Finally, the last chapter is up. Thanks for being patient. Enjoy.
But be sure to check back for the epilogue really soon!
"Can you believe the nerve of that woman?" Hattie ranted. After walking several miles down the road, she finally felt the need to let it all out.
"She was rude, she was selfish, and she expected us to do her housework! Again, this is what servants are for!"
"I know, right?" agreed Olive.
Hattie smiled and pulled the sack from the picnic basket. "Well, at least we got something out of all this." She opened the sack, expecting gold. Instead, she found the sack was full of gravel. Both girls gaped in shock.
"That witch!" Hattie screeched. She tossed the sack, along with the picnic basket, into the brush. "Did you say anything to her?"
"What? No!" Olive exclaimed in defense. Hattie didn't really believe her, but she didn't have any evidence that she had tipped off Aggie, so she let it go.
"Well," Hattie continued, once she'd calmed down, "We still have these." She looked down at the eggs in her other basket. She took out a gold egg, and Olive did the same.
"Let's see what we get," she said.
"Uh huh," Olive nodded in agreement.
The girls threw the eggs over their shoulders, and then turned to see what they'd gotten.
Olive's face lit up. "What cute little doggies!" she exclaimed
Hattie's face froze in horror. "Olive," she muttered, "Those aren't dogs, at least not the cute kind. They're rabid wolfs." The two wolves growled, and both girls screamed and ran. The wolves chased after them.
The girls started throwing the rest of their eggs at the wolves as the closest available weapons. As the eggs hit the ground, they hatched to reveal bears, snakes, hawks, wasps and all other kinds of wild animals.
"Oh, to heck with this!" Hattie shouted. She threw her basket at the oncoming horde. Olive just dropped hers. The rest of the eggs cracked open, and the two found themselves running from huge pack of wild beasts.
"Somehow this is your fault!" Hattie screamed to Olive, as they ran through the woods as fast as they could.
It was late in the afternoon when Hattie and Olive finally returned to Frell. They were exhausted and limping, having been mauled, bitten and stung by almost every wild beast you could imagine.
Their mother was on the front lawn talking to a real estate agent. His assistant was setting up a For Sale sign by the front gate. Dame Olga looked up and spotted the girls coming up the road.
"Good heavens!" she exclaimed, running to the girls. "What happened to you?"
"That old witch tricked us!" Hattie responded, "That's what happened!"
"Well, come inside. I'll make a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it."
"You, mother?" Hattie was a little surprised. "What about Mandy?"
Olga groaned. "She and Ella left this morning for Lamia. I'm afraid it's just us. Now come inside."
Inside, over a nice cup of tea, the girls told Dame Olga about the old witch woman who disrespected them, despite being nobility, made them do her housework, and sent them home with a basket full of demonic magic eggs.
"What a vile woman!" Olga shouted, pounding the table. "How dare she abuse my precious daughters!"
"So now what?" Hattie asked.
"Well, your stepfather just sent me the divorce papers. Everything's been finalized."
"So, we're poor now."
"Not yet. Remember my sister, Dame Marguerite?"
"Aunt Maggie?" stated Olive, "Of course I remember her."
Dame Olga and Hattie glared at her for a moment and then continued.
"Anyway, she told me about a rich Baron who was interested in me. We're going to Dunbar to meet him."
The girls were excited, but then Hattie had a thought.
"Money, mother. What are we going to do for money?"
"Well, the Baron knows we're having financial trouble, but just so we don't look like paupers, I've sold the house. The real estate agency purchased it for 10,000 gold pieces. This way we'll have just enough money to impress the Baron."
The girls smiled. "When do we leave?" Hattie asked.
"Tomorrow," Olga answered. "The cab service will be here at 9 o'clock in the morning. I suggest you both go and pack your belongings, and thank the good lord we don't have to live in squalor for the rest of our lives."
The girls rushed upstairs to pack. As Hattie loaded her dresses, jewelry and makeup into boxes, Olive ducked into her room and took the pill bottle out of her purse.
"Take one everyday, and they'll make you smarter," she remembered Aggie saying. Wow, she actually remembered something. She popped the cap and poured out one of the pills. It was small and brown and shaped like a tube. It looked like a piece of candy. Did it taste like one? She swallowed it. It… actually didn't taste like anything. Ah, geez. But did it make her smarter? 'Go on, say something smart!' she told herself.
Olive thought for a moment and finally said, "In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs."
'Whoa, that sounded smart! But what did that mean? Did she even remember what she was talking about.'
As she thought about it, there was a knock on her door.
"Olive, are you packing?" Dame Olga called through the door.
Olive closed the bottle and stuffed it back in her purse. "Yes, mother. I'm getting ready."
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