Una picked up Oolong and they tiptoed inside.
On any other night, Una would have noted the beauty of the ferns, silvered with moonlight, and the shadows of the iron tracery and palm leaves, overlaying everything like lace.
But this time, she only noticed that the foliage around them moved gently, as if stirred by the wind.
But there was no wind, not here.
Notinsidethe glasshouse.
Her foot bumped into something that rolled.An apple core.
At the same time, Oolong launched himself from her arms and barrelled straight into a bush, disappearing abruptly.
Una snatched the lamp from Pip and held it high.
“All right, I know you’re in here,” she said loudly, detaching the whistle from her belt.“If you are hungry, we will give you something to eat.If you need work, we will help you find it.But please—show yourself, or I will blow my whistle for reinforcements.Everyone knows the signal for intruder, and they’ll come armed.”
A bush contorted wildly and a figure emerged.A figure in bloomers, a tweed jacket, and a knit hat which failed to contain the long hair mostly stuffed under it.
And there was Oolong—happily nestled under the intruder’s arm.
“Hello, Loon,” said a voice which was as familiar to Una as her own.
A voice which Una had not heard in two years.
Chapter fifteen
Ormdale
There,standingbeforeUna,was none other than the errant Violet Worms.The second daughter of the ancient House of Worms—aged twenty-three, dressed at this moment with all the dignity of a newspaper boy on a street corner—looked at them thoughtfully.
“I see you weren’t expecting me,” she observed cheerfully.“Whowereyou expecting to bludgeon with old Excalibur?Not the Bleeding Monk?Are there other people crawling about in here?”
“A fake American,” blurted Pip, lowering the nursery sabre.
There was a brief silence.
“Right,” said Violet briskly.“Well, he hasn’t come this way.I haven’t seen arealAmerican tonight, much less a fake one.”
Another silence.
“I suppose you’ll want tea,” said Una.She wasn’t really aware of saying it, but she heard the words, and they hadn’t come from Pip.
“Desperately,” Violet said.When no one made a further move, she added, “You did offer food as well, you know.Just now.Remember?”
“Of course,” said Una, turning to head back into the abbey.
“I couldn’t get into the larder, more’s the pity,” Violet prattled, following with Pip.“What’s that thing King Solomon said?Refresh me with apples for I am sick of love?I think it’s the other way round for me.I’m sick of apples.Couldn’t get in, not even with my hairpin.Actually, I broke all my hairpins that way.Since when do we lock the larder, anyway?”
That explained the state of her hair, Una thought as she led them down the passage to the kitchen.
“We’ve been locking it because Martha missed some baking.We thought it was the twins,” said Una.Was she really discussing these things so calmly?
“Oh, it was,” said Violet as they entered the kitchen.“They’ve been pinching food for me.But they have a strange idea of what a growing woman requires.Yesterday, they gave me two bags of boiled sweets and a scone that had been stepped on.And I haven’t had a cup of tea in days.”
“We’d have roasted the fatted calf for you, if only you’d shown up at the front door,” said Una, unlocking the larder with shaky hands.
Violet looked at Pip.“Do you think she really would have?”
