Goldie looked at the twins, "he really just left, didn't he?"
"Yep," Della smiled at her.
"Great."
"Wanna play Legends of Legend Quest Dereznaroth? Or you could help me earn my next Junior Woodchuck badge," Della offered.
"I have no idea what either of those things are."
"I'm going up to my room to practice my music," Donald told his sister.
"Uncle Scrooge said we have to watch her," Della reminded him.
Donald's shoulders drooped, "but..."
"And that we get to be in charge!"
"Fine then you watch her," Donald headed towards the stairs.
Goldie smiled, one down and one to go.
"Do you know anything about aeroplanes?" Della asked her.
"Only that they're flown by the most gullible people, you wouldn't believe the number of so-called sky pirates who've handed over their treasure to me." When Della frowned Goldie wondered if the girl wanted to be a pilot, so she quickly added, "but most of them were men and as your Uncle Scrooge knows I can charm even the greediest gold-lovers."
"How many sky pirates have you met?" Della didn't notice that Goldie had started walking towards the kitchen at first, but she quickly caught up to her, "are you hungry? I can make us sandwiches if you like. We're not allowed to use the kettle or the oven, Duckworth put in extra fire extinguishers after Donald tried to boil an egg."
Goldie slowed down enough to let Della get into the kitchen ahead of her. As soon as Della released the door Goldie pulled it shut, tied one end of a rope around the handle and the other end around a large table which was laden with a heavy looking antique. She could hear the kid yelling at her from the kitchen and smiled.
"I'll let you out before I leave," Goldie promised her, "while you're in there you can be thinking about how you shouldn't trust strangers."
Goldie took her time going through the drawers of Scrooge's desk, she liked knowing what he'd been up to, then checked his main safe and two ultra-secure ones. She was disappointed when there was nothing worth taking, and decided to head down to his Other Bin.
On the way, she heard a terrible noise. Feeling a little concerned because she was supposed to be alone in the house with two small children and because it was Scrooge's house which meant there was a higher probability of danger from outside sources, Goldie knew she had to investigate. She tracked the noise to a part of the house containing the guest bedrooms and carefully stepped back after opening the door.
The boy-child was sitting on his bed, holding a guitar. He didn't look happy to see her.
"What do you want?" he asked.
Goldie looked around, "I was recently stuck in a alternate dimension where the screams of the inhabitants could turn others insane. I just heard a sound that was worse, so I came to investigate. Can't have anyone else after Scrooge's treasures until I... that is, I came to make sure you were alright."
Donald hugged his guitar tighter, "where's Della?"
"She's getting snacks from the kitchen."
"You're lying."
"I'm sorry, perhaps you could mime what you're trying to say?"
Donald tossed his guitar on the bed, "I'm going to find Della, if you've hurt her..."
Goldie stepped aside to let him leave, but he managed to trip over her foot and she winced in pain. Once he was gone, she looked around the room and shook her head. Was this the best Scrooge had to offer his family? She took a look at the guitar, testing the strings to see if it was the instrument that was the problems or whether the kid needed lessons. The noise must have been coming from the kid's attempts at singing, which really was worse than anything she'd ever heard before. She wondered whether Scrooge was doing anything to help him with his voice.
Grabbing the guitar, she decided to hide it. She might need some kind of leverage over the kids before Duckworth arrived and it was clearly important to one of them.
The Other Bin was dangerous. Goldie had only been inside once before and only when Scrooge was nearby in case she had needed a distraction for something getting loose. He'd never talked to her about the bin, denied it existed even, but she had found the blueprints and flirted with his architect until she had all the details she needed. It was like walking through a shopping mall, but instead of offering everyday clothes and homewares behind every door was something so rare it could be valuable. Goldie wasn't stupid though, she wasn't going to try and wrestle a dragon (at least not without some magical back-up) or open any old door hoping to find treasure. She knew how Scrooge's mind worked and she would be able to find what she was looking for.
"Hey Aunt Goldie."
Turning around, Goldie was annoyed to see Della standing behind her, "how did you get down here?"
"I climbed out the kitchen window after you locked me in and then hid behind some curtains in the hallway while you were in Uncle Scrooge's office and waited until you went back down the stairs. After that I followed you down here."
"You should leave, this is the most dangerous place in the whole of the mansion."
"Really?" Della's eyes widened and she looked around. "I wonder why Uncle Scrooge didn't tell us about it."
"Hmmm," Goldie frowned.
"So what's down here? A top-secret money bin protecting even more of Uncle Scrooge's money with the latest technology? Are there lasers? Robots..."
"Magical artefacts of untold evil, creatures from your darkest nightmares and whatever else Scrooge thought would be okay to bring to Duckburg for safekeeping. I'm not sure your parents would approve of you staying here with all of this under your feet, but clearly your Uncle isn't the brightest... what are you doing?"
Goldie reached out and grabbed Della's hand before she could try to open one of the doors. She pulled the child back and held on as she checked that the door hadn't been opened even the slightest little bit.
"Uncle Scrooge said not to trust you, so if you said it's dangerous then it's probably safe."
"Oh for the love of..." Goldie released Della's hand and grabbed the back of the girls jacket instead, steering her towards the stairs. "I'm half-tempted to write to your parents to warn them myself."
"So what are you looking for?" Della asked her.
"None of your business."
"Donald and I know our way around the mansion, we could probably help you find it."
Goldie turned Della away from the Other Bin's entrance while she locked it, "and why would you do that?"
"We like it here. If we help you, then you have to promise not to write to our parents."
"You like living with the grumpiest, stingiest old duck on the planet?"
"Our parents are soooo boring and Uncle Scrooge is great when we go on adventures. You must really like him if you know your way around the mansion, you must come here a lot."
"We're old rivals, and his security is poor so breaking in isn't much of a challenge."
Goldie kept walking until they'd reached the foyer. She finally released Della and looked around. There was no sign of Duckworth and she was a little bit worried about leaving the girl on her own, she seemed the type to head back to the Other Bin on her own.
"What will it take to make you promise not to go back in there on your own? Actually make that a promise not to go back without an adult... without your Uncle Scrooge with you."
"Huh," Della tilted her head as she studied Goldie. "You really don't want me to go in there, do you?"
"Your uncle left me in charge, and I am not going to have your parents or your grandparents after me if you get yourself killed or violently maimed."
Della smiled, "have you met them?"
Goldie shook her head, "thankfully not, but he's mentioned them a few times. Mostly when he was drunk and needed to let off some steam. I did run into your Aunt Matilda once. She tried to sell me, what did she call it, Adopt-a-croc? Some kind of crocodile rehabilitation plan, so people could have their own pet crocodiles."
"Hah, yeah she's the best. Mom considered sending us to stay with her while dad was in hospital, but then she started on another animal-based business idea and she thought we'd be safer with Uncle Scrooge."
"I'm sure it was a difficult decision."
"So, about that promise," Della was already running through some ideas in her head.
Goldie tried to hide her amusement at Della's similarity to Scrooge, "yes?"
"You'll do whatever we want if we promise not to go back there without Uncle Scrooge?"
"We?"
"I can't not tell Donald about it, we're twins, so you'll have to make a bargain with both of us."
"Hmm. What did you have in mind?"
"I'm not sure yet, I need to think about it first."
"Well don't wait too long, I'm leaving once your Uncle returns or that butler gets back - whichever's first."
"Let's go find Donald, I think I can guess what he'll want."
"What's that?"
"To go to the Geezer concert. Uncle Scrooge won't take us, he says the band doesn't play real music, and we need an adult to get in."
Goldie was almost relieved, she'd expected something more time consuming or requiring actual effort on her part. A concert was fine, she could wear ear plugs. There probably wouldn't be anything valuable at the concert but the kids would be a good alibi if she needed one.