In the year of 1888 at number nineteen Cherry tree lane the Dawes children sat waiting for Bert and Beth to come were late as the twins often were. But then Miss Hannah walked in without the children.
"Where are Bert and Beth?" Thomas said. Thomas was the eldest child and was his father's, who was also named Thomas, pride and joy. He had the same golden crown of curls as his father and gold spectacles perched on his long nose and was slow of tongue and sharp of mind, he was not a Romeo by any stretch of the imagination but he was comely and wealthy enough for many as young ladies liking.
"Really where are they?" Mary asked. Mary was a shy and sweet girl of sixteen with long black curls coiffed up into an elaborate hairdo complete with cobalt silk ribbons, pure white Tahitian pearls, and albino peacock plumage and a pale doll-like face that had made her the object of fancy for rich men and chimney sweeps alike.
Ignoring the questions, Miss Hannah yelled "I quit" and hurriedly packed her things.
Just then father walked in, Thomas Dawes Sr was a stern older man with silver streaks in his honey colored hair and wrinkles all over his red face. "Where are Elizabeth and Albert?" he asked Thomas and then Mary not at all kindly and all but yelling at them.
Then Beth and Bert rushed in with faces flushed and sable coats flowing behind them. And the small children stared back at their father, feeling suddenly small and weak against their behemoth of a father.
Beth had soft curly honey colored hair, Sky blue eyes, moon pale skin, and a mischievous expression that was not often disturbed but right now Beth's face seemed guilty.
Bert had black hair, sky blue eyes, and a soft smile but that smile faded when he saw his father.
"You two go to the nursery and where is Miss Hannah" Mr Dawes Sr. Screamed
"She has abandoned her post," Thomas said gruffly while the children walked up the stairs to the nursery.
When the children opened the French doors they saw little Winifred sitting there in the lavender colored nursery, her golden ringlets bouncing as she rocked her new china doll.
The children stared out the window and saw Admiral Boom pack for his trip and Georgie Banks ran home and tiny Victoria Lark skipped down the street holding a newborn puppy named Andrew. Just then Mary, Thomas, Annabel,and Ellen walked in.
Annabel at twelve years of age was preparing to leave the nursery but was petite and naive enough to pass for a much younger girl. Her ebony colored hair was in a simple ribboned updo tucked under her mink hat and her indigo velvet dress obscured by her matching mink coat and a set of embroidered silk gloves covered her small white hands.
Ellen, who was a young girl of only seventeen, was Mary and Annabel's ladies maid. Though she was exquisite at making the young ladies of the house look like angels out of a painting, she had not the time nor the wealth to make her own stringy brown hair and broad red face look pretty, though she was not entirely unfortunate looking as many a sweep had told her, and as such devoted herself to tight lacing already minuscule young girls into even more minuscule corsets and sculpting their silken locks into such extravagant and elegant hairstyles that Marie Antoinette herself would be jealous of.
"You two got father steaming mad" Annabel excitedly said "We must write an advertisement for a new nanny" little Winifred said. "You can'' Thomas retorted "But I won't have any part in this madness".