Among the Barons by Haddix Margaret Peterson

Author:Haddix, Margaret Peterson [Haddix, Margaret Peterson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Adventure
ISBN: 9781442443051
Goodreads: 11518654
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2003-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The rest of the day felt interminable. Luke wandered aimlessly around the house and grounds for several hours. He didn’t encounter either of Smits’s parents again, but there seemed to be a servant around every corner. And they all seemed to know everything about him—or, at least, about the person he was supposed to be.

“Have you brought up those grades in mathematics, Master Lee?” a man Luke guessed was a butler asked him in the front hallway.

“I tuned up the engine on your motor scooter, sir,” a mechanic in a grease-covered uniform told him out beside the garage, which looked large enough to hold a boat—and probably did, come to think of it.

As the grandfather clock by the front door chimed seven, a housekeeper scolded him, “There you are! Why aren’t you washed up and dressed for dinner?”

“I . . . ,” Luke protested. He scrambled toward what he thought was the dining room. He remembered seeing a vast wooden table in one of these rooms—now, where was it?

Mostly by luck Luke arrived in the proper room. Mr. and Mrs. Grant were seated at opposite ends of the huge table. Two chairs were arranged between them. Smits sat in one of those chairs. Luke dashed toward the other one.

“And where is your tuxedo, young man?” Mrs. Grant asked.

“Um . . .,” Luke said. He noticed that both Smits and Mr. Grant were in formal black suits, with pure white shirts underneath and black bows tied crisply around their necks.

“We didn’t dress for dinner at school,” Smits volunteered. “Lee probably forgot all about it.”

“Indeed,” Mrs. Grant sniffed. “Well, we shan’t have you forgetting here. Go and change this instant.”

Luke considered himself quite fortunate to be able to find his way back to his room, find a suit—a tuxedo?—in his closet, and scramble into it. He was fumbling with the tie, wondering how angry the Grants would be if he just forgot about it—versus how angry they’d be if he kept them waiting any longer—when Oscar silently stepped into the room and adeptly twisted the tie into shape. He straightened the sleeves of Luke’s coat, shoved a stray lock of hair off Luke’s forehead, and pushed him out the door without saying a single word.

Back in the dining room Mrs. Grant purred, “Now, that’s better. That’s the son I like to see.” Then she, Mr. Grant, and Smits began spooning up soup that had gone cold.

The dinner passed in a blur. Luke ate heartily of the soup, thinking it was a shame that that was all there was. So he was pleasantly surprised when a plateful of greens arrived next. But the courses that came after that were foods he had no hope of identifying. Once, he suspected he was eating white lumps of rice under some type of gravy. But Luke was pretty certain that the gravy wasn’t made from pork fat, which was the only kind he’d ever eaten before.

He supposed the food was good—delicious, even—but it was hard to enjoy it sitting with a sullen Smits and Smits’s icy parents.

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