The Pinhoe Egg Read Free Page B

thought.
    â€œI need that stuffed ferret out there,” Joe said. “If I take it, can you make it look as if it’s still there?”
    Marianne knew better than to ask what Joe wanted with a horrid thing like that ferret. Boys! She said, “Joe! It’s Gammer’s!”
    â€œ She’s not going to want it,” Joe said. “And you’re much better at illusion than me. Be a sport, Marianne. While they’re all still in there talking.”
    Marianne sighed, but she went out into the hall with Joe, where they could hear the hushed, serious voices from the front room. Very quietly, they inspected the ferret under its glass dome. It had always struck Marianne as like a furry yellow snake with legs. All squirmy . Yuck. But the important thing, if you were going to do an illusion, was that this was probably just what everyone saw. Then you noticed the wide-open fanged mouth, too, and the ferocious beady eyes. The dome was so dusty that you really hardly saw anything else. You just had to get the shape right.
    â€œCan you do it?” Joe asked eagerly.
    She nodded. “I think so.” She carefully lifted off the glass dome and stood it beside the stuffed badger. The ferret felt like a hard furry log when she picked it up. Yuck again. She passed the thing to Joe with a shudder. She put the glass dome back over the empty patch of false grass that was left and held both hands out toward it in as near ferret shape as she could. Bent and yellow and furry-squirmy, she thought at it. Glaring eyes,horrid little ears, pink mouth snarling and full of sharp white teeth. Further yuck. She took her hands away and there it was, exactly as she had thought it up, blurrily through the dust on the glass, a dim yellow snarling shape.
    â€œLush!” said Joe. “Apex! Thanks.” He raced back into the kitchen with the real ferret cradled in his arms.
    Marianne saw the print of her hands on the dust of the dome, four of them. She blew on them furiously, willing them to go away. They were slowly clearing, when the door to the front room banged importantly open and Great-Uncle Edgar strode out. Marianne stopped doing magic at once, because he was bound to notice. She made herself gaze innocently instead at Edgar’s tweed hat, like a little tweed flowerpot on his head. It turned toward her.
    â€œWe’ve decided your grandmother must have professional care,” Great-Uncle Edgar said. “I’m off to see to it.”
    Someone must have woken Gammer up again. Her voice echoed forth from inside the front room. “There’s nothing so good as a stewed ferret, I always say.”
    Did Gammer read other people’s minds now? Marianne held her breath and nodded and smiled at Great-Uncle Edgar. And Joe came back from the kitchen at that moment, carrying Aunt Helen’s sandwich basket—which he must have thought was Mum’s—with a cloth over it to hide the ferret. Great-Uncle Edgar said to him, “Where are you off to?”
    Joe went hunched and sulky. “Home,” he said. “Got to take the cat. Marianne’s going to look after him now.”
    Unfortunately Nutcase spoiled this explanation by rushing out of the kitchen to rub himself against Marianne’s legs.
    â€œBut he keeps getting out,” Joe added without a blink.
    Marianne took in a big breath, which made her quite dizzy after holding it for so long. “I’ll bring him, Joe,” she said, “when I come. You go on home and take Mum’s basket back.”
    â€œYes,” said Great-Uncle Edgar. “You’ll need to pack, Joseph. You have to be working in That Castle tomorrow, don’t you?”
    Joe’s mouth opened and he stared at Edgar. Marianne stared too. They had both assumed thatGammer’s plans for Joe had gone the way of Gammer’s wits. “Who told you that?” Joe said.
    â€œGammer did, yesterday,” Great-Uncle Edgar said.