Tom was utterly and totally drenched. Only he would be asked to sit in on the children's bath-time with Mrs. Hughes as they searched for a new nanny, and the second she stepped out of the room to fetch some new towels, a yelp of "Da, look!" came from the tub. The moment he went to see, a wave of water came careening into his face, accented by the high-pitched sound of children giggling in glee. An all-out splashfest followed. Mrs. Hughes walked back into a war zone.
"Really, Mr. Branson, I thought better of you." She attempted a stern look but the edges of her lips turned up nevertheless.
"Couldn't be helped!" He said with a wink. "You could even consider George and Sybbie cleaner!"
With a sigh, she handed him a towel.
"You'll be no help. Go on and change. I'll dry them off myself." She waved Tom out of the bathroom with a smirk.
He walked down the hall to his room, doing the best to dry off with one lone towel and didn't pay any attention to where he was going.
"Wha—!" A small muffled shriek came out of thin air in front of him, and all of a sudden he crashed into someone, stumbling through space. Thankfully, he caught himself before either of them fell. Removing the towel from his face, whoever was there but Mary!
She stood there, slightly bedraggled. Wet patches blossomed on her dress from where Tom had crashed into her, and her hair was in disarray.
She sent him mock glare. "What on earth is going on here?"
"Your son deemed it appropriate to have a splash war with Sybbie and I was caught innocently in its midst," he declared with a towel-covered hand pressed dramatically to his heart.
"I'm sure." She cracked a smile. "Are you certain you didn't instigate it, your rebellious spirit interrupting a perfectly proper bathing party?"
"Mostly sure." He smiled back. "Sorry 'bout your dress though."
"I'll be fine." Mary said dryly. "You need to change though."
"Yes, of course. That's what I was on the way to do."
"But, you know…" She trailed off, considering. "Since you're already wet… And I never liked this dress anyway… We might as well finish off this 'splash war' on our own, merely to determine a victor, of course."
Tom's eyes widened. "That's most… Uncharacteristic of you, Mary. Not that I'm complaining."
"Never mind that. Now let's head off before Mrs. Hughes gets it all cleaned up!"
With a laugh Tom hurried back to the bath with her. Now this would certainly make for a bath time that George and Sybbie couldn't forget.