The Autumn Palace (27 page)

It
was
Ondine's fault. And a bit of Hamish's as well. She played dumb but knew exactly what Draguta was talking about. The glass of wine they'd left when they first found the ledger, to confuse the Duchess into thinking she'd left it there herself. Clearly, it hadn't worked. Heart thumping, eyes misting, hands shaking, Ondine slumped on to her bed. Nasty, clanging clunks echoed around the room as Draguta snapped the locks on her case.

Silently, Ondine cursed her decision to follow Hamish to the palechia. Everything had gone so badly wrong, right from the start. Nothing in her life had
ever been so messed up. She couldn't help thinking the entire palechia had to be cursed.

And then a horrible little voice in her head said it wasn't the palechia's fault, it was hers.

‘Please, Draguta, don't be angry with me. I tried to help. Really, I did,' she pleaded.

‘Should have kept mouth shut.'

Apologies were getting her nowhere. ‘The way I see it, the Duchess would have sacked you anyway. I know you're angry with her, but don't take it out on me!'

‘Of course, is all about you!' Draguta hefted her suitcase and made for the doorway. ‘One day I come to your restaurant. I be big shot. I order best of everything. Then I puke all over floor!' With that, she stormed down the hall towards the servants' entrance.

Ondine dissolved into a flood of tears.

O
ndine slipped away from the dress rehearsal for the pageant. Col had rallied in the past hour so she brought her a bowl of comfort food – mashed potato and gravy.

‘I was poisoned,' Col said to Ondine. ‘I'm entitled to feel sorry for myself.'

‘Have you thought of a way to warn the Duke?' Ondine asked.

‘No.' Old Col shook her head. ‘And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced he can see no wrong in the Duchess. We're going to need irrefutable proof before he'll believe us.'

Ondine felt frustrated. ‘But there's no time for that! We just have to explain and hope he'll listen.' She reached for the box of charcoal pellets and shook ten
of them into her palm. They left smudgy grey marks on her skin.

‘Yes, yes.' Old Col grabbed a glass of water, popped one pellet in her mouth and drained half the glass in one gulp. ‘Now it's your turn.'

‘I don't see why I have to –'

‘The doctor said this is the best treatment for this sort of thing. In your case, prevention is better than cure.'

‘Is Hamish all right?'

‘Fit as a mountain goat. Lucky devil.'

‘Where is he?'

‘Working in the kitchens, as a waiter. He's doing his best to find out the source of the food poisoning since it's not just me who's ill.'

Ondine gagged as she tried to get the tiny pellet down her throat. It seemed to grow in size the closer it got to the back of her tongue. Would it go down or come flying back out?

‘You're a good girl, taking care of me,' Col said. ‘I'm sorry I haven't been around as much as I should have. And I haven't been nearly as good a
chaperone as I promised your mother I'd be.'

‘That's OK, Aunt Col, you've had a lot to worry about.' Ondine was quite glad her great aunt had been so busy. Otherwise she would have had even less time with Hamish.

Col gave a knowing chuckle. ‘Are you nervous about the pageant tonight?'

Ondine grimaced. ‘No, just very embarrassed.'

‘Well, don't be. The Cabbage is a very important part. I'm sure you'll get a big cheer.'

That night Ondine took her place in the darkened wings, beside her fellow cast members. She sent a silent prayer of thanks that the play would be over in a few minutes.

A quick peek through the gap in the curtain had shown a packed ballroom. People were wearing the most amazing costumes. Grand ball gowns. High wigs with feathers. Baroque pantaloons. And that was just the men! Amongst the wide skirts were women dressed as monsters, sailors and soldiers. Vincent was in attendance, wearing an army uniform. There were
also at least two dozen witches. Not classic witches with long black skirts and pointy hats. These were true Brugel witches, who wore earth-coloured tunics with thick trousers and heavy travelling cloaks. On their backs they carried multi-pocketed backpacks. The rest of the costume consisted of warm hats with ear-flaps and on their feet, strong boots. Clothing designed for travel on foot or horseback, not broomsticks.

Sure it was Hallowe'en, but how unoriginal that so many women dressed as witches, Ondine thought. Perhaps there was a special deal at the costume shop?

Even Aunt Col had come as a witch. Judging by the way she virtually inhaled every passing canapé, she'd made a full and, quite frankly, remarkable recovery from her illness and was back to tasting every morsel of food before the Duke had any of it.

How Ondine wished this night would be over soon. Butterflies flipped in her belly at the thought of going on stage in front of so many people. She took a few deep breaths and steadied her nerves. That's when she heard two female voices, growing nearer. One of them sounded like Old Col, the other voice she didn't
know. They were muttering something, trying to keep it private, but Ondine couldn't help straining her ears.

I shouldn't. But I am here to spy
, she thought, as she took a step back and listened as hard as she could.

‘. . . need to move CovenCon to Brugel, this is where the weird magic is,' Col said.

‘Agreed,' the other woman said. ‘. . . feels like epicentre . . . so strange.'

‘Doesn't begin to cover it.'

‘. . . growing stronger.'

‘You feel it too?' Col said.

‘Oh yes. It's this ballroom. Has anything strange happened here?'

Ondine couldn't help rolling her eyes. This ballroom was where Old Col had first turned Hamish into a ferret. It didn't surprise her that it could be a centre of strange magic.

‘So strong,' Old Col said.

Just as Ondine thought
gee her voice sounds close
, her great aunt stepped around the corner. Followed by the other woman. And Ondine found herself staring into the glistening round eyes of Brugel's First Minister!

Gulp!

No words came out. The two women – both dressed as witches – stared at her, boring holes right through her. Well, she
had
just been sprung listening to them. And she must look an absolute sight in her Cabbage costume. Any nerves she'd had about going on stage were now completely overtaken by fear of what her great aunt might do to her.

‘It's her!' The First Minister said, her mouth dropping open in a most unparliamentary way.

Ondine looked behind her, but saw only the boy cast members. She turned around again. The First Minister kept staring right through her.

‘Me?' Ondine felt sick right down to her frilly green socks.

‘Yes, you! You're doing all this,' the First Minister said.

‘I rather think she is,' Old Col said, making Ondine feel even more confused. Her great aunt knew she didn't have any magic. Maybe she was just going along with it, like the time she'd made Ondine read the Duchess's palms?

Another gulp. ‘I haven't done anything.'

‘It
is
you.' The First Minister was beginning to creep Ondine right out. ‘There is something about you. You have the strangest magic, it's seeping out of your pores. You don't even realise, do you? You're like a sieve.'

‘But I'm . . .' Ondine didn't know what she was, only that she didn't understand a word of what the First Minister was saying. Maybe she'd been at the plütz?

‘You're due on stage, there's a girl,' Col said. ‘Better get to it.'

Head swirling in confusion, Ondine felt only too glad to take her leave. She found her position on stage behind the lowered curtain and tried to think straight. There was no argument that the palechia was full of strange things, but they weren't her fault. She hadn't made Pyotr psychic, or taught the children and Ms Kyryl to sing. Or caused the fish to fall out of the sky. Had she?

Her great aunt must have been trying to impress the First Minister, that's all. Yes, that sounded completely reasonable and believable.

A hush fell as the curtain parted and Ms Kyryl walked to the centre of the stage, to make the opening announcement. ‘Your Graces the Duke and Duchess of Brugel, Madam First Minister . . .'

Glancing about the crowded room, Ondine saw the First Minister take her seat.

‘. . . distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Harvest and Hallowe'en Ball at the palechia. As is traditional, the night begins with the children's pageant. Without further ado, I present to you the Palechia School children.'

Ondine quickly crouched into position and waited for her cue. All thoughts fled, including what she was supposed to be doing up there. A huge roar of applause filled the room as the curtain parted to reveal their colourful, cardboard set. Suddenly she didn't feel so bad. She could get through this!

Farmer One and Farmer Two strolled on to the stage with their tools. The crowd broke into applause.

‘Our months of toil will soon be rewarded,' Farmer One said as she hefted her cardboard hoe over her shoulder.

‘That is true,' Farmer Two said, enunciating clearly. ‘In fact, you could say our labours will soon
bear fruit
.'

The audience roared with laughter and cheered.

Mercury's wings, what an easy crowd!
Ondine thought.

‘Here is the apple, so sweet and ripe,' Farmer One said.

The boy playing Apple spun around and twisted himself from the branch of a cardboard tree, as if the farmers had just picked him. The audience broke into fresh applause.

Farmer Two moved over to the vegetable patch. ‘And here is the Turnip, here is the Cabbage!'

Andreas stood up and said, ‘I am Turnip,' then gave a bow.

That was Ondine's cue to stand up and deliver her line, ‘I am Cabbage.' As she leant forward to take her bow, her skirts flew up in the air behind her. The audience roared with laughter as Andreas the Turnip peeked behind Ondine and pretended to be shocked. Just as they'd rehearsed it.

As she did a little twirl, she cast a look at Sun and
made a sweeping gesture with her hand. Cue Sun stepping sideways offstage.

‘Oh no, we still have much work to do, but the sun is leaving us,' Farmer Two said.

‘It will soon grow dark,' Farmer One said.

‘The light is here,' a voice said from offstage. Hetty, dressed in her silvery lunar costume, shimmied into position. ‘I am Harvest Moon. I will help you.'

The crowd went crazy. Ondine couldn't get over what an enthusiastic audience they had. Making her way backstage as the play moved into the final scenes, Ondine found Hamish waiting for her.

‘Lass, ye were great up there,' he said, smiling at her.

Ondine shrugged away the compliment, too distracted by Hamish looking so gloriously dashing in his waiter's outfit.

Hamish stole a quick kiss that made her feel beautiful despite her frumpy costume. ‘Here, I grabbed some food from the kitchen.'

Ondine took a pastry. ‘Oooh, these look nice, what's in them?'

Hamish shrugged. ‘Silver beet and feta. Well, it
might be spinach, it might be rhubarb leaves.'

Ondine nearly choked. ‘Rhubarb leaves? You're kidding?'

Confusion swamped Hamish's face. ‘No, I'm not. I heard the Duchess tell them tae do it, tae save money, like.'

‘No way!'

‘Sure. She told them to stop wasting food and use potato skins in the soup, rhubarb and celery leaves in the pastries. They've been following her orders ever since.'

Ondine's body grew cold all over and she put the pastry back on Hamish's plate. ‘Rhubarb leaves are toxic!'

‘They are? But . . . the food's full of them! It's the Duke's favourite snack!'

Ondine stared at the plate of pastries, each one a neat rectangle of tasty death. Instantly her memory reeled back to the time Old Col had upturned the teacup on the train and declared,
That's not a carriage, dear, it's a coffin. What a shame, that means somebody's going to die
.

‘Great Pluto's ghost!' Ondine gasped. ‘Col didn't get sick in Slaegal, she was poisoned right here. Throw these in the bin. We have to stop people eating them.'

Ondine charged into the ballroom and ran directly towards the Duke. He was dressed as a Baroque dandy with a gold cane. She nearly lost her footing as her voluminous skirts buffeted the shocked guests.

The Duke looked pale as he leaned on his cane. In his other hand, he had a pastry.

‘No!' Ondine screamed as she ran. ‘Don't eat the green ones!' All the while she kept silently begging, ‘He can't die. The tea leaves can't come true!'

The Duke's mouth fell open, his eyes became round and frightened at the sight of the human cabbage hurtling his way.