Miss Avocet's mansion was four stories high. As I followed Toddy he explained the odd scheme of rooming. There were four hallways on each floor. Each hallway was painted a different color for the sake of organization and coordination. For instance, my room was the third floor, orange hallway, door 7. Although, the orange in my hallway was more a peachy salmon than an actual orange.
Behind door 7 I found myself entering a decent sized sitting room. A fireplace was straight ahead on the main wall. On each side of the mantle was a door, the right to the bedroom, the left to the washroom, as Toddy explained to me.
"Dinner is at precisely five p.m. every evening," Toddy said. "And, do watch your timing, Mistress dislikes the tardy." Then he stalked from the room, ducking so as to not hit his head on the doorframe.
The small clock on top of the fireplace read five minutes after four p.m., so I set to work immediately unpacking my things. Much like my quarters back at Miss Peregrine's I had a four-poster bed. A large wardrobe perched to the right side of the bed. There was no balcony like back at Miss Peregrine's, but a bay window with a window seat was decent compensation. The room had a nice comfy feel to it.
I started with picking out my boots and placing them on the small shelf that ran across the bottom of the wardrobe. I only owned three pairs of boots, but there would come appropriate times for each certain pair, I was sure. Next came my clothes. I carefully examined each article of clothing as I pulled them from my trunk. Making a good first impression to the other wards in my class meant a lot to me, and I wanted my first dinner outfit to be unexpected yet classy. I slid my hand into my trunk and my fingertips touched the smooth material of the gown Miss Peregrine had given me the summer previous as a welcome gift. Smiling, I slid it out and held it out in front of me.
The memory of when she had given it to me came to mind and I couldn't help but smile. It had been a grand day and one I would surely remember always.
I slid out of my sundress and into the gown. I buttoned the button at my throat and smoothed the skirt with my palms. I chose the boots from the Victorian Trading Company. For my hair I chose a neat chignon with the bottom section of my hair flowing loose at my shoulders. I had just finished sliding the last hairpin into place when there was a rap at my door.
"Enter," I called out.
The door opened and the click-clack of womanly heels crossed the sitting room floor.
"Miss Stonington," sang the voice of Miss Avocet. She was on the other side of my closed bedroom door. "Are you decent?"
"Yes, Ma'am," I replied.
The bedroom door opened and Miss Avocet stepped in. She was wearing a clean gray suit jacket with a matching skirt. Her silvering hair was fastened up in its usual updo. I turned to face her as she stopped.
She looked me head-to-toe. "My, my," she commented. "You doll-up nicely." She approached me and ran a finger over one of the buttons on the torso of my gown. "If I knew better, I'd say this was one of Alma's old gowns."
I giggled. "That's because it is," I replied.
A look of surprise spread across her face.
"She gifted it to me last summer," I said proudly. "She said that she's too tall for it."
Miss Avocet pursed her lips curiously. "Yes, she was one of my tallest students back in those days," she remembered. She sighed and then turned her attention to the clock hanging above my bed. "Is it that time already? Come, Miss Stonington, dinner will be served in the time hence. The other girls will be very pleased to meet you."
She then beckoned me to follow her, which I did obediently. We walked abreast down the main staircase to find Toddy standing straight-backed at the bottom of the lowest flight. He appeared to be on some sort of guard duty. It was entertaining to me, to have a talking bear as a butler and who also served as some sort of guard dog. Toddy was a big bear and his personality seemed gentle, but if I had to put money on it, I'd say he could royally tear the life out of someone who meant any of us in the house harm.
Miss Avocet trotted across the stair lobby, underneath an arch that opened into a small hallway with floor-length windows. Two heavy double doors resided at the end, and Miss Avocet pushed through them toughly, me close at her heels. The doors concealed the dinning hall. A long dinning table stretched across the middle of the grand room. Candelabras burned brightly lining the center of the table. Amongst the menagerie of table settings, large china plates and polished silverware sat five other young ladies. All their eyes fell over me and my stomach knotted immediately. As they stared the energy that built up inside me felt like I was a disliked headliner stepping out onto the stage of a horrible circus-show.
"Ladies," cooed Miss Avocet. "This is Miss Stonington. She has come all the way from Wales to join us this year. I expect you all to get on well." She toddled her way to the head of the table, and patted an empty table setting beside her. "Please sit, Miss Stonington and allow the ladies to introduce themselves."
All five pairs of eyes followed me as I rounded the table and silently took my seat.
"Miss Crane, why don't you begin?" Miss Avocet said.
A slender blonde girl, about thirteen if I had to guess, stiffened her posture in her seat. From what little I could see that the table didn't cover, her figure was squeezed into a pale pink gown that had a corset top. She had a noticeable baby face and her eyes were so blue it was striking.
The girl cleared her throat. "Good evening, Miss Stonington," she said in a thick British accent. "I am Annabelle Crane."
She's a crane, I thought to myself.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Crane," I said with a small smile.
Miss Avocet bowed her head in excellence at Annabelle Crane, and then gestured to a young woman who sat adjacent from Annabelle. The young woman's hair was mouse-brown and was so short that the ends touched the bottom of her ears. A white bow was fastened at the crown of her head. She smiled hugely.
"Hello," she said sweetly. She was also very British. "I am Miss Magpie, but you may call me 'Mary' if you'd please." The energy she emitted was very happy yet calm. She seemed a stable, well-mannered young lady.
Next came a tan-skinned young woman with dark brown hair. "Hola," she said in a Mexican accent, which I found to be extravagant, may I add. I had never met a Mexican woman with such a strong accent before and it excited me. "I am Floretta but Miss Avocet calls me Miss Jacana."
Beside Floretta Jacana was a tall, thin woman with dark eyes and dyed auburn hair. Had her pale roots not been showing I could have easily mistaken her auburn for her natural. Her hair was also very big and bushy with a nice natural wave to it.
"Gretta Mocking," she said. She spoke in an accent that I immediately recognized as someone from Boston.
"Excuse me, but, 'mocking?'" I asked as sweet as I could.
"Yeah," she replied. "It's easier than saying 'Miss Mockingbird.'"
I nodded.
The last young woman was a plus sized-woman, I would guess about fifty pounds heavier than myself. She had flawless tan skin and raven hair. Her brown eyes were doe-shaped and her nose had a squarish shape to it. Native American, perhaps? She may have been plus-sized, but she was beautiful.
"My parents named me Lovely Dove," she said after Miss Avocet asked her to share her name with me. "It's cordially 'Miss Dove.'"
"Lovely Dove?" That's a gallant name!" I said excitedly. I hoped my first impression was going well.
She beamed. "Thank you. I've always been fond of it myself."
From the head of the table Miss Avocet cleared her throat. "Now that we've all be acquainted, let us take our meal."
Two goofy-looking kitchen maids strode into the dinning hall carrying platters of various foods. Once placed properly in the middle of the table, the menagerie of edibles was vast and very odd. Off-the-bat I saw mashed potatoes and corn, but there was also a chicken, a platter of beef, a duck, and a turkey. The measurable quantity of food was enormous and I was shocked to see so much of it just to feed the six of us.
Just like at Miss Peregrine's, Miss Avocet permitted us to talk as we ate.
"Does it occur to anyone else that we could be eating an ymbryne right now?" Gretta chided in an enthused tone as she stuck her fork into a slab of turkey.
Horrified, all the other ladies turned their attention to her. The idea of eating someone like Miss Peregrine in her bird form twisted my stomach and a wave of worry washed over me.
Unexpectedly, Miss Avocet giggled. "Nonsense, Miss Mocking. I would never permit the harm and consumption of an ymbryne sister."
We all just looked at each other for a moment in silence, then the taps of forks and the scraping of knives on plates once again filled the room. The other ladies would take quick glances at me while I ate. I knew they were trying to figure me out but it didn't bother me at all.
"What matter of bird is a 'Stonington'?" Annabelle Crane asked after a few minutes.
Miss Avocet had forgotten to tell them my ymbryne species. It was no big deal.
"I'm not so certain of that," I said oddly. "But in this world I am to be known as 'Miss Raven'," I said.
"A raven?!" chirped Mary Magpie happily. "How wonderful! Ravens are very intelligent birds."
"Yes, but as ymbrynes, we are all intelligent birds," said Miss Floretta Jacana.
"Quite right, Miss Jacana," praised Miss Avocet.
The majority of the meal was spent eating and listening to Lovely Dove tell her tale of her name. Her parents were peculiar Native Americans and were very spiritual. Her parents never expected her to be peculiar when she was born, until one day, she morphed into a stunning mourning dove, and they had decided that their little ymbryne needed a strong name. Her ymbrynehood was seen as direct blessing from the Great Spirit. Apparently they had chosen a former name for her, but once her dove was discovered, they changed it to Lovely Dove, and Lovely Dove she was to stay.
It was a beautiful story and the way Lovely Dove spoke about her family made my heart miss my own family back in New York, if only for a moment. I wonder how they'd take it if they knew I sitting in a mansion in Blackpool with a handful of women who could turn into birds, though it is truly where I belonged.
Then I thought of Emma for some reason. Which led to me think of Olive, Bronwyn and Fiona and the rest of the children. Miss Peregrine found her way into my mind, too.
"So, Miss Raven," said Annabelle Crane, pulling me from my reverie, "are you directly from Wales or did you move there as a child?"
Inside I felt like laughing. I smiled. "I'm actually not from Wales at all," I explained. "I was there visiting my ymbryne when Miss Avocet discovered that I belonged her amongst you ladies."
At the mention of my ymbryne, all the girls fell silent and gave me blank stares again. Had I said something wrong?
"You have an ymbryne?" asked Lovely Dove.
"Yes," I replied smoothly.
Still silence lingered.
"I'm sorry, but, did I say something to offend you, ladies?" I asked when I couldn't take the blank stares anymore.
Finally Mary Magpie cleared her throat. "No, not at all," she assured me lightly. "It's just none of the rest of us have ever had a ymbryne except for Miss Avocet."
The world around me feel silent and the energy in the room sank into something low. These girls had no idea what it was like to live in a loop with an advanced ymbryne? How sad I felt for them.
"Ladies," said Miss Avocet slowly. "Just because Miss Raven was fortunate enough to experience another ymbryne's loop first-handedly, does not make her any different from the rest of you. There is nothing to get unbuckled about."
Miss Avocet's reassurance didn't seem to work very well. Instead, she opened the floor for the girls to ask me questions about my experience living in a loop.
"What's your ymbryne's name?" Mary Magpie asked curiously. Her hazel eyes burned with a bright curiosity.
"Miss Peregrine," I said. "She's a Peregrine falcon."
Smiles appeared all around the table.
"What's she like?" Floretta asked.
"Well," I began. Miss Peregrine was hands-down the most amazing woman I had ever met. She was my favorite person to be in the presence of and I idolized her. I could drag on for hours about how she impacted my life- and brag about her, too- but bragging about something only I had was not a very nice thing. I chose my words carefully. "Miss Peregrine- like all ymbrynes- is a wonderful being. She's kind and well-mannered and her heart is as big as the open sky." I grabbed my glass of water and fondled it. "Plus, she can make a mean turkey," I added.
The girls all giggled.
Pleased that we seemed to be getting along decent, Miss Avocet smiled from her end of the table. By this time dinner consumption had been long over and I'm sure the others were as tired as I was growing. Miss Avocet stood from her seat. "Ladies, this has been a wonderful meal, but I am afraid the time for us to retire is almost upon us. Breakfast is served between the hours of seven and eight a.m. I expect you all to meet me in the classroom at nine a.m. to receive your schedules."
She then dismissed us and we all middled from the dinning hall toward the staircase.
I placed my foot on the bottom step when Mary Magpie came up to me.
"Hey, sorry about that back there. None of us were lucky enough to be chosen for loops, you know?"
I nodded slowly. "I understand. And I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings."
She shook her head. "It's all right. I guess we didn't see you coming in so strong. In all honesty, I'm glad you're here. The other girl's aren't very fond of me. I think they just put up with me because they know they have to. I feel like you're different from them."
Mary was pretty much going through what I went through in high school. I guaranteed that going from the normal world to peculiardom was rather a big change for her. I had no reason to dislike her.
"I understand. I was so different from the other students in my high school. It made me an easy target. But ymbrynehood has changed me. Everything will be fine as the year progresses," I said. Then Annabelle Crane walked past up, climbed the staircase to the second floor, stopped and gave us the nastiest look ever. "What's the issue with her?" I asked Mary.
"Annabelle thinks she owns the world because her family is filthy rich. Her father owns a bank in London. Believe it or not, ymbrynes aren't really suppose to start academy until they reach sixteen. Annabelle is only thirteen. They say that her father paid Miss Avocet a hefty amount to take her in three years early."
"She's a damn gringa," rang out the voice of Floretta. She came striding up to us with a sassy sway to her gait. Her use of derogatory terms awed me. It then occurred to me that all the girls acted completely carefree when Miss Avocet was not around. "Don't trust her as far as you can spit," she warned me.
"What floors are you two staying on?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Fourth," said Floretta. "Yellow walls, third door."
"Second, first door, blue walls," Mary said.
"I'm third floor, orange halls, seventh door."