Page 10 of Play On

“The den,” I say again.

“Thanks,” he says. Then he raps on the door. “Luke? I have the cage.”

“Brilliant,” Luke says. “Come in.”

Within a few minutes, Luke and Eric exit the den, with the criminal peacocks apprehended and in the cage.

I make my way into the den, and OH MY GOD, it’s a complete disaster. There’s peacock poop everywhere, feathers strewn about, and paint splattered all over the floor. And if the situation weren’t so dire, I’d burst out laughing at Nicholas, whose brown hair is sticking straight up with streaks of paint in it. Amelia is covered with paint as well, and they both look ridiculous.

“Shit, it’s as bad as it sounded,” I say.

“Yeah, it was,” Nicholas says in a defeated tone.

“Mum and Dad are supposed to be back before lunch,” I point out. “They were looking at furniture for this room.”

“I’ll deal with them when they get home,” Nicholas says grimly.

When I see the defeated look on my twin’s face, and the tortured look on Amelia’s, I know I need to leave them alone to discuss what to do about the den. I decide to use breakfast as an excuse to make my exit. Truth be told, I need to clean up the crumpet on the floor anyway.

“Listen, I’m going to finish my breakfast, but let me know if I can help,” I say.

Nicholas nods. “Thank you.”

I leave the room, and as soon as the door is shut behind me, I immediately turn to Melanie and Cara. “We’re going to need a lot of help to get this cleaned up. Can you rally every available hand you can think of? Like from the café or garden?”

“Yes, of course,” Cara says.

“I’m going to go upstairs and change,” I tell them. “We can start with the hallways. I just want to do as much as possible before Mum and Dad get home to minimise the fallout for Nicholas. But right now, he needs to talk to Amelia, so let’s give them that space in the den.”

A look of understanding flashes across both their faces. They’ve been with us for a long time, and both women know how hard Nicholas works on the estate.

“We’ll do everything we can to help Nicholas,” Melanie asserts. “We’ll get as much as we can cleaned up before the earl and countess return.”

I glance and see all the chaos awaiting clean up.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

“Yes, thank you. I don’t know how much of the damage we can undo, but anything has to be better than this.”

They disappear to get more help and gather cleaning supplies, and I head back upstairs. Shit. Shit. Mum and Dad will be home soon, and not only will they be furious that peacocks were purchased in the first place, but when they see the wake of destruction that our house has become?

I wince. Dad is not even going to let Nicholas pick up a bin and dump it, let alone oversee a project. I dash up the stairs and change into some old, torn jeans and a faded T-shirt, then I pull my hair up into a knot on the top of my head. I reach for my phone, and when I see I have a text message from Mum, my heart practically stops beating. With dread, I tap open her message:

Violet, Dad and I have decided to have a late breakfast at a café, and because we haven’t seen anything we like locally, we’re on our way to London. Going to spend the night there and come home tomorrow. Love you! X

I burst out laughing. I can’t believe our good luck! We’re going to be able to make all of this disappear, and Nicholas will only be on the hook for buying peacocks.

I run down the stairs and run into Melanie, who has a steam mop in her hand.

“I have great news! Mum and Dad won’t be home until tomorrow!’ I exclaim.

“Oh, Violet! That’s brilliant!” she exclaims. “We can get all of this cleaned up!”

“Yes. There’s no need for them to know this ever happened.”

Melanie’s eyes meet mine in a knowing look. She smiles slyly at me. “You know staffers don’t keep secrets,” she begins. “But when it involves Nicholas? I think for once you’ll find the staff acutely unaware of peacocks ever being near the house, let alone in it.”

“Thank you,” I say, touched by the loyalty to my twin. “I appreciate this so much, and Nicholas will be forever grateful.”

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