The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones

Author:Diana Wynne Jones [Jones, Diana Wynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Extratorrents, Kat
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

TWO

Luckily, before things got any worse for me or for Grundo, a kettle whistled over on the stove, and Heppy went trotting and clacking over there to make tea. She shortly came trotting and clacking back, carrying a vast teapot in a knitted cozy. Grundo and I watched her tottery high heels both ways in nervous fascination. We expected her to tangle with a rug and trip at any moment, but she never did. It was like a miracle.

Judith meanwhile was setting the table and laying out covered plates of small sandwiches. “These are only cucumber,” she apologized. “We’ll do better for supper.”

“Tea!” Heppy shrieked. “Tea’s up!” The nearest I can get to describing my grandmother’s voice when she screamed is a parrot imitating a steam whistle. We heard a lot of her screaming later, but I never found a better description.

Her voice must have carried out into the back garden with no trouble at all. They could probably hear it a mile away in the village. The back door burst open almost instantly, and almost before it had hit the wall with a crash, two small girls bounded in, followed by a large, curly, yellow dog. A black cat, which had been snoozing on a cushion up to then, woke up and bolted. Grundo said later that the cat’s behavior was highly significant. “And sensible,” he added.

One of the small girls was wearing baggy trousers and a white vest. The other was in a trailing, shiny, pink tea gown which almost certainly belonged to Heppy. Otherwise you would never have told them apart. They both had the same light brown hair falling in twists to their shoulders, and the same pale, pert little face with huge blue eyes.

There was a brisk minute of pandemonium. The dog barked. Heppy screamed, “Shut the door, Ilsabil! Isadora, you’ve been at my clothes again!”

At the same time, Judith was saying, “These are my twins. This is Isadora, and this is Ilsabil. Girls, come and meet your cousin Arianrhod and her friend Ambrose.”

Also at the same time, the twin in trousers screamed, “Oh, my God!” and backed dramatically against the wall. “It’s a boy in here! Don’t let it near me!” She made fending motions at Grundo. But the twin in the silk dress put on a sickly, gushing smile and glided up to Grundo with both arms out. “A boy!” she cried, in a deep, actressy voice. “Let me at him!”

Then, just as I was thinking, in a slightly stunned way, that this behavior was the way you told these twins apart, the one in the dress recoiled from Grundo with a scream. “Mother!” she howled. “How can you let a great rough boy in here?” Instantly the other twin put on the sickly, gushing smile and undulated up to Grundo, stretching her arms out and yelling, “A kiss, my lover, a kiss!”

Grundo’s face was a study, and I didn’t blame him.

“Shake hands with your cousin!” Heppy screamed.

They didn’t, of course. Shaking hands would have been too normal for these twins.

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