Madam Varya sighed. "Is this a tantrum?"
Katrina looked up, blinking her eyes in question. "Pardon me?"
"I asked you a question, twice." She raised her hand with two fingers pointed up. "You have ignored me. Since I think you are too old for spanking, I am willing to just ask; is this a tantrum?"
"Why would this be a tantrum?" She frowned but then schooled her features knowing what would follow.
Madam Varya, her governess, narrowed her eyes slightly. "Ignoring me is a tantrum to me. Did you happen to talk to your father about it again?"
Katrina lowered her eyes to knees in a second. She would rather not be told 'I told you so' and take the heat here too.
"Ah, dear child." Madam Varya tsked. "I instructed you not to do so for a reason. Your father was never going to allow you to move away from him."
She sighed loudly in an attempt to cover up the discomfort she felt. 'God', she realised, 'I am going to cry'. It was inevitable.
Madam sighed and came closer. She placed her hand on Katrina's shoulder and patted it softly. "There, there now. You mustn't cry over something like this. We knew it was always going to be a wasted effort from the beginning."
Wasted effort… yes, that was exactly what it had been. A wasted effort.
"Hold back the tears, Katrina." Madam Varya warned as her voice returned to the stoic and stern tone. "Life has not presented you with anything to cry about. So, my suggestion would be to not invite it for such."
"Go and wash your face."
At once, she stood up and left the study room. She crossed the room where her cousin was studying and went to her room with a sniffing nose. Katrina only raised her head once she was standing in front of the mirror. To her horror, her entire face was blotchy and red. No wonder why Madam Varya had sent her to the bathroom.
She blew her nose twice with a napkin before washing her face and moisturizing again. It was going to be a scale on her knuckles if she ever presented herself with dry skin to her governess.
The red had not disappeared from her skin, but it had calmed a little bit. Perhaps she could blame it on the winter.
She chuckled, it was going to be another waste effort to blame it on something so trivial. Also, she was almost always red anyway. shaking her head, she checked herself for one last time before moving out of the washroom to the study room once again.