Lacie Ch. 06

Nodding, Lacie stored the advice away with everything else she had learned that day, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Claire's prediction soon proved correct, and the three girls greeted the new arrival as Ana hopped out of the cart she had been driving, a massive picnic basket taking up the other seat, wrapped food poking out of the top. Lifting the evidently heavy basket, Ana waved to the girls cheerily as she approached. Claire took the overstuffed basket out of her hands before the four girls exchanged greetings and hugs. The girls followed Claire into the barn where the strong girl tossed a few more hay bales around, making seats for the chatting foursome.

Sitting in the shade of the barn, the girls unpacked the amazing spread that Ana had prepared for them, enjoying each other's company as Bridget grabbed four glass soda bottles out of the old fridge in the corner. Lacie pulled item after item from the basket, setting them on the blanket that Ana had thoughtfully packed on top of the food. Warm roasted chicken, coleslaw, corn, barbecued pork, potato salad, deviled eggs, and soft, buttered bread rolls soon filled four separate plates as the girls ate. Despite the delicious flavors of the food, Lacie found herself unable to finish the spread that Ana had prepped for them. The russian girl had simply brought too much food. Fortunately, Ana didn't seem offended in the least, stating,

"I am not for knowing yet how much you eats, Lacie. So I think it goods I bring more than need, yes?"

The girls all agreed with her logic before telling her the very similar idiom, "Better too much than not enough." Which, of course, led to the amusing attempt to teach the bewildered foreign girl what the term "idiom" meant. Finally, Claire broke up the impromptu luncheon, stating her need to get back to work. Disappointed, but understanding, the other three girls packed up the remnants of their lunch before heading back to the carts. Lacie would ride back to the house with Bridget, the older of the two deciding to wait a few minutes after Ana left. Lacie spent her last few minutes on the farm amusing herself with Bo and Luke, the two dogs having run up with old, ragged, knotted rope toys. Their bright blue eyes begging the girl to play tug-of-war with them, Lacie indulged the two playful collies, before she asked Bridget why they were waiting.

"I want to let the dust from Ana's cart clear off the trail before we follow her. Four miles of breathing dust on a warm day in a tailored business suit? No, thank you. I'd rather enjoy the fresh air for a few more minutes while we wait." Bridget responded cheerily, placing her tablet on the leather seat before reaching over and grabbing Luke's rope, shaking the toy that the dog had his teeth latched around.

Unable to delay for very long, soon the girls were forced to leave the farm behind, the dogs whining wistfully as the two left. Looking back though, Lacie saw the two collies start play fighting over one of the dropped ropes, just before dashing into the horse corral. The last thing that Lacie saw of the farm was the two dogs racing next to Pharaoh, the large gelding having joined in on the fun. Smiling, Lacie pulled a strand of hair from the corner of her mouth. Leaning over, Lacie restarted her off and on conversation with Bridget.

"What next?"

"Next, is stuff you probably already know how to do. You'll help Tara with laundry once a week, mostly folding and ironing stuff. Pretty boring if you ask me. You'll also be helping Tatiana in the kitchens every so often, probably scrubbing and cleaning pots and pans and the like. Hey, don't give me that look." Bridget said, smiling at Lacie's crinkled nose and look of distaste. "Ana has had to do it all by herself so far, so don't feel bad. She's had to cook, clean, scrub, dry, all of it, and she has had to cook for nine people. The poor girl is exhausted, but she's never complained once."

"You like her." Lacie stated. It wasn't a question.

"We all do. She's an absolute sweetheart. You saw what she just did for us all. Prepping and packing all that food probably took hours, yet she was here for only about forty five minutes. That trade is worth it to her."

"I like her too, but she's a little hard to understand at times. Her pronunciation is amazing, but the way she phrases things is..."

"Odd, we know." Bridget finished for Lacie. "You should have seen her when she got here. The only word she knew in our entire language was 'Hello'. For almost a week, she was dashing around the house going, 'Hello? Hello. Hello!' everything was 'Hello'. Questions, greetings, goodbyes, all of it, 'Hello'." Bridget smiled at the memory.

"How did she learn English?" Lacie asked.

"Well, as you may have noticed, she's still learning it. But she got her start after the first week when Master started getting frustrated."

"What happened?"

"Well, Russian girls aren't treated very well in their country, and she didn't have any reason to believe Master would be any different. Since he had no way to communicate with her, she spent as much time as possible avoiding him. He didn't mind, but having her drop everything and dash out of the room anytime she heard his footsteps, well, it kind of put the rest of us on edge after a while. Finally he got fed up with not being able to talk to her and he started teaching himself Russian."

"He knows Russian?"

"Oh, yes. He's not quite fluent yet, but he's close. He knows Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, and he's getting pretty good at Arabic."

"Wow." Lacie said, impressed.

"I know. Sometimes I think that man can do anything."

"Oh? Anything?" Lacie teased suggestively.

Bridget glanced over at the younger girl before smiling and peering over the top of her stylish sunglasses.

"Anything." She confirmed, just before both girls broke out in giggles.

"What did he do to get Ana to stop running from him?"

"He caught her by surprise. Ana was in the kitchen, sneaking food from the fridge when she thought no one was around. He stunned her by speaking to her in her own language. He wasn't very familiar with Russian at that point, but I think he managed to get his message across. I've never gotten either of them to tell me about that first real conversation, but I've managed to read a little between the lines. The language barrier gave them both a few false starts, but she eventually grasped enough to understand she didn't have to steal, and could cook anything she wanted. Well, the language barrier thing kind of popped up again, and she ended up cooking enough food for all of us. It wasn't what he had meant for her to do of course, but the happy look on her face as she watched us all eat and her obvious skill convinced Master to let her have the run of the kitchens. I, for one, am glad he did." Looking over at Lacie, Bridget smiled before whispering conspiratorially, "I'm such a bad cook, I could burn a salad."

Lacie started laughing as they pulled into the garage. Waving to Callie as they got out of the cart, the bubbly mechanic waved back cheerily, munching on some cold chicken and a roll she had probably snagged from Ana and made into a small sandwich. Apparently forgiven for the hiccupping incident that morning, Lacie grinned at the grease smeared blonde before following Bridget into the house. The women walked up a wooden staircase that emerged into the same hallway that Lacie had come though after being delivered to the estate. Bridget's tablet buzzed, and she looked down at the device.

"Master needs me for a while, he's still working some snags out of a business deal overseas, and I've been helping him with some of the trickier parts. Take the rest of the day, explore, look around, have fun. Don't get in anyone's way, and pick out a bedroom if you haven't yet. Stay out of the room with the silver door handle, that's the... uuh... 'playroom'. I think you might enjoy the one across the hall from it though. Decorated it myself. Settle in, get your bearings, explore the inside of the house. I have to go."

Bridget leaned down and hugged the younger girl before dashing off though the house, leaving Lacie standing in the hall. Sighing to herself, a more than a little overwhelmed, Lacie smiled and turned, deciding to simply start opening doors at random, enjoying the time to herself as she began to explore her home.