“Have them cover their eyes with their hands,” Artemis suggested. Her nieces and nephews had been able to do that at this age, though perhaps not for long stretches of time or with any degree of reliability.
Charlie demonstrated with exaggerated movements. They watched him intently, doing their utmost to copy him. Artemis’s armfuls were too little to comprehend much of it and wouldn’t have the least idea what Caroline and her brother were up to.
The little boys watching Charlie from the floor were entranced. Repeated attempts at mimicking his actions dissolved into giggles. Robert stood and put his tiny hands on his uncle’s eyes.
“Cover your own eyes, silly,” Charlie said.
William, sitting on the floor still, giggled and pulled himself to his feet, joining his cousin in the effort to cover Charlie’s eyes.
Caroline and her brother returned in the midst of the silliness. “Did you see where we hid the horse?”
“We didn’t,” Artemis assured her.
Caroline looked down at her little brother. “Don’t tell them where it is.”
He shook his head.
Getting up with so many little ones underfoot and in arm took some doing, but they managed it. After only minutes, the reality of how young most of their brood was became quite clear. They hadn’t the first idea what was happening or what they were looking for. Caroline, good sport that she was, simply laughed at her little cousins’ antics. Henry was very good about not revealing the hiding place of the toy horse.
But Alice, still clinging to Charlie’s side, was growing frustrated. “I want to find the horse. The boys are being bad.”
“Not bad, dear,” Charlie said. “They are just too little to understand the game.”
“Then why are they playing?” she asked.
He met Artemis’s eye. She managed not to laugh out loud at the exasperation in his eyes.
“Hers is a point well made, Charlie. I cannot wait to hear what your answer will be.”
“You are no help.” But he smiled at her.
Eventually, Charlie found the horse hidden beneath a chair. He then hid it, and Artemis discovered it beside a long table. The littlest ones lost interest by the time Caroline found and hid the horse once more. The two nursemaids who’d been in the room in case of just such a defection, were quick to gather up the tiniest of the cousins and whisk them away, no doubt to the nursery.
Charlie bid them each an individual farewell. He was so tenderly sweet with them. Not one of these children would ever wonder if someone cared for them.
Only she, Charlie, Alice, and Caroline remained in the large and impressive portrait gallery. The older of the two girls set out to hide the horse. Alice sat on Charlie’s lap.
“Do you think I’ll find it this time?” she asked.
“I think you might,” he said. “If I don’t find it first. I am a very good seeker.”
“I’ll find it,” she said eagerly. “I know I will.”
Caroline announced the horse well and truly hidden, and they all opened their eyes to begin the hunt. Alice ran around, searching beneath every chair and under the sparse bits of furniture. Sweet thing, she wanted so badly to emerge triumphant.
Artemis knelt in front of the child. “You keep searching, love. Caroline and I will convince your uncle Charlie to look for it on the far side of the room.”
“What if the horse is over there?” Alice asked.
Artemis met Caroline’s eye. The older girl shook her head. To Alice, Artemis said, “I am certain it isn’t on that side of the room. You look over here.”
Alice bounced a bit, eyes darting around with excitement as she took up the search in earnest.
“I’ll tell Charlie to look over there,” Caroline said.
“Excellent idea.”
While Alice searched near the windows, Caroline turned to Charlie. He, of course, would have overheard every word they’d said. Still, he played along, allowing Caroline to pull him by the hand to various pretended hiding spots.
