“You will have a short time to unpack your things while I attend to my other duties and then when I return you will be measured for your new wardrobe. As you have seen Madam has her own standards for how one should present oneself.” Charlie said.

   “Okay. Thank you.” Nari said as she watched Charlie leave heading back into the labyrinth of white corridors.

  Leaving her door open she returned to the window seat to look over the gardens once more. She had only sat there a moment when she heard footsteps by her door. Turning she saw a boy with carefully combed blonde hair, a skinny weak build, and arms to long for his body standing there with another boy. This one was younger and had dark hair like her aunt and the round features of a child.

  “I told you Simeon. Just look at her. That’s what we had to live with now. Disgusting, filthy, waste straight off of the street. Just look at her clothes and I bet she can’t even control that rat’s nest on top of her head.” The blonde boy’s voice pitched with a nasal whine.

  “Yeah William, and I bet she can’t even read either.” Simeon laughed. Nari was so shocked at such appalling behavior she couldn’t think of what to say. Her intention upon seeing them was to greet them and introduce herself and try and befriend her cousins, but that clearly wasn’t what they wanted and most certainly not her plan now. So, she remained silent staring back at them with nothing to say at all.

   “Ah. Poor baby. Look Simeon she is so dumb she cannot even talk. Oh. I feel terrible for all those mean hurtful things I said.” William laughed. Nari still made no response.

  “Look William! She’s just like the Ice Queen from that children’s story. I bet she even thinks that she’s better than us!”

  “What a piece of trash. Come Simeon, I believe it is starting to stink something awful here.” The two boys raced down the hallway hooting and hollering the whole way until they disappeared from sight. Striding to the door Nari slammed it shut. Too angry to stay still she paced the room her feet moving as quickly as her thoughts. 

  Would the other two children be like that as well? Who would she play with? When would she meet the other two Danner children? How could she live in a house when they all clearly hated her? Why had her aunt even wanted her here in the first place if that was the case?

          After a while she calmed down enough to unpack her suitcase. It didn’t take long. Her toothbrush and hairbrush she put in the little bathroom she was especially glad to see that the room had after this morning’s fiasco. She left all the clothes she had inside the luggage and carefully hid it underneath the bed making sure the covers hung down enough to hide it from view. She wasn’t sure but they seemed like the kind of people who might take them away to be thrown out. After some thought she pulled the suitcase back out and quickly changed out of her dress which happened to be the nicest one she owned and into her least favorite clothing. Then she packed her nice dress in with everything else to be hidden away once more. As she finished there came a knock on her door. Double checking her hiding place, she went and opened it.

  “Hello Charlie.” She peered curiously at the women he had following him.

   “This is the dressmaker and her aids. Madam keeps them on the grounds to have on call.”

  “How do you do?” Nari said remembering more of Amanda’s advice. She watched as they carried in a large dressing screen, a mirror, a couple baskets of material, a few mostly sewn up dresses and other clothing, and a bunch of other sewing notions. They efficiently set everything up in a well-practiced manner and after a few minutes they had Nari hidden behind the screen in her undergarments as they took all the necessary measurements. As Nari had suspected her clothes were whisked away never to be seen again on the grounds that they were simply most undeniably unsuitable for living in a place such as this. She was very glad to have hidden away her nice dress.

          The women muttered to one another about how to do this and what stitch they would need for what seam, but other than that they work in a productive silence. Charlie had left once again as soon as it had been evident that the process would take a considerable amount of time saying that he would return in a couple of hours.

          She wished she was following Charlie though the halls instead being made to stand here for hours constantly having some clothing or another to try and retry on until everything fit perfectly. She was unappreciative of the hard work the women were clearly putting in to make sure everything was just right, and she supposed having such nice clothes would make getting along with her new family easier, but it was tremendously boring just standing there.

          Picking the friendliest looking woman, the dressmaker, she tried to start a conversation. After exhausting several topics, one of which was introductions during which she found out her name was Elsa, she finally picked a topic that the woman was clearly very passionate about. And so, Nari learned a great deal about sewing while she waited for her clothes to be fitted. Elsa even let her stitch a seam.

  Eventually her new wardrobe was complete and put away in the respective furniture pieces. Elsa said that there would be one more that would take her longer to sew which would be the dress she would wear to any of her aunt’s parties. Thanking her and the other women for the new clothes she helped them pack up their supplies and waved goodbye as they left.

          Charlie returned soon after. He was carrying a notebook underneath one arm.

  “What do you think?” Nari gave a twirl in her new blue dress. “It’s Elsa’s favorite out of the ones she made and mine too.”

“It suits you well.” Charlie handed over the book he was carrying. “This is your new schedule. You’ll resume classes two days hence and you’ll meet your governess when she arrives tomorrow. Governess Samantha was found unsuitable for the position.”

  “Was she at the party last night?” Nari wondered. “I watched some of it from my window yesterday.”

  “Indeed. To our misfortune. Do you recall see a woman wearing a orange and lime green dress?”

  “What? She was going to be my governess?” Nari was very glad the woman would not be charged with her care.

   “I’ve included a map of the house in the book as well. All the green passages are where you are allowed, red where you are not, and yellow for the servant passages. There is also a schedule of the servants. Who is on duty at which station and when. Mealtimes and where you are to take them. Everything you need to begin to settle in. Now I must attend to my other duties so I will leave you now.”

 “Thank you, this will be very helpful to me.” As Charlie began to leave Nari thought of one more thing to ask about. “Charlie? If it’s not too much trouble my friend Amanda asked that I write her a letter from time to time and I wondered if I could have her address. I don’t know it because it was never posted anywhere you see. She said my aunt had it but after meeting her this morning I don’t know if I should ask. Can you help me?”

  “I will look into it Miss.” He promised leaving her alone once again. Flipping through the book Nari decided she would study the rest of the contents later but focused on the map for the moment. There was a lot of red and yellow and very little green. The was her room, the kitchen, some kind of schoolroom, a dining room with a note saying she was only allowed there when she received an invitation to dine and the gardens. Those were the most important to her as the whole of it was colored green. 

          She made the trip to the gardens without difficulty thanks to map Charlie had provided. A girl with long blonde curls about her age was chewing a piece of gum while playing some kind of game with stones.

  “So, you must be my cousin.” The girl’s voice had the same nasally pitch that her brothers did made worse by her naturally higher tone. Before Nari could reply Amelia carried on. “My brothers told me about you. You’re a snob and your dirty and never take a bath ever.”

  At this moment Nari knew that if she ever wanted to make it here, she would have to change herself, but she would not change herself into one of them that was something she could never do. Thinking of what Simeon had said earlier about her being like the Ice Queen from the fairytale and Charlie’s cool and collected attitude toward anything Danner she decided she would mix the two and embrace it. She would harden her skin to be immune to insults and relish in the challenges that came with difficult people.