After meeting Mr Arl and Sisi, I thankfully didn’t have to wait until evening to talk to Hyraj. She returned after lunch—dry, the rain finally stopping, streaks of sunlight poking through. I was helping the cook clean up, so heard her arrive and quickly put together some leftovers for her.

“Thank you,” she said, then ate in silence. I knew she didn’t like to talk while eating, so I wasn’t going to ask her questions until she was finished.

How many questions I had.

For now, I just watched her eat. It was an interesting dish today. I could only guess, but the main part of it was like curdled bean milk? The cook had strained them and then fried them with some spices before putting them into like a pita bread with a “blended” tomato and onion sauce she’d simmered. Honestly, it was both very similar and very different to scrambled eggs on toast with tomato sauce. Sort of like you took the recipe and ran it through a thesaurus.

The way Hyraj ate it, well, it was just like I had imagined she would. Eating it by myself earlier, I had wondered. Sure enough, she cut bits of the bread and scooped on more filling if it was lacking.

Whether or not she liked, I couldn’t tell. Thought it was because of her upbringing. She didn’t eat faster or slower, didn’t ask for more or leave some on her plate. In control of herself. I admired that, really. Like she wasn’t being pushed around by the currents of life. A rock, steady and sturdy—enough to keep me from being pulled under.

With a clink, she put her cutlery down. A three-pronged fork and a knife that was like a ruler? Rectangular, the serrated edge not rounded, just the corners and holding part. And she put them down crossing, not next to each other.

Busy distracting myself with those thoughts, of course she spoke first. “That is it… you said at the inn that you are good with children?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She adjusted her position, turning more towards me than her plate. “Mr Arl… it would not be correct to call him my boss; however, I have been tasked with assisting him. As you saw, his daughter… does not assist him in his work.”

I chuckled, not often she made jokes and it was such a cute joke too.

She waited a moment, then continued. “While I would not like to talk of others without their presence”—what a polite way to say gossip—“you should know that his wife passed almost a year ago. They did have a nanny for Sisi who continued to work after that, but there was an incident recently and now he does not. Not only that, neither father nor daughter is too keen on being apart, so she has been coming into work with him.”

I listened close, the humour I’d felt quickly dying. She seemed to stop there, so I asked, “Why?” A wrinkle appeared on her brow, so I asked more clearly. “Why are you telling me this?”

She made a small gesture with her hand, sort of going from a fist to fingers spread apart, which I thought was like saying you understood based on how she’d used it before. “Forgive me, my mind is so full of thoughts of work these days. Is it that? Oh yes, the matter at hand. I mentioned to Mr Arl you may be interested in being a nanny.”

It wasn’t exactly surprising, but I hadn’t really expected that answer.

“For now, you would be helping him to watch her at work,” she said. “Once she is comfortable with you, then it would be at his house while he works.”

Well, that was great, wasn’t it? I wanted a job and this was probably the only job I could do. Still, something didn’t sit right with me…. “If you told me earlier, I would have stayed,” I said, trying to figure it out.

Her small smile melted away, telling me I had hit close to whatever it was. “You noticed her hair, did you not?” she whispered.

“Yes? What about it?” I asked.

She offered a sad smile. “He wished to see your reaction upon meeting her before discussing it further. Some people, while perfectly polite with either those like me or those like him, become… irrational about children like her.”

I wished I didn’t know what she meant, but I did. There’d even been a child who ended up at the orphanage because both pairs of grandparents didn’t want to take her in. Thankfully, her aunt managed to move to a bigger house for her, but I still remembered her crying in Mrs Jacob’s arms, asking why her grandparents hated her.

“My reaction was fine, then?” I said, trying to push away those memories.

“Yes.”

I smiled, not really meaning it. “Well, I can’t… promise I will do it good. But I can try.” After thinking for a moment, I asked, “Can we buy something small tomorrow? I’ll give you money back.”

“Of course,” she said.

After her busy week, I let her otherwise enjoy the rest of her weekend in peace. Could always practise magic when her work settled down and helping the cook kept me busy too. A lot to learn about cooking here, especially since, in my old world, my cooking was mostly just putting things into the oven and dishing up portions….

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Then it was “Monday”.

Getting ready, I felt giddy. A real job. Finally, I was going to take my first step… even though babysitting was something, like, fourteen-year-olds could do back in my world. It didn’t matter, though. Baby steps.

Final hair pin in Hyraj’s hair, I stepped back. “Finished.”

She stood up, putting on her hat as she did. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

I hadn’t appreciated how well-made the road was the other day, but, going to a shop yesterday, realised that the world beyond the roads were a marsh. Somehow, the cobblestone roads were fine; I wondered if they were actually huge pieces of rock hammered into the ground.

However they were made, I was glad I could cross the road easily and understood why the metal grate by the building’s front door had so much mud in it. The receptionist let us in, making small talk with Hyraj as he did, her short answers apparently not coming off as curt to him.

Despite the early hour, there were already a few other people in the main room. That included Mr Arl who, despite the day off, didn’t look any more rested than when I saw him last. I hoped he didn’t have to come in yesterday as well.

Not just Mr Arl, but Sisi too.

It took a bit of time to get to them, Hyraj introducing me to a couple other co-workers on the way, or was one of them her supervisor? What she said was more about explaining what I was doing here anyway.

When we reached Mr Arl’s cubicle, he said a tired, “Good day, Miss Hyraj, Miss Louise.”

“Good day, Mr Arl,” we said back, almost in unison.

For names, married people were usually addressed by surname as Mr or Mrs unless you knew them and were, like, at their house. Single people were called by their first names with Miss or, well, Master? Maybe Sir fit better, matching how short it was in their language. Children were just called by name.

With that in mind, I leaned to the side to pick out Sisi, finally spotting her on the far side of the desk, maybe more shy with other people around the office. “Good day, Sisi,” I whispered—a loud whisper to reach her.

She shuffled back behind the desk.

“Miss Hyraj has discussed this with you?” Mr Arl asked.

I pulled my thoughts together, wanting to give a good impression, my sentences sometimes sloppy. “That is it, I will try my best.”

He gave me a long look, then moved his gaze to the side—to Hyraj. “She certainly is earnest.”

There was nothing else important to say now and the work was still urgent, so Mr Arl went back to it while I settled at one of the large tables in the middle of the room. Chair sideways, I could see into his cubicle easily enough, watching Sisi. A sort of skill I had developed, I was good at doing one thing, but noticing as soon as a kid moved. Like if they were watching TV and I was doing homework, or if I was helping cook and one of them came in.

That skill came in handy now. While Sisi stayed over by her dad, I took out a pair of sticks and a ball of yarn. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if this was the same as knitting, but it used two sticks and turned yarn into clothes, so I called it knitting.

Mrs Frinchen had showed me the basics… like, twice. Over a week ago. Still, I fiddled away, eventually getting somewhere with it. Once I had the first row of loops on one stick, I just had to take a minute to remember how to use the second stick to actually knit….

Thankfully, I didn’t turn the whole yarn into a giant knot, managing to remember enough to do it. I made mistakes and probably made more mistakes I didn’t notice, but it looked like knitting.

The office filled up, a wave of chatter before silence settled, scratching of pens on paper and scrape of chairs moving, coughs and sighs and creaks and clatters.

Sisi didn’t move much from her spot. I noticed her sometimes reach up, taking something from the desk. Bored, maybe, or wanted attention. Now and then, she’d peek around and catch my eye. I always smiled back for a moment, then went back to knitting, letting her watch if she wanted to.

Breakfast soon arrived, trays of sandwiches. A few people rushed over, but the rest waited for the next trays with tea and mugs to come through, crowding the table. Mr Arl didn’t move, so I put down my knitting and walked over.

“Mr Arl?”

It took him a good few seconds to respond, not even looking away from the papers. “Yes?”

“What sandwich does Sisi like?” I asked.

I hadn’t noticed before, but it was obvious now how his hand relaxed, had been clenching the pen. “Any but for a lal one. She dislikes the smell,” he said, his voice softer when speaking about her.

Smiling, I asked, “And for you?”

“I don’t need. A tea is enough,” he said.

It wasn’t my place, I knew, but I was here for Sisi, not him. “Will she worry?”

A longer pause, I guessed something he hadn’t thought about before. “Any will do.”

“Okay.”

Walking over to the table, my heart thumped. It wasn’t easy for me to confront adults. Well, I could do it in the moment when my emotions were behind me, but then the emotions faded and nothing held me up. Especially men. For all people talked about women being emotional, you never knew what would set a man off and what he would do. Mr Arl seemed “normal”, but still… I had to watch myself.

At the table, I waited for everyone else to take something. No rush. Hyraj joined me at some point, only realising because I recognised her hands when she reached for a plate.

“Did you want one?” she asked.

I melted a little, wondering if she came up because she thought I was, like, scared to take a sandwich? “Which ones are lal?” I asked.

After a second, she pointed to one plate, the sandwiches there with a muddy sort of filling. Although curious, I picked sandwiches from another plate for myself and those two. As I turned around to go back, I caught Hyraj’s expression and she looked quite amused, making me realise I’d asked her about a specific sandwich and then picked entirely different ones. No surprise she found it funny.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“No need for praise,” she whispered back, turning to the sandwiches.

Lacking hands, I dropped off their plates first and then went back for tea for Mr Arl. When I came back to the desk, I saw him… not exactly pulling, but trying to lead Sisi out from behind the desk.

“Know how, we eat at the table, don’t we? Are we animals?”

He spoke softly, but there was still some impatience—still a man’s deep voice. I struggled to keep myself from saying something and lost that battle once I caught a glimpse of Sisi’s watery eyes.

“Mr Arl?” I said.

He sighed and turned around. “Ah, thank you,” he said, looking down at the mug, then started to turn back.

“That is it… is it… more important for Sisi to eat or to sit at a table?”

I tried to sound gentle, make it sound like a genuine question. The answer was obvious to me and I hoped it was obvious to him, but, if it wasn’t, I didn’t want him to think I was, like, telling him he was wrong or calling him a bad parent or—

“When they put it like that,” he muttered and let go of Sisi’s hand. Next, he moved a plate across his desk, leaving it by the edge Sisi hid behind. “Shall we eat here today?”

What I could see of her head quickly nodded, hair lagging behind. I hadn’t seen too much of it, but it looked nice, washed, not exactly frizzy, just unbrushed.

He let out a sigh and slowly turned to me again. “Thank you.”

Not knowing the polite way to answer that—was Hyraj’s “no need for praise” polite?—I simply smiled.