Peri was concentrating very hard on keeping her hand from wavering while she poured. This was the sort of thing she usually practiced with Nurse all week — any skill she was expected to preform with her mother was drilled in early and often. It felt a little unfair to have a new thing to do with her mother the very first day back in Oakshire Hall. She suspected this was some sort of special test, different than all the other weekly visits, and she was determined to perform well on it, despite being inadequately prepared. She was holding the handle delicately, as she'd been taught, and had her other hand resting on the lid as she poured. But the teapot was awfully heavy, full of tea like this. It was never this heavy when she played pretend.

The question made her cheeks flush. She thought this set was a gift from her mother, but now she supposed she'd been wrong. She'd never seen it before this morning; how was she supposed to remember where it had come from? But it certainly hadn't been here when she'd left in August.

"Yes, Mama," she said, hoping this was correct. She wanted to look to Nurse for a sign, but thought her mother might catch her looking and she might fail the test. She lifted the teapot back to level, with great difficulty, and moved to pour her own cup.

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