Whim Manor And the Boy Who Wasn't.

Maids and Ladies

The next day was eerily quiet. Ms. Windsor and Tilly were meeting with the horse trainer, restricting everyone to the school while the woman who normally cooked was left in charge, which pretty much meant we had to amuse ourselves.

Most of the girls tried playing croquet, but it didn't seem like their hearts were in it, and whenever someone did talk, it was usually to complain that they weren't horseback riding.

More than a few icy stares, and not all of them from Victoria, were shot in my direction.

But Whim got the worst of it. One of the girls from team 1 kept 'accidentally' knocking her croquet ball out of bounds, way out of bounds, until Whim shrugged it off and went to the library. Nora followed her, and not quite sure what else to do, I ended up talking with Christie while she played.

She, unlike everyone else, was delighted and went on and on about the history of witchcraft. Naming names and dating dates, until my eyes glazed over.

Then the day after that, at breakfast, Ms. Windsor made an announcement:

"As you all might have heard, the horses are taking a little break. They're fine, but given their odd behavior, we've decided to let them rest for a week, so that the trainer can observe them. This leaves us with a kerfuffle...

"We had the entire summer scheduled precisely. Meaning if we don't replace equestrian with something else, we'll miss an activity at the end.

"And we don't have any other activities ready to go..."

A collective groan came from the girls as icy stares landed on Whim.

"...except one." Ms. Windsor continued. "We don't usually do this until the second month, after everyone's had a chance to get to know each other, but... what could possibly go wrong?" She chuckled nervously. "So we're going to do 'Maids and Ladies.'"

Ms. Windsor held up a lacy, black Victorian riding hat, reached in, and pulled out a handful of pink and white marbles, then dropped them back into the hat with a rattle.

"Is this like the sorting hat?" a girl from team 2 asked, "Like in Harry Potter?"

Ms. Windsor arched a brow. "In a way, very much so, and in a way, not at all. Everyone come up and pull out a marble." She held the hat out to team 2 and they each pulled out a marble until none remained. Then Ms. Windsor dropped another six marbles into the hat and called up team 1, who similarly pulled out their marbles.

When she got to team 3, to us, she dropped in noticeably fewer marbles.

Ms. Windsor started with Christy, who pulled out a pink marble, as did Nora, and Victoria. Suzi pulled out a white one. Then giving Whim and myself an all-too-too pleasant smile, she dropped in the last two marbles...

We both drew white.

Ms. Windsor ahem'd. "A 'request' we frequently receive is that while we try our best to give you girls a taste of the nineteenth-century upper-crust life, with a mansion... and fine dining... and a quaint little town... and –usually– horses, one aspect of that life of luxury we do not afford is servants. And occasionally..." She slid her eyes toward Whim. "Occasionally... The staff, Miss Tilly and myself get treated as such, looking after everyone's needs without a fuss. But as much as everyone here 'deserves' to be waited on hand-and-foot. There are only two of us, and eighteen of you. But that doesn't mean at least some of you can't experience the good life... with your own personal maid—"

"—Wait, you mean like slavery?" Victoria interrupted. "Because that's not—"

"—You drew lady, so someone has to be your maid."