“Queen Moragana, if you will permit me to argue my side,” Timothy said, bowing to her. “My beloved wife, my perfect beloved wife, has no familiarity with the Fae by your decree. I have kept Penelope free of all Fae lore, as is the law of dealing with humans, but, as she has now entered Faeryland and will be staying here a bit, I will indeed instruct her on the rules and customs of this land.”
“Clever Prince Cadarone,” Queen Moragana said with a full-throttled smile. “You are most correct. She was human, so, therefore kept ignorant. Of course. But now things have changed. She is changed. No longer human, but not yet Pooka wife-changed, I think. Yes, she remains in the in between. That in itself is an intriguing point.”
She sat down in the chair that Queen Beatrice had formerly claimed, stared at the other woman and said, “What do you think, Beatrice? Do you see any indication that the girl is anything more than a normal human?”
Queen Beatrice darted a look in my direction, then glared down at Queen Moragana. “That is my dining chair. Are you stealing that from me, too?”
Queen Moragana stared over at her and laughed. “You do realize that you have been conquered, Beatrice. Nothing here belongs to you now. It is all mine. She glanced about her, took note of the peeling wall paint, the dust and dirt, the saggy chairs, and sighed heavily. “Never mind. I will not keep this pile of rubbish. However, there will be punishment for you in spite of your position and your mental unstableness.”
“Mental unstableness!” Queen Beatrice cried out. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled potatoes, and Susie sells seashells. That proves that I have a firm grip on my capacities.”
The Kidnapper Queen was actually looking quite unsure of herself at that point. Her face had puckered up, her eyes begun to leak, and her mouth was pouting in a manner more suitable for a toddler than a woman of indeterminate age.
The soap opera of the two queens and my husband, the pooka, was interrupted by the arrival of a group of soldiers carrying in platters of food. But where would they put it with the table still laid out as it had been since early in the morning?
I turned to look and saw that everything had not only been hauled away, but the whole area had been cleaned. A faded blue cloth was spread over the sagging table, and tableware and dishes, so pristine with clean, they were all shining with golden highlights, now occupied a corner of the table. Goblets decorated the other side, multi-jeweled, gold-rimmed, and equally sparkling.
The first soldier set down a huge platter with roasted meat. As he turned the platter to the front, I saw that it was a cooked pig with an apple in its mouth. The sight of that almost took my appetite away.
More soldiers delivered other platters: chunks of fruit, rye and wheat breads, carrots and potatoes with green beans, and what I thought were beets, but turned out to be cooked red apples.