If you pushed your face between the bars on the window, you could just glimpse the gaping gargoyles on either side, though only Violet cared to do that.She had got her head stuck once, and they had only got her out by slicking her cheeks very thoroughly with soap.
The girl called Baby was presently trying not to cry, for Violet had promised her a doll if she kept the secret about the gunpowder Violet had taken from her father’s gun case to make fireworks for bonfire night (and it hadn’t done anything but make a horrible sound, in the end, and no pretty colours at all).
But she had kept the secret faithfully, even when her ears hurt from the gunpowder and her father’s shouting, but there had been no doll under the tree.Only a book of monsters, and Baby was sick of monsters.
“Wake up, Baby!”Violet said, lobbing something at her which was wrapped up in a handkerchief that was not clean.
The younger girl sat up and quickly discarded the handkerchief to reveal an almost human-shapedThing, with a face that was not quite a face, just an arrangement of features, and smelly clumps of sheep’s wool already peeling off its bald head.
Their last governess had been a chapel-goer and had given them terrifying passages from the prophets as copywork, probably as a revenge for being employed in a place where there was no place of worship fit for her.The worst of them came back to her now, and made her shiver.
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
“See!I remembered!”Violet crowed, leaning on her sister’s bed, grinning.Her heavy brown hair was already escaping its half-hearted plait.“Pip wanted to help me with the face, but I did it myself.”
“Thank you, Violet.”
The little girl slid the creature under her coverlet bravely, positioning it so that no part of it touched her.
Violet pointed at the book.“Do you want to hear this?”
“Is it very frightful?”the girl asked faintly.Shewascurious about the praying lady, who had seemed so very serene, despite the unfortunate misunderstanding between the knight and the wyvern.
You could tell she would not have minded a bald Thing in her bed.
Violet’s face went serious, and she patted the bulge in the bed.“Poppet will keep you safe from monsters.You needn’t worry about them ever again.”
Perhaps Violet was right.Perhaps none of the monsters in Ormdale were as frightening as the creature under her coverlet.
“Ohh, listen!”she said, reading aloud: “In the distant kingdom of Fairyland stood a splendid city named Cleopolis, built by one of the elfin kings, and surrounded by a golden wall.Here dwelt the graceful and beautiful Queen of the Fairies, Gloriana…”
Gloriana!Now, that was a beautiful name!But rather long.It would take too long to write.And it did not sound well with her family name, which was Worms.Glorying in worms did not seem right.
Violet kept reading.“Once upon a time there arrived at the palace a royal maiden named Una, the only daughter of a king and queen.”
The little girl started.
Violet groaned and buried her face in the book.“You listened all the way to the end with that one about the girl whose fingers fell off because she played in the snow without her gloves.For goodness’ sake, Baby!”
“That’s not my name,” came the reply.
“What?”said Violet, staring at her younger sister.
“Una.My name is Una,” the girl said, very firmly.Then she lay down and pulled the coverlet over her ear, to stop it getting cold.“Read the rest, please.”
Violet shut her mouth with a little snap.
“Una,” Violet repeated curiously.“Una Worms.All right.Una it is.”
“Read, please, Violet,” Una said.
Violet read.
“In this fortress they had lived four years, not daring to venture out, lest they should be swallowed up by the dragon, who lay in wait outside.”
Yes, this Una knew all about the things that waited outside the sheltering, maternal abbey to bite, poison, and swallow, just like the storybook Una.Perhaps if she listened, she might find out how to become a different sort of person entirely.The sort of person who could be quite calm when people were being stupid and wrongheaded about things.
“At last the princess, full of pity for the unhappy state of the country, managed to leave the castle unperceived by the enemy, and, after a long and toilsome journey, reached the court of Fairyland.”
