The Autumn Palace by Ebony McKenna Page B

do about it.
    Old Col related the entire sorry tale to Ondine. About how the champion show dog had gone the full-berserker on Shambles and how she had used ancient magic and ripped the little mutt’s teeth out. Every last one of them.
    Old Col looked ashamed. ‘In the panic of themoment, I wanted Biscuit’s teeth out of Shambles. I must have said the spell not quite right. Maybe I had a senior moment?’
    Hope surged in Ondine. If that nasty dog had no teeth left, Shambles would be safe from future attacks. ‘Will he make a full recovery?’
    â€˜Undoubtedly. He’s sleeping it off. When the dog attacked, Shambles was about to let fly with enough profanities to strip the wallpaper. There wasn’t time to think. I cast a spell to make him appear dead, so that I could get him out of the dining room.’
    Relief washed over Ondine like a tidal wave. But there was one more unknown factor in the sorry adventure, not counting all the unknown unknowns. 36
    â€˜Aunt Col, why is he still a ferret?’
    Col shook her head, pursed her lips as if in deep thought and said, ‘We’ll have to wait and see.’
    Waiting is awful. There’s the waiting for a meal to arrive when you can smell it cooking, and your stomach is saying ‘hurry up’. There’s the butterflies-in-the-tummy waiting for a gymnastics score from the fussy judges who are not sure if they should deduct half a point or a whole point for stepping outside the white lines. Then there’s the hopeless I-feel-completely-sick kind of waiting, as a young girl looks upon the hopeless shape of an injured ferret waiting to see if he’ll ever become handsomely human again.
    An hour dragged by. When Ondine looked at Old Col’s watch, it lied and said only eight minutes had passed. Fifteen more of Ondine’s hours passed over the next two real hours. There was no change from Shambles at all, just the rise and fall of his furry little tummy as he breathed in and out. Every now and then his paws twitched. At one point, his eyelids flickered and seemed ready to spring open, but it was just his eyes quivering. Dreaming.
    â€˜You need sleep yourself, you’ve got school in the morning,’ Old Col said.
    â€˜But it’s got no roof.’
    â€˜Pyotr told me they’ll make do with one of the barns.’
    â€˜Do I have to go?’
    â€˜Of course you do. If you don’t, the Duke will send you home. By the way, your parents are furious with me for letting you stay and work here.’
    Gulp
. Shambles had taken up so much of her head space she hadn’t given a thought to her parents. ‘It didn’t go down well?’
    â€˜You should have heard your mother scream when I phoned her and told her where we were. They wanted you to go home immediately. I told them you’d get a better education here. So you’d better prove me right or we’re all in strife. And another thing, make sure you call them every now and then, just so they know you’re safe and well.’ 37
    Rubbing her eyes and finding gritty things in the corners, Ondine agreed to return to her room. Some people have worried so much about another’s fate they have lain awake all night with the stress of it. Ondine was not such a person. Yes, she fully planned to worry all night about Shambles and whether he would ever be Hamish again. The new bed felt strange and cold; a recipe for further fretting. Her body, however, had other ideas and she fell asleep two pico-seconds after pulling the covers up.
    Tasting a mouthful of dust, Ondine half-woke and prised her eyes open. It was dark – hardly surprising as it must have been the middle of the night. The true surprise was trying to swallow. Her tongue felt dry enough to leave splinters in her cheeks.
    I must have fallen asleep with my mouth open
, she thought. Quickly followed by another important thought:
I need a drink
.
    Eyes adjusting to the low light, Ondine