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smackenzie"I do not care. This is not a playroom." She is still pointing to the door. She is not Luisa and James does not in general feel obliged to obey her, but there is enough of Mrs Godwin and Luisa in her tone that he sheepishly slides over to the doorway to put his shoes back on.
Mrs O'Donnell herds the boys downstairs and into the kitchen, so Mrs Malcolm can feed them.
Mrs Malcolm promptly shoos them out of the kitchen and into the smaller dining room, where the table has already been set for lunch. She tells them to sit and wait for William and Aimee and Luisa, and then brings out a pitcher of milk and starts pouring it into their glasses.
"Thank you," Liam says politely, while Sean just stares around the dining room.
"Do you eat here every day?" he asks James. James nods.
"If all of my brothers are here, we eat in the bigger dining room, upstairs," he says. "But there are" – he counts on his fingers – "ten of us most times. Nathaniel is convalescing upstate," he explains, proud of himself for remembering the correct word. "He does not come into Manhattan very often. And Gabriel is in Chicago. And Marcus does not get along with our father, so he does not come over very often either."
"How many brothers do you have?"
"Seven. I am the youngest, and then William – you met him upstairs – Con, Lucas and Nathaniel, Gabriel, Matthew, and Marcus."
"That's eight," Liam says into his glass. He wipes milk off his upper lip with his sleeve.
"Eight in total," Sean corrects him. "James plus seven."
"I have two sisters, too," James goes on. "You only met Aimee. You will meet Julia when she comes home later. She and Momma are out shopping."
Liam looks thoughtful. "I wish we had a sister," he says.
"You do not," Sean tells him.
"I do too. You could push her over instead of me." Now he looks triumphant.
"I'd just push both of you."
"Do your brothers push you over?" Liam asks James.
"William does," he says, just as William and Aimee and Luisa appear in the doorway.
"What do I do?" William asks.
"Push him over," Liam says, pointing to James.
"I do not." William sounds indigant.
"Sometimes you do," Luisa says gently. "Sit down so you can eat. Miss Ellis will be here soon."
Miss Ellis is Aimee and William's piano teacher. James thinks she must be his mother's age, and he has always wondered why she is not married, but Julia told him that she is in fact younger than his mother, and she was engaged once, but her fiance was a fragile man and died of consumption. As this story comes from Julia, and not a more reputable source, James is not sure if it is true or not. But he likes to believe that someone wanted to marry Miss Ellis once, and it is only through dire straits that she became a piano teacher.
(In reality, she is the niece of one of Mr Godwin's business partners and is married to a physically healthy if not particularly bright man who works in the import/export business. Ellis is her first name, and Mrs Godwin told the children to call her "Miss" out of respect, because she is their teacher.)
Luisa helps Mrs Malcolm lay out lunch on the sideboard, but as soon as the first dish is set down, James and Aimee are out of their seats and putting food on their plates. William waits politely until everything is out, but Liam and Sean do not seem to know what to do with themselves.
"You may help yourselves," Luisa tells them, willing to nanny a pair of strange boys as well as her regular charges. "Unless you would like me to help you?"
"No, no thank you," Sean says, sliding off his chair and taking his plate over to the sideboard to fill it with lunch. Liam is right at his heels.
"Is this what rich people eat for lunch all the time?" Liam whispers to Sean, clearly trying to be secretive but unable to lower his voice enough.
"Is it – is this not how you eat?" James asks, curious. Luisa has told him that her family does not eat like this, because her parents prefer the dishes from the Old Country that they grew up with, but Luisa is an immigrant, of course she would not eat like the Godwins if she were at home.
It dawns on him that Sean and Liam might be immigrants as well – he knows Mrs O'Donnell must be, because she has a lilting Irish accent, but the brothers sound like James' friends and siblings, all people who were born here. But Mrs O'Donnell is staff, like Luisa, and she is here most of the day, so of course she would not be able to cook for and feed her own children the same kinds of things that the Godwins eat.
"What do you have for lunch?" Aimee asks, curious.
"Creamed beef on toast, yesterday," Sean says. "We get lunch at school. We would have had tomato sandwiches today, because we stay with Mrs Meara during the day when our ma is here, and she likes tomatoes."
"The grocer saves them for her," Liam adds. "And she puts them on sandwiches with salt and butter."
"Yuck," Aimee says. She does not like tomatoes.
"Aimee," Luisa chides. "That was rude."
"But tomatoes are disgusting. They have seeds."
"It's rude to talk that way about someone else's lunch. If you cannot say something nice, do not say anything."
Aimee shrugs and stabs a piece of carrot with her fork.
"I like tomatoes," James tells Sean and Liam. "Last summer we all went to Great Neck to see a friend of my father's, and he had tomato vines with miniature tomatoes on them. You could put a whole one in your mouth. They were sweet."
"They had seeds," Aimee calls from her end of the table.
"They were too small to slice, though."
"Can we have seconds?" Liam asks.
"You can have as much as you want."
Liam jumps off his chair, takes his plate over to the sideboard, and fills it again.
"Don't eat too much," Sean tells him. "You won’t be hungry for dinner."
"I'm always hungry," Liam says. He stuffs a piece of bread covered with jam into his mouth.
Sean seems to consider this, and then gets up and takes some more food for himself.
"Can we have thirds?" Liam asks, his mouth full.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Luisa calls.
"Sorry. Hey! You cow." He glares at Sean, who has kicked him under the table. James stifles a giggle. He likes the O'Donnell boys. They are funny.
Mrs Malcolm clears some of the dishes off the sideboard and brings out cake and a bowl of grapes, which she puts on the table in front of James.
"Aimee," he says politely, "would you like a grape?" He fishes one out of the bowl and holds it out to her. She is down the table and too far to reach it, but she turns up her nose and sniffs disdainfully.
"It has seeds," she says, as he knew she would.
The doorbell rings just then, and Luisa gets up to answer it.
"That must be Miss Ellis," William says sagely, the first words he has spoken since he sat down at the table. He stands up and heads out of the dining room. Aimee swallows the last of her milk and follows him, leaving James alone with Sean and Liam.
Sean stuffs grapes into each cheek until he looks like a chipmunk. Liam laughs at him.
"Can we come for lunch next Saturday?" Sean asks, after spitting half the grapes onto his plate so he can chew and swallow the rest of them.
"I will ask Momma," James says, "but I am sure she will say yes. Otherwise Julia will want to take me to Union Square to see a movie and a serial." He brightens with a sudden idea. "Perhaps Mrs O'Donnell will let you come with us! But we will have missed a chapter of The Masked Rider, I think."
"What is The Masked Rider?" Liam asks, his mouth now full of cake. James wonders if he always talks with his mouth full.
"A serial! It is about man who owns a ranch, and there are Mexican bandits, and a pretty girl, and it is very violent and full of adventures. You would like it. We could go now, if the weather was nicer."
All three boys glance over at the windows, where they can see that the rain is still coming down. What can they do now that lunch is over? The ballroom is forbidden – James does not want Mrs O'Donnell to catch them sliding across the floor again, or she will tell his mother – and they cannot go outside, but besides the ballroom they have the whole house to play in. There are games and toys in the nursery. Or they can be pirates.
"I don't want to play pirates," Sean says, when James explains it. They are now sitting on the bottom steps of the grand staircase that leads upstairs, listening to William's piano lesson. James knows Aimee and Luisa are in the room with him, Aimee waiting her turn at the piano and Luisa keeping an eye on her in the meantime. He is glad that Luisa seems to trust him with Sean and Liam. Sean is older than he is, and can look after all three of them.
"I could be a pirate," Liam says.
"We should play cowboys and Indians. I wish your brother and sister could play with us." He gestures towards the parlor.
"William does not like to play with me," James says. "He says he is too old."
"William is silly. You are never too old to be a cowboy."
They spend the next fifteen minutes discussing who will be a cowboy, who will be an Indian, and why do they need a Mexican bandit? But James insists.
He learns two important pieces of information from playing A Cowboy, An Indian, and A Mexican Bandit with Sean and Liam - a broom makes a good surrogate horse, and William really does not like being the damsel in distress when Aimee is too busy with her piano lesson to play with them.
Fortunately, Mrs Godwin and Julia return home in time for James to introduce his sister to Sean and Liam, explain their game, and draw her into it. She is much more fun than William, if no more interested in being a damsel in distress. She takes over the role of Indian from Liam, fetches one of her hats for him, and ties him up with the belt from her dressing-gown so that Sean, as the cowboy, will have someone to rescue from James as the Mexican bandit.
words: 1771
total words: 12,322
quickie research: school lunches, working-class lunches, floor plans for gilded age mansions
Mrs O'Donnell herds the boys downstairs and into the kitchen, so Mrs Malcolm can feed them.
Mrs Malcolm promptly shoos them out of the kitchen and into the smaller dining room, where the table has already been set for lunch. She tells them to sit and wait for William and Aimee and Luisa, and then brings out a pitcher of milk and starts pouring it into their glasses.
"Thank you," Liam says politely, while Sean just stares around the dining room.
"Do you eat here every day?" he asks James. James nods.
"If all of my brothers are here, we eat in the bigger dining room, upstairs," he says. "But there are" – he counts on his fingers – "ten of us most times. Nathaniel is convalescing upstate," he explains, proud of himself for remembering the correct word. "He does not come into Manhattan very often. And Gabriel is in Chicago. And Marcus does not get along with our father, so he does not come over very often either."
"How many brothers do you have?"
"Seven. I am the youngest, and then William – you met him upstairs – Con, Lucas and Nathaniel, Gabriel, Matthew, and Marcus."
"That's eight," Liam says into his glass. He wipes milk off his upper lip with his sleeve.
"Eight in total," Sean corrects him. "James plus seven."
"I have two sisters, too," James goes on. "You only met Aimee. You will meet Julia when she comes home later. She and Momma are out shopping."
Liam looks thoughtful. "I wish we had a sister," he says.
"You do not," Sean tells him.
"I do too. You could push her over instead of me." Now he looks triumphant.
"I'd just push both of you."
"Do your brothers push you over?" Liam asks James.
"William does," he says, just as William and Aimee and Luisa appear in the doorway.
"What do I do?" William asks.
"Push him over," Liam says, pointing to James.
"I do not." William sounds indigant.
"Sometimes you do," Luisa says gently. "Sit down so you can eat. Miss Ellis will be here soon."
Miss Ellis is Aimee and William's piano teacher. James thinks she must be his mother's age, and he has always wondered why she is not married, but Julia told him that she is in fact younger than his mother, and she was engaged once, but her fiance was a fragile man and died of consumption. As this story comes from Julia, and not a more reputable source, James is not sure if it is true or not. But he likes to believe that someone wanted to marry Miss Ellis once, and it is only through dire straits that she became a piano teacher.
(In reality, she is the niece of one of Mr Godwin's business partners and is married to a physically healthy if not particularly bright man who works in the import/export business. Ellis is her first name, and Mrs Godwin told the children to call her "Miss" out of respect, because she is their teacher.)
Luisa helps Mrs Malcolm lay out lunch on the sideboard, but as soon as the first dish is set down, James and Aimee are out of their seats and putting food on their plates. William waits politely until everything is out, but Liam and Sean do not seem to know what to do with themselves.
"You may help yourselves," Luisa tells them, willing to nanny a pair of strange boys as well as her regular charges. "Unless you would like me to help you?"
"No, no thank you," Sean says, sliding off his chair and taking his plate over to the sideboard to fill it with lunch. Liam is right at his heels.
"Is this what rich people eat for lunch all the time?" Liam whispers to Sean, clearly trying to be secretive but unable to lower his voice enough.
"Is it – is this not how you eat?" James asks, curious. Luisa has told him that her family does not eat like this, because her parents prefer the dishes from the Old Country that they grew up with, but Luisa is an immigrant, of course she would not eat like the Godwins if she were at home.
It dawns on him that Sean and Liam might be immigrants as well – he knows Mrs O'Donnell must be, because she has a lilting Irish accent, but the brothers sound like James' friends and siblings, all people who were born here. But Mrs O'Donnell is staff, like Luisa, and she is here most of the day, so of course she would not be able to cook for and feed her own children the same kinds of things that the Godwins eat.
"What do you have for lunch?" Aimee asks, curious.
"Creamed beef on toast, yesterday," Sean says. "We get lunch at school. We would have had tomato sandwiches today, because we stay with Mrs Meara during the day when our ma is here, and she likes tomatoes."
"The grocer saves them for her," Liam adds. "And she puts them on sandwiches with salt and butter."
"Yuck," Aimee says. She does not like tomatoes.
"Aimee," Luisa chides. "That was rude."
"But tomatoes are disgusting. They have seeds."
"It's rude to talk that way about someone else's lunch. If you cannot say something nice, do not say anything."
Aimee shrugs and stabs a piece of carrot with her fork.
"I like tomatoes," James tells Sean and Liam. "Last summer we all went to Great Neck to see a friend of my father's, and he had tomato vines with miniature tomatoes on them. You could put a whole one in your mouth. They were sweet."
"They had seeds," Aimee calls from her end of the table.
"They were too small to slice, though."
"Can we have seconds?" Liam asks.
"You can have as much as you want."
Liam jumps off his chair, takes his plate over to the sideboard, and fills it again.
"Don't eat too much," Sean tells him. "You won’t be hungry for dinner."
"I'm always hungry," Liam says. He stuffs a piece of bread covered with jam into his mouth.
Sean seems to consider this, and then gets up and takes some more food for himself.
"Can we have thirds?" Liam asks, his mouth full.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Luisa calls.
"Sorry. Hey! You cow." He glares at Sean, who has kicked him under the table. James stifles a giggle. He likes the O'Donnell boys. They are funny.
Mrs Malcolm clears some of the dishes off the sideboard and brings out cake and a bowl of grapes, which she puts on the table in front of James.
"Aimee," he says politely, "would you like a grape?" He fishes one out of the bowl and holds it out to her. She is down the table and too far to reach it, but she turns up her nose and sniffs disdainfully.
"It has seeds," she says, as he knew she would.
The doorbell rings just then, and Luisa gets up to answer it.
"That must be Miss Ellis," William says sagely, the first words he has spoken since he sat down at the table. He stands up and heads out of the dining room. Aimee swallows the last of her milk and follows him, leaving James alone with Sean and Liam.
Sean stuffs grapes into each cheek until he looks like a chipmunk. Liam laughs at him.
"Can we come for lunch next Saturday?" Sean asks, after spitting half the grapes onto his plate so he can chew and swallow the rest of them.
"I will ask Momma," James says, "but I am sure she will say yes. Otherwise Julia will want to take me to Union Square to see a movie and a serial." He brightens with a sudden idea. "Perhaps Mrs O'Donnell will let you come with us! But we will have missed a chapter of The Masked Rider, I think."
"What is The Masked Rider?" Liam asks, his mouth now full of cake. James wonders if he always talks with his mouth full.
"A serial! It is about man who owns a ranch, and there are Mexican bandits, and a pretty girl, and it is very violent and full of adventures. You would like it. We could go now, if the weather was nicer."
All three boys glance over at the windows, where they can see that the rain is still coming down. What can they do now that lunch is over? The ballroom is forbidden – James does not want Mrs O'Donnell to catch them sliding across the floor again, or she will tell his mother – and they cannot go outside, but besides the ballroom they have the whole house to play in. There are games and toys in the nursery. Or they can be pirates.
"I don't want to play pirates," Sean says, when James explains it. They are now sitting on the bottom steps of the grand staircase that leads upstairs, listening to William's piano lesson. James knows Aimee and Luisa are in the room with him, Aimee waiting her turn at the piano and Luisa keeping an eye on her in the meantime. He is glad that Luisa seems to trust him with Sean and Liam. Sean is older than he is, and can look after all three of them.
"I could be a pirate," Liam says.
"We should play cowboys and Indians. I wish your brother and sister could play with us." He gestures towards the parlor.
"William does not like to play with me," James says. "He says he is too old."
"William is silly. You are never too old to be a cowboy."
They spend the next fifteen minutes discussing who will be a cowboy, who will be an Indian, and why do they need a Mexican bandit? But James insists.
He learns two important pieces of information from playing A Cowboy, An Indian, and A Mexican Bandit with Sean and Liam - a broom makes a good surrogate horse, and William really does not like being the damsel in distress when Aimee is too busy with her piano lesson to play with them.
Fortunately, Mrs Godwin and Julia return home in time for James to introduce his sister to Sean and Liam, explain their game, and draw her into it. She is much more fun than William, if no more interested in being a damsel in distress. She takes over the role of Indian from Liam, fetches one of her hats for him, and ties him up with the belt from her dressing-gown so that Sean, as the cowboy, will have someone to rescue from James as the Mexican bandit.
words: 1771
total words: 12,322
quickie research: school lunches, working-class lunches, floor plans for gilded age mansions
