Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Minuet?”

  Minuet looked up with a start and planted her feet in the dust. “Oh Gastro!”

  “Minuet?” he said, “You reckon I could speak with you for a bit?”

  “There's that feed bucket,” she said with a nod.

  “Thanks,” he said, turning the bucket over and having a seat.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” he said, looking away across the barnlot through the pigweed to where a rooster and three old hens were taking dust baths. “Would you mind telling me a bit about your gorgeous sister?”

  “Ugleeuh?” she said, puzzled until it occurred to her that he had missed their altercation, earlier.

  “Bad!” rattled Hubba-Hubba.

  “Very well, what would you like to know?”

  “Well,” he stammered, “she is very beautiful...”

  Minuet took a deep, discrete breath.

  “And so, I reckon hit's no use, but would she be betrothed or courting? I mean, hit's none of my business, but she... I mean she makes me... I mean...”

  “Oh Gastro, you always mean well. And as far as Leeuh goes, the last I knew, she wasn't involved with a soul. But she's been gone for much of the summer, and...”

  “Well, could you find out for me, then? Hit would be so much easier if I knew.”

  “Sure. But there's a chance she mightn't be interested in courting, at all.”

  “Oh, I'll certainly abide by her wishes.”

  “I'll go see her right now,” she said, “But it may take me a few days, if you know what I mean...”

  “Bad!” said Hubba Hubba.

  “Thank you ever so much,” he said with a courteous bob as he left.

  Minuet watched him hurry away through the grapes. “Oh mercy, but he's really asking for it,” she said, seeing him click his heels, the moment he thought he was out of sight. “What's the matter with me? He had no way of knowing her designs on Hebraun, and I just played along with him as though I were as innocent as he was. Well, I reckon I deserve to march right up to her room and see her.”

  “Bad witch!” growled Hubba Hubba with a flash of his orange eyes.

  “Don't worry, bird. I'm putting you back on your perch first thing, the minute we go inside.”

  When Minuet reached Ugleeuh's door, she raised her hand to knock and hesitated, listening to the crash of things being thrown about in her room. Her knocks were of no avail, even when she pounded. When at last she pushed open the door and peered in, she found Ugleeuh in the sudden quiet, kneeling in the middle of her bed, clad only in her underwear.

  “Why Minny-Min,” she said, smiling cherubically in the midst of her disarray. “You're the last person I expected to see. Does this mean you really missed me after all? Or did you come to apologize for stealing the only man I've ever loved?”

  Minuet turned on her heel to walk right back out and down the hall, which echoed with the ringing of Ugleeuh's laughter until the door slammed shut.

  Ugleeuh leant back against her closed door and laughed until tears ran from her eyes. “Just you wait Minny-Min,” she said. “You're going to be sorry you ever heard of Hebraun. Now who was that young oaf in the parlour? Gastro? That was it. And I'm certain that I quite caught his eye. So if Missy Too-Too and the old man think I'm suddenly interested in someone besides Hebraun, they'll be too stupid to get what I'm really up to. So. Let's go see what Bethan knows about this Gastro.”

  Chapter 19

  Robins scolded in the growing shadows of the rose garden beneath the balcony, as a little girl held her breath and carefully tickled the red crown feathers offered by the newly fledged parrot. “Mamma!” she gasped, drawing back with dancing eyes. “She likes me.” She clapped her hands with a bounce of her curls of tow. “See? She's still holding out her head feathers. Can I hold her now?”

  “Of course,” said Minuet. “Just hold out your finger as I showed you, Rose, and wait for Pebbles to step on.”

  Rose nodded and held out her finger, giving Minuet and Hebraun each a very solemn look before offering it to Pebbles, who carefully stepped on.

  “Very good,” said Minuet with a glance at the door. “Bethan's here, I see. It's time to let her get you ready for bed.”

  “Can I put Pebbles on her perch, Mamma?”

  “As long as you're real easy, sweetheart.”

  Rose crept to the perch with all of the sober reserve of some great ceremony. Pebbles looked quickly here and there at her feet, not knowing quite what was expected as they arrived.

  “A bird is not posed to be dilatory in a castle,” said Rose as Pebbles took an uncertain step onto the perch. “You have to set an essample.”

  Minuet looked up to share her amusement and found that the butler already had Hebraun's attention. “Now go straightaway with Bethan, Rose,” she said. “We'll be along directly to tuck you in.”

  “What is it, Jerome?” said Hebraun. “It's not Mother is it?”

  “No sire, it's the queen's sister. And the way she showed up, I'm not sure what to say.”

  “You mean Ugleeuh?” said Minuet.

  “Oh, it certainly is,” he said. “She's at the door, late as it be, demanding an immediate audience on the grounds that she's your sister.”

  “Very well,” she said, “see her in.”

  Jerome gave a nod and hurried out.

  “I hope we don't regret this,” she said, taking Hebraun by the waist as he sauntered out onto the balcony to wait. “I hope that she doesn't make you regret having ever...”

  “Remember our first walk down there?” he said as he propped his arms on the balustrade and breathed in the fragrant air.

  Minuet gave him a squeeze and put her head against his shoulder. “And look,” she said. “The moon's going to come up full, just the way it did then...”

  “Your Majesties,” said Jerome, appearing at the doorway of the balcony,” Ugleeuh is waiting in the antechamber.”

  Minuet had scarcely stepped back inside, when Ugleeuh swept into the room in a flourish of red satin as she tossed her shawl at Jerome and made a grand curtsy. “You've not done that before me in your life, Leeuh,” she said, staring agape, “except at play when we were little...”

  “Oh Minny-Min,” she said as she shoved a basket of red roses at her. “You can't believe how happy I am to be home at last. I've really missed you and Father. Tell me you've missed me, too.”

  Minuet stood there utterly speechless. “What on earth has happened to her?” she thought as she took the roses.

  “You've missed me, haven't you Minny-Min?” she said with a flicker of the face of dejection Minuet had not seen since they were girls.

  “Could she possibly have mended her ways?” thought Minuet. She politely smelt of the roses before handing them away to Jerome. “Of course I've missed you,” she said. “But please, have a chair and tell us where and how you've been.”

  “I couldn't begin to tell you everything that's happened in the last five years, in just one visit,” said Ugleeuh with a pleasant smile as she took her seat. “But I'm sure we'll be seeing lots and lots of each other now that I've returned, especially since I'm moving into the tower with Father. Won't that be wonderful? We might even be able to spend time together like we used to.”

  Minuet and Hebraun shared a look. “Leeuh, if you move into the tower with Father, we'll certainly be able to spend occasional time together, but mind you that Hebraun and I have the duties of the throne. We even have our own family,” she said with an adoring look at him, as she squeezed his hand.

  “You have a baby? I'd love to hold him.”

  “She has changed!” thought Minuet as she said: “Actually we have a daughter and she's three years old.”

  “Three!” said Ugleeuh, oddly flustered. “My, you two didn't... Well, I'd say five years has indeed gotten away from us, hasn't it?”

  Minuet gave a careful nod.

  “Well then, Min-Min,” said Ugleeuh, scooting forward in her chair. “Where is this niece I've
never seen?”

  “In bed, I'm afraid.”

  “Already? Well, I suppose I should come back sometime and see if it's possible to see her then.”

  “Well yes, but I would hope you'd make it some time right away, and earlier in the day, of course.”

  “As if that would be different,” thought Ugleeuh. “Oh. Of course,” she said as if suddenly getting her bearings. “Another time, then.”

  “So,” said Minuet, glancing about at the pair of maids who had stepped in to light candles, “what have you been doing all these years since you left home, Leeuh? Without one word from you, Father and I feared that something awful had happened.”

  “Really!” said Ugleeuh with more of a scoff than she had intended. “Really?” she said, correcting her tone. “It's a wonder you cared at all after my horrible behavior and treatment of you both for all that long time before I left. I was afraid that when I returned, you'd want nothing more to do with me.” She was starting to have fun with this. In spite of her slip, Minuet already looked convinced, though Hebraun was still unreadable.

  “Anyway,” she said, “as you and Father probably guessed, I went back to Uncle Razzorbauch's keep. I'm his primary business partner in his sukere venture, don't you know.”

  “Of course we didn't know that, Leeuh. How could we?”

  “I didn't tell you about the sukere business the first time I came back from Razzorbauch's keep?”

  “No,” said Minuet. “And I would certainly have remembered something like that.”

  “I thought I'd told you. Anyway, he has a vast sukere plantation and I'm his primary business partner.”

  “He has other partners, then?” said Minuet.

  “Well yes,” said Ugleeuh with a look of distaste. “One. Demonica. She has a minor interest in the business.”

  “Demonica! So you've met her, then?”

  “Oh yea. But she's not important, Minny-Min. She's just as awful as you and Father always said she was. And before you ask, I despise her.”

  “I'm sorry,” said Minuet, leaning over to touch Ugleeuh's knee. “I wish you'd never had to see how vile she is, Leeuh.”

  “It's nice that you mean that, Min-Min, but Father would probably say that if I finally discovered how truly foul and rotten she was, then perhaps meeting her was the best thing, after all. At least now I can forget about her.”

  “So,” said Minuet with a smile, “my little sister's finally grown up.”

  “It's nice having you think so,” said Ugleeuh. “Ha!” she thought as she fought to sit calmly on her chair. “Got you, Too-Too.”

  “So, you have a sukere plantation. Just what is sukere?”

  “Oh, Minny-Min! It's a sweetner and it puts honey to shame. Why, once I get it started in Niarg, honey will be a thing of the past. It's sweeter and cheaper than honey, you don't have the bother of bees, and it plain eliminates Elves...” she said, trailing off at the sight of Hebraun, wrinkling his brow at her reference to Elves. “I mean, anyone who really wants to pay the high price for Elf honey will certainly be welcome to do so. But Sukere will let people choose for once how they sweeten their food. What could be more fair than that?”

  “Nothing, so far as I can see, Leeuh,” said Minuet. “At least, not if sukere's all you say it is. Now if you don't mind, I've a couple of questions I'd like you to answer, and then any other catching up we do will have to be put off for another visit. Hebraun and I have a trying day tomorrow and we need to retire.”

  “Very well, what?”

  “Well, Gastro was away for some time, seeing to his affairs in Ashmore,” she said as she idly picked at the arm of her chair. “He returned long enough for it to become obvious to anyone who saw him mooning around after you that he was in love with you. Then he disappeared at the same time you did. A lot of people thought the two of you went off together. Is there any truth to that rumor?”

  Ugleeuh had spent a good deal of time deciding just how to answer this very question before she ever returned to Niarg. “Actually, Gastro and I did leave together,” she said as she primly folded her hands in her lap. “I'll admit my feelings for him weren't what his were for me, but he said it didn't matter. He was convinced that I'd come to love him in time. I wasn't so sure, but when he pointed out that people in arranged marriages often fall in love, I allowed that he might be right. But it didn't turn out that way. Once we got away from Niarg, he changed. He became hotly jealous if I even spoke to another man, and he began pressing me for vows of my love, as if how I felt was an obligation after all. Well surely you can understand then, that at the first chance I got to be rid of him I took it. I haven't seen the man since. I thought he'd end up here. I guess not. It's been years. I'm surprised you even asked about him.”

  “I was just curious,” said Minuet. “He spent the summer with us while you were gone. He was a nice fellow. Father thought he showed promise.”

  “So big sister, you had another question?”

  “Yea,” she said as she folded her arms, “What did you do to Hubba Hubba?”

  Ugleeuh quickly looked down at her hands. “You're going to owe a good one for forcing me to be sweetie-sweet through all this,” Minny-Butt, she thought.

  “Answer me!” snapped Minuet.

  “I'm sorry, Minuet,” said Ugleeuh in a hoarse whisper. “I was so angry at you. You were so perfect and Father was always throwing your example up to me. I just wanted to make you hurt like I hurt.”

  “You drowned him, didn't you?” said Minuet in a voice, cold as ice.

  “Well, I thought about it,” said Ugleeuh as a shudder surged through her that she had not expected, “but then I had a better idea. I decided to change him into something more fun like a rock. I figured that once Gastro and I were far enough away, I could send your stupid pet back to you with a note saying that he no longer amused me. And if you knew the rock was actually Hubba Hubba, I assumed that you'd keep it forever in hopes that someday you could get me to change him back. In the meantime, there he'd be, reminding you of how I finally got my revenge on you and Father for giving him to me for my birthday in the first place.

  “Now don't look at me like that, Minny-Min. I never did really do it. Gastro thought I might regret it someday, so I turned the stupid thing loose. We weren't really that far from Niarg. He should've just flown right back here. I guess he didn't make it.”

  “I guess he didn't,” said Minuet as she rose from her chair. “At least you told me. And at least I can now hope that he's alive and well.”

  “I'm sure that he is, Min-Min,” said Ugleeuh as she stood to leave. Minuet was not sure. She nodded, but neither smiled nor suggested a time to continue their reunion.

  After Rose had been put to bed, Minuet spent some time setting protective wards all about Pebbles's cage and room. “I'll not let her get anywhere near,” she said. “Not ever.”

  “So,” said Hebraun as she climbed into bed. “Do you believe the things your sister had to say this evening?”

  Minuet took so long to answer that Hebraun thought she was asleep. Just as he closed his eyes, she said: “You can't imagine how I want to believe her, Hebraun. But try as I might, there's no way that I can.”

  ***

  The sun had just set as a score of angry crows settled into the crown of a great burr oak in the middle of a Niarg hayfield, each one furiously shouting: “Caw, caw, caw, caw!” and making lunges and passes at the solitary crow on the long branch.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “Can't you see that I'm a crow?”

  “Caw, caw! caw! caw!” shouted one, nearly knocking him off the branch as it flew by.

  “You too!” he cried. “Beat it! Go back where you came from!”

  “Caw, caw, caw!” shouted a particularly loud one as it landed a short way down the branch and began hopping toward him.

  “Go boil your head!” he hollered. “Ugleeuh! Ugleeuh! Where are you? Have you forgotten me in this horrible tree? Don't you care that I'm about to be murdered?”

&n
bsp; Suddenly the loud crow turned to a flaming cinder and toppled from the branch in a roiling plume of lavender smoke, sending the tree full of hostile crows into the air in a panic.

  “My dearest Hubba Hubba,” said Ugleeuh as she appeared astride the branch beside him. “Have you gotten yourself all worked up in my absence?”

  “Ugleeuh!” cried Hubba Hubba as he flew to her shoulder. “Where were you? It's getting dark. I thought your awful sister or maybe the king did something you and you weren't ever coming back.”

  “Everything's going exactly as planned, dearest,” she said as she stroked his ebony feathers. “You need to have more faith in me my love.”

  “I have Ugleeuh, but you've not had to wait all this time out here on this stupid limb. I'm dying from starvation, here. Let's go home.”

  “Patience, my sweet. I'm going to need a lot more than just a few hours to set up all I've planned.”

  “How much time are we talking about here?”

  “Quite a bit, truth to tell, but you won't starve,” she said as she produced a gooey cinnamon cake, crumbling with sukere crystals on the outside.

  Hubba Hubba was deliriously pecking at it before she ever had it unwrapped. “Here are two more,” she said, nestling them against the crotch of the limb.

  Hubba Hubba pecked up the biggest crumbs from the first cake and made a lunge for the two cakes across Ugleeuh's lap.

  Ugleeuh stopped him.

  “Hey! I'm still drooling here.”

  “You might want to wait. It'll be a long time before I'm back.” she said, pointing at the castle tower through the branches. “I'll be right up there.”

  “We're not going home?”

  “You'll roost right here.”

  “But the crows would have murdered me...”

  “I've set wards. Any that come back will end up as smoking cinders.”

  “But it's dark! What about owls? I hear owls right now.”

  “They'll also end up as cinders.”

  “I'd hope.”

  “I'm sorry but you simply can't come with me, dearest. You'll be safe in this tree. When it's light, I can even look out and see you from up there.”