Chapter 4: Sponges and Shoes

We ended up under a willow tree. There was a beautiful half moon, and it was really bright. I glanced down at the (now smoking) teleport. 

1852 A.D. 

"Well this is good." I told Robert with a smile. "We're in Victorian times now. At least people here speak English..." 

Robert looked even happier than I was. "And there's a HOUSE!!!!!"

"Huh?"

"A house. There."

Robert pointed. 

I slipped the teleport into my pocket. "Good enough for me. Let's go." I led the way, with Robert. We climbed a short flight of steps up to what looked like the front door. I took a deep breath, and knocked. 

The door was opened by a red haired man, who immediately invited us in. "Please, come in. You must be Zelda and Horace...I'm very sorry to hear about the fire. It's funny, just yesterday your older brother told me he had found another place for you. Oh well, you can stay here as soon as he can buy a house big enough for the three of you."

Robert looked at me, confused. I shrugged and, making sure the man didn't see me, mouthed "go with it" at him. We turned our attention back to the man, who was talking again. 

"I, of course, am William Charlwood. You can call me William. It's very late. You should really get some rest, I'll show you two to your room." Without waiting for us to answer, he led us up the stairs and into a small room off the hall. 

"You should be quite comfortable here. Come down to the Dining Room in the morning, for breakfast. We can talk more then. Have a good night." 

And with that, he left, without letting us say anything at all. I moved over to the bed, and sat down slowly. The bed was kind of...stiff. Robert interrupted my thoughts. "Is it just me, or did we just get somewhere to stay for the night...did he call me Horace? What are we going to tell him? That we go by our middle names? And are you Zelda? Or did I hear that wrong? And why was the teleport smoking like that? And I mean it-" 

"Shh. Wait a sec." I told him. He talked very fast when he was nervous. "Uh, going by our middle names sounds fine. And we'll just have to figure out our last names later." 

Robert interrupted me with a huge yawn. "On second thoughts, we can figure all of this out later. I'm going to bed." He gave another yawn and began digging through the large wardrobe in the corner, looking for some suitable pajamas.

---

The next morning, after we had finished eating breakfast, William gave us a quick explanation of what we would be doing here until we "got back to our family".

"I'm going to allow you to stay here, but you have to find work. I don't think I have the money to support two new children right now. You see, I inherited this estate from my grandmother.... Zelda, I believe your brother mentioned that you've had some experience with cleaning and cooking? And Horace, your brother said you were training to become a shoemaker? There is a shoe shop in town, and they are looking for workers. You should be able to get a job there."

I answered for the both of us. "Yes! I mean, I'm a rather terrible cook, but I can if I need to. And I suppose I can get work...cleaning...houses... And Horace really wants to be a shoemaker! Don't you, Horace?" I looked at Robert expectantly and kicked him under the table.

"What? Oh yeah, shoemaking is....great!! I love making shoes!" he said, with a huge fake grin.

---

Once William left the room, my eyes widened. "Robert, I've never cleaned anything in my life. At home we always used to clean things by magic."

Robert shrugged. "Do it by magic then. Just don't let William see you. I, on the other hand, have a bigger problem. I've never made a shoe in my life, and now I have to work at a shoe shop. Seriously, we need to get out of here."

"That's nice, Robert, but we can't. I'm pretty sure our teleport fried itself."

"We fried it." Robert corrected me with an out of place grin.

"Whatever. The point is, we can fix it, but it will probably take a while. Until then, we're stuck here."

"Stuck here? STUCK HERE?!" Robert yelped, jumping in surprise. "But we can't!! I hate Victorian times!!"

"Uh, calm down. Until then, we'll just have to play along....cleaning..."

"And shoemaking..." Robert pointed out to me, looking utterly terrified. "Why shoes, of all things?"

William's voice interrupted us, and his head poked through the door. "You two need anything? Zelda, I'm pretty sure there's an old servants uniform in the dresser in the attic. You can do chores around here until we find work for you. Horace, you as well. The shoe shop isn't hiring right now, so we'll just have to wait for a spot to open up." With that, his head disappeared and I could hear him whistling as he went upstairs.

---

I managed to find an incomplete servants outfit. I shook my head with a yawn and headed downstairs. William had told me there was a dirty sink in his bathroom. Great. My first chore.

I quietly scrubbed the sink while I thought about all that had happened. Just two days ago, I had been working on a math project. Now, I was servant in Victorian times. Funny, how things could change so fast. I finished scrubbing the first sink and had just started the other when I felt my hand get hot. The next thing I knew, the sink was on fire. 

 I dropped the sponge in surprise and just stared. What the hell had I just done?

~

Hope you enjoyed my latest chapter ^^ Sorry it took so long, school was busy and I couldn't get on Sims to take screenshots. I was going to put more in this one, but I decided it was long enough. Don't worry, William will get quite important eventually. :) I'm thinking of introducing the third main character in the next chapter or the chapter after that, tell me what you think! :D

Anyway, that's it for now, and have a very nice day! :3