He regarded her with a faint frown. “I thought over what you said this afternoon. Some of it was very unkind.”
“It was meant to be,” she countered.
“And you’re right about how we’ve been keeping you in the dark and not telling you anything, or at least, I have,” he continued. “I expect if you ask the Godmother she’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“I — don’t like to disturb someone that important,” she murmured.
He laughed ruefully. “Oh, don’t worry, if she’s busy, you won’t get past that green-faced Mirror Servant that acts as her gatekeeper,” he assured her. “If you think Godmother Elena is withholding anything from you, you can just abandon that idea. If she hasn’t told you something, it’s either because she hasn’t had a chance yet, or because she just doesn’t have anything to tell.”
“And you?”
“I must say, it’s embarrassing to meet you over supper every day and say, ‘Well, I got no results again today.’ I’ve had a lot of failures.”
“My father always says that a failure is just the success of proving one way doesn’t work,” she said, tartly.
“Then your father is easier on himself than I am on myself. But then, if he slips up, he isn’t taking the chance of turning into a beast that will rip the throats out of innocent people,” Sebastian retorted grimly. “And if you really want to know what I am doing all day, I will be happy to tell you, but it will likely be boring and involve a lot of not finding anything.”
“I’d like to know some,” she said after a moment of consideration. “You don’t have to go into a lot of detail, but I would like to know some.”
“Then I promise I’ll tell you all that I know — and don’t know — about our situation. And I’ll help you however I can so you won’t be dependent on me for all the answers. Maybe two of us can fail so much we’ll be sure to find success!”
IT LACKED THREE DAYS TO THE FULL MOON, AND BELLA was as tightly strung as a harp. So when Granny appeared at the front gate as she had promised, Bella ran down herself and practically collapsed on her with relief.
There was no sign of how Granny had gotten there, just the little old woman in her black cloak, with a bright red knitted hat pulled down over her hair and ears and a matching scarf around her neck. As Bella fell into her embrace, she noticed how soft the wool was, which was a good thing, as she’d begun crying privately out of nerves again and her cheeks were sore. “Now, now,” the old woman said, patting her on the back. “Don’t panic yet. I’ve been looking into all this, and I have come into some interesting theories.” She looked around, as if to see whether there was anyone eavesdropping, although the forecourt was completely empty, even of the Spirit Elementals. “Let’s go somewhere we can be private.”
The best place that Bella could think of was the stillroom, and she wanted to show Granny the fruits of her labor, anyway.
As soon as they entered the building, one of the Spirit Elementals came to relieve Granny of her black wool cloak. Granny peered at the creature narrowly, as if she could actually see it. “Interesting,” she murmured. “Very interesting.” But she didn’t elaborate, and Bella didn’t expect her to. Granny would disclose things in her own time. That was the prerequisite of a Granny, after all — not just this Granny, but all Grannies. For that matter, it seemed to be the prerequisite of just about any old person.
“I’ve been here before, but it was a long time ago,” she said quietly, as they traversed all the murder-corridors and passed through chains of rooms. “I’ll show you something later, if you like — I assume you haven’t done much exploration.”
“Only by accident,” Bella admitted. “I’ve — To be honest, I’ve been busy. The Duke is teaching me magic, I have been working in the stillroom, I go riding in the mornings — ”
“You’re managing to distract yourself. Good. No point in worrying until the full moon is over.” But once again, Bella caught Granny glancing about when she said that.
“Now, here is where I spend a great deal of time,” she said, flinging open the door to the stillroom — which was, at the moment, performing the function of its name, as she was distilling some essences. She had two small stills working, with Sapphire watching them both. The air was fragrant with the faint scent of thyme and rosemary. Bella would have been annoyed if the scent had been any stronger; the stuff was supposed to go into the bottle, not the air.
“Granny, this is Sapphire. She is my personal attendant,” Bella said immediately. “Sapphire, this is the Granny.”
The slate rose quickly from where it was resting on the counter, as Sapphire snatched it up. “Helo Wize Wun,” Sapphire wrote.
“And hello to you, child,” Granny said, quite as if she was as used to conversing with invisible beings as she was with Bella. Possibly she was. “Would you be so kind as to leave us two in private, and make sure we remain in private? I feel sure I can entrust you with this. I am certain that you are trustworthy, but I have things to say to Bella that are for her ears alone.” She smiled. “I suspect Bella will tell you later, at any rate.”
“Thank yew, Wize Wun,” Sapphire wrote, and the slate and ribbon whisked out the door, then the door closed behind her.
Granny looked about, and her face showed her satisfaction. “You’ve done a fine job here, child. I don’t think, barring my own, that I have ever seen a better-regulated stillroom.”
Bella rolled her eyes and took a seat on a stool, leaving the real chair for Granny. “You have no idea.” She described the state of the stillroom and storeroom as she had found them. “All I can assume is that Sebastian set one of the Elementals to collecting all the usual items, and setting them to dry, but never followed up on what to do with them once they were dried.”