Meanwhile the younger girls were doing adhesion spells to stick the guards’ boots to the street, and gelid spells that turned puddles to ice on which they slipped and fell.
It was dusk by the time the men finally went away. It had been a long, cranky, hungry day in which nobody had had time to cook anything, and anyway there was very little food in the house.
Finally Lord Rudolph climbed the many stairs of Fate’s Turning and knocked on the door of Miss Ellicott’s School. He came accompanied by six sentinels and his clerk, Mr. Less.
“Only Lord Rudolph comes in,” said Bowser. He had suggested that he do the talking, because of Chantel’s snake problem.
Miss Flivvers stood behind him. Chantel and Anna had insisted on this. Miss Flivvers’s job was to look like a grown-up.
And Franklin was there simply because Miss Flivvers didn’t want him wandering around the school, being a boy all over the place.
Lord Rudolph opened his mouth to protest, but Mr. Less spoke first. “That seems fair. After all, sir, we’re not afraid of children, are we?”
“Of course not,” said Lord Rudolph. “But we don’t allow children to set the terms of discussion, either. Leila, take down the ward.”
And to Chantel’s utter fury, Leila stepped from behind the guards.
The snake in Chantel’s head reared. Patriarchs upset the snake, Miss Flivvers and Mrs. Warthall and Franklin upset the snake, but nothing made it angrier than the treachery of Leila.
Leila began a spell. Using magic against her own school and classmates! Chantel was furious. She wanted to scream. She wanted to break things.
But she had to stop Leila instead. Quickly she made the eighth sign with both hands. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Anna doing the same.
The patriarch turned to Leila. “What’s the matter? Can’t you do a simple spell?” He reached out and pushed at the ward.
Leila abruptly stopped. “It’s two against one!” she said.
Miss Flivvers pushed Bowser aside. “Really, Leila. I’m shocked to hear you address a patriarch in those tones. Where’s your curtsey?”
“I already curtseyed, you old—”
“Leila, I think you should copy down for me the 140 Lesser and Greater Reasons for Good Deportment,” said Miss Flivvers.
Chantel and Anna took advantage of this distraction to extra-stengthen the ward.
“You seem like a reasonable woman,” said the patriarch approvingly. “Will you let us in?”
“Only him, Miss Flivvers,” said Anna. “Not the guards. And not Leila.”
“Anna, I will not be instructed by you.” Miss Flivvers curtseyed to Lord Rudolph. “We would be honored to welcome you and your clerk into our humble school, Lord Rudolph. I’m afraid we lack sufficient accommodations for those other gentlemen.”
Lord Rudolph nodded to the sentinels. They retired.
“Very well,” said Miss Flivvers. “Chantel, Anna, let the nice gentlemen in. And Leila.”
Chantel did not want to let Leila in. The snake inside her head was so furious at the thought that he was positively banging on the inside of her skull. Grudgingly, she took down the ward long enough for Lord Rudolph, Mr. Less, and Leila to slip in. Then she and Anna redid the ward, strengthened it, and restrengthened it.
By the time they finished this, Miss Flivvers, Lord Rudolph, and his clerk were seated in wing chairs in the parlor. Leila was on a stool at Lord Rudolph’s feet. Chantel wanted to kick the traitor right off her stool. The snake had grown so much Chantel felt as if her head would explode.
Nonetheless she and Anna stood beside the door and waited respectfully for Miss Flivvers to tell them what to do.
Miss Flivvers flicked a glance at them. “How terrible, Lord Rudolph,” she was saying. “I’m absolutely horrified to hear that my students have behaved in such an unladylike manner. I’m afraid it reflects very poorly on the school. I can assure you they will face the most dire consequences.”
Mr. Less turned an amused gaze on the girls. The snake in Chantel’s head thrashed; she suddenly felt she hated the clerk.
“Although of course the school was not in my control at the time that it happened,” said Miss Flivvers. “I’m afraid that dear Mrs. Warthall isn’t much of a manager of girls. Had I been in charge—” she turned to the girls. “Chantel, Anna, go and help the boys. They’re fetching refreshments.”
Furious, Chantel went.
“What refreshments?” she asked Anna as they went down the hall. “There’s nothing to eat or drink in the house.”
“I think that’s probably the point,” said Anna.
The boys seemed to think so too. Bowser and Franklin and several of the smaller girls had arranged a tray with a steaming teapot and the best china cups. They were laughing.
“What about to eat?” said Bowser. “What’s in the bread box?”
“Mouse droppings!” said Daisy gleefully.
Bowser shook his head regretfully. “She wouldn’t be able to cope. The Fliv, I mean. She’d weep, and it would ruin everything.”
Holly banged open a cupboard. “Candle stubs!”
Bowser whipped out his pocketknife. “Give ’em here.”
He cut a candle up into discs, and Daisy and Franklin arranged them carefully on a plate.
Franklin eyed the result. “Can’t we just sprinkle them with mouse—”
“No,” said Anna firmly.
“It would look like—”
“No,” said Bowser.
Chantel went ahead to open the doors as Bowser proudly bore the tray into the parlor.
He set the tray on the tea table. Miss Flivvers, with a sweet smile, poured out cups of brown liquid, and Chantel handed them around. Anna passed the candle-wafers.
Leila refused the wafers. She set her cup down on the floor beside her stool. The clerk, Mr. Less, had a plate of wafers balanced on his knee and a steaming cup in his hand. He looked down at the latter in amusement.
“I hope you gentlemen will forgive—” Miss Flivvers began.
Lord Rudolph lifted the cup to his lips and took a deep drink. “Waugh!” He spat it out on the floor and jumped up. Cup, saucer, and candle-wafers fell to the floor. The handle broke off the cup. The wafers bounced.
“It tastes like mud!” said Lord Rudolph.
“I believe it is mud,” said Mr. Less. “And the cookies appear to be wax.”
“Oh dear.” Miss Flivvers turned to Bowser. “Did you bring the nice gentlemen mud to drink?”
“There wasn’t any tea,” said Bowser.
“And wax to eat?”
“There weren’t any cookies.”
“Well, couldn’t you have made sandwiches?” said Miss Flivvers, sweetly exasperated.
“There wasn’t any bread,” said Bowser. “Or anything to put in the sandwiches.”
“What a shame,” said Miss Flivvers. “Still, you know you shouldn’t serve people mud, young man. Go to your skullery at once.”
Bowser went, cheerfully enough.
“I’m terribly sorry, Lord Rudolph,” said Miss Flivvers. “I’m afraid Mrs. Warthall doesn’t seem to have laid in any provisions at all, although I’m sure you must have provided her with ample means to do so.”
“Of course we did! Didn’t we?” Lord Rudolph turned angrily to his clerk.