“What’s the story, morning glory?” Puck said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“What is this about?” Sabrina said, raising her hand and shaking the handcuff, thus shaking Puck’s arm as well.
“Unfortunately, it’s necessary,” Puck explained. “You don’t want to work with my security staff, so from now on I’m going to be your personal bodyguard. I’m going to be with you every second of the day.”
“This is insanity,” Sabrina said as she tried in vain to free herself.
“Trust me, being downwind of you twenty-four hours a day is not what I call a good time, but you’ve left me no choice.”
Sabrina screamed. “Give me the key!”
Puck reached into his pocket and took out a tiny golden key. “Is this what you want?”
“Give it to me, pus face!”
“Are you going to work with your bodyguards?”
“Forget it. You’re not going to blackmail me,” Sabrina said.
And at that, Puck put the key into his mouth and swallowed it. Sabrina screamed again.
“Are you deranged?” she yelled as she climbed to her feet, dragging Puck up as she went. Sabrina marched toward the door but was held back by the boy. She turned and saw that he was enjoying the tug of war, so she pulled hard and dragged him out into the hallway in search of her grandmother.
Granny Relda was not supportive of Sabrina’s crisis. In fact, she, Uncle Jake, and Daphne found the whole situation hilarious. They snickered all through breakfast. “Sabrina, Puck is just trying to be helpful,” Granny said. “Perhaps you do need a little personal attention, and there’s not much I can do about it anyway. If he swallowed the key, all we can do is wait.”
“Wait for what?” Sabrina asked, then suddenly realized what they would be waiting for and had to fight to keep her breakfast down.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one,” Puck said as he reached his hand into a bowl of oatmeal and shoveled it into his mouth. Sabrina’s hand was dragged along and covered with the gooey cereal.
“How am I going to get dressed? Or take a bath?” Sabrina cried.
“Who needs a bath?” Puck said, wiping the extra oatmeal on his shirt.
“I suppose we could just take the two of you out in the yard and hose you down,” Uncle Jake said.
“Elvis loves it,” Daphne said.
Uncle Jake laughed so hard his scrambled eggs fell out of his mouth.
Daphne finished her breakfast, and for the first time ever, Sabrina watched the little girl push her empty plate away. There was no such word as full in her sister’s vocabulary. Since the girl had more of Sabrina’s clothes on, as well as high-heel shoes, she guessed that Daphne was still a “grown-up.” “I had a thought last night,” Daphne offered.
“Oh?” Granny said.
“There’s one eyewitness we haven’t talked to,” Daphne said. “The woodcutter.”
Granny’s eyes lit up. “Liebling, that’s good detective work. I totally forgot there was someone else at the grandmother’s house.”
“So, do you know where he lives?” Uncle Jake asked.
Granny shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t. There are thousands of Everafters in this town and I haven’t met them all. There’s also a chance that he doesn’t live here. As you know, some of the Everafters moved away before Wilhelm’s barrier went up, and others never came to America at all.”
“How can we find out?” Daphne asked.
Granny clapped her hands, jumped from her seat, and rushed to the family journals. “We need to get back to our research. Perhaps he does live here in Ferryport Landing. He could be a great help to our case.”
“I’ll help,” Sabrina said eagerly.
Granny cocked an eyebrow, obviously surprised by Sabrina’s enthusiasm. “You will?”
Sabrina nodded, though she didn’t feel entirely honest. The thought of freeing Mr. Canis terrified her, but she wanted to get back into the family’s good graces, especially her grandmother’s.
“Thank you, liebling,” Granny said.