Dinner Is Served
- It's dinnertime and the Cranston mice are about to find out what a fancy shmancy meal is like, complete with mice waiters, tons of courses, and a duchess too.
- That's right—the Cranston mice meet Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cheddar Gorge. She's an old mouse with a crown, and she's the Mouse-in-Waiting to Princess Louise, the Queen's fourth daughter. Apparently royalty is all the rage right now, since everyone is heading back to London for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. (Brief History Detour: The Diamond Jubilee celebrated Queen Victoria being on the throne for sixty years. When Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the same milestone in 2012, the Brits threw another jubilee. Moral of the story? The Brits like their jubilees. Now back to your regularly scheduled mousy programming.)
- Helena is surprised to see all the hubbub surrounding royalty—plus she's pretty grossed out by the Duchess's bad breath—but the Duchess has some gossip about the Upstairs Cranstons. Apparently their dresses are seriously out of style, so they've made a bad impression. And according to the Duchess there aren't that many eligible bachelors (a.k.a. single rich dudes) on the ship:
- Rich Bachelor (1): Lord Sandown, the future Earl of Clovelly—this kid is only five, so a wee bit young for Olive.
- Rich Bachelor (2): Marquess of Tilbury—this bloke is eighty, so too old for Olive.
- Rich Bachelor (3): Lord Peter Henslowe—luckily for Olive, this gent is twenty-four, which means he's prime marrying age in the 1800s. Plus he's a cutie—which means Helena doubts whether clumsy Olive can snatch him up.
- It seems like Olive might have a tough time finding a mate, and the Cranston mice are going to need to help her out.
- Back in Camilla's room, Helena, Louise, and Beatrice are headed to bed; Lamont is off bunking with the other traveling mice boys.
- When Camilla wakes up in the middle of the night, Louise surprises her. Camilla can't really believe that her mouse friend made it onto the ship, but she's super excited to see her little rodent buddy.
- Louise and Camilla chat it up. Beatrice dreams of hunky Nigel. And Helena worries about the future.