I was not enjoying this.
“No Clive! When you hold your glass, your little finger is meant to stick out!” Kiki commanded.
Putting the glass down, I sighed. “Kiki, if Constance Dove was going to go to an orphanage like this one, I don’t think she’d expect the child she’d chosen to be posh”
“Well, you want to put a good impression on her right?”
I sighed again. “Fine” I said, picking up the empty glass and sticking my little finger out further than normal just to prove my point.
“Yes Clive!”
“You’re making me feel like a dog”
“Sorry” Kiki said, putting her bottom lip out. That was how she pouted.
“It’s OK” I sighed.
Kiki looked up and smiled then. “Now, let’s get your accent to sound all posh”
Today is going to be a long, long day.
A week later
Today, I was meeting Constance.
If I liked her, and she liked me, I would be moving in with her in four days, if not, I’d be stuck at the orphanage again. I hoped I liked her, and she liked me, because I was NOT staying at the orphanage until I was sixteen. I was getting driven there in at the moment. Seems she lived out in the country. We were going down a country lane, when there was a main road slightly to our left. Once we turned a corner, I saw at the end of the road was a huge manor house, and there was no other houses in sight. Drawing closer, I saw there was a sign. ‘Dove Manor’. Constance Dove. This was her house. Wow, she must have a lot of money. Gardeners were tending to her garden, which was perfect condition, and there were numerous fountains, things people my class would only dream of. Once the car had stopped, I got out and climbed up a few steps to get to the door. Ringing the doorbell, it was only a few seconds before someone opened the door. Spring. “Oh, hello Master Clive, how’s your last week been?”
Spring and Cogg had only come the one day after they first came, so they hadn’t seen me for nearly a week. “It’s been hard” I admitted.
“Hard Master Clive? Whatever for?”
“My friend automatically thought that if I was going to be living with someone like Constance Dove, I’d have to start acting all posh”
“Oh no, not in the slightest. All Mistress Constance requested for was a kind, caring child who had manners, she never said anything about them having to be posh” Spring said.
“So the last week was a waste of time then”
“If that’s what you were doing all week, then yes”
Thanks a lot Kiki Anderson. “Well, we’d probably be best off getting you to go and see the Mistress now; she’s been dying to see you ever since we told her about you”
As we walked up a very long, grand corridor, I looked at all the pictures on the walls. They were all paintings or photographs of people, with a little plaque with their name on, and their year of birth and death. All these people were dead. “These are the Mistress’ family. She was an only child with no children, so if she hadn’t adopted a child, all the Dove fortune would go to the government, who would just waste it, she would much rather give it to a child she adopted” Spring said.
Looking at the plaques, Spring was right. All these people had the surname Dove. The further down the corridor, the more recent they were. “Is there a picture of Constance?”
“Not yet, these are all just for remembrance. As you can still see the Mistress in her blood and flesh, we do not wish to have her remembered on paper aswell, its see the Mistress alive how she is or not see her at all”
“Oh” I said.
“You’ll get used to it eventually, my boy” she said, walking to a door on the left. “Wait here a second” she said, opening it slightly ajar and going through it, and shutting it again. I could hear her talking on the other side, so there was no point, really. “The boy’s here, Mistress”
“Let him in, then”
Spring came out then, and indicated me to go into the room. Once I stepped through, I saw the room was a lot higher than the corridor, the pale yellow walls made it look much brighter in there aswell. A single woman of around 75 was sat quietly in her wheelchair, quite content. “Hello, young lad. Your name’s Klaus, correct?”
Why did everyone think I was called Klaus?! “It’s Clive, Miss Dove” I said sympathetically.
“Ah yes, it was Clive, now you mention it” she said. “So, Clive, I would like to hear your story”
So I told her my whole story, from the day I had lost my parents, right up until now. She seemed interested in all of it, and never looked bored. “It seems you’ve had an adventurous, but hard life” she said.
“That’s one way to put it” I said.
Then she started explaining her life story. It seemed she was orphaned aged 16, and had been living with just the servants for company ever since, and had never even gone outside. “Why don’t you want to go outside?” I asked. “It’s really sunny and you have beautiful gardens and there’s birds and-”
“My boy, as I’ve just said, I haven’t been outside for sixty odd years”
“But why not? There’s so much out there you’re missing. Come on, I’ll take you”
Constance sighed. “You seem like a very determined young boy. You’ll go far with that trait, so don’t lose it. If you wish to take me outside, I’m fine with that, but unless I’m enjoying myself, not too far”
“OK” I said, getting the handles on the back of her wheelchair, and, with some directions, I managed to get out easily.
“I see what I have been missing” she breathed quietly. “Clive, do you mind taking me into the forest, just back there?”
“Fine by me” I said, opening the back gate and taking Constance to the forest.
*
Jenny came to pick me up at around 6 P.M. She had gotten me and Constance to sit down and talk to her. “So Constance, did you enjoy having Clive for the day?”
“Yes, he’s a wonderful lad” she said.
“Clive, did you enjoy being with Constance for the day?”
“Yes Jenny”
“So, now the most important question. Would you want to adopt Clive, Constance?”
Constance stayed silent for a moment, but it felt like a decade. Will I be living with Constance or staying at the orphanage?? Kept flowing through my mind. She finally answered. “Yes, I would like to adopt Clive”
