“It’s done nothing of the sort. I’m still alive, which means I’m still the queen. I’m queen-in-exile, that’s what I am. Lalapinda’s current throne-sitter’s bum is polishing stolen property!”
Overcome by an excess of feelings, Reg launched herself off the chair-back and flapped around the dining room, swearing under her breath.
Melissande looked at Bibbie. “You had to do it, didn’t you? You had to bring up Lalapinda.”
“I didn’t bring it up,” Bibbie protested. “She did. She brings it up every chance she gets and I’m telling you, Mel, I’m pretty bored by the subject. Do you know how tedious it can be, hearing someone banging on and on and on about something that was over and done with four hundred years ago and can’t be changed?”
Melissande looked at her. “Give me a moment. Let me think…”
“ Ha!” said Reg, skidding along the table top. She collided with the salt cellar and came to a spectacular halt in a shower of condiment. “That’s telling her, Princess Pushy!”
“How many times do I have to say it, Reg, don’t call me that!” said Melissande, and seized the dreadful bird by her legs so she could hang herself upside down and flap all the seasoning from her drab brown plumage.
“Now who’s being told?” said Bibbie, still rankled.
Melissande plopped a saltless Reg back on her chair and sighed. “I’m sorry, Bibbie, I don’t mean to be nasty, but honestly, you have been-”
“Well, it’s all right for you, isn’t it?” said Bibbie, eyes swimming with angry tears. “You’re a royal highness, you’ve got a palace to go home to, haven’t you? Any time you get sick of pretending to be an ordinary person you can swan off back to New Ottosland and prance about in a carriage all day waving at your adoring subjects. You don’t have a stinking rich Great-uncle Throgmorton who says gels are good for nothing but marriage and doesn’t leave you so much as a teapot in his will. How would you like it if you knew you were as gifted as your genius brothers but couldn’t amount to anything because the world of thaumaturgics is run by stodgy old wizards.”
Too shocked to be stung by Bibbie’s cheap shot, Melissande stared. “I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I had no idea you were this upset about it.”
Bibbie folded her arms. “Yes. Well. Now you do.” She scowled at Monk, who was just as nonplussed. “You both do.”
“But-but Bibs,” he said, uncertainly, “there’s the agency. Nobody’s stopped you and Melissande from opening the agency.”
“They didn’t have to, did they?” said Bibbie. “Opening the agency was the easy part. But keeping it open? That’s the trick!”
“Don’t you stare at me in that tone of voice,” said Melissande as Monk regarded her reproachfully. “You know things are a bit slow at the moment.”
“I get the feeling it’s worse than a bit slow. You should have told me, Mel.”
“When? You’ve been working around the clock for weeks!” she retorted. “This is the first meal we’ve sat down to at the same time in the same place since the fourth of last month.”
“Well, what about the other night, at the opera? We saw each other then.”
“Only because of Department politics and anyway, who could talk over all that caterwauling? Besides-” She shot Bibbie a quelling look. “It’s nothing to worry about. We’re fine.”
“Doesn’t sound like you’re fine,” said Monk, unconvinced. “It sounds like-”
“Like Bibbie in a bad mood because of Great-uncle Throgmorton,” she said firmly. “Forget it. Honestly, Monk, you’ve only just winkled your way back into the Department’s good graces. You need to focus on keeping your nose clean, not worry about the agency’s teething troubles. Which won’t last much longer, I have no doubt,” she added, with another stern glance at Bibbie.
“Yes, but still,” said Monk, sounding hurt. “You could’ve mentioned it in passing. I know I can get a bit wrapped up in my work but I do care, you know.”
Yes, he did care. Even when he was consumed by the fires of thaumaturgical invention, Monk Markham cared. It was only one of the many reasons why she was so fond of him.
Smiling, she reached over the salt-scattered tablecloth and rested her hand on his. “And I appreciate it.”
“Oh please,” said Reg, gagging. “I’d be sick, if I’d eaten anything yet. Are we getting to the second course any time soon, by the way, or should I just start on my toes?”
“Sorry, Reg,” said Monk. “Second course coming up.”
He tugged on the servant’s bell rope… and it came loose in his hand amidst a gentle snowstorm of plaster.
“Oh,” he said. “Y’know, I’m really starting to resent whoever it was made the rule about wizards not being able to use their powers for personal gain. The Department doesn’t pay its scientists a fraction of what it’s going to cost me to repair this mouldering pile!”
“Actually,” said Bibbie, dusting plaster off her shoulders, “it was Great-great-great grandfather Thackeray who thought up that one, Monk. Yet another blithering dunderhead who should’ve been pruned off the family tree.”
“Excuse me,” said Monk, and pushed back his chair. Returning to the doorway, shedding bits of plaster like dandruff, the bell rope dangling from his hand like a murdered snake, he stuck his head into the corridor. “Dodsworth! Dodsworth? We’d like the second course now, please!”
Eventually the roast beef and dumplings and various vegetable side dishes arrived, only slightly shrivelled. After the meal was served, Dodsworth cleared his throat and looked down his nose at Monk.
“Cook’s apologies, sir, but there’ll be no strawberry syllabub dessert this evening.”
“No?” said Monk, torn between apprehension and crushing disappointment. “Ah-why not?”
“Because, sir,” said Dodsworth, rigidly disapproving, “Cook is wearing it.
Monk blinked. “Oh. I see. Well. I’m sorry about that.”
“So is Cook,” said Dodsworth. “I regret to say, sir, that pink is not her colour.”
The butler and the footman withdrew.
“Great-uncle Throgmorton?” said Melissande, surveying her laden plate with suspicion. If the old fogy really was haunting the place and his views on gels hadn’t been exaggerated, Saint Snodgrass knew what he’d done to the gravy.
Monk nodded dismally. “Great-uncle Throgmorton.” With an effort, he summoned a smile. “Silly old bugger. Let’s forget about him, eh? Let’s have a toast instead.” He raised his glass, which Dodsworth had three-quarters filled with a robust red wine. “To absent friends. Well, friend. To Gerald, wherever he is and whatever he’s doing!”
Melissande stopped her own glass halfway to her lips. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Haven’t a clue,” said Monk, shrugging. “Haven’t laid eyes on him since that one visit to Nettleworth. Sir Alec’s lot play their cards very close to their chests. Not even Uncle Ralph knows what he’s up to. Believe me, I asked.”
Bibbie looked up from poking her fork through her spinach. Clearly she too was untrusting of her ghostly great-uncle. “Maybe he just didn’t want to tell you, Monk. You may be off probation with the Department but Uncle Ralph holds a grudge for years. He still hasn’t forgiven me for the time I turned his beard grass-green, and I was three.”
“True,” said Monk. “But I’m pretty sure he really doesn’t know. When he does know something and won’t tell, he gets this kind of smug twinkle in his eye. And when I saw him yesterday, he wasn’t twinkling.”
“Well, wherever Gerald is, he must be all right,” said Melissande. “We’d have heard if he wasn’t all right, wouldn’t we?”
“Probably,” said Monk, risking a mouthful of roast potato.
Reg looked up from dubiously inspecting her saucerful of minced raw beef. “Probably? What do you mean probably, sunshine? What kind of a Department are you people running? Wait, don’t tell me, I already know. You’re so busy impressing each other with your big bad secrets you let the little people fall through the cracks. Or worse yet, you treat them like cogs in the machine that can be replaced if they get broken! Well, my Gerald’s not a cog, young man, he’s my Gerald, and if you think you and your Sir Alec can-”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Monk protested, hands upraised. “For a start he’s not my Sir Alec. To be honest, I don’t think he’s anyone’s Sir Alec. As far as I can work out, Sir Alec calls his own tune and too bad if his masters don’t like it. Cards close to the chest, remember?”
