The face on the doll smiled. Rachel’s mouth dropped open.
“I love you, Rachel,” it said in a tiny little voice.
Rachel gasped in surprise, she giggled in glee, she hugged the doll to her as tight as she could. She laughed and laughed, swinging her body back and forth as she hugged the doll to her chest.
Then, she remembered. She pushed the doll back at the wizard, turning her face away.
“I’m not allowed to have a doll. The Princess said so. She would throw it in the fire, that’s what she said. If I had a doll, she would throw it in the fire.” She could hardly speak, because of the lump in her throat.
“Well, let me think,” the wizard said, rubbing his chin. “Where do you sleep?”
“Most of the time, I sleep in the Princess’s bedroom. She locks me in the box at night. I think that’s mean. Sometimes, when she says I’ve been bad, she makes me leave the castle for the night, so I have to sleep outside. She thinks that’s even meaner, but I really like it, because I have a secret place, in a wayward pine, where I sleep.
“Wayward pines don’t have locks on them, you know. I can go potty whenever I have to. It’s pretty cold sometimes, but I got a pile of straw, and I climb under it to keep warm. I have to come back in the morning, before she sends the guards to look for me, so they won’t find my secret place. I don’t want them to find it. They would tell the Princess and she wouldn’t send me out anymore.”
The wizard tenderly cupped his hands around her face. It made her feel special. “Dear child,” he whispered, “that I could have been a party to this.” His eyes were wet. Rachel didn’t know wizards could get tears. Then his big grin came back, and he held up a finger. “I have an idea. You know the gardens, the formal gardens?”
Rachel nodded. “I go through them to go to my secret place, when I’m put out at night. The Princess makes me go through the outer wall at the garden gate. She doesn’t want me to go out the front, past the shops and people. She’s afraid someone might take me in for the night. She told me I mustn’t go to the town or the farmland. I must go to the woods, as punishment.”
“Well, as you walk down the central path of the garden, there are short urns, on both sides, with yellow flowers in them.” Rachel nodded. She knew where they were. “I will hide your doll in the third urn on the right. I will put a wizard’s web over it—that’s magic—so no one but you will find it.” He took the doll and carefully tucked it away back in his robes as her eyes followed it. “The next time you are put out for the night, you go there and you will find your doll. Then you can keep it at your place, your wayward pine, where no one will find it, or take it from you.
“And I will also leave you a magic fire stick. Just build a little stack of sticks, not too big now, with stones around it, and then hold the magic fire stick to it and say ‘Light for me,’ and it will burn, so you can keep warm.”
Rachel threw her arms around him, hugging and hugging him as he patted her back. “Thank you, wizard Giller.”
“You may call me Giller when we are alone, child, just Giller, that is what all my good friends call me.”
“Thank you so much for my doll, Giller. No one ever gave me anything so nice before. I’ll take the bestest care of her. I have to go now. I’m to scold the cooks for the Princess. Then I have to sit and watch her eat.” She grinned. “Then I have to think of something bad to do so the Princess will put me out tonight.”
The wizard laughed a deep laugh as his eyes sparkled. He mussed her hair with his big hand. Giller helped her with the heavy door and locked it for her, then handed the key back to her.
“I so hope we can talk again sometime,” she said, looking up at him.
He smiled at her. “We will, Rachel, we will. I’m sure of it.”
Waving back at him, she ran off down the long, empty hall, happier than she had been since she first came to live at the castle. It was a long way, through the castle, down to the kitchen, down stone stairs and halls with rugs on the floors and paintings on the walls, through big rooms with tall windows hung with gold and red drapery, and chairs of red velvet with gold legs, long carpets with pictures on them of men fighting on horseback, past guards who stood still as stone at some of the big fancy doors or marched in twos, and by servants who rushed everywhere carrying linens, trays, or brooms and rags and buckets of soapy water.
None of the guards or servants gave her a second look, even though she was running. They knew she was Princess Violet’s playmate, and had seen her running through the castle many times before on errands for the Princess.
She was winded when she finally reached the kitchens, which were steamy and smoky and filled with noise. Helpers were scurrying around carrying heavy sacks, big pots, or hot trays, all trying not to bump into one another. People chopped things she couldn’t see on the high tables and huge chopping blocks. Pans clanged, cooks yelled orders, helpers took pans and metal bowls off hooks overhead and put others back. There was a constant rapping of spoons mixing and whipping food, the sharp hiss of oil and garlic and butter and onions and spices in hot pans, and everyone seemed to be yelling at the same time. This chaotic place smelled so good it made her head spin.
She tugged on the sleeve of one of the two head cooks, trying to tell him she had a message from the Princess, but he was arguing with another cook and told her to go sit and wait until they were finished. She sat down nearby, on a little stool by the ovens, her back pressed against the hot brick. The kitchen smelled so good, and she was so hungry. But she knew she would get in trouble if she asked for food.
The head cooks were standing over a big crock, waving their arms around, yelling at each other. Suddenly, the crock fell to the floor with a big thunk, splitting in two, sending light brown liquid flooding all over. Rachel jumped up on the stool so it wouldn’t get on her bare feet. The cooks stood still, their faces almost as white as their coats.
“What’re we going to do now?” the short one asked. “We don’t have any more of the ingredients Father Rahl sent.”
“Wait a minute,” the tall one said, holding his hand to his forehead. “Let me think.”
He put both hands to his face, squishing it together. Then he put both arms in the air.
“All right. All right. I’ve got an idea. Get me another crock, and just keep your mouth shut. Maybe we can keep our heads. Get me some other ingredients.”
“What ingredients!” the short one yelled, red-faced.
The tall cook leaned over him. “Brown ingredients!”
Rachel watched while they ran around snatching up things, pouring in bottles of liquid, adding ingredients, stirring, tasting. At last they both smiled.
“All right, all right, it’ll work. I think. Just let me do the talking,” the tall one said.
Rachel stepped tiptoed across the wet floor and tugged on his sleeve again.
“You! You still here? What do you want?” he snapped.
“Princess Violet said not to make her roast dry again, or she would have the Queen make those men beat you.” She looked down at the ground. “She made me say that.”
He looked down at her a minute, then turned to the short cook, shaking his finger. “I told you! I told you! This time, slice hers from the center, and don’t mix up the plates or we’ll both end up losing our heads!” He looked back down at her. “And you didn’t see any of this,” he said, stirring his finger around in the air over the crock.
“Cooking? You don’t want me to tell anyone I saw you cooking? All right,” she said, a little confused, and started tiptoeing across the wet floor again. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I don’t like to see people getting hurt by those men with the whips. I won’t tell.”
“Wait a minute,” he called after her. “Rachel, isn’t it?”
She turned and nodded.
“Come back here.”
She didn’t want to, but she tiptoed back anyway. He took out a big knife that scared her at first, then turned to a platter on the table behind him a
nd cut off a big, juicy piece of meat. She had never seen such a piece of meat, without fat and gristle all over it, at least not up close. It was a piece of meat like the Queen and the Princess ate. He handed it down to her, put it right into her hand.
“Sorry I yelled at you, Rachel. You sit on that stool over there and eat this, and then let us be sure you’re cleaned up, so no one will be the wiser. All right?”