by Ruth Chew
Holly put the cat next to the low stone wall around the well. Albert peeked out of the shirt.
Matthew arrived as Holly took hold of the wooden bucket on the wall. “I’ll help you with that pail in a minute. But first I want my shirt back. Albert can hide just as well in this tunic.”
“I’d rather keep the shirt,” the cat said.
“In the tunic, Matt, you look as if you belong around here, and we’ll be safer,” Holly said. “Besides, it would be rude to Meg Turner to take it off.”
“It’s itchy,” Matthew said. “You’re not the one who has to wear it.”
“Your T-shirt is soft and white, just right to wrap a baby in,” Holly persisted.
Matthew reached to grab the shirt.
“Stop!” the cat said in a low voice. “Or I’ll have to take control. Don’t forget. I am the Master of the Magic!”
“That’s what you think.” Matthew pulled the slipper from his pocket. “Whose slipper are you?”
The slipper did not move.
“Slipper,” the cat commanded, “go to the castle and do what you can to help Nell Fisher. We will meet you there.”
The slipper trembled. Matthew tried to hold on to it, but it wiggled out of his hand and flew away before he knew what was happening.
“Albert’s right, Matt,” Holly said. “We have to listen to him. I’m sorry you don’t want to wear the tunic. It looks good on you. As soon as we’re away from Meg Turner’s house, I’ll put it on. Albert can have my shirt.”
Matt laughed. “You’d look silly in it.” He grabbed a rope and helped Holly lower the bucket that was tied to it into the well.
Together they pulled up the bucket of cool water. The children cupped their hands and drank from them.
Holly held the cat so he could lap from the pail. Then she washed her face and ran her wet fingers through her hair.
Matthew picked up his shirt, cat and all, and carried it into the house. “No hard feelings, Albert,” he said. “I had it coming to me.”
Meg Turner had a bowl of porridge with honey on it ready for each of the children and a cup of warm milk for Albert.
When they were ready to go, she handed Matthew a little basket. “Something to eat for the journey,” she said.
Meg Turner tipped her head to one side and looked hard at Matthew. “You look just as handsome in that tunic as my son did. I’m happy that I gave it to you.”
Holly carried the cat wrapped in Matthew’s T-shirt, and Matthew took charge of the lunch basket. They followed the path above the river and walked into the little town.
“Look, Matt,” Holly whispered. “That man is wearing a tunic like yours.”
Matthew tried not to stare. “I’m glad I still have my jeans!”
The man’s pants were tied to his legs with narrow strips of cloth.
“They’re better than those long baggy dresses the girls here are wearing,” Holly said. “And what a job to have to braid all that hair!”
They came to an open square where a gray stone church had been built. People were filling jugs with water from a well.
When Matthew and Holly left the town, the path began to go uphill. It was hard and stony now.
They went around a bend and looked down to see the river below them.
Albert poked his head out of Matthew’s shirt. “We must be on Castle Rock,” he said. “I’ve never dared to come here before.”
They sat down beside the path and ate the bread, cheese, and apples in Meg Turner’s basket.
Holly held the cat while he lapped milk from a little jar with a wooden stopper.
From above came the sound of horses’ hooves on the stony path.
Matthew grabbed Albert and wrapped him in his shirt. Holly jammed the stopper back into the jar and started to crunch an apple.
Three men on horseback came rattling down the hill, sending stones rolling onto the picnickers. The horses galloped on toward the town.
Holly went back to eating her apple and giving Albert his milk.
Between bites of bread and cheese, Matthew said to the cat, “I don’t understand why the slipper kept doing things for both Holly and me and then, all of a sudden, it would only obey you.”
“You two kept giving orders I would like to have thought of,” Albert told him. “The slipper never heard me object.”
“Let’s not waste time talking about it,” Holly said. “We have to get into the castle.”
It was a long hike to the top of Castle Rock. Matthew and Holly had to step off the path so a man driving a donkey cart could get by. He was going to town to buy food for the castle.
They were out of breath when at last they came to a thick fence of pointed tree trunks. A man with a spear was guarding the heavy oak gates in the fence. He let the people coming out of the gates pass him. But when Holly and Matthew tried to walk in, he barred the way with his spear. “What do you two boys have in that bundle?”
Albert let out a wail.
The guard stroked his beard.
Matthew opened his mouth to say something, but his sister stepped on his foot to stop him.
Holly had short curly hair and wore jeans. She decided to let people here think she was a boy. “Yesterday the earl put our friend Lady Eleanor in front of him on his horse to bring her here. He told my brother and me there was not room for us on the horse, but that we would be welcome at Castle Garrick.”
The guard started to laugh, but stopped. “It’s his idea of a joke, but I’m sure it’s not funny to you.” He took a good look at the children. “Take that hungry baby to the cookhouse and tell Osmond, the head cook, that Ethelbert said to give you boys something to eat. Now go in and keep quiet about this. Osmond is a friend of mine and I don’t want him to get into trouble.” The guard raised his spear to let them walk through the gateway.
A wide strip of land went around the castle like a road. Holly and Matthew had to duck out of the way of two teenaged boys riding horseback.
They came to a ditch filled with water. “That’s what they call a moat,” Matthew said. “Look, there’s a drawbridge!”
They crossed the bridge. The iron grating on the other side was up. Holly and Matthew walked under it and through an arch in a stone wall that was thicker than any wall they’d ever seen before.
Beyond the wall was a large courtyard full of busy people and farm animals. Holly looked around. Within the courtyard she saw another moat and a drawbridge leading to an even thicker wall. Rising high on the other side of that wall was an enormous round tower.
“It was nice of Ethelbert to tell us how to get food,” Holly said, “but I’m not hungry right now.”
“Neither am I,” her brother agreed. “Let’s explore the castle.”
They looked into a carpenter shop in the courtyard. A man there was sawing a tree trunk into thick boards. He put down his saw and smiled at Holly and Matthew. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“Have you seen a pretty lady in a blue dress with white daisies on it? The earl brought her to the castle yesterday.”
“Everybody saw her,” the carpenter said. “We were all waiting to see what the earl would bring home from the hunt.”
“Where can we find her?” Holly asked.
“The earl took her to the donjon.” The man picked up his saw and went back to work.
Holly looked at her brother. “Why would he put her in the dungeon?” she whispered.
“Maybe he found out who she was,” Matthew said in an even softer whisper.
Now a loud whisper came from the T-shirt Holly was carrying. “A donjon is not a dungeon!”
Holly carried the hidden cat away from the carpenter shop. “There’s nobody very close to us, Matt. If Albert says anything, I’ll move my lips, so people will think I’m the one who’s talking.”
“Did you hear that, Albert?” Matthew said.
The cat started to whisper, and Holly silently moved her lips.
“The donjon is the big strong tower in
the middle of a castle,” Albert told them. “The lord of a castle and his guests live in the upper part of the tower. The dungeon is in the lowest place under the tower. It is a dark, damp, rat-infested prison.”
When Albert finished, Holly stopped pretending to talk and said, “I guess we’d better visit the donjon, Matt.”
Matthew grinned. “The upper part of the tower.”
Holly walked quickly across the busy courtyard to the drawbridge that crossed the inner moat. Her brother hurried to keep up with her.
People were walking back and forth across the bridge. Some of them seemed to be carrying something for those who lived in the tower. Two young women had baskets of laundry. A man with an apron held a covered dish from the cookhouse. There was a peddler with a pack on his back. Servants struggled with heavy pails of water.
The guard on the bridge let all these people pass, but he stopped people who were empty-handed.
“Slow down, Holly,” Matthew said. “I think it’s time we went to see Osmond.”
It was easy to find the cookhouse. Matthew and Holly just followed their noses. The smell of roasting meat came from a stone building in the courtyard. It had a high pointed roof with a hole in the center to let the smoke out. They walked through an open doorway.
A fire burned on a great stone hearth. Many different cooks were busy preparing food. Holly saw a man with a cleaver hacking up the carcass of a large animal. Another man was skinning and cutting up rabbits. He dropped them into an enormous pot. A woman was putting carrots and onions into the same pot.
Matthew was glad he didn’t have to crank a spit to roast the row of geese on it. The boy who had this job worked close to the fire and was covered with sweat.
One man walked around the fire, watching how things were cooking. “You need more water in the pot,” he told the woman adding vegetables to the stew.
Holly walked over to him, carrying the cat in the T-shirt. Matthew went after her.
“We’re looking for Osmond,” Holly said.
Albert let out a pitiful wail.
“I’m Osmond,” the man told her.
Holly jiggled the cat as if he were a baby. “Ethelbert told us you would give us something to eat.”
“Of course I will. You’re strangers here. Any friend of Ethelbert’s is a friend of mine.” Osmond took a wooden platter from a pile of them on a big table. He walked around the cookhouse and loaded the platter with the nicest cuts of meat from the fire. Then he went to the big baskets of fruit that were in the shade of a tree in the courtyard. He chose the prettiest peaches and plums and put them on the platter. Finally he added a loaf of bread that had been baked in the big stone oven near the cookhouse. “How’s that?”
“Wonderful! Thank you,” Holly said.
Osmond gave the platter to Matthew to carry. “Don’t eat it near the cookhouse,” he whispered. “Or everyone will be asking me for the same.” He went back to his work.
Matthew carried the tray of food before him as if he were in a parade. “Hold Albert up like a present,” he told his sister.
Holly walked proudly behind Matthew holding the cat in front of her chest.
They crossed the courtyard to the inner drawbridge. The guard on the bridge let them pass and go through the gate in the tremendous wall.
Now they were in a well-kept rose garden. And right ahead was the towering donjon.
The guard at the door of the donjon looked at the tray of food Matthew was carrying. “It’s early for dinner,” he said. “Who’s getting that?”
“We’re taking it to Lady Eleanor of Fiswell,” Matthew told him.
“Well, you’d better hurry before it gets cold. She’s in the room at the top of the west tower.” The guard stepped aside to let Matthew and Holly pass.
They walked into a narrow passage. There were several stairways going up from it. “I wonder which stair is to the west tower,” Holly said.
Albert started to whisper. At once Holly began to move her lips and pretend to be the one who was talking.
“If I were on the ground, my nose would tell me where Nell is,” the cat said. “You could follow me.”
“Suppose somebody saw you?” Matthew said.
“I could run,” Albert whispered. “There are lots of places to hide in a castle.”
Holly was still moving her lips. She wanted to remind the cat that she and her brother could never go home if Albert left them, but Matthew said, “It’s dark here. Holly will put you down.” He nodded to his sister. “Go ahead, but pretend you’re still carrying something in my shirt.”
Holly looked around the shadowy hall. There was no one in sight. She unwrapped Albert from the T-shirt and bent down to put him on the stone floor.
The cat stretched his legs, lifted his head to sniff the air, and trotted down the passage. When he came to a stair, he stopped and sniffed all around it. Then he continued down the winding passage. Matthew and Holly went after him.
Albert stopped at another stair and began to check that one. Before he finished checking, two young men came chasing each other down the stair. The cat turned and ran back down the hall. Holly threw the T-shirt over him and picked him up. She held him in front of her as she had before and kept walking.
The two young men were coming toward the children.
“Did you see that rat?” Matthew said to them.
“A real monster,” one of them said.
The other agreed. “It was as big as a cat! Come on, Cuthbert, let’s get out of here.”
As soon as the young men were out of sight, Albert wiggled out of the T-shirt and jumped to the ground. He trotted along with his nose on the ground. When they came to a narrow twisting stair, he started right up.
Matthew and Holly were close behind him.
The stairway led to a different floor. The children followed the cat through a maze of narrow passages and past several rooms. Albert stopped at the foot of a winding staircase. Holly and Matthew heard the faint sound of voices coming from overhead.
Holly unfolded the T-shirt. The cat came over to be wrapped up. Holding the tray of food, Matthew led the way up the stairs.
They went higher. The voices were louder. The stair ended at a door.
Holly tapped on the door. It was opened by the earl!
He stared at the two children. Then he smiled. “You’re here at last! I was afraid something had happened to you.” He pinched Holly’s cheek.
Holly could feel the cat’s heart pounding under the T-shirt. Her heart began to pound too.
“Now that you’re here,” the earl said, “the lady will be happy.” He looked at the food. “How lucky that you brought something for her to eat. She’s not used to the castle food and hasn’t touched a crumb in all the time she has been here.” He opened the door wide for them to go in. Then he went out and shut the door behind him.
They were in a room with windows set high in the walls. Nell Fisher and two other ladies were seated at a table piled high with cloth, sewing.
Nell was even prettier than they remembered.
“Ow! I just stuck myself with this dratted needle.” Nell Fisher stood up and let her sewing fall on the floor. She ran over to the children and hugged them. “I’m so glad to see you. This is a terrible place. I always thought it would be fun to see how the fine ladies live. But it’s boring! I don’t know what I would have done without Elspeth and Selma. They haven’t eaten because I wouldn’t, and they’ve been sewing all day just to make me a present.”
“Eat!” Nell Fisher commanded the ladies. She grabbed a slice of meat from the platter. “M-m-m-m. I’m starved!”
Matthew carried the tray of food over to the two ladies and placed it on the table near them. They put down their sewing and began to eat.
“Nell,” Holly whispered. “Here’s Albert.”
Nell Fisher looked at the bundle of T-shirt and cat. “Give him to me.” She took Albert and his wrappings and went to get another piece of meat from the tray.
“I didn’t know you had a baby, Eleanor,” Elspeth said.
Nell Fisher didn’t answer. She carried Albert and the T-shirt to a large pile of straw in one corner of the room. “I’d better give him his dinner in bed.”
“There must be something terribly wrong with him,” Selma whispered. The two ladies clucked their tongues in sympathy.
Nell went back to the tray of food. “Come and join us. There’s enough for everybody,” she told the children. She turned to the ladies. “These are my friends Holly and Matthew.”
“Fine-looking boys,” Selma said.
“Yes,” Elspeth agreed. “But I’ll have to work on those leggings the little one is wearing. I’m sure I can improve them. I love to sew.”
When they had all finished eating, the two ladies picked up their sewing again.
The door opened and the earl came into the room. He walked over to Matthew. “Clench your fist, lad!” He felt Matthew’s arm. “Splendid! Tomorrow you can join me in a little expedition to punish the scoundrel from Castle Brandon who’s been hunting in my forest.”
Holly felt cold all over. She remembered what had happened to Meg Turner’s son.
“The little one can serve you as a page, my lady,” the earl told Nell Fisher. He turned and left the room.
Suddenly Holly caught sight of the toe of a red bedroom slipper poking out from under a pile of cloth on the table. She quietly took the slipper and carried it over to the pile of straw. “Master of the Magic, do your stuff!” she whispered, and shoved the slipper into the folded T-shirt.
Albert stuck his black, whiskery face out of the T-shirt. He was holding the red bedroom slipper in his mouth.
Elspeth took one look at the cat and let out a hair-raising scream. She hurried to open the door. Selma jumped to her feet and followed her. Both ladies ran down the winding stair as fast as they could in their long dresses.