little blue bird chirped and sang within a gold cage atop a parlor table as Evie watched a pair of children admire its beauty.
“My Evie found it in our garden with a broken wing,” Mina told them with a patient voice. “She set the wing and fed it by hand each day until it healed.”
The older woman with the children sipped tea from a dainty cup painted with red and pink roses and smiled at Evie.
“After it was well enough to fly off, it wouldn’t leave,” Mina softly laughed. “James says it sees Evie as its protector now.”
The children looked at Evie and then shyly down when the beautifully dressed girl carefully scrutinized them.
“Evie,” Mina called to her, and Evie came in from the doorway.
“Yes, Mother,” she replied.
“This is Samuel and Lilah,” Mina introduced them. “Mrs. Bradbury brought them from the orphanage to help her run errands at the market. Say hello.”
Evie’s eyes grew at the mention of an orphanage, and she looked toward the children once again. Their clothes were unlike those worn by the children of aristocrats who visited from time to time. They were clean but old with patched up tears and not well-fitting like the dresses she and her mother made for themselves.
They had dark circles beneath their eyes and appeared hungry and afraid. She knew her parents raised money for such children, so they weren’t starving. She wondered if they looked that way because they were sad.
“Hello,” she told them. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Evie.”
“Samuel is nine and Lilah is seven,” Mina informed her.
“I’m seven, too,” Evie told Lilah with a warm smile.
“Mother,” she said as she leaned against Mina’s chair, “may I bring Samuel and Lilah to the kitchen for pastries and to my room to play?”
Mina stroked back her long hair and straightened the large curls tied in peach-colored ribbons down her back.
“You may,” she permitted, “but finish your treats before going to your room.”
“Yes, mother,” Evie said with a hug to her shoulders.
“Come with me,” she told the children.
They looked over at the director of the orphanage, who smiled and nodded her permission. Timidly holding each other’s hands, they followed Evie on her tour of the grand manor.
Entering the kitchen, she nodded her greeting to Narah.
“Narah, Mother says we can have pastries before we play,” Evie told the maidservant.
Narah smiled and nodded in acknowledgement to the two children.
“There are still biscuits and tea cakes from breakfast,” Narah told them. “Will that be all right or would you like me to make something else?”
“Oh, no, Narah,” Evie quickly replied with a shake of her head. “These will be just fine. If there are more, may I give the rest to my new friends to take home?”
The brother and sister looked at each other and at the two trays of breakfast cakes. Narah watched them swallow in reaction to their craving and rightly assumed they had never been given such indulgences.
“Have one each for now and I’ll pack away the rest for them to take,” the maid said with a smile.
“Thank you, Narah!” Evie exclaimed happily.
As soon as the children had eaten their pastries and washed them down with milk and tea, Evie brought them to her rather large bedroom.
“Father and Mother bought me most of these things,” she said as the children looked in awe at shelves and chests filled with toys. “My Uncle Rorik sent me the rest. He has his own ship. Mother says he helps the king catch dangerous criminals. He sends her spices to cook with and fabric to make our clothes.”
She twirled around in her latest dress made by Mina.
“I helped mother make this one,” she said, her finger tracing a little embroidered rabbit.
She watched as Lilah walked over to a stuffed bear toy sitting atop a wooden rocking horse. Lilah smiled and patted it on its head, then quickly pulled her hand away as though she were doing something not allowed.
“You can hold him if you’d like,” Evie told her.
Lilah quickly smiled and pulled the bear into her arms.
Evie looked over at Samuel as he approached a shelf with some of the knick-knacks Rorik had sent. He admired each but then stopped when he saw a small ship with tall sails within a glass jar.
“Uncle sent that to me for sixth birthday,” she told him. “It’s called a frigate. It’s a smaller kind of ship than his.”
As Evie watched the unfortunate children look through her menagerie of toys and trinkets, she felt a lump in her throat. She thought of the orphanage they would be returning to, and her bottom lip began to tremble.
“You may have it, if you like,” she blurted before Samuel could put the ship back into its place. “And you may have the bear,” she told Lilah as the girl continued to tightly hold the toy.
The children looked at each other in wonder and doubt.
“Oh!” Evie exclaimed. “I have an idea!”
They watched cautiously as she emptied one of her clothes trunks, piling the contents onto the pink and blue lace blanket of her white bed. She filled it with as many toys as it could hold, then she emptied another that was filled with exotic gifts from Rorik. She filled that one with more toys.
“Samuel, will you help me?” Evie asked when she could barely make the trunks move across the floor.
“Miss, what is this for?” he asked in wonder.
“For you and Lilah,” she answered. “I’ve added enough for you to share with the other children at the orphanage, as well.”
The brother and sister’s eyes lit up and they giggled as they helped Evie push and pull the trunks to the parlor.
“Hello,” James called out from the foyer. “I’m home.”
“Father!” shrieked Evie just as the children reached the foyer entrance to the parlor.
She ran and jumped into his arms he held out open for her. He lifted her and laughed at her tight hug around his neck.
“What’s all this?” he asked about the trunks.
Mina and the director came out to join them and looked at the trunks sitting in the center of the room.
“Evie?” she said in question as James set Evie to her feet.
“Toys for Lilah and Samuel,” she answered proudly. “There’s enough for the other children, too,” she said with her comment directed toward the director.
Mina looked at James and smiled at their daughter’s compassion.
“Evie, dear, it’s a kind gesture and your Father and I are proud of how eager you are to share,” Mina told her. “You mustn’t give all of your toys away.”
Evie watched as Samuel and Lilah’s smiles faded into frowns and saw tears glistening at the corners of Lilah’s green eyes. She huffed and bit her lip in anger before storming out of the room.
“I’m so sorry, children,” James apologized. “Many of Evie’s toys were gifts from her mother and I and close friend… Evie!”
His sudden shriek drew everyone’s attention to Evie, who had returned wielding shears and a doll.
“Evie!” cried out Mina in worry.
“If my friends and the other orphans can’t have toys, neither will I!” Evie angrily replied.
As she began cutting off the hair and dress, James ran to her. He grabbed her hand and pulled the shears away as she cried and kicked for him to release her.
“It isn’t fair! It isn’t fair!” she cried, pushing him away as he held her by the arm.
James handed the shears to Mina and the orphanage director pulled Samuel and Lilah to stand with her. He pulled Evie to an embroidered bench in the foyer and forced her to stand before him when she tried to pull away.
“Evie!” he called out when she refused to calm herself. “If you don’t stop this tantrum this instant, I’ll … I’ll give you a spanking.”
She stopped and stared at him with widened eyes filled with tears. Her breathing quickened and her jaw dropped at his threat.
“James,” Mina called to him in surprise.
He’d never laid a hand on either of them in anger, and she was just as afraid as Evie.
“You don’t mean it,” whined Evie before she cried into her hands.
James quickly pulled her into his arms and held her close.
“Of course, I don’t mean it, my precious child,” he said regretfully against her hair. “I would never strike you. You were behaving irrationally and dangerously. I was only worried. Please forgive me.”
Evie sobbed against his shoulder as she held onto him. Mina took a deep breath and looked over at her guests. The children looked terrified and the old woman seemed confused about the whole ordeal.
“Perhaps we should return to the parlor to sort out this matter,” she told them all, and they readily agreed.
“It isn’t fair,” Evie continued to say through sniffles as she held her father’s hand. “I have so many toys and they have nothing.”
James sat her between himself and Mina as they joined her on the blue velvet sofa.
“I have a home and parents,” she continued. “I don’t need toys. If these things can make them happy, they should have them.”
James looked at Mina, who returned his smile of pride for their daughter’s selfless perspective. He raised her chin so she would look up him, then wiped away her tears with the backs of his fingers.
“Let’s make a bargain,” he said as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He held it for her to blow her nose and continued. “We’ll put these toys away, then we’ll all go to the toy story together and buy new toys for them and for the orphanage.”
Evie gasped and looked up at Mina, who was smiling and wiping away tears.
“Really?” she breathed. They nodded and she added, “Clothes, too? And treats?”
James and Mina laughed.
“Clothes, too,” James replied, “and as much food and treats as Director Dory needs to fill her kitchen.”
The older woman held the two children close and smiled in gratitude.
“Thank you, Father! Thank you, Mother!” Evie told them and gave them both a hug.
“Gather yourselves,” he told Mina and Evie. “Wipe your eyes and noses and we’ll leave right away.”
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