[447] "I promise not to laugh," Charmain said. "So what is it?"
[448] "We were very angry," Timminz said. "Our ladies refused to wash his dishes for him and we took away his taps so that he couldn't wash them himself, but all he did was smile, and say he hadn't the strength to argue—"
[449] "Well, he was ill," Charmain said. "You know that now. So what is it about?"
[450] "This garden of his," Timminz said. "The complaint came first from Rollo, but I came and took a look and Rollo was quite right. The wizard was growing bushes with blue flowers, which is the correct and reasonable color for flowers to be, but by his magic he had made half the same bushes pink, and some of them were even green or white, which is disgusting and incorrect."
[451] Here Peter was unable to contain himself. "But hydrangeas are like that!" he burst out. "I've explained it to you! Any gardener could tell you. If you don't put the bluing powder under the whole bush, some of the flowers are going to be pink. Rollo's a gardener. He must have known."
[452] Charmain looked around the crowded kitchen but could not see Rollo anywhere among the swarms of blue people.
[453] "He probably only told you," she said, "because he likes to chop things down. I bet he kept asking the wizard if he could chop the bushes down and the wizard said no. He asked me last night—"
[454] At this, Rollo popped up from beside a dog dish, almost at Charmain's feet. She recognized him mostly by his grating little voice when he shouted, "And so I did ask her! And she sits there in the path, having just floated down from the sky, cool as you please, and tells me I only wants to enjoy myself. As bad as the wizard, she is!"
[455] Charmain glared down at him. "You're just a destructive little beast," she said. "What you're doing is making trouble because you can't get your own way!"
[456] Rollo flung out an arm. "Hear her? Hear that? Who's wrong here, her or me?"
[457] A dreadful shrill clamor arose from all over the kitchen. Timminz shouted for silence, and when the clamor had died into muttering, he said to Charmain, "So will you now give permission for these disgraceful bushes to be lopped down?"
[458] "No, I will not," Charmain told him. "They're Great-Uncle William's bushes and I'm supposed to look after all his things for him. And Rollo is just making trouble."
[459] Timminz said, squeezing his glower at her, "Is that your last word?"
[460] "Yes," said Charmain. "It is."
[461] "Then," Timminz said, "you're on your own. No kobold is going to do a hand's turn for you from now on."
[462] And they were all gone. Just like that, the blue crowd vanished from among teapots and dog dishes and dirty crockery, leaving a little wind stirring the last few bubbles about and the fire now burning brightly in the grate.
[463] "That was stupid of you," Peter said.
[464] "What do you mean?" Charmain asked indignantly. "You're the one who said those bushes were supposed to be like that. And you could see Rollo had got them all stirred up on purpose. I couldn't let Great-Uncle William come home to find his garden all chopped down, could I?"
[465] "Yes, but you could have been more tactful," Peter insisted. "I was expecting you to say we'd put down a bluing spell to make all the flowers blue, or something."
[466] "Yes, but Rollo would still have wanted to cut them all down," Charmain said. "He told me I was a spoilsport last night for not letting him."
[467] "You could have made them see what he was like," Peter said, "instead of making them all even angrier."
[468] "At least I didn't laugh at them like Great-Uncle William did," Charmain retorted. "He made them angry, not me!"
[469] "And look where that got him!" Peter said. "They took away his taps and left all his dishes dirty. So now we've got to wash them all without even any hot water in the bathroom."
[470] Charmain flounced down into the chair and began, again, to open the King's letter. "Why have we got to?" she said. "I haven't the remotest idea how to wash dishes anyway."
[471] Peter was scandalized. "You haven't? Why ever not?"
[472] Charmain got the envelope open and pulled out a beautiful, large, stiff, folded paper. "My mother brought me up to be respectable," she said. "She never let me near the scullery, or the kitchen either."
[473] "I don't believe this!" Peter said. "Why is it respectable not to know how to do things? Is it respectable to light a fire with a bar of soap?"
[474] "That," Charmain said haughtily, "was an accident. Please be quiet and let me read my letter." She pulled her glasses up on to her nose and unfolded the stiff paper.
[475] "Dear Mistress Baker," she read.
[476] "Well, I'm going to get on and try," Peter said. "I'm blowed if I'm going to be bullied by a crowd of little blue people.
And I should think you had enough pride to help me do it."
[477] "Shut up," said Charmain and concentrated on her letter.
[478] Dear Mistress Baker,
How kind of you to offer Us your services. In the normal way, We would find the assistance of Our Daughter, the Princess Hilda, sufficient for Our need; but it so happens that the Princess is about to receive Important Visitors and is obliged to forgo her Work in the Library for the duration of the Visit. We therefore gratefully accept your Kind Offer, on a temporary basis. If you would be so Good as to present yourself at the Royal Mansion this coming Wednesday Morning, at around ten-thirty, We shall be happy to receive you in Our Library and instruct you in Our Work.
Your Obliged and Grateful
Adolphus Rex Norlandi Alti
[479] Charmain's heart banged and bumped as she read the letter, and it was not until she reached the end of it that she realized that the amazing, unlikely, unbelievable thing had happened: the King had agreed to let her help him in the Royal Library! Tears came into her eyes, she was not sure why, and she had to whisk her glasses off. Her heart hammered with joy. Then with alarm. Was today Wednesday? Had she missed her chance?
[480] She had been hearing, without attending, Peter crashing saucepans about and kicking dog dishes aside as he went to the inner door. Now she heard him come back again.
[481] "What day is it today?" she asked him.
[482] Peter set the large saucepan he was carrying down, hissing, on the fire. "I'll tell you if you tell me where he keeps his soap," he said.
[483] "Bother you!" said Charmain. "It's in the pantry in a bag labeled something like Caninitis. Now, what day is it?"
[484] "Cloths," said Peter. "Tell me where cloths are first. Did you know there are two new bags of laundry in this pantry now?"
[485] "I don't know where cloths are," Charmain said. "What day is it?"
[486] "Cloths first," said Peter. "He doesn't answer me when I ask."
[487] "He didn't know you were coming," Charmain said. "Is it Wednesday yet?"
[488] "I can't think why he didn't know," Peter said. "He got my letter. Ask for cloths."
[489] Charmain sighed. "Great-Uncle William," she said, "this stupid boy wants to know where cloths are, please."
[490] The kindly voice replied, "Do you know, my dear, I nearly forgot cloths. They're in the table drawer."
[491] "It's Tuesday," Peter said, pouncing on the drawer and dragging it open almost into Charmain's stomach. He said as he fetched out wads of toweling and dishcloths, "I know it must be Tuesday, because I set off from home on Saturday and it took me three days to walk here. Satisfied?"
[492] "Thank you," Charmain said. "Very kind of you. Then I'm afraid I'll have to go into town tomorrow. I may be gone all day."
[493] "Then isn't it lucky that I'm here to look after the place for you?" Peter said. "Where are you skiving off to?"
[494] "The King," Charmain said, with great dignity, "has asked me to go and help him. Read this, if you don't believe me."
[495] Peter picked up the letter and looked it over. "I see," he said. "You've arranged to be in two places at once. Nice for you. So you can darned well help me wash these dishes now, when the water's hot."