I can't believe Thomas has left me alone with this ruffian! Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even married him! He's always preoccupied with his work, and when he's not working he tries to devote all his attention to his darling Elba. What about me? Of course I know he loves me, but couldn't he give me just a tad bit more attention? Well, maybe this is my chance! Maybe he's testing me by leaving me with this wild child!
From the future! More like she crawled out of a hole in the middle of a jungle somewhere! Honestly, do they not teach young ladies any manners at all in the future? Don't they waist train them anymore? The girl's waist is terribly clumsy, an entire 22 inches around! I've never seen such a wide waist on such a small girl! I'll straighten that out quickly! That is of course, if I can get the thing up off of Elizabeth's floor.
We had no place else for her to sleep, so we put her on the floor in Elba's room, much to my daughter's delight. I'd think that after sleeping on the hard floor the ruffian'd be eager to get up, but no! She is perfectly content to be sleeping on the cold hard floor, and doesn't want to move! Elizabeth finally manages to rouse the sleeping beast by jumping on her from off the bed. The girl sits up, rubbing her eyes and glaring at my daughter for a moment before laughing "Jesus! I thought my alarm at home was annoying!" she exclaims. Goodness! I've never heard such talk out of a lady!
I quickly send Elba out of the room and face my opponent. She appears to be sizing me up, like a bull preparing for a charge! She isn't violent is she? Are people from the future violent? She wouldn't dare hit me or anyone else would she? I sigh and pull out a corset, laying it on Elizabeth's bed, along with a dress and everything else I'll need. Getting this girl dressed is going to be a challenge, I can tell already!
We fight, but eventually I manage to pin the girl to the floor and get her properly dressed. Corset and all! I'm quite proud of myself, with her hair done up properly and with the right dress, she looks the part! She'll pass as a first class girl if she learns to behave herself! I take her downstairs, I'm going to start with the easiest thing, table manners! Surely they taught her some in the future?
She sits down at the table, and at once her posture makes me want to moan. I sit across from her "Alright, did they teach you any manners where you're from?" I ask her. She nods and to my delight she immediately straightens up, daintily taking her napkin off the table and placing it in her lap before looking back up at me, her elbows aren't even on the table! What was Tommie talking about last night when he told me her table manners were atrocious? Maybe she won't be so bad after all!
Elizabeth joins us about an hour later when we go out to the garden. Her poise is terrible! I'll quickly fix that! I take a book and place it on her head. Elizabeth copies us and places a book on her own head. I ignore her for now though, I just need to focus on the girl "Now shoulders back and stand up tall. And do not walk but try to float!" I tell her. She walks foreward, her head held high "I feel kinda stupid! Am I floating?" she asks. Elba, who has been walking alongside her nods, causing the book to fall off her head and laughs "Floatin like a boat!" she answers.
Alright, next on our agenda is proper speech. I know for a fact, from what I've heard in the 24 hours I've known her, that this is going to be the hardest part. How do you correct speech anyway? I remember at school the teachers carried around rulers and slapped the hands and arms of children who did something wrong. Luckily, I never did anything wrong at school, so I never got hit. But maybe I should use this little excersize to my advantage. I go into the house and get a ruler.
I sit her on our porch and hand her a tea cup. She swirls the liquid with her finger before putting her finger in her mouth, which is absolutely disgusting. Luckily Elizabeth is playing with her dolls under one of the trees, I don't want her seeing this poor behavior and copying it! The ruffian begins gulping down her tea and I clear my throat, she looks at me "What?" she asks, she looks at her hands before her eyes light up and she offers a sheepish smile "Oh! I get it! The pinky thing!" she says. She sticks her pinky straight out in the air and begins chugging her tea again, emptying the cup in seconds. Good grief!
Once she finishes the tea and puts her teacup down, I engage her in conversation "So Gabby, how do you like it here?" I ask her. She puts on a pouty face, like a little child before answering "I want this corset off! I'm not gonna be able to have any babies and it's going to be all your fault for putting me in this!" she tells me plainly. I'm already stunned into silence! Is she mad? I had Elizabeth with no trouble at all, and I've been wearing a corset all my life! When I point this out to her she shakes her head "No Mrs. Andrews, my Mom says that they proved corsets kill women. I wanted one so when I played dress up I could be period correct, but she wouldn't let me".
Let's change the conversation! She's scaring me! What to ask her about? Oh! I know "Do you, attend school in the future?" I ask her. She nods "Oh yea, school sucks..." before she can finish I slap her in the hand with the ruler and she reels back "Hey! What the hell was..." I smack her again. Her mouth hangs open at me "Why'd you hit me?" she finally manages to ask. I calmly explain to her that every time she said something wrong, I would hit her with the ruler.
I almost faint as she stands, calls me a 'stupid b*tch' and then marches over to where Elba is sitting playing with her dolls. I can't even bring myself to stand up, I need to recover. How dare that little delinquent call me that! How dare she! I stand and grab the ruler, I'll beat her so she can't sit for a week! She does not address me in that way! Oh, I've never hit anyone in my life before, I've never been brought to it. But now! This girl has pushed me to my very limits!
As I approach, I can already see the mischivious glint in her eyes. She whispers something into Elizabeth's ear before picking my daughter up, and pushing her up the tree. I break into a run, oh no! Not my baby! I yell for her to get out of that tree, but the ruffian pulls herself up the tree after my daughter and begins climbing. And my daughter, follows her example and climbs up the tree as well. I stand at the bottom, ready to faint. No! I have to stay strong "Elizabeth! Elizabeth Law Barbour Andrews you get out of that tree this minute!" I shout.
She calls back down to me "Sorry Mama, I like it up here! Look at me! I'm gonna climb higher!" she tells me. Where is Thomas when I need him! Oh God! Oh what if she falls! Please don't fall Elba! Oh that ruffian, when she gets down here I'll murder her! I'll kill her for sure! If there is one hair out of place on my little girl! Well there's only one thing to do now, and that's stand at the foot of this tree, like a fool, and call up to those girls in hopes they come down. I certainly hope Tommie returns home soon!
"My God Nellie, what happened?" I ask, I returned home to find Nellie standing at the foot of the tallest tree in our garden, screaming up it furiously. She turns to me and lets out a sob "Oh Thomas! Thank goodness! Oh that little ruffian! She and Elizabeth climbed up the tree! Please get them down! Please!" she begs. I hush her before looking up the tree.
When Elba sees me she smiles brightly and waves "Hi Daddy! Look at me! I can climb trees like a redneck!" she tells me. Like a what? What on earth is a redneck? I believe that term came from Gabby, which means it can't be a good phrase at all. I hold out my arms to her "That's very nice sweetie, but can you come down now?" I ask her. She nods and begins climbing down, when she gets to the last branch she jumps into my arms and hugs me "Daddy that was fun! Look how high Gabby got!" she says, pointing up.
I have to crane my neck to see, but indeed I spot the girl, clinging to the highest branch that is strong enoug to support her weight. She calls down to me "Hi Mr. Andrews! I saw you coming from all the way up here!" she tells me, standing up and teetering on the branch for a moment before resting a hand on the trunk to support herself. "Gabby! Would you please come down from there now?" I ask her, her face changes "That depends, is your wife going to hit me again?" she asks. What? I glance over at Nellie, but she is pretending she didn't hear the remark by checking Elba over and making sure she's alright.
"She won't hit you again! Just come down!" I call up to her, and I mean it too! I won't be having her abused here, whether she's a delinquent or not, she's not an animal. She begins making her way down, carefully placing each foot and trying to keep the long skirt of her dress out of the way. When she's almost all the way down she steps on her skirt and slips, crashing the rest of the way to the ground. Helen gasps and I rush to her side.
The delinquent sits up, blinking before looking herself over. She got scratched up quite a bit on the trip down, but she doesn't appear to have broken anything. She looks at the skirt and frowns "Aw, I messed the skirt up!" she says. She sounds genuinely upset over it, which is actually a nice change from her being so nonchalant about everything. I pull her to her feet and she takes a quirky step forward, almost as though she is trying to hide a limp. "Are you alright?" I ask her, she nods "Perfectly fine! Never better!" she replies, before rushing back into the house. I know she's trying to hide it, but not well enough, she hurt something more than she'll let on.
Elba runs into the house after her, leaving me and Nellie alone in the garden. My poor wife's still upset, and I pull her into my arms to calm her "How did it go?" I ask her. She sniffles "At first, alright! She has table manners, if you ask her for them! And her poise will need a little bit more practice but it's alright. She just won't let go of her way of speech though! No matter what I tried! And eventually she got fed up and climbed up the tree to get away from me!" she explains. I kiss the top of her head "Maybe if you didn't hit her, she wouldn't have gotten fed up" I tell her.
My wife looks up at me "Oh Tommie, I didn't really want to hit her! I didn't! It's just, how else was I to teach her? Every other word out of her mouth was absolutely vulgar! I've never heard such speech out of a little girl!" she tells me. I'm going to have to have yet another talk with this girl! She needs to stop talking like a, what did she call it, a hick? I escort Nellie into the house and leave her in the kitchen to prepare dinner before going upstairs to hunt down Elba and Gabby. As I approach the girls' bedroom door, I hear their voices.
"Does that hurt?" my daughter asks, I don't know whether my ears decieve me, but I actually think the little delinquent is crying! She sounds like she's choking on sobs as she answers "Well of course it hurts, I think I threw my hip out!". I continue listening at the door "Should I tell Daddy?" Elba asks, Gabby hushes her "No! Elba, listen to me very carefully. You're not going to tell anybody! I'll get over it in a day or so!" she replies quickly. I choose that moment to enter the room.
The two girls are sitting on the bed, Gabby attempting to clean some cuts on her knees with a white, er, red cloth of some kind. I guess that means she found the bathroom, unless she used the drinking glass sitting on Elba's bedside table to wet the cloth. Both girls look up at me attentively "Daddy, you shoulda seen Gabby climbin the tree earlier! She got up there really fast!" she tells me. I pull a chair up and sit in front of them "Did she now?" I ask. The delinquent smiles slightly "My friends back home loved climbing trees. I was always afraid to climb to the tippy top, but I did today" she tells me.
I take the cloth out of her hand and begin cleaning the cuts on her arm myself. The bleeding on most of her cuts appears to have stopped, which seems to relieve her slightly. Elba continues talking and telling me about the day "Mommy made Gabby do some really funny things! Like she had to walk with a book on her head! And everytime Gabby said some stuff at tea, Mommy hit her with a stick! It was funny!". Gabby glares at her "It wasn't funny! That hurt!" she tells me. I can spot a few red marks on her hands, marks that I know are not from falling out of the tree.
"Don't worry, she won't be hitting you again" I assure her. She looks up at me "You promise?" she asks suspiciously, I nod "I promise" I reassure her. She holds out her pinky "Do you pinky swear?" she asks. I don't know what a pinky swear is, but I hold my pinky out like hers and she links her pinky onto mine "Sure" I reply. She looks completely relieved now "Ok good! I don't want to climb up another tree! It's really hard to do in this dress!".
She begins picking at a loose threat on the dress before looking up at me "I'm not going to change, I respect you a great deal Mr. Andrews, but I'm not going to pretend to be something, or someone, I ain't" she tells me. Oh dear, ain't? I nod "Yes, but listen to me! You don't have to change for me, or even for my wife. But when we're on that ship, in front of those first class people, you have to pretend to be like them! You just have to!" I tell her.
The girl is so hard headed! She shakes her head at me "I'll eat in my room alone if that's what I must do!" she tells me. I take her hand, she pulls it away "Mr. Andrews, I'm going to be an actress on Broadway someday, at least, I hope so. I'll tell you what, I need a little acting practice. I'll pretend to be a perfect little angel while on the Titanic, but you have to let me be myself and do my thing until then. Ok?". Well, I don't know if I can trust her. Does she know how to act, how to behave like a first class girl?
I'll have to put my faith in her! Of course, last time I put my faith in something, it was the Titanic, and the Titanic sank. I hope my faith isn't misplaced this time, because, well, in the words of this lunatic, 'that would suck'.
Alright, this was kinda a hard chapter. But here it is! Now, if you didn't notice, the first half of the chapter was told from Helen's point of view, and the second half was back to Mr. Andrews' point of view. This is going to happen quite a bit in future chapters. Mostly because, well, Thomas isn't going to be around our little delinquent all the time. And since the story is sorta focused on her, we need to keep it on her. So, whoever just happens to be around at the time, that's who's pov it is.
Don't worry though, I'll drop lots of hints and stuff right away when I switch POVS so you'll be able to tell when one character's pov starts and another's ends. If worse comes to worse, I'll put a giant label that says 'So and So's POV' at the top of each thingy.
Thanks for the reviews! Keep em coming! They're like magical chocolate chip cookies. Every review makes me want to write more and more and more! So review! And as always, THANKS FOR READING!
