"Right, you ready?" Pipp asked. "Here they come!"
She dropped back into one of the bushes she and her friends were hiding in. "This will be the best surprise ever!"
As she said this, two sets of footsteps echoed in the distance, along with a strange rumbling sound. But this didn't concern them at all. Perhaps it was just some garden waste that needed moving; after all, there was still some to move from the garden redesign fiasco a few days ago.
"Get ready, Hitch," Pipp said. "Zipp will give you the signal!"
Zipp glanced back. "And hold it... and hold it... and now!"
Hitch pulled the ripcord, and suddenly a whole host of party poppers went off. The heads of all assembled popped up over the bush.
"HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!"
They all stopped in confusion when they saw Fifi standing there instead, pulling a cart loaded with mail. "I can only assume that was meant for somebody else. My wedding anniversary is in May."
Pipp looked downcast. "Sorry, Fifi," she said. "I thought you were mom."
"No harm done," Fifi smiled. "Though why did you use party poppers?"
"Because we legally cannot buy fireworks," Hitch replied. "We're not old enough."
"I could always find you some," Fifi said. "That way, when they do walk this way you can set them off!"
Pipp nodded. "That sounds great. Thanks for the help, Fifi!"
"No problem!" the postwoman replied. "Always glad to help." And she continued up the pathway.
Zipp sighed. "Now we've wasted those resources for nothing," she said. "It'll take us ages to set it all up again!"
"Zipp, it's OK," Sunny said. "I'm certain they'll appreciate any sort of gesture that shows how much you case about them. You don't need party poppers for everything."
"Which is good, because we don't have any!" Izzy said, who had somehow produced a vacuum cleaner and was sucking up the streamers from the party poppers.
"Your parents might just be running late," Hitch suggested. "Speaking of which, has anybody seen Misty anywhere?"
"She was still in the house last I looked," Pipp said. "But I think I know where dad is."
"And I have a sneaking suspicion as to where mom is," Zipp added.
Lady Haven sat at her desk, looking at the screen in front of her. Her list of things to do wasn't getting any shorter, and she frowned. "Even splitting the work half and half with Robert and there's still so much to do. Perhaps I should delegate more tasks to the girls." She paused. "But only if they want to, of course. They're busy enough as it is." She looked back. "Right, Item 81 of 300... Wait, what time is it?"
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Hello?"
"Zipp and her friends are here to see you!" Zoom replied from her watchpost next to the door.
"Let them in!" Lady Haven replied. She wheeled her chair round and smiled. "Good morning. Or is it afternoon? I've lost track of time, so my only real reference point was Elevenses, but... sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"
"It's One PM," Pipp replied.
"Or thirteen hundred hours for users of the 24 hour clock," Hitch helpfully clarified.
Lady Haven looked at a clock. "Oh dear. I am running rather behind." She pulled up the planner. "Unfortunately, meeting you outside for tea and cake is item 152 and I'm nowhere near close to getting to that."
"How many items are there?" Sunny asked, out of curiosity.
"300," Lady Haven replied. "And that's after splitting the workload!"
"Yikes," Izzy said. "That's a lot to do."
Lady Haven sighed. "Believe me, I would love to take a break from it all, but there's simply too much to do. This one case has consumed all of my attention."
"Oh?" Zipp asked. "What's going on?"
Lady Haven pointed to some documents. "I've hired some construction companies to redo parts of the garden, but they're busy arguing over who is doing what. It's consumed a lot of my energy as it is, and it's why I'm running behind time."
Zipp then had an idea. "Then how about we handle everything else whilst you get that sorted out? Let me do some quick mental arithmetic." She hummed for a moment. "Three hundred minus eighty two is two hundred and eighteen. There's six of us, so two hundred and eighteen divided by six is... 36.3 recurring. That's roughly 36 tasks per person."
Lady Haven looked concerned. "I will warn you, taking on all of these tasks is not easy. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well, and that's important- if work's done sloppily it will simply need to be done again later." She paused. "Are you certain you want to be Duchess?"
Zipp smiled. "Come on, mom. How hard can it be?"
"Don't say that!" Izzy said.
Lady Haven nodded. "OK then. If you need any help, give me a call. Have fun!" She then popped out of the door.
Moments later, tasks began piling up in their planners. Pipp glanced over. "Zipp, how do you plan to resolve the recurring task?"
"Easy!" Zipp said. "We each do 35 seperately, and then do the last ones together. Easy as pie."
"Right," Sunny said. "35 on list, 35 to go. Perhaps I need a planner myself."
Lady Haven strode outside, glad to be back in the fresh air after a while at a desk. As much as she enjoyed her life, it was extremely busy, and checking the clock she realised she had forgotten to have lunch. Oh well. She could have the kitchen staff make some sandwiches to keep her going to afternoon tea.
She stopped at the site to see two sets of workmen standing there, arguing.
"It's our job to put the fountain in!" said one.
"No, you're doing the river!" said the other group.
"Then why do you have plumbing tools!" said the others.
Lady Haven coughed. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but what appears to be the problem here?"
The first foreman looked over. "There appears to be some sort of mixup. My work orders state I'm putting the fountain in, but this other group think they're putting the fountain in as well."
"Our work orders state we are doing that!" said another foreman.
Lady Haven stepped over. "Let me take a look," she said, and compared them side by side. "Yes, there does appear to have been some sort of error," she said. "I didn't order two fountains, for one. As a compromise, why not one group of you build the fountain, and the other group lay the pipework?"
The second foreman nodded. "Sounds good to me. Fire up the diggers, boys!"
"Please try not to leave track marks all over the place!" Lady Haven called, before glancing to her phone. "I wonder how they're all getting along."
Zipp was led to a room in the house, and the door opened. "The important item here is taking a portrait- with a group of local children to honour our support of local causes."
Zipp recognised three of the kids as fans of Pipp, but the others were new to her. "This shouldn't be too hard."
The children looked up. Seashell was the first to speak. "Look, it's Zipp!"
"I thought the Duchess was coming to see us!" said one child.
"Well, I'm the next Duchess, heaven forbid any accidents," Zipp said. "I'm just, uh, getting some practice in."
"We don't want the next duchess!" said another child. "We want the real Duchess!"
Before Zipp could say anything the kids mostly jumped out of their seats and began running around the room.
"Hey, watch it!" Zipp shouted. "Those sculptures are very old! And stop banging on the piano! We just had it tuned!"
She shook her head as she ran around after the unruly children. "Honestly, if I'd behaved like this at your age I'd have been grounded!"
"Well you're not my mom!" said one of them.
Zipp grabbed her radio. "Thunder, I need some help getting some kids under control."
"Roger that, on my way."
Zipp facepalmed. "This is much harder than I thought."
Meanwhile, Izzy was doing a ribbon cutting in front of a new coffee shop. She picked up the scissors. "And I hereby declare this shop open!"
She pushed the blades in- and nothing happened. "That's weird."
So she tried again- several times. And failed, spectacularly. "Hang on, I've got an idea!"
She then sped off, before returning a few moments later with her tricicyle. "Stand back, everybody!" She hit the accelerator and charged into the ribbon.
Which still didn't break.
"This is hard to watch," said another observer.
It wasn't smooth sailing at the building site either. Large scale works had torn deep holes in the ground, meaning the garden looked more like a World War One battlefield than the garden of a stately home.
"Keep scooping the ground out!" shouted a worker.
"Careful with the plant pots!" called another.
"Got the connector pump?" asked another. "That'll be needed to connect the pipes together!"
Lady Haven sighed. "This is organised chaos of the highest order."
Just then, Lord Haven arrived. "Everything going fine, dear?"
Lady Haven sighed. "It could be better. Right now I've delegated a lot of tasks to other people, and I'm overseeing the garden turn into the Somme."
"It could be worse," Lord Haven said. "I saw somebody trying to run down a ribbon with a tricicyle, and I also saw Hitch trying to give an opening speech- not very well, may I add."
Lady Haven nodded. "Seems they're having a harder time of it than I thought."
"WHY WON'T THEY SIT STILL?!"
Lady Haven then felt her phone buzz, and saw a message from Zipp.
Children are unruly.
Please help!
Lady Haven nodded. "I was hoping they could be trusted to behave, but clearly I trust too easily." She glanced to her husband. "Could you keep an eye on them for a bit?"
"Of course," Lord Haven replied.
Lady Haven made her way back indoors, before spotting a photo. Namely her and her husband's wedding portrait. It was a little faded from the sun, but they could still be easily distinguished. Lady Haven snorted at what she had been wearing that day. "I doubt I'll fit into that anymore. Besides, who thought wearing an A frame for a wedding was a good idea?"
She then spotted the date, and compared it to her watch. "Well, I suppose it was a nice Spring day, and..." Lady Haven then noticed the date again, and gasped. "Oh no! I've forgotten the wedding anniversary!"
After a thoroughly chaotic early afternoon, Lady Haven entered the dining room, looking down. "How could I have forgotten such an important day? Thirty years of marriage and I forget something as simple as this!"
Just then, she saw Misty setting the table alongside the wait staff. "Misty? What are you doing here?"
"Hey mom!" Misty replied. "I've been setting up the surprise!"
"What surprise?" Lady Haven asked.
Just then, the others arrived. Zipp looked worn out, Izzy was muttering about string, Pipp had a bit of dirt in her hair, and Hitch looked a mess. Even Sunny looked worse for wear.
"I take it being Duchess wasn't as easy as it looked?" Lady Haven said, with a wry smile.
"No," Zipp sighed. "We didn't even come close to finishing the list. Sorry if it seems we take you for granted."
Lady Haven laughed. "Not at all! I've never gotten that impression from either you or Pipp. And it doesn't matter that you didn't get everything done. You still have plenty of time to learn how to do things, and getting unruly children under control is good practice for the future."
Zipp looked awkward.
"That was a joke, dear. Anyway, what matters is you tried your best, and you cannot give more than that." She indicated to the table. "So, what's this all about?"
Pipp stepped forward. "We organised this for you and dad's wedding anniversary!"
Suddenly, Fifi arrived. "I've got the fireworks!"
"Set them up outside for after nightfall!" Hitch called.
"You acquired fireworks?" Lady Haven asked.
"The exact same make and types you had at your reception," Zipp said.
Lord Haven then arrived. "Good work, everybody!" he said. "Now then, let's set work aside for a moment and enjoy some time together as a family."
"And friends!" Pipp added.
As they took a seat and selected items, chat was exchanged and tea and coffee flowed. Although Lady Haven couldn't help but feel thirty years had flown past rather quickly, the life she had was one she enjoyed.
A life that had given her opportunities, a friend group, a loving husband, and two wonderful daughters. And there was no other way she would have it.