The Arrogance of Elegance

Part the Seventeenth

The next morning we quickly ate breakfast before bundling up to take a walk. The cobbled streets were freshly covered in snow which the children were incredibly excited about.

"Can we make a snowman?" Lucy Hannah asked as we exited the townhouse and into the London streets.

"That's a possibility," I stated, offering my mitten-covered hands to Lucy who took it gratefully. I looked over at the other children who were quietly enjoying the white scenery. "Is there anything you want to do, Anne?"

"I-" Anne hesitated as she looked down for a moment, her cheeks dusted with red from the cold. "I don't know."

"Surely you want to do something in the snow!" I exclaimed, looking at the young girl.

"I want to snowball fight!" Little John spoke up, eyes sparkling at the thought as he marched on ahead of me, Daniel following in pursuit with a few off-tempo skips.

"Anne, surely!" I said, repeating my question to my eldest niece.

"Well," Anne said, looking down sheepishly. "I would love to make snow angels but I fear I'm too old."

"Too old?" I laughed, looking at Anne to see if she was serious. Indeed, she was gravely serious. "You are eight years old! Your mother and I did snow angels until... well, until we were older than Little John. Sixteen and thirteen. And I only stopped because Marjorie didn't want to do it with me anymore."

"So, I can still make snow angels?" Anne asked as we rounded a corner.

"Of course, darling!" I replied. "We shall definitely make time for that today."

"You're the best gov'ness," Lucy Hannah said nonchalantly before pointing to some item in a shop window. Her statement, though short, warmed my heart at the thought of being good to them. I also felt a bit of guilt for not being in their lives more simply because I found their neediness and noise annoying. But now I found their need of me to be reassuring and it gave me a mission to help them and guide them. It felt good to be needed.

We reached the park shortly afterward, and I let the kids run off to let out some energy. Anne went straight for a pile of snow with Lucy Hannah in tow. Little John immediately started making a pile of snowballs no doubt to torment his sisters and brother later. Daniel was trying to mimic Little John's technique of making snowballs but was really making snow blobs since it mostly crumbled in his hand.

"Aunt Magden, look!" Lucy Hannah said popping off the ground, her coat dusted with snow. I walked over to see her snow angel, though it was a bit sloppy.

"Very good!" I said, kneeling down to Lucy's height.

"Can you make one?" Anne asked, looking up at me as she sat up straight in the snow. I looked around to see that there were people about.

"I don't know if that would be a good idea," I stated. "Maybe if we go outside and there is no one around."

"Alright," Anne said dejectedly before a snowball flew straight into her face. I turned to scold Little John before getting a mouthful of snow myself.

"John Irving!" I scoffed, wiping the snow off my face as I faced him. His smirk dropped off of his face as he noticed my grave look. "Rule number one, the head is off-limits."

I then scooped up a ball of snow to throw at his chest. I dusted my hands off before giving him a look.

"Rule number two: never hit a lady without warning first," I said with a laugh. "Now we are even."

We returned inside to find that both Marjorie and Cynthia were taking a nap. Little John and Anne started taking off their snow-soaked coats and mitts to hang up in the foyer. As Anne was helping Daniel, I knelt down to help Lucy Hannah