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Big House, but I talked to him again and made him sit in a corner during outside playtime for two days straight, one for each stolen—yes, I used that word to him—animal. So there he sat, hurt and upset, glaring at the wall with Martha watching him while I took Bertie and the baby outside. It was not a punishment, I told him, but a reminder. I hoped the lecture about to whom much is given much is expected—right out of the Bible too—somewhat sank in that wily little brain.
    That day I found his other loot, I took Mary and Bertie over to the Big House and, at the side door, asked to see Mabel Butcher. She’d promised to keep quiet on what she knew of the first theft, and evidently had, since her chatty, cheeky sister said naught of it.
    When Mabel came to the door in her black uniform with white starched apron and cap, I said, “Mabel, we didn’t have much time to talk before, but I think we can be friends.”
    â€œOh, yes, Mrs. Lala. Martha says you’re firm, but real kind toher and the children, and much appreciated, especially after—after, you know—that other head nurse,” she said with a glance at Bertie who was turning in circles to make himself dizzy on the grass near the rose garden.
    â€œWhen you dust the agate animal collection,” I told her, “I’d like you to put back two other animals David had, but I don’t want you to take a chance getting caught with them yourself. Go fetch the housekeeper please now so I can explain to her where I found them and that David has sent them back. I ought to let David take his medicine for this, but he’s been through a lot, and we’re building from here. Will you help me? And please call me Charlotte when we are alone, or even Char. My sisters call me Char.”
    â€œThank you, Miss Char. I would like to have a friend—besides my sister, I mean.”
    So that deed was done. David learned he could not misbehave or pull the wool over my eyes, however much I lavished affection on him and his siblings. I kept quite calm after that, until word came that we were to all go to London to attend the queen.

Chapter 7
    Q ueen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in London and across the nation and empire on June 22, 1897. The Waleses and Yorks were attending the London festivities, but the children were not included, so we didn’t budge from the estate. In West Newton village, I watched the fireworks over the fields with David, Bertie, the baby, and Chad, though I had to go in early because the baby squalled at the noise. Soon after, I tried not to look crestfallen when I learned we were being sent to join the queen at White Lodge in Richmond Park instead of Buckingham Palace, but who was I to wish such things?
    It was the first time of many, I supposed, when I would oversee packing for three children, though the nursemaids did most of that work. Chad trundled the nursery household to the railway station in the estate’s omnibus, while their parents, who had come to collect us, rode in a carriage.
    I hardly had time to say more than two words to Chad, whom I had enjoyed seeing off and on. He shook my handgood-bye, gave it a special squeeze, and saved a smile just for me. Rides about the estate on my afternoon off each week were the only times we really had together, and that scarce enough because he was often busy. So I sometimes spent the time with Rose or Mabel if we could coordinate our schedules.
    But when he could manage it, Chad always found me, and we visited the beautiful sites of the area while he pointed out the coverts with nesting birds. He fretted much over the fact that ladies who visited Their Royal Highnesses here liked to collect the nest, eggs, then prick the shells and blow out their innards and display them under glass amongst other bric-a-brac. If they destroyed the nests, he had muttered, how was he to protect and tend the birds until the ladies’ husbands could