The Ozark trilogy by Suzette Haden Elgin

with fevers ... nothing serious, but fevers all the same.”
    “I was thinking more on the order of a plague,” I said flatly.
    More silence.
    “All right,” I said, “is there marrying trouble there? Or birthing trouble? Or naming trouble?”
    “If there is,” said Granny Gotightly, “Granny Gableframe is there and she’ll see to it.”
    “Responsible,” said Amanda of Farson, “you’re touring the Castles, as I understand it, because you intend to find out who hung the McDaniels baby in your cedar tree—”
    “Flumdiddle!” said Granny Golightly again. Emphatically.
    “Trite, Granny Gotightly,” I said between my teeth, and she wrinkled her nose at me.
    “I say flumdiddle because no other word that’s accurate sits well in my mouth,” she had back at me. “If all you wanted to know was who did that foolish baby trick, you have Magicians of Rank as could find that out for you without you setting out on a Quest! Amanda, you can’t see any farther than the end of your nose.”
    “Gently, Granny,” said Zoe again, and her sisters each reached for a baby, too. They appeared to use the little ones like a kind of armor in this Castle; any sign of tension and everybody grabbed a baby. I wasn’t sure what it signified, but it was distinctive.
    “What were you going to say, Amanda?” I asked, keeping my voice as courteous as I could and hoping for a chance at this Granny another day.
    “I meant to say that the Smiths are easily offended. That’s well known.”
    “If they think you suspect them of doing that sorry piece of business—and with you coming uninvited they’ll for sure think you do suspect them, since you’ve never done such a thing before—you’ll put their backs up,” said Nathan Terfelix. “They’re stiffnecked and overproud. They won’t bear being spied upon.”
    “Do you see my visit as being spied upon?” I asked, taken aback, and then regretted it; Golightly was on me quick as a tick.
    “Most certainly!” she said, little wrinkled cheeks red as wild daisies. “ Most certainly! And why not, seeing as that is what it is?”
    “Oh, my,” I sighed, “this won’t do.”
    “Now, my dear, that’s just Granny’s way of talking,” said Amanda. “You mustn’t mind it.”
    Telling me, was she, about the Grannys and their way of talking? Even Sharon looked embarrassed, and the silent Una made a little noise in the back of her throat and stared down into her coffee cup.
    “Your Granny,” I said quietly, “is doing what she’s good at. Stirring up trouble. Sowing dissent.”
    The old lady’s brows went up, and I thought she was going to rub her hands together with glee at finally getting to me. But she waited, to see if I’d go on.
    “I see no reason why youall can’t know why I’m here,” I told them. “Nor why the tour of the Castles. For sure, I could of found out without leaving my own bedroom—with the help of a Magician of Rank, of course—”
    “What are you up to with a Magician of Rank in your bedroom?” Granny interrupted, scoring one point.
    “—who kidnapped the McDaniels baby,” I went right on. “That’s not in question. The point is that somebody, or some one of the Families, is doing one piece of fool mischief after another to try to make people back out of the Jubilee. Especially people that’ve been against it all along and are just looking for an excuse to stay away. Finding out who’s doing the mischief is not really the point—though it serves as Quest Goal, naturally, and I’ll do it as I go along. The point is to show that Castle Brightwater is not to be put down by mischief, magical or otherwise.”
    “A symbol,” said Amanda.
    “A Quest for a Challenge,” said Golightly, who knew her business. “Quite right.”
    “But nobody here is against the Jubilee!” said Zoe, looking both outraged and puzzled.
    “Of course not,” I agreed, “but do think , Zoe of Clark!”
    She jogged the baby a bit, and then she nodded.
    “You