The Autumn Palace (16 page)

‘What is there to think about? You are a smart girl, although from what I hear you need to pay attention in class. A good word can be said to Ms Kyryl.'

Jupiter's moons! If the Infanta could put in a ‘good word' with her teacher, she could probably put in a bad word too.

‘Your timetable, what is it?'

Ondine drew a mental picture of her school and laundry schedule, then she explained it to the Duchess.

‘I see,' she said. ‘From now on, you will fetch my breakfast before school, then work for me in the afternoon from Wednesday to Friday and then mornings at the weekends.'

‘But that –'

‘Still leaves you with Tuesday afternoons off. Now go and tell that wafer-thin washer-woman when you
will be working for me. Then return here with morning tea, I'm feeling peckish.'

No choice at all, then. ‘Yes, ma'am. Would you like fruit or cake?'

‘Cake? Good luck finding that! Unless you plan on making some yourself? Now that's a handy skill to have.'

‘We could . . . make a cake together? It might be fun.'

Anathea laughed and slapped the table. ‘Me? Bake?' She wafted her hands in front of her, mimicking the actions of cooking. ‘I don't do baking.'

‘Maybe you should?'

‘Don't push it.'

Head buzzing with confusion, Ondine made her way downstairs to see Draguta and tell her of her change in circumstances.

‘I didn't want to take the job but she kind of made it hard for me to say “no”,' Ondine said.

‘Of course she did. You watch that woman, she all charm and cheer, then strikes and you never see it coming. You get whiplash keeping up.'

‘I know. She gave me a compliment and it scared me.'

‘Be careful, OK?'

‘Thanks, Draguta.'

 

70
   Female butlers are common in Brugel and also in neighbouring Slaegal, but Craviç is having none of it
.

71
   Brugel coinage
.

72
   A beloved expression of Bruglers. It means someone thinks they have everything sorted out, but they've forgotten the basics. For example, if you want to cook roast beef, you must first get the cow
.

T
he next morning Ondine woke with a jolt. Hunger made strange noises in her belly. She barely had time to bolt down a bowl of Toots Wheat before darting off to the Infanta's rooms to start cleaning.

‘I would like a cooked breakfast brought to me as well,' the Infanta said.

Ondine silently groaned at the extra workload, although she did her very best not to roll her eyes. She was used to carrying plates of food to customers in her parents' pub, but trudging up two flights of stairs with a tray of bacon and eggs and a pot of tea was difficult and potentially messy.
⁷³

With each step the tea made lolloping noises and threatened to slosh out of the pot. Her arms ached, her calves burned, her breath came out in loud puffs as she carried the heavy tray up the stairs. At last she reached the Infanta's rooms.

‘Was this cooked by you?' the Infanta asked as she lifted the silver dome off the plate.

Fried-bacon smells pervaded the room. Biscuit the gummy dog stirred in his basket.

‘No, ma'am, the chefs cooked it,' Ondine answered.

Without touching the food, the Infanta placed the dome back over the plate and said, ‘Take it back.'

What?
‘But it's perfectly good,' Ondine protested.

The Infanta's expression remained impassive, possibly because her face just didn't move all that much, but her voice brooked no argument. ‘Don't back chat! I want this thrown out. I want a new breakfast cooked. I want no other hand but yours to touch my food. Is that understood?'

No!
‘Yes.'

Trudging back down the stairs, Ondine reached the kitchen and put the tray down on a side bench near the bins. Lifting the dome, she grabbed the fork the Infanta hadn't even touched and ate everything on the plate. A few minutes later she'd made a new breakfast and it was time to climb the stairs again and present the food to the Infanta, who looked none too pleased at the delay in her meal service.

With a snap of Anathea's fingers, Biscuit shot out of his basket and sat on his mistress's lap. The Infanta lifted the dome off the plate and said, ‘You vouch that this was cooked by no one but you?'

‘Yes, ma'am.'

‘Good.' She picked up the fork and stabbed at a quivering pile of scrambled egg, then ate it. Her steely eyes blinked slowly. ‘It's good,' she said at last. To Ondine's horror, she scooped more food with her fork and fed it to Biscuit. Then she put the Biscuit-slobbered fork back into the egg on her plate and ate another mouthful.

‘You think I'm being difficult, don't you, child?' the Infanta asked.

I'm thinking a lot of things
, Ondine thought.

‘I trust you, Ondine. That is why I want all my meals prepared by you. The kitchen staff cannot be trusted. Corners are cut. Mistakes are made.'

Pangs and pings went off inside Ondine's head in frustration. The Infanta was sharing food with her dog, yet she worried about germs from the kitchen staff?

The Infanta went on: ‘Everyone was made sick recently. I know it came from the kitchen. They are lazy and poorly trained. It's not their fault, of course. Proper staff were not hired. They were not screened prior to working here. Students are cheaper than people who are qualified.'

‘Yes, ma'am.' Ondine tucked a stray hair behind her ear and did her best not to fidget. She had her own theories about how everyone became sick and it centred around the dog with no teeth.

‘My bed will be made now and the room will be tidied,' the Infanta said.

‘Of course,' Ondine replied, feeling as if she'd snapped out of a spell. She set to making the bed and tidying the room. All the while, she kept catching
glimpses of Infanta Anathea and her dog eating from the same plate. Heaven help her, she just couldn't seem to look away.

‘Ma'am, if I may . . .' Ondine said after she'd cleared the floor, ‘I must get to class.'

‘Yes, of course. Go. When you finish school, you may make lunch. I would like poached fish.'

‘But the Duke has banned fish,' Ondine said.

‘From his plate, not mine. And it will be fresh. If you can find the gamekeeper, see if there are any trout left in the lake.'

Silently Ondine groaned at the ever-tightening squeeze on her free time. She'd been cross with Hamish for enjoying his job a little too much and now she'd gone and taken on a second job. They'd be lucky to see each other at all at this rate.

The days grew colder and the shadows grew longer. Fewer guests arrived at the palechia, making the normally bustling estate feel cavernous and eerie. The one short break Ondine had from the palechia was when she joined the school children in the main street
of Bellreeve to hang up bunting for the coming Harvest Festival at Hallowe'en.

All week she juggled school and the Infanta. At the weekend she spent her afternoons in the laundry rummaging through clothes for stolen chotskys.
⁷⁴
And she hadn't seen Hamish, proper Hamish, in so long, she wondered if he might be liking his job more than her.

She barely had five minutes to call her mother, who sounded terse down the line.

‘But things are fine, Ma.'

‘I don't care. You went behind our backs and now you're halfway across the country. You need to be home with us, you –' Oh, thank goodness, the phone started to bleep.

‘I'm running out of coins, I have to go.'

‘Don't you dare hang up on me! Put more coins in. Your sister is trying to organise her wedding and she doesn't know when you'll be home. Your father is furious. You come home right –'

Merciful heavens, the money ran out. Worn out from the strain, Ondine staggered back to her room, to
find Hamish asleep in it. Or rather, Hamish waking up with a smile on his face.

‘Yer a sight fer sore eyes,' he said, giving her his charming lopsided grin that made her insides melt.

Relief made her feel as bright as sunshine. ‘It's great to see you, too.' Ondine threw herself against Hamish and hugged him with all her heart.

Neither of them said anything for a while, revelling in the rare moment of privacy, content simply to gaze at each other. There are times when things need to be said, and other times, like this, when no words are needed.

In . . .

. . . a . . .

. . . book . . .

. . . it . . .

. . . might . . .

. . . look . . .

. . . a . . .

. . . bit . . .

. . . like . . .

. . . this.

They kissed, too. Lovely kisses that made her feel such utter contentment she couldn't believe she could be this happy. How silly she was so think he didn't love her. Everything would be fine. Eventually, the kissing ended and they tried talking to each other instead.

‘How is school?' Hamish asked.

Ondine gave a dramatic sigh. ‘Awful. Well, not awful the whole time, just most of the time.'

‘What do ye mean?'

‘Remember a while back, you told me we'd have a test? Well, I studied really hard for it, but I only scraped through. And now I'm doing double-duty with Anathea and the laundry, I hardly have any time to study.'

‘Ye know I'll help out as much as I can.'

‘Can you do my homework?' she joked.

‘I'll think of something,' he said, just before kissing her again.

‘Shh,' Ondine said, her ears straining for sounds in the hallway.

Hamish raised his eyebrows as if to ask,
What?

Big exhale. ‘Sorry, I thought I heard Draguta coming.' More than anything, Ondine wanted to spend
time with Hamish, but their respective workloads in the palechia were making that nigh impossible.

‘How about I do the next test for ye?' Hamish winked and kissed her again.

Ondine nearly lost her head, but managed to say, ‘Yes, please.'

‘I'm serious. I could sneak intae the teacher's office and get the answers fer ye.'

‘If only.' Ondine wanted him to be quiet and enjoy the kisses. Something in the back of her mind niggled and naggled. ‘But . . . you're not serious, are you?'

‘I'm very serious. If ye fail at school, the Duke might send ye home.'

Home to her furious parents? No, thanks. ‘But I don't like the idea of cheating.' He kissed her again but she pulled away. ‘I mean it. I don't want to cheat.'

‘I know ye don't want tae, lass, but ye might
need
tae.'

‘But it's wrong,' she said, feeling sick at the thought. ‘You really shouldn't be thinking like that.'

Hamish softly touched his nose against hers, making her tummy flip in the most delicious way. It made Ondine wonder whether he'd listened to her at
all. When she kissed him again, her heartbeat thumped in her ears like hard shoes on parquet. Mercury's wings, someone was coming this way. The parting kiss Hamish delivered before scarpering off in his ferrety incarnation was almost her undoing.

Taking her seat next to Hetty the next morning, Ondine rubbed her eyes. So very tired! It had been lovely to see Hamish in private last night. A grin formed. Little zings of joy danced in her head.

‘What are you smiling about?' Hetty asked.

The smile grew, but Ondine shook her head and said, ‘Nothing.' She had to bite her tongue and say as little about Hamish as possible. Especially to Hetty, whose tongue ran faster than a startled gazelle. They had so little privacy here. Keeping those few stolen kisses to herself made them all the more precious.

‘Good morning, class,' Ms Kyryl said as the last couple of students came into the room.

Ondine, Hetty and the rest of the class stood up, sang the national anthem way off key, recited the pledge of allegiance to the Duke and resumed their seats.

‘We have a science test this morning,' Ms Kyryl said.

A groan escaped from Ondine's throat. ‘Ms Kyryl, how come you're giving us another test?' she asked.

‘Because there's no point teaching you things you already know. I need to know what you don't.'

That's everything
, Ondine thought.

‘Ten minutes' reading time and half an hour for the test,' Ms Kyryl said.

Scanning the exam pages, Ondine tried to make sense of the questions. Multiple choice gave her a one-in-four chance of getting it right, but it also gave her a three-in-four chance of getting it wrong.

Something tapped at her foot. Looking down, Ondine saw a dark ferret grinning up at her. A ferret with a wedge of paper in his mouth.

Once again she had to restrain her natural reaction. Ordinarily she would have given a bit of a squee.
⁷⁵

Sharp but not unwelcome claws latched on to her leg and climbed up. Shambles reached her lap and spat out the paper. It was damp in a few places, but what did Ondine care for a bit of ferret phlegm in this
situation? Especially when she looked at the note and understood its power.