With lunch at Mr Arl’s house planned, I awoke to the drizzling rain and hoped it wouldn’t get worse. My wish was granted. It drizzled and spat, but stayed light through the morning and, eventually, midday arrived.

In the midst of everyone else getting up to grab lunch or head out, Mr Arl tidied up his stack of papers. Sisi and I waited to the side and tried to stay out of the others’ way. It wasn’t the busiest office, around ten people? I didn’t pay much attention to them, so not sure if they all came in every day. Anyway, there weren’t many of them, but they were… kind of gruff men. I didn’t know how to explain it, there was just a feeling like some men wanted a reason to cause a fuss, so I kept out their way—and kept the kids away from them too.

Once they all shuffled around, Mr Arl stood up; he lifted his chair as he did, not scraping it across the floor, and even tucked it back in. Not for the first time, I thought he might be as posh as Hyraj.

He let out a sigh and rubbed his wrinkled brow and then turned to us with a tired smile. “Shall we go?” he asked.

My heart squeezed, glancing over at Hyraj’s cubicle—and catching her eye. She looked back at me with a slight smile. “Yes,” I said softly, heart loosening up again.

He came over and held out his hand, Sisi stepping up to take it, then those two led the way while I followed, Hyraj joining me when we passed her cubicle. There were some looks from the others in the room, but they went back to eating quickly enough and it didn’t much matter what they thought of me any more. This would be my last time at the office, after all.

Outside, Mr Arl took a moment to coax Sisi into wearing her hat, the two softly talking, voices drowned out by the drizzle. I wanted to interfere out of habit, but, well, if he wanted me to, he would have asked.

Finally, she put her hat on, only to then ask, “Papa, where are we going?”

He chuckled. “I told you at breakfast, didn’t I? We’re showing Miss Louise the house so she can play with you there.”

“Oh,” she said, then turned to me and held out her hand.

I hesitated for a moment, but, glancing at Mr Arl, he just smiled, so I took her little hand.

“Follow me.” She had an unusual tone to her voice, like she was copying her dad. That happened a lot when they were small.

“Okay,” I said.

So now Sisi and I led the way, Mr Arl and Hyraj following behind, walking along the road in the rain. There weren’t umbrellas, but there were more layers of clothing. While my goddess-given jumper was pretty much waterproof, it was hot, so I’d borrowed a sort of rain cloak from Hyraj, made of treated cloth that looked and felt a bit waxy. I hadn’t looked too closely before, but my hat was the same.

That said, it was only a drizzle and it wasn’t too far to their house. Going along the road, it was the third house down, maybe a hundred steps—more for Sisi, of course. One of those posh houses, but not the poshest. It had a metal fence around it, waist high, bars criss-crossing with the top making an up-and-down zigzag. Bushes then lined the inside, poking through the fencing at some points.

Sisi let go of my hand to hold the gate, reaching up to undo the latch, just tall enough to do it. I almost laughed, so cute how she decided she needed to do it out of all of us here. The moment the gate opened, she held my hand again, tugging me inside.

I took a brief look around at the garden—didn’t want to seem nosy. It was, well, it had seen better days. Not overgrown with weeds, but the grass… was it even grass? Close enough. Anyway, the grass grew terribly thick and tall, would be halfway up my thighs if I walked into it, not sure if I could walk into it. Some spots by the house looked like they had other plants growing there, only to be swallowed up by the grass, dried stems poking out all that was left. No doubt, there were more dead plants that weren’t tall enough to be seen.

As for the size, the front area wasn’t huge, ten steps to the house and the garden didn’t stretch much wider than the house. No clue how big it was behind.

The house, then, looked quite different to the ones in the village centre. It was about the same width, but two storeys tall and made of bricks. While I couldn’t get too good of a look, it seemed very measured out, all straight edges and the windows lined up and all that, which wasn’t exactly the case with most other buildings in the village.

Sisi still leading the way, she was the one who knocked. Such light knocks, I worried the maid wouldn’t hear, but a voice soon called out, “The Arl and formerly Helchen residence, who am I speaking to?”

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A young voice—maids in Victorian times were mostly teen girls, weren’t they? The accent reminded me of Mr Arl, though.

“It’s me, big cousin,” Sisi replied. Big cousin… from Hyraj’s book, I knew children sometimes called older girls “big sister”, but not cousin? She wouldn’t do that for a maid either.

“Ah, Sisi! Have you brought Uncle Arl and your friends for lunch?” the person asked as a grating sound came from the door. The next moment, it opened, an older girl appearing in the gap. At a guess, she was fifteen, but I hadn’t been too good at telling ages here.

Apparently impatient, Sisi turned and looked up at me. “First, we wipe our feet,” she said.

I held back my laugh and said, “Okay.”

As if showing me how, her movements were pretty exaggerated as she scraped her boots on the metal grate, only stopping once I’d done it too. She then brushed off the rain on her cloak and stepped up inside, tugging me in behind her.

“This is Miss Loulou,” she said, gesturing at me while looking at the maid. That introduction done, she gestured at the maid while looking at me. “This is Big Cousin Frinnie. Well, I suppose you should call her Miss Frinnie.”

“Miss Frinnef,” said the big cousin in question, a touch of laughter to her voice, smiling so wide it made her cheeks puff up.

“Miss Louise. It was nice to have met you,” I said, making the sort of greeting gesture I’d recently learned. The phrase itself was a bit odd to me, different tense and all, but it was at least similar to the one I knew, making it easier to remember.

“Nice to have met you too,” she said, some of her accent slipping away. More casual.

From behind us, Mr Arl cleared his throat. I got the message and led Sisi forward a few steps to let those two in.

“Miss Louise, this is my niece. She has been helping to keep the house in order this last month or so,” he said.

Frinnef giggled at that. “Oh, Uncle Arl, I wish I could do more—”

“Enough. We can discuss this later,” he said, an unusual sternness to his tone he didn’t use with Sisi.

If anything, Frinnef looked amused by his tone. “Lunch will be dished now.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking off his hat and hanging it on a hook. Only, he paused there with his hand still holding it. I wondered why, but didn’t get any longer to think on it, Sisi tugging me forwards again.

The house’s entrance was a hallway with a concrete floor, walls painted cream. Through the first door on the left was the dining room. “We eat here,” she said, leading me inside.

A wooden floor, but most of it was covered by a huge rug. It didn’t have much of a pattern, just a burgundy sort of colour with brighter red for the edge—the sort of colour that hid stains quite well, I thought, especially mud. There was, of course, a table, six chairs arranged around it, and a cabinet against the far wall, maybe for the posh plates and dishes. Otherwise, looking around, it was quite plain….

No, I saw a painting on the floor, but it was turned around?

“This is where big cousin sits, and this is where I sit, and this is where papa sits,” Sisi said, pointing out the chairs as she walked me around the table. Coming to the next chair, though, she stopped, her pointing hand trembling, her other hand squeezing mine.

“Is this where mama sat?” I softly asked.

She breathed in sharply, making me worry I’d upset her for a moment, but then she seemed to calm down, her tremble gone. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Miss Hyraj and me won’t sit here. It’s a good thing there’s two more chairs,” I said, trying to move on.

It worked, her free hand making the “yes” gesture.

As if to make sure, she led me to my chair and made me sit, “helping” to tuck me in. Looking over at the doorway, Mr Arl was quite amused by his daughter’s antics. He looked better with a smile.

“Come on, papa!” she said, stomping over to take his hand and lead him to his seat. Hyraj chose the better part of valour and sat next to me while that happened; I made sure to gesture at the right seat, not sure if they had witnessed that little moment with Sisi.

Frinnef then came through with a platter. She rested it on the table, showing off a selection of sandwiches. I noticed there were lal ones, not sure about the others, a little less generously filled compared to the office’s breakfast / morning snack.

That wasn’t all, though, Frinnef popping back to the kitchen and bringing out a tray of soups, slow and careful steps and a pout until she lowered the tray down safely. Letting out a sigh, she took her seat. “I apologise I cannot offer more.”

“Frinnef,” Mr Arl said quite sharply, only to sigh himself. “Their thanks for the meal.”

“Their thanks for the meal,” Hyraj said, so I copied her too.

Sisi was too busy staring at the lal sandwiches, only giving her thanks after a poke from her dad.

It was a silent lunch, a nice enough lunch, the soup like one the cook made back at the dorms with an almost sweet taste, the not-lal sandwiches a sort of vegetable paste, maybe like tomato and cucumber?

I was rather used to thinking about the food to pass the time while eating.

Focusing, I noticed Sisi was chewing a lot. Mr Arl seemed to try and coax her to eat more, not saying anything, but moving her plate and bowl closer when she pushed them away. I hesitated over interfering again, but she was eating. That was the important part.

Once it was all finished, Frinnef cleared the table and, not coming back, presumably was washing up. I sort of felt an impulse to go help, but that wasn’t what Mr Arl was paying me for. He had an arrangement with his niece.

Speaking of my job, Sisi looked a little sleepy. She just sat there with a blank expression. Five wasn’t exactly too old for naps, but Mr Arl would probably appreciate it if she didn’t stay up late.

After a moment to think through what I wanted to say, I asked, “Sisi? I want to do some knitting—can you show me a good place for that?”

She stirred, a few blinks to turn her eyes back on, then almost fell off her seat she was in such a rush. “Yeah,” she said, slurring it a bit—“prish”. “This way.”

Taking my hand, she led me out the room. I gave Mr Arl and Hyraj a little wave goodbye as I went.

Finally, my job really began.