Miss Minchin (Whinny!) had just left, having no choice due to Mr. Carrisford having the upper hand (so to speak) over her and Mortimer the teddy setting off her allergies again.
"Um, Mr. Carrisford…would you happen to be the Thomas I used to see papa writing to?" Sara asked. "He never mentioned his last name or the full details of how they met, he just said they were in the same squadron back when he was fighting the war in Africa."
"Indeed, Thomas is my first name. And I am not surprised that your father didn't tell you how we met, he always was humble." Mr. Carrisford chuckled, taking her over to his chair and sitting down with her in his lap. "You see, we met when he saved my life during battle. A cannonball from the enemy had crashed into a gigantic boulder nearby, sending an avalanche of rocks towards me. He risked his life to knock me out of the way, and in gratitude I told him that since I owed him my life I would gladly give him anything he needed. All he asked for was my friendship, since he had seen me be nice to the other soldiers, even the orderlies."
"Orderlies?" Sara asked curiously.
"Yes, they are members of the army who help out the soldiers by delivering messages, caring for uniforms, that sort of thing. Basically army servants." Mr. Carrisford explained. "Your father could tell from the way I treated the orderlies that I was a kind and generous man, and he was always willing to be friends with people like that. Honored, I accepted his friendship and we remained best friends until the end of the war. After that I left Africa, I was tired of the army life and more of a city person so I decided to retire and start up a new business as a lawyer. Your father, as you already know, ended up falling in love with the country and decided to stay in Africa. But we made sure to communicate often through letters to keep our friendship strong, and did our best to visit each other. Then your father found the diamond mine, and since he didn't know much about business he requested that I become his partner and help him with any contracts and other paperwork he might encounter. Again I was honored and instantly agreed, and he gave me fifty percent of the shares. Then of course he met your mother and had you…." Mr. Carrisford then looked away sadly.
"I know, mom died just minutes after giving birth to me." Sara said sadly.
"I felt so sorry for your father, Douglas did not deserve that pain at all. And I was also sad that I wasn't able to make the time to visit him and meet you. I wanted to be there for him, but I was in the middle of a case at the time and couldn't abandon my client."
"Oh of course not, after all you had to make sure he wouldn't be put in jail for something he did not do." Sara smiled.
"How-how did you know I was proving his innocence?" Mr. Carrisford asked confusedly.
"It was merely a guess based on what you are like. I just can't see you trying to defend an actual criminal or get an innocent into jail." Sara shrugged.
"Ah." Mr. Carrisford smiled at the compliment before sadly continuing. "That has been the only downside of my being a lawyer, I happen to be a really good judge of character and only accept cases where I can tell that the client is innocent. Because of that I frequently get people asking for my help, the majority of them being innocent. It is impossible for me to turn them away, which in turn prevented me from getting enough time off to travel to another continent. That is the only reason why I never came to Africa to meet you or see Douglas again. I only made an exception recently after he died to start looking for you, because you are an innocent who needed to be freed from your prison of loneliness and poverty. So I temporarily closed my business to get your father's fortune back and find you, so that I could adopt you. Especially since he sent me a letter after you were born asking me to be your godfather, which was an honor I instantly accepted and swore to fulfill no matter what if anything happened to him. I even vowed to claim full ownership of the mine as well. I already had more than enough from my business to take care of you, but it was only right that your father's mine would remain available for you to inherit rather than taken away by anyone else."
"And it is legally your mine as well." Sara pointed out with a smile.
"True, though I only ever viewed it as helping a friend with his mine rather than co-owning a mine with a friend." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "The last letter I received from Douglas explained how he discovered a new section of the mine, and that he wanted to send you to school while he explored it to make sure that it would be safe for his workers. Sadly he had not decided on a school at the time, and he never told me which school he had sent you to. I guess when he arrived he was so focused on finding the right school and spending as much time with you as possible that he was left without time to visit me or even contact me."
"That does sound like papa, sometimes he used to get so focused on one or even two important tasks that he would later forget to do other important things." Sara chuckled.
"Like looking into more than a school's reputation." Mr. Carrisford remarked. "I did not like the look of Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
Mr. Carrisford, Sara, Jacques, Pierre, and Soleil raised an eyebrow before Mr. Carrisford continued:
"-so since your papa had also been a good judge of character I am sure that he neglected to pay enough attention to her to reconsider sending you there. In fact the schools I had visited when I was looking for you had much nicer headmistresses, even though their schools had about as much respect as hers."
"I'm afraid I must agree with you." Sara sighed. "I hate to think poorly of anyone, but the way she treated my friend Becky - her only servant before papa died and I was made a servant - proved her to be cruel and narrow-minded. After all Becky is only a little girl like me, but Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-treated her as if she was below everyone else, as if she was no better than a criminal. And when I was made a servant my treatment was the same. All my clothes and books were sold to pay for my birthday party, Becky and I had to work all day with no breaks and were denied food if we made even the smallest mistake-"
"Not to mention ze unbearably cruel act of tossing your teddy out ze window!" Jacques spoke up indignantly. "Pun not intended."
"Why…yes…." Sara was surprised that Jacques knew about that, only to remember that he and Pierre loved hanging out on the roof. "Wait a minute…were you two the ones who made Becky's and my room nicer and gave us food, as well as returned Mortimer to me?"
"Oui, Soleil too." Pierre confirmed. "We told Mr. Carrisford what he had witnessed and he agreed to our idea of looking after you since Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-would not."
Touched, Sara went over to hug Jacques and Pierre.
"You all are the kindest, most generous gentlemen I've ever know after my papa!" She said with tears of joy.
"Well you are a little girl who deserves all the kindness and generosity anyone could give." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "Now, speaking of such things, Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-is clearly not fit to run a school for little girls, let alone a school in general. I think it would be best if she were replaced."
"For my friends' sakes, especially Becky's, I am forced to agree with you." Sara turned around sadly. "Perhaps Miss Amelia could be the new headmistress? She was the assistant headmistress before she was fired for defending me, and she was motherly to all of us."
"Sounds like a capital idea." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "Jacques, Pierre, would you please get Sara something to eat while I talk to Miss Minchin?"
*Whinny!*
"Oui, but of course." Jacques bowed.
"It would be more zan our pleasure." Pierre agreed.
Sara, honestly hungry, followed Jacques and Pierre to the kitchen with no more than a smile, Soleil following them as well. Mr. Carrisford then went to the next door school and knocked on the door; Becky opened it.
"Hello sir, are you here to see Miss Minchin?" She asked.
*Whinny!*
"Indeed." Mr. Carrisford said seriously before smiling: "Would you happen to be Becky? Sara told me about you."
"Indeed I am sir." Becky smiled.
"Never mind the sir, you may call me Mr. Carrisford. After all I am not your boss."
"Ah Mr. Carrisford." Miss Minchin (Whinny!) said nervously. "Um, are you here to collect Sara's things?"
"I will want to do that, but there's actually a serious matter I must discuss with you." Mr. Carrisford frowned at her cooly.
"Er…of course. Please follow me to my office."
He did, and sat down as she closed the door. He then waited until she sat behind her desk.
"Now, what is it you need to discuss?" She asked.
"Your treatment of others, especially Sara and Becky." Mr. Carrisford frowned. "I do not approve of such things, after all they are little girls and not criminals. So I would like to make a deal: if you quit and hire back your assistant Miss Amelia as your replacement, I won't go to the police to report you for cruelty to children."
"But…but I…." Miss Minchin (Whinny!) stammered, trying to explain herself.
"No buts, and don't think you can talk your way out of this." Mr. Carrisford glared. "I am good friends with the police, and my butlers happened to witness you tossing Sara's beloved teddy Mortimer out the window."
Miss Minchin (Whinny!) paled, not having known that her beyond cruel act had been seen by anyone other than Sara, Ermie, and Becky. She then took a breath and regained her composure.
"Very well." She gave in, preferring to look for a new job than risk going to jail. "I will write to Miss Amelia about replacing me as soon as you leave."
"Very good." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "Now, are Sara's things up in the attic or…?"
"Uh…just her Bible…I have the rest of her things right here." Miss Minchin (Whinny!) said awkwardly as she took a box out of a cupboard, obviously wanting to avoid revealing the fact that she took most of Sara's things to sell them. "I…was just keeping them safe, in case the roof leaked during the next rainstorm."
"Indeed." Mr. Carrisford of course didn't believe her, but didn't want to continue the subject. "I will take them now."
"Of course."
After taking the box Mr. Carrisford left the office, only to almost run into a little asparagus girl with two ponytails.
"Oh pardon me." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "I didn't see you."
"No worries, it was my fault. My name is Ermie, and you must be Mr. Carrisford. I saw you leave his house before coming here." Ermie smiled. "Say, how did you find out about Miss Minchin's-"
*Whinny!*
"-bad attitude?"
"I found out from Sara Crewe after I adopted her. You see I was best friends and business partners with Captain Crewe, and he made me her godfather." Mr. Carrisford smiled. "So I was able to get Captain Crewe's mine running again along with adopting Sara, though it took a long time to find her since Captain Crewe didn't have time to tell me which school she was in before he…died."
"Wow! I'm really glad you and Sara finally found each other." Ermie beamed. "Does that mean she's moving in with you?"
"Of course, she's back at my place getting a decent meal…for once." He couldn't resist muttering.
"I hear you, I tried to help Sara and Becky with getting good food but Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-caught me the first time." Ermie frowned. "Fortunately I wasn't punished, though I think that was just because she wanted to stay on my parents' good side so she could keep getting money from them. But poor Sara and Becky…I couldn't believe that old witch forced Becky to sleep in the basement and tossed Sara's teddy Mortimer out the window just so that Sara would be all alone in the attic."
"Well, none of you will have to worry about her cruelty any longer." Mr. Carrisford smiled.
"So I heard. I'm looking forward to seeing Miss Amelia again, I missed her." Ermie grinned. "Now I would love to talk more but I really want to tell the other girls the good news."
"Don't worry, there are a couple things I need to do as well and Sara's other friends should certainly hear the good news." Mr. Carrisford agreed. "We'll have plenty of time to talk later."
"You bet!" Ermie hurried away to see the other girls.
And what did Mr. Carrisford need to do? Get Sara's Bible from the attic, obviously, and buy two uniforms. One of course was for Sara, and the other….
"Sara, I'm home!" Mr. Carrisford said as he closed the door to his home. "Please come in here, I want to show you something."
"Really? What is it?" Sara entered the living room excitedly.
"Well, first of all Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-fortunately didn't sell everything of yours. Apart from your Bible what's left is in this box." Mr. Carrisford smiled.
Sara opened the box and gasped with relief. Along with her horse plush there was one other item that she had been worrying about.
"Our photo album! I was hoping she had at least saved the photos." She smiled. "Perhaps the album itself wasn't expensive enough to be worth selling."
"I can see that for myself, it is obvious the album was made with durability in mind rather than luxury. Very practical, considering it originally was in Africa." Mr. Carrisford smiled before frowning. "I'm sorry I couldn't save everything else."
"Don't be, books and clothes are replaceable." Sara smiled. "And I am glad to get Victoria back, Mortimer missed her. I suppose she wasn't that expensive either."
"Victoria…after our Queen Victoria?"
"Of course, what better name for a horse belonging to a princess? Well, a female horse anyway." Sara giggled.
"A very appropriate name then." Mr. Carrisford chuckled before pulling the two uniforms out from inside his jacket. "Now, I also got you a uniform since you will be going back to the school as a student, but then I decided to make someone else a student as well and so got a second uniform. I had a feeling that you would want to be the one to tell her."
"You mean…Becky?" Sara gasped with delight.
"Of course. You see I am going to pay for her education so that she won't have to spend the rest of her life as a servant."
Sara leapt onto Mr. Carrisford to hug him.
Later, after showing Becky the dress and revealing that she was to become a student, Becky was happy but confused.
"But how can I be a student? I can't afford it." She admitted.
"Mr. Carrisford. Not only has he convinced Miss Minchin-"
*Whinny!*
"-to replace herself with Miss Amelia but he is also going to pay for your lessons." Sara smiled.
"Wh-what?" Becky teared up, really touched. "Really?"
"Really." Mr. Carrisford then smiled, entering the building. "Being a servant should be a choice, not something you are forced to do because you have no other way to survive. And it should certainly not be a job for children, if children are going to get a job then it should be relatively easier like selling newspapers or raking leaves. And even then it should be a choice and only used for teaching children responsibility and money management, not for survival. So I would love to give you an opportunity to create a better future for yourself, one where you can later get a job you really want rather than be forced into jobs you hate just to survive."
"Oh Mr. Carrisford." Becky sobbed, going over to hug him. "Sara could not have found a better guardian than you."
"And Sara found exceptionally good friends in you and Ermie." Mr. Carrisford returned the hug.
A.N. I got Thomas from another VeggieTales fanfic called In the Lows and the Highs [by Kelli Mansi (MeilinLuo13)]. I just thought it was a very fitting first name for Mr. Carrisford, and Kelli Mansi gave me permission to use it.
And to clarify: I made up the mine cave-in as the cause of Captain Crewe's death, I just thought it fit his character and Mr. Carrisford's presence in the film best. Also Mr. Carrisford living in the home next to the school is a coincidence, in my stories he originally lived in another area of London full of various businesses (especially white collar ones) but when Captain Crewe died he decided to move to a more homey section to provide a better living atmosphere for Sara. The home by the school was the only one available that suited his tastes…and yes I'm sure that it was available only because of Miss Minchin's (Whinny!) personality. XD
Also I know Ermie told the other girls that Mr. Carrisford got his fortune from the mine, but as you probably already caught on from reading this story that was simply because she didn't know about him having been a lawyer before.