Over the course of the following three months, seven nannies came and quickly left again as the children got cleverer and more cunning in thinking up ways to get rid of them. With each of them, the kids grew considerably naughtier day to day. They didn't need to be trying to get rid of nannies to be found drawing on the walls or catapulting items of value out the window.
The more they acted up, the more Cedric retreated into his study. Likewise, the more Cedric retreated into his study, the more the children acted up. Simon was more bitter than any of them, unsettled unless a scheme of some sort was in motion. Evangeline tried to talk to him, even if he simply needed someone to yell at and unleash the anger he was so clearly feeling. The effort was fruitless.
She and Cedric, on the other hand, had fallen into something of a routine. Mornings began with his breakfast tray and friendly banter, if he came home for lunch, they'd bicker about whatever the children had gotten up to since the morning. When he came home in the evenings, he'd be worn and she'd bring him a cup of tea before dinner. Dinnertime itself would inevitably bring more mayhem. More mayhem meant a shouting match. By nightfall, things would be calm again granted they'd managed to get the children to stay in bed. That's when the more serious conversations occurred, usually Cedric venting about finances and, as of late, Aunt Adelaide.
"She isn't happy about the nannies quitting," he said, crumbling up the latest letter. "As if I had a say in the matter."
"You mustn't let her get to you, Mr. Brown."
"How can I not when she pays the rent? I'm only her nephew by marriage. She has no obligation to me. She must be kept happy."
"Still, it's not right for her to put blame on you. Doesn't she get it's a difficult time for all of us? … All of you, I mean."
Not noticing her correction, Cedric said, "Aunt Adelaide doesn't have a sympathetic bone in her body."
Nodding, she admitted, "That I did notice at the funeral."
"Well," he sighed, "another nanny starts tomorrow. Let's pray she has what it takes to handle the children's antics."
Evangeline had been idly dusting the room as they talked. It was easier for both of them this way to be there under pretense when really it was all about the company. However, she stopped now, daring to look Cedric straight in the eye. "If you ask me, we'd done better without the nannies."
"Don't be absurd. They ran you ragged."
"It was an adjustment," she insisted. "For the lot of us."
"Preposterous. You were working two jobs. I ought to have paid you now that I think about it."
"No matter, Mr. Brown."
"In any case, we'll find the right nanny eventually. With so many kids I'm sure it's natural they should all have trouble settling with someone that meets all of their needs."
Going back to the dusting, Evangeline conceded. "Keep a good thought."
Another month passed and The Browns went through a further five nannies - an astounding turnover rate by all accounts. Cedric tried to do as Evangeline had suggested and keep a good thought but it seemed that the only thing his children were united in was getting rid of their nannies as rapidly as possible, no matter what their character was like. They were given patient nannies, stern nannies, nannies who brought sweets, who read stories, who were exceedingly kind, even in the face of seven little terrors.
Of course, they weren't really little terrors - it seemed Evangeline was the only one who remembered that though. She and Cedric argued almost every day now as the children's continuous antics put an immense strain on the home and gave Mr. Brown quite a reputation in the town for having no control over his children.
People had been sympathetic in the beginning, knowing that losing one's wife and becoming a solo Father was an immensely difficult thing to bear, but when they heard of all the devious schemes and tricks his children were playing on their nannies, all of them concluded that the man had rather lost control.
On a very rare, quiet morning at the Brown house Evangeline sat in the nursery darning a pair of Sebastian's socks with Aggie sleeping beside her in her crib.
Nanny Price had managed to coerce the children out to the park. They hadn't yet conjured up a scheme to drive her away, though it was only her fourth day.
Evangeline sat in the nursery with Aggie. She knew anyone else in the world would think her silly, but she actually missed the children already. She'd offered to keep Aggie at home, mostly because the baby had become a little flushed that morning and Evangeline thought it would be best to keep her at home.
Truthfully, Evangeline cherished her time with the little girl. It was a wondrous thing to watch as an infant became a child, features becoming more prominent with each passing day, the girl looking more and more like her late Mother all the time.
Evangeline hummed a gentle tune as she swayed the sleeping child in her wooden rocking crib. Being a maid, Evangeline knew her chances of ever having children of her own were very slim. The families she served were the ones she considered her own and The Browns were so much a part of her, she wasn't sure she could imagine her life without them now.
She'd been overjoyed to learn that Mrs. Brown was expecting Aggie, following a four year gap since the birth of Chrissie. It gave her hope to know that she would have the joy of children around her for many years to come. Of course, that joy was diminished immensely with Mrs. Brown's passing but in a way it made Evangeline all the more assured of her place and that she belonged with this family - for the sake of the children. Not as a replacement of their Mother - she could never be that, but as someone constant they could rely on, alongside their Father of course, whom she desperately hoped would become the same pillar of strength to them he had once been.
Stroking Aggie's head tenderly, her smile fell as the heat of the baby's skin burned her hand. Evangeline picked her up immediately and sucked in a sharp breath, trying not to panic. The child was far too hot and clammy.
With careful steps, she walked briskly downstairs, cradling Aggie in her arms.
"Mrs. Blatherwick, I need some cold flannels, quickly!" She called out frantically through the house.
"What's wrong?" The cook asked with a wary expression as she came around the corner into view.
"I think Aggie's fallen ill."
The speed at which Mrs. Blatherwick ran to get the cold flannels and the thermometer was very telling of how much the woman really cared for the children, no matter how much she may have griped and complained.
They took Aggie's temperature, it was 105 degrees - far above where it should be.
It was then that Evangeline noticed how listless the baby had become and how quiet she'd been - quiet too long for Evangeline's liking.
"Please will you get her milk, Mrs. Blatherwick", Evangeline asked and the cook rushed downstairs, the two women dropping everything else to tend to the sick baby.
Minutes passed, then an hour, then two, the cook and the scullery maid staying steadfastly at the baby's side, trying all that they could to lower her temperature and to get her to eat.
"Come on dah-lin', please eat…", Evangeline pleaded in vain as the little girl remained scarily still.
Mrs. Blatherwick stood in the corner of the room blubbering helplessly.
"Come on petal, come on sweet girl", Evangeline kept encouraging the baby, nudging the teat of the bottle against her lips.
The child was shivering quite severely but otherwise non-responsive
"Mrs. Blatherwick. I think you'd better fetch Mr. Brown from the mortuary and tell him to get home immediately", Evangeline instructed gravely.
Tears spilled from the cook's eyes as she nodded in assent and walked briskly out of the room.
Try as Evangeline might, she could not rouse the baby or entice her to drink her milk. The maid became increasingly more worried about poor Aggie's state. "Please Lord, don't let her die. Please save this little cherub", Evangeline prayed.
When Cedric finally came running in the door, Aggie miraculously began to fuss and Evangeline let out a gasp of relief.
"Aggie! Aggie my darling, oh my little girl", Cedric cried, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"She's just started to stir, Mr. Brown. She knows you're here. She's responding to you, keep talking", Evangeline nodded encouragingly.
"I'm here my sweet, Papa's here", the man's voice broke, breaking Evangeline's heart along with it. Then, as if a magic spell had been cast, Aggie weakly opened her mouth to suckle from the bottle.
"She's eating, Mr. Brown!" The scullery maid breathed full of relief.
Cedric let out a joyful sob. "That's it my girl, that's it!" He bent down to kiss the baby on the forehead. Aggie was still nestled in Evangeline's lap and with her boss's head close to her, Evangeline had the strangest urge to reach out and stroke his hair. Instead, she controlled herself and tilted the bottle a little further back, sighing again in relief when Aggie accepted the extra milk.
"She'll be alright now, Mr. Brown", Evangeline reassured him confidently.
Cedric raised his head to look at her, his face a picture of relief and gratitude. "Thank you Evangeline, thank you."
Tears in her own eyes, Evangeline nodded caringly in response.
When the children came home, they were all covered with mud and without their Nanny.
"Papa! You're home early!" Sebastian called out excitedly, but his face fell when he received a shocked and appalled look from Cedric.
"What on Earth happened to you lot? Where's Nanny Price?" Evangeline asked them from the couch where she and Cedric were still sitting with Aggie.
The children all looked at each other guiltily. Neither Cedric nor Evangeline had the energy to ask any more questions at that moment.
"Go upstairs and change immediately. I'll expect an explanation later", Cedric growled sternly.
All six kids turned and ascended the stairs. Before she did so, Tora turned to her Father and Evangeline and asked, "How's Aggie?"
"She's coming right", Evangeline said simply, too exhausted to explain further and not wanting to cause unnecessary panic among the children over the frightening events of the day.
Tora smiled softly before going upstairs after her brothers and sisters.
Evangeline and Cedric let out twin sighs. "My word, what could they have possibly done this time?" Evangeline asked him in a hushed tone.
"I don't know but I'd say we've seen the last of Nanny Price", Cedric replied forlornly. He bent forward to kiss his infant daughter before standing up with a groan. "I shall have to write another letter to the agency."
"Are you sure hiring more nannies is a good idea? It seems to be doing more harm than good." Evangeline spoke her mind after many weeks of long-held silence on the matter.
She realized she was really in no position to question her employer's actions, but she also knew that Mr. Brown had come to count on her and rely on her as an ally these past few months and that now and again it was good for a person to talk things through with another person if only to gain some perspective.
"What other option do I have, Evangeline?" He huffed.
"Mrs. Blatherwick and I can handle them. They'll be fine with us", she told him gently.
"And what if something happens like today with Aggie? Do you really think you'd be capable of caring for six other children on top of tending to one who's severely ill? No…I-I can't risk it."
Evangeline bowed her head despondently, disappointed that he had such doubts in her capability. She understood his concerns of course, but it still touched a nerve inside of her somewhere.
"I should go and see if the little ones need help", she swallowed, standing up quickly.
"Evangeline…", Cedric called out after her in regret, sensing he'd upset her.
For the first time ever, Evangeline displayed direct insubordination as she walked away from her boss without responding to him.
After Evangeline helped the children to change their clothes, she sent them down to see their Father.
Through thorough interrogation (or by coercing it out of Sebastian with a jam sandwich), he discovered that the children had met a dog walker who had let them take the dogs for a stroll around the park. The dogs proved too strong and too fast for any of the children to keep hold of however and all of them ended up being dragged through the mud, hanging on tightly to the leashes of the exuberant pooches. Nanny Price had warned them explicitly not to ruin their clothes and that they weren't allowed near the dogs because she was allergic. Eric confessed to making matters worse by placing a chicken liver in the pocket of Nanny Price's coat when she wasn't looking, which of course set the dogs onto her like white on rice. The boy seemed more gleeful than ashamed about what he'd done.
Cedric gave them all a very severe telling off, though secretly he was rather amused by the image of the stuck up and rather buxom Nanny Price being pounced on by a group of poodles.
He told them to hurry along and have their dinner and that after they'd eaten they were all to go straight back upstairs to bed.
It was only then that Eric's face fell, along with all of his siblings', knowing that their Father was not even going to wish them a goodnight.
He stomped out of the room in frustration and made his way hastily to his office to start on yet another letter to the nanny agency. On his way there however, a noise made him stop in his tracks. Someone was crying and it wasn't a baby's cry, nor could it be any of the children he'd just left in the parlor.
He peered around the corner of the entrance hall and spotted his scullery maid perched on a pail hidden beneath the staircase.
"Evangeline?"
The young woman gasped in surprise, turning her face away in embarrassment at being caught out in such an emotional state. "Mr. Brown, I'm sorry, but please just leave me be."
"Why are you crying?" He asked in genuine concern, not realizing that he was half the cause.
"Because I feel so bad about how things turned out today, about how close we came to losing Aggie. You were right to say what you said earlier, about me not being able to take care of the children. I've tried but…I've done a terrible job so far", she sobbed uncontrollably.
"Now that is not true and also I think you've taken my words out of context..."
"I should've noticed that she was unwell much sooner. I should've acted quicker than I did."
He knelt down in front of her, feeling truly crushed to see her so upset. "Listen to me, please. I should not have said what I said to you earlier Evangeline, I was upset with the children, not with you. Please believe me when I tell you that you could not have done any more than you did and that you did brilliantly. You saved Aggie's life. You saved my little girl and I just don't know how to thank you for that."
With a sob from both of them, they reached out and clutched one another tightly. She turned her head to murmur in his ear. "Please just love them, Mr. Brown, all of them. They need you so desperately."
He pulled back from her, regret heavy on his face. "I know. I'll do better, I promise", he pledged solemnly.
Evangeline didn't know how to express to him the immense sorrow she would have felt if they had lost Aggie. Of course, to lose any of the children would leave her absolutely distraught, but she felt bonded to Aggie so much, seeing as the infant had not known her Mother and had barely spent any time at all with her Father. Evangeline felt such maternal connection to Aggie and an overwhelming sense of protection. She knew Mr. Brown would be pleased at least in part that Aggie had someone who loved her, who had been there for her, but she also realized that it would potentially bring about feelings of inadequacy, guilt and maybe even jealousy in him too.
She didn't want to overstep, she knew her role in the household and although that role may have changed through necessity since the death of Mrs. Brown, Evangeline still knew her place.
As she looked into Cedric's much too close eyes, she was struck with how desperately she wished things could have been different. How she longed to have known him as someone else and not as his maid.
She realized then that she was pining for him, which could only mean that she was in love and that of course meant that she was bound to live in a state of misery for the rest of her days.