‘Now, now, Nico!’ cautioned Mathilda.
‘Never mind,’ soothed Madame van Erlevoort.
St Nicholas and the page shook out the last of their sacks with much ado, after which they turned them inside out to prove they were truly empty.
‘Ooh, and now we’ll be going to the dining room!’ cried Ernestine, jumping up and clapping her hands.
‘Yes, yes! To the presents!’ Johan chimed in.
Everyone stood up and followed the bishop and the children into the drawing room, the girls giggling again about his wig sliding askew. But St Nicholas took no notice, and beckoned Willem and the maids.
‘Now! Open the doors please, quick!’ he ordered.
The sliding doors parted, and the children stormed into the brightly lit dining room, where the dining table had been replaced by four trestle tables, each with a name spelt out in chocolate letters, and each bearing a tower of toys.
The Verstraetens and the Van Raats motioned for their own gifts to be brought in by the servants: a hoop, a whip, toy gun racks, rubber balls, tin soldiers and a toy cow that gave milk.
In the meantime St Nicholas had slipped away with his page, and as it was close upon half-past eight Mathilda considered it time to return home. It took her a long while to restore order, however, even with fat Nurse Frantzen’s assistance. The youngsters got muddled about what belonged to whom; hazelnuts rained from Ernestine’s pockets across the floor; Johan’s tin soldiers, which had been unwrapped in the blink of an eye, were impossible to get back into their corkwood box; and Madeleine ran her hoop around the room with Nico blowing his new trumpet and Hector bounding at their heels, without troubling themselves about the rest of their presents.
‘Come, children!’ cried Mathilda. ‘Hurry up now, it’s time for bed.’
But her four youngsters failed to hear. Mad with excitement, they ran up and down, scattering about in wildest disorder the toys painstakingly assembled by the others; then Frédérique joined the fray, giving Nico a piggy back ride while he whipped her to go faster.
The Verstraeten lads, too, joined in, chasing Ernestine and Johan down the long marble hall and making a furious stampede with their boots.
Mathilda wrung her hands in despair. No one took any notice of her, as Nurse Frantzen was helping the maids tidy up the toys and the girls were chattering to Paul and Etienne again. To her relief she caught sight of Otto talking with Betsy and Madame Verstraeten; she went up to him and clasped his hands.
‘Oh, Otto, please help me! It’s past the children’s bed time, and they simply won’t listen to me! And you know what Mama’s like, she’s not any help either.’
And indeed, Madame van Erlevoort was occupied in the next room filling Madeleine’s toy tea set with water, milk and sugar, while old Madame van Raat and Mr Verstraeten looked on with much amusement.
‘Dear me, Otto is to act the bogey-man again, is he?’ he said, good-humouredly.
‘No, not a bogey-man, but I’m at my wits’ end! I really need your help. Have you ever seen such unruly children, Betsy? Please, Otto, will you come?’
Betsy laughed.
‘I think you had better assert your authority as their uncle, Mr Van Erlevoort,’ said Madame Verstraeten.
Otto went with Mathilda, first to Freddie.
‘Now, now, Freddie, Nico must be off to bed. Down, Hector, down I say! Auntie will let you have another piggyback ride tomorrow, Nico.’
‘Ah, but my back has nothing to do with you!’ said Freddie ‘It’s not your affair, do you hear? Come on, Nico, we must leave off.’
Nico obeyed reluctantly, still clamouring for his trumpet as his mother took him by the hand. Then Otto went into the hall, where the two eldest were galloping up and down, and spread his arms to bring them to a halt.
‘Now then, Ernestine and Jo, your mother wants you to go to bed! Do as you’re told, now, or you’ll make her sad.’
‘What a lot of presents we got this year, Uncle!’ said Ernestine, quite out of breath.
Mathilda came into the hall, too, leading Nico and Madeleine by the hand.
‘Would you believe it? There was Mama, calmly playing at tea parties with Ernestine!’ she said, and her look of despair made Otto smile. ‘I honestly think it would have been midnight before she even noticed the time.’
‘But Mummy, mustn’t we say goodnight to everyone first?’ protested Johan.
‘No, no! We can’t have that!’ wailed Mathilda, tightening her hold on all the small hands she could seize. ‘I’ll wish everyone goodnight on your behalf, I promise! Thank you so much for your help, Otto.’
She gave him a grateful nod, which he answered with his frank, genial smile.
Then Mathilda herded the children up the stairs.
. .
‘So you don’t mind all this noise and commotion, I take it?’ Madame van Raat asked Madame van Erlevoort with a smile, although there was a hint of disbelief in her sad, bleary eyes.
With the children finally gone, a lull ensued. The grownups left the dining room, which was still littered with toys, and gradually reassembled in the reception suite, to which Otto had also repaired. Madame van Erlevoort poured the tea and Willem passed the cups round.
‘Do I mind the excitement, you ask? To tell you the truth, I find it invigorating; it makes me feel quite young again. I need the company of young folk, the more the merrier. I never spent a drearier time than after my son Theodore and my daughters got married, and yet I still had three children at home, including Freddie and Etienne, who are both very lively. It does me a world of good to be surrounded by a tribe of little ones, there’s nothing like it for keeping one young. . Would you like some more tea?’
Madame van Raat handed over her cup, and she felt a pang of envy for her grey-haired hostess’s joie de vivre. She drew a comparison with herself, seeing her own sense of loneliness and melancholy loom before her in cruel contrast to the cheerful bustle enjoyed by this grandmother amid her boisterous brood, with her good health and her apparent freedom from any kind of nervousness.
‘And oh, you can’t imagine how sorry I am to see so little of Theodore’s youngsters — there are six of them now — but my son is so enamoured of life in the country that he won’t hear of coming back to live in The Hague, whatever I say.’
‘Your daughter in England only has one child, if I’m not mistaken,’ remarked Madame Verstraeten. ‘And what about young Madame van Stralenburg?’
Madame van Erlevoort inclined her head to Madame Verstraeten and whispered something in her ear, then gave a knowing wink in response to Mr Verstraeten’s raised eyebrows.
Thereupon she began to tell them all about the Van Rijssel youngsters putting their shoes by the chimney the previous evening, but before she could finish the door opened and Henk, red-faced and grinning, came in, followed by Jan Verstraeten.
Mathilda, joining the company again, was met with all manner of comments on how delightful her children were. Then the front doorbell rang out, hard and long, and the cheerful conversation subsided.
All eyes were on the door, which swung open to reveal Willem and the maids heaving a large crate. They advanced towards Madame van Erlevoort.
‘Ah!’ cried Frédérique. ‘The box from London!’
Madame van Erlevoort explained to Madame van Raat that every year, on the feast of St Nicholas, her son-in-law Howard sent them a box containing something for every member of the family. Willem set to work removing screws and nails, with Etienne hovering at his elbow to offer assistance and everyone watching with bated breath. The shower of gifts and surprises could commence.
. .
Eline beamed. She had already arranged her presents into a pretty display, exclaiming how dreadfully spoilt she had been by everyone, when Martha passed her yet another parcel. She untied the string with deliberation, inspecting the object from all angles for some sign, a seal or an initial, that might indicate who the giver was. But there were no clues, all it said on the label was her name: Mlle E Vere. The wrapping paper parted to reveal a long, slim case bound in grey leather, which she opened, thinking hard as to whom it might be from. On a grey-velvet pillow lay a fan of exquisitely carved mother-of-pearl. She lifted it out and unfolded it lingeringly, then stared at it, wide-eyed with admiration.