it be about naturalism?” Margaret asked excitedly. “I had hoped that we would begin that at some point, seeing as how it is a particular interest of mine.”
“I’m afraid not, Maggie, dear,” Anne let the girl down gently. “Today, we shall be starting our foray into arithmetic!”
All three children groaned upon hearing this, and Amelie cried out, “Miss Annie, if you are going to say that we have a surprise today, please make it something better than arithmetic!”
Robert chuckled and walked to the front of the class. “I’m sorry to hear that you’re so disappointed by our decision to begin arithmetic, children, but I do hope that I might be able to change your mind about it. I happen to be a great admirer of arithmetic, and hope in time I might be able to share my enthusiasm for it with you.”
Andre rolled his eyes. “That is about as likely as an octopus rising out of our pond and taking over the household.”
Anne looked at the young boy sharply and said, “Now Andre, is that any way to speak to Freddie? Please apologize for what you have just said.”
Andre sighed, but then looked at Robert earnestly and said, “I am sorry, Freddie. It is just that of all of the subjects that we could be taught, arithmetic is about the least interesting of all.”
Robert laughed once again. “Well then, why don’t we begin with our terribly boring lesson so that we might be finished with it sooner rather than later?”
Andre shrugged, and the two girls said nothing, and so Robert launched into his lesson. The first thing that he did was begin to walk out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Amelie called after him.
Robert paused and turned around to face the children. “Just because Miss Annie said that we weren’t going on an adventure today doesn’t mean that I can’t say otherwise.”
All three of the children’s eyes widened at exactly the same time, and then they turned to look at Anne.
“Can we go, Miss Annie, please, can we?” Andre asked impatiently.
Anne raised an eyebrow at Robert and crossed her arms in front of her. “I was not aware that today’s lesson would entail a journey, Freddie.”
Robert gave her a wicked smile. “It isn’t every day that you get to spend learning an adventure of sorts? Come along if you’d like; I am going to go and admire the ducks that have collected on the pond.”
Robert then strode out of the room, pretending not to care if anyone followed him. However, when he heard six feet scurrying behind him and two feet following at a steady clip, he knew that his bait had worked.
“Wait for us, please!” Margaret called from a little way back down the hall.
Robert slowed down but did not stop. When he reached the doors to the outside world, he held them open and allowed the children to go through ahead of him, which they did in their characteristic fashions. Andre marched through the door first, head held high and charging onwards.
Next came Amelie, who had a positively gleeful look on her face and was running so quickly that she soon overtook her brother. Last but certainly not least came Margaret calmly walking down the hall, looking as though she was enthusiastic about where they were going, but there was still some hesitation in her stride.
After the three of them came Anne, and she was looking at him amusedly. “You know, if you had thought to tell me we were going out of doors today, I might have had the chance to better dress the children for the occasion. If Lady Eponine is upset by the dirt that they have on their fine clothes …”
“Then you can most certainly blame everything on me,” Robert finished for her. They walked side-by-side at a quick clip to keep up with the children, but when Robert looked at her out of the corner of his eye and could not see any of Anne’s charges, it felt to him as though they were just on a walk alone together. “I know that I should have warned you of my intentions, but I think that if a child is given room for spontaneity in childhood, they grow up to become far less anxious as an adult.”
