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Chapter 5
Andre, it seemed, was a lot quicker than Anne, and it soon became apparent that the young boy had hidden himself somewhere. As Robert followed Anne, Margaret, and Amelie around the house looking for him, he began to have a very strong feeling that he knew where he had gone.
Finally, when they reached the doorway that led down to the kitchen, Robert quietly said to Anne, “Shall I go and give search by myself for a short time? We shall come and find you immediately if I do locate him.”
“Thank you very much,” Anne said appreciatively, and then she and the two girls disappeared through the door without another word.
Robert turned around and walked back down the hall they had just come through. He hadn’t told Anne right away that he thought he knew where Andre was because he thought this might be a good moment to bond with the young boy. By the time Robert located the conservatory deep within the house and saw Andre sitting among the plants, he knew that his inclination had been correct.
He slowly approached Andre, but the young man immediately saw him and got up to run off again. Thinking on his feet, Robert called, “Is that a bird of paradise?”
Andre stopped in his tracks. He slowly faced Robert with a look of complete and utter disgust on his face. “No,” he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “This is a common orchid. What on earth made you think it was Strelitzia Reginae?”
Robert chuckled. “Nothing, I simply wanted you to remind me what the scientific name of the bird of paradise was; thank you, Andre.”
Andre rolled his eyes. “Well, you could have just asked me.”
“Do you mind if I sit here?” Robert asked, pointing to the stool beside the boy.
Andre shrugged. “If you’d like.”
Robert pulled out the stool and sat a few feet away from Andre. He allowed a comfortable silence to fall between then. He looked over all of the plants and marvelled at the sheer number of them; there had to be hundreds. Not a single one looked as though it had a duplicate as well, which meant that there were many species that Robert had not encountered before.
George was absolutely right. His gardens have nothing on his conservatory.
“Did my governess send you?” Andre finally asked, breaking the silence.
Robert shook his head. “No. I came out of my own accord. I wanted to ask you if you wouldn’t mind giving me a tour of the estate. I haven’t yet had time to become acquainted with it, and since you are the oldest, I trust that you would be the best person to ask for assistance.”
The young man hoped that his attempt at aligning himself with Andre hadn’t seemed too obvious. He didn’t want to jump right out and say something like, “You’re the man of the house, yes indeed!”
When Andre responded, it seemed to have worked out all right. “When did you arrive? I thought that you had been here for some time, and we just hadn’t met you yet.”
Andre was now playing with the spout of one of the watering cans, allowing one of his small fingers to encircle the rim idly as he spoke. Robert also noticed that he kept flicking his eyes towards a small reddish-green plant that was in a pot entirely too large for it.
“No, I only arrived this morning, and quite unexpectedly, I’m afraid. Geo- ahem, your father wasn’t aware that I was going to be arriving today. He was very generous about letting me stay, however.” Robert watched the boy’s face to see if there was any change in it when he mentioned his father. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be, and he was relieved; he wanted to ensure that Andre and George had a relationship that was nothing like the one Robert shared with his father.
Andre let out a short sigh, as though the tour that Robert had asked of him was not a daunting task, but was still a task that he was not entirely excited about performing. “I suppose that I could show you around the house. But I have my pianoforte lesson in an hour, and so I’m afraid that I would not be able to entertain you past that time.”
Robert stifled a laugh. Of course, because I know that entertaining me is such an arduous task. “That sounds like the perfect amount of time. But before we go... why do you keep looking at that plant?”
Andre looked at Robert, puzzled. “Which one?”
Robert pointed to the small plant in the big pot. “That reddish-green one. Is it your favourite?”
Andre looked to the plant and then shook his head. “Certainly not. I did not realize that I was looking at it until you pointed it out. I... I think it is because it seems to feel rather... swamped by that pot.”
Robert studied the plant and then nodded. “I would have to agree. Shall we find a more suitable home for it?”
Andre nodded silently, and then in a surprising move, ran immediately to the end of the alley, picked up a pot that Robert could tell he had been eyeing, and then raced back to Robert.
“This one should serve it well, I think,” Andre said, offering the pot to Robert.
The young man, however, shook his head. “Oh no, you’re the plant expert; you go right ahead. I could use some tutelage in re-potting plants anyhow.”
Andre held the plant pot out for another few seconds and then slowly brought it back to his chest. He looked quite surprised the whole time. “Oh. All right then. I suppose I could do it myself.”
Robert sat back down on his stool and folded his arms across his chest. He remembered when he was a young man that he absolutely hated that whenever any adult was around, they insisted on doing everything for him. Now that he got to be the adult in this situation, he was determined to change the narrative.
