The African trinkets

2 pence, too much

“…but don’t look now.” Was all Victoria could catch from what Lillian had been saying. Her mind was a flurry of thoughts that swelled in her mind and blocked her ears. Victoria instinctively turned around when her younger step-sister, Chrystal, yanked on her skirt. She regretted it when she spied her step mother.  Victoria snapped her head back to Lillian, who was trying to hold back laughter, “Well I told you not to look.”

“Girls! Wait for me!” The woman behind them yodeled and quickened her pace. Victoria groaned and Lillian snorted.

“Why didn’t you tell me she was following us?” Victoria pinched Lillian’s arm.

“Ouch Vicky! I only noticed her creeping behind us when we turned the bend. She’s very sneaky isn’t she?” Lillian rubbed her arm and turned to wave back to Victoria’s step mother.

“Don’t say that about my mummy!”  Chrystal huffed and her chubby cheeks began to tint with rouge.

“Sorry, Chryssie, Lillian wasn’t trying to be nasty –it just happens naturally.” Lillian faked shock and Victoria playfully stuck her tongue out at her friend. Victoria placed her arm around Chrystal and comforted the sniffing girl who felt the embarrassment on her mother’s behalf. Victoria subtly stroked the younger girls brown hair and eventually covered Chrystal’s ear with her hand so that she wouldn’t hear what she was about to say, “Promise me that when the wretched witch catches p to us that you won’t abandon me.”

“You have my word.” Lillian said with a sly smile on her face and her fingers crossed behind her back.

“Uncross your pianist’s fingers before I gnaw them off!” Lillian giggled and Victoria couldn’t help but feed off of her friend’s energy so she giggled too. The feeling felt so foreign to her because she hadn’t used this particular human action in a long time.

“Oh, Vicky, how savage of you! Speaking of savage how are you enjoying my grandmother’s present?” They girls had stopped walking and Chrystal had strayed from the girls to pick flowers from the garden that Victoria’s mother had once sown at the start of each summer for as far back as she could remember.  She knew that the flowers that bloomed in her childhood had long since wilted but she still felt like Chrystal was intruding on and destroying a most beloved remembrance of her mother.

“Present?” Victoria was confused and couldn’t place anything into context. This morning had robbed her of her wits; not the part where she found out that Phillip was a complete dog but the parts involving Wanda and the new servant tutor, “Oh, um, are you referring to the new servant? My Dutch tutor?”

“Yes, you seem rather distracted, Vicky, whatever is the matter?” Lillian took Victoria’s chin and lifted her friend’s down turned head.

Victoria turned her head and hugged herself in an attempt to hold herself together. She felt like she was a quilt with a loose strand and if she wasn’t careful around people, especially a gossip like Lillian, then she would unravel and fall apart. Victoria knew that she had to guard her Wanda secret with her life, “I’m fine, I promise I’m alright.”

“Mmm, I don’t believe that for a second but luckily for you your mother and present are within earshot so I’ll save my interrogation for another time.”  Lillian winked and turned to greet the latest mrs. Tate, “Hello again,” They kissed each other’s cheeks and hugged as if they had been parted for decades when in reality it was merely hours, “Maarintjie.” Lillian acknowledged the servant tutor by name and held out her hand for her to kiss.

Maarintjie nod in response and didn’t move to obey Lillian’s unspoken request. Victoria swallowed her laugh and ironed her smile, “Is there something in particular that you wanted Mother?” The older woman eyed Victoria with her unreadable brown, beady eyes and Victoria felt all of the heat rush out of her slender body. She hated that her step mother possessed so much power over her using the mere instrument of an authoritative stare.