When they informed Potsdam, she smiled and assured them that they had made the right choice before calling Clark back and waking Nancy. Alice took a deep breath, and walked into the room her sister had just been sleeping in. Nancy had changed out of Hieronymous' undershirt into a pink dress…or perhaps Potsdam had transformed the undershirt…and was starting to stir as Alice sat down on the bed beside her.
Her little sister rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bed, and then paused to get a good look at her. "Your face is all blotchy…you've been crying Sissy. Why? What is gonna happen now?" she asked.
"Do you remember when I told you that if something dangerous happened," Alice asked, "that you would have to have a teacher with you all the time, so you would have to leave Mom and Dad's house?"
"Yes," Nancy whimpered. "A teacher has to watch me, so that bad spirit doesn't get me, right?"
Alice nodded. "Yes, Grandfather will be coming here with your new teacher in about an hour. You can go live with Grandfather if you want to, or I'll get a house and you can live with Hieronymous and me."
"I want to live with you," Nancy said immediately. "I've never met Uncle…Grandpa Ed…is he nice like your husband?"
"Yes, he is very nice," Alice confirmed. "You will have to stay with him for a little while, though. It will take time for me to find a house and get everything ready."
"Ok," Nancy said softly, squeezing her pillow, and Alice pulled her into her arms.
"It's not going to be easy Nancy," Alice said, stroking her sister's hair as the child started to cry. "I'm going to do everything I can to make it ok though. If you want to, you can go home to say goodbye to the twins and Mom and Dad. It won't be for forever, though. When you get older and are able to control your magic and defend yourself, you can see Mom and Dad again. They won't know that you are their daughter, but you will be able to see them. After you say goodbye, Grandpa Ed will take you to Disneyland, and I'll start looking for a nice house. You'll be able to see the twins as often as I can sneak them away from home for visits."
Nancy was sniffing. "Why won't Mom and Dad remember that I'm theirs? Why would they forget me?"
"Their memories will be erased," Alice said gently. "If you just disappeared without their memories being erased, they would think that you had been kidnapped."
"And that would make them very sad," Nancy said softly. "But if I do a good job, I can see Mom and Dad again, and maybe they would like me?"
Alice nodded. She could not imagine any circumstance that their parents would not like Nancy, even if they had no idea that she was their daughter.
"And I get to go see Cinderella?" Nancy continued. "Can we get a house with a lot of flowers that I can pick?"
Alice smiled at her. "It will probably be years before you will be strong enough that you don't need a teacher with you all the time so you could see Mom and Dad. You will have to be very patient. But, yes, you can go see Cinderella, and I'll keep an eye out for a house with flowers."
"Ok," Nancy said, somewhat reassured. "I'll miss Mom and Dad a lot, but I was missing you and Clark too. Sometimes I…." Nancy trailed off, looking just a little bit guilty.
Alice wondered what that guilty look was for, but she didn't think that now was the time to dwell on it. "I'm sure that Clark can come over to our house on the weekends, and maybe some evenings during the school year. You should see a lot of him then. Maybe Clark can drive up for visits during the summer," Alice suggested. "He can just say that he's going to go see his girlfriend."
Nancy suddenly looked curious given this new information. "Clark has a girlfriend?"
"Why so surprised?" Alice asked. "After all, I have a husband myself."
"But you're so much older than he is," Nancy insisted, and then she tilted her head. "But she needs Clark very badly, doesn't she?"
Alice blinked, strongly reminded of when her sister had told her about Hieronymous and that she was wearing an invisible ring that meant that she was married. Her sister was doing it again. Apparently, it was not safe to assume that Nancy did not know something. Virginia did badly need a husband within the year, though anyone that was eligible would do. Unless she was not talking about Virginia….
At any rate, it was a concern for another time. They had more immediate issues to deal with.
That done, it was not long before Grandfather arrived. Nancy seemed hesitant at first, but warmed up to him quickly. The new nanny was a grandmotherly woman named Madame Steward that Hieronymous recognized as his own White teacher from his own academy days. Apparently, her grandfather had lured her out of retirement, and Hieronymous confirmed that she was a very able witch. The first thing she had them do was tell them everything that Nancy was already doing.
"Well, she can implant visions in the heads of others," Alice started, "find dreams that belong to the person she wants to see or speak to and pull them into her own dream, is able to tell if someone is married and some basic facts about the person they married even if she was never told anything about it, messes up wards constantly, talks to 'invisible' friends that were able to defend her from the dark spirit that dropped her into Otherworld, talks to ghosts, and is able to make them appear so others can see them."
Madame Steward blinked, digesting all of the information. "You were correct, Lord Carleton," she noted. "The child is quite unusual. Even at this stage, she has surpassed senior students I would have considered 'gifted' in White. Only as scant few trained witches can make ghosts appear to others. And pulling someone else into her own dreams…was it willing or unwilling?"
"Willing, and by the way," Alice said, remembering, "Nancy says that she talks to Grandmother sometimes."
"She…she does?" Grandfather asked. "How…how is she? Why did she stay?"
"Apparently," Alice said, "Grandmother seems to think it unwise to leave us to our own devices."
"Given last night," her grandfather assented, "I would have to consider that a valid point. I could also see where she would have wanted to stay to watch your mother grow up, since I could not."
And Alice could not stop a surge of anger at the Velvet Curtain. Not only had it denied her grandfather the chance to raise his own daughter, not only was it now denying her own parents the same right, but it had also denied her grandmother the rest and peace she should have found in the grave. How many other families had it done this to?
Then they met in a conference room with Mr. Grey, her steward, as well as her husband, Clark, Potsdam, and a representative of the local government that appeared a bit nervous. Her grandfather all but ignored the man while they made plans.
Mr. Grey would start looking at the houses in the area, and Grandfather would see it properly warded and supply a skeleton staff for the house. Apparently, this meant the house would have to be big enough for not only herself and Hieronymous, but Nancy, Madame Steward, a cook, a housekeeper, and a gardener. A professional Warder her grandfather used himself would also be sent to assess the wards daily until he was certain they would not deteriorate quickly, and would move in if his services were required daily. It was considered quite likely that he would have to do so. It sounded like a lot of people for one house to her, but if the presence of a gardener meant that there would be the flowers that Nancy had asked for, then a gardener there would be. It also meant that she would not have to lift a finger for housework herself, and could concentrate on her studies.
After her education was done though…Alice wondered what ladies did all day. She guessed that there would one day be a governess for her own children, and she doubted social engagements would take the rest of the hours not devoted to her family. Eventually, she would want to find an occupation or hobby of some sort.
Nancy sat in her lap throughout all of this, holding a doll that Potsdam had supplied from somewhere. "I'm sorry to be so much trouble to so many people," Nancy said as the meeting ended.
"We know it's not your fault. You were being good," Alice reassured her. She also noticed that before sliding off of her lap, Nancy looked down to make sure that the floor was still there. She suspected that her sister would not take the floor for granted for a long time. That too caused a twinge of pain. One of the marks of childhood was that most children did not seriously consider that a misstep could cause death or serious injury. Her sister no longer held to this false, but comfortable, assurance.
It was not long before Alice found herself in a glamor, disguised as her Grandma, helping Nancy pack.
"I'm sorry we didn't have her ready Mom," her own mother said, coming out of the bathroom with a baggie containing a small tube of toothpaste and a princess toothbrush.
"Don't worry about it. We have plenty of time," Alice replied with a smile, trying to mimic her grandma's expressions. Apparently, the glamor also affected how she sounded as well.
Her mother did not seem to notice that anything was off, smiling while she packed a pink backpack of toys for the 'plane ride.' Nancy seemed determined to fit all of her favorite toys in the small bag, despite the fact that she had been told her things would be packed and delivered to her grandfather's house. At that point Nancy had started crying again, until Alice had mentally mentioned how much she would like Grandfather's horses. Her sister loved horses almost as much as she loved Cinderella. She had to keep her sister relatively calm, so she would be able to say goodbye.
When it was time to go, Ethan loaded Nancy's bags into the car she had borrowed because Gramps had needed to keep it while she traveled with Nancy. She had been unable to remember what kind of a car her grandparents drove, so an explanation of a different car became necessary. Alice even made sure to slip the twins a little cash, just like her grandma really would, but did not hug anyone as that would be hard to manage with the glamor as she did not have her grandma's body type.
Watching the goodbye was probably the most difficult thing Alice had done in some time. Nancy managed to stay somewhat composed, but her parents, ignorant of the whole ordeal, wore smiles that broke her heart. It was so very hard to keep her own smile in place.
Alice drove to the place she had been instructed to meet Grandfather, and hugged her sister while someone got her sister's luggage. "Now, if you need to talk to me, I'm getting a hand mirror that's enchanted so we can see each other. Grandfather will also be bringing you here to see me on some weekends."
"When will you have a house?" Nancy asked.
"It'll be at least a month or two," Alice answered, "probably not until school is out."
With that, she dropped her glamor and watched as Grandfather took Nancy's hand and walked into the old house that contained a Portal.
As Alice stood there, watching, she was surprised to feel light pressure on her shoulder, as if a hand was resting there. She turned around to see her husband standing behind her. When had he shown up?
"I thought," he said slowly, "that you might need my presence now just as much as I needed yours last night."
He was right. She let him hold her, somehow too grieved to weep. The pressure of her husband's arms around her felt nice, as if he could make the numbness and the grief slowly recede by his mere presence. And she was grateful to have him at her side. Her life would change, but life was change.
