Characters/Pairing: Julia Poldark, Caroline Enys, Dwight Enys, Sarah Enys
Summary: Julia Poldark is looking forward to babysitting Sarah Enys for the first time.
Author's Note: Modern day/canon divergence AU. Spoilers for episode 4.4 (I haven't seen beyond that on writing this.) 415 words.

The Girls with Bright Futures: shallowness

"Now, are you sure you can keep Mistress Mischief in line?" Aunt Caroline asks Julia. If Jules were at home, she'd be rolling her eyes.

She settles on, "You have met my brother and sister."

"Yes, that was stupid of me," Aunt Caroline replies, checking her phone for the third time since Julia's arrived. Julia smiles.

"She'll be fine. We'll be fine. Promise. I have your phone numbers and I won't be using them." Her eyes turn to Uncle Dwight who's come into the room, dressed in black tie and looking good enough to be on Aunt Caroline's arm. "Go and enjoy yourselves. It's not every day you celebrate the NHS's seventieth."

"Well, it is one of the few dos your uncle has ever been excited about attending."

"Hey," Uncle Dwight says mildly, going to Sarah to kiss her goodbye. Sarah's been playing with Horace all the while. Julia notices that Aunt Caroline follows suit and kisses her daughter, while petting the dog. Julia used to be bothered by the way her auntie talked about Sarah, but Julia's mum taught her to look at what Aunt Caroline did, not what she said, and then Julia stopped worrying that Aunt Caroline didn't love her baby.

"Be good for Julia," Uncle Dwight says.

Julia isn't worried about Sarah being good. The 'Mistress Mischief' nickname is a rubbish one, Sarah's a little too good. Of course, she's being brought up differently to Julia, Jeremy and Clowance, in a bigger house and all that. But Julia wouldn't swop their beach for anything, and she's planned to bring the beach here – not actual sand, but the fun.

She waves them goodbye and turns to Sarah with a smile. When her mum volunteered Julia for the job, she was pleased, actually, because they've got something in common, her and Sarah.

Not so long ago, Julia visited Sarah in hospital, when she was recovering after the big heart operation that was to change her from a pale, poorly baby into a girl with a bright future.

Mum had been tearful and Dad had been quiet on the day of that visit, his knuckles white on the driving wheel. It had taken Prudie to explain to Jules that they were remembering Julia being very sick at the same hospital when she wasn't that much older than Sarah. But Julia is fine now, as is Sarah.

In fact, Julia is aiming to be the babysitter by which all other babysitters in Cornwall are judged.