Sophie felt so happy with Katherine's presence. She always felt deep gratitude for the teacher and wished she could someday pay back the kindness that Katherine had shown her. Now, the opportunity came.
Sophie was no longer the poor orphan. She had a good life and as Leland always said, his wealth was hers too. So, she was at liberty to gift Katherine whatever she wanted to give.
After hugging and asking each other how they were, Sophie led Katherine into the manor. Sophie talked at length about their past and Katherine only responded with a smile, a nod, and the occasional 'yes, of course, I remember', and a few other short answers.
She never responded to Sophie's words with long answers. After all, she wasn't Katherine. Eloise focused her attention on the heavily pregnant woman before her and tried to hold back from stealing glances around the manor to find Leland.
Where was the man? She was wondering. Eloise had not seen him for years. It's more like he avoided her. Eloise once sent him a letter but he never even acknowledged that he received it. As a prideful woman, Eloise didn't want to ask him about it. She just kept her anger to herself.
"I am so happy to see you healthy and happy," Katherine smiled sweetly and pointed at Sophie's belly. "When are you due?"
"Oh, anytime now..." Sophie chuckled. She rubbed her belly and smiled soothingly. "Soon. We can't wait."
"The children must be so big right now," Katherine said. She had learned about Sophie's two firstborns from Karenina.
"Yes, they are. They turned six several months ago," Sophie replied. She tilted her head to see her sons playing in the garden and immediately a smile curved up on her face. She turned to Katherine. "Oh, by the way, Katherine, are you still giving private tutoring for the nobles' children?"
"No, Sophie. I am currently unemployed and now I am looking for a job," Katherine replied. "I came back to Hastings because I got most of my students here. I figured, maybe if I came back, they would want to hire me again."
Sophie was silent for a moment then remembered Jan and Luciel who were now supposed to go to school. She had been thinking of sending them to Cow Dung, but she was worried they were still not well adjusted to study among human children.
Maybe... it would be better to hire Katherine to teach her boys? Once they were used to studying like human children, they could go to Cow Dung to study with other kids their age.
"Katherine, how about you tutor my kids? Now they're six, going seven years old, and… um… they're a little too active and a little unruly, but they're still good kids. I'm sure they'll be pretty smart if they're taught by you."
Rght at that same time, she heard a scream from outside and soon Luciel entered through the door with a rabbit between his teeth. He was not wearing clothes.
Sophie's eyes bulged and she face palmed herself. It seemed, Luciel and Jan were hunting rabbits again and once Luciel caught a prey, he excitedly transformed into a human and wanted to show his mother what a great hunter he was.
And in the process, he forgot to wear his clothes. Sophie was used to this but she was sure if Luciel and Jan would show their antics around their schoolmates and the teacher, they would all think these two boys were feral or something.
She had been trying to teach them to be more mindful with their surroundings and act like regular human children, but it was not the easiest thing to do. Jan did a better job at it than Luciel, but his brother, however, was a forgetful, impulsive and carefree boy. He always forgot.
Sophie quickly rose to her feet and reached out her hands to capture Luciel. "Gosh... what are you doing? Where are your clothes?"
Luciel dropped the rabbit from his mouth, turned around, and quickly dashed outside. He returned five minutes later, fully-clothed.
He bent down and took the bloody rabbit with one hand and showed it to Sophie. He said gleefully, "I caught you a rabbit."
"How wonderful," Sophie smiled and accepted the rabbit. Blood dropped to the floor from the wounds on the rabbit's head but she pretended not to see it. She turned to Katherine and smiled sheepishly. "This is Luciel. As you can see... he just caught a rabbit."
"How smart!" Katherine got up from her chair and smiled at Luciel, reaching out her hand for a handshake. "Hello, my name is Katherine Summers. Nice to meet you. I am an old friend of your mother's."
Luciel understood handshake and accepted Katherine's hand. "My name is Luciel Salazar."
Eloise scoffed inwardly. She thought Sophie's children were not entitled to Leland's last name. This made her feel so angry.
"You have a wonderful name," she said with a carefully curated smile. Then she turned to Sophie and said, "Are you serious with your offer?"
Sophie nodded. "Yeah. I want them to get a good education. I think you are a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot from you. Also, we want to make sure you are taken care of since you helped me a lot when I was younger."
Katherine looked touched. She wiped the corners of her eyes from tears and soon she nodded. "I would be happy to accept the job. Teaching you was one of my greatest pleasures and I am sure your sons would be good pupils too."
"Oh, Katherine," Sophie was really happy with Katherine's response. "Thank you. I am glad you agree to this. We can discuss salary and whatnot later tonight after we have dinner together. Do you have any plans after this? If not, I'd love to invite you to dinner, and then we can talk about things."
Katherine nodded back. "Yeah, I have no plans and would love to have dinner with you."
"Very well, I will tell my husband about you and we can discuss everything after dinner."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺