and great houses where the King decided to stay.
We envied the princesses and the younger princes particularly. They were allowed to stay in Windsor most of the year. Court gossip said that the Queen, being foreign, had threatened to go back to Denmark unless she was allowed to stay in one place. Everyone pitied the Queen rather for not understanding that the King had to travel about in order to keep the realm healthy. Some said that the whole magic of the Islands of Blest or maybe the entire world of Blest depended on the King constantly moving about and visiting every acre of England.
I asked my Grandfather Hyde about this. He is a Magid and knows about the magics of countries and worlds and so on. And he said that there might be something in this, but he thought people were overstating the case. The magic of Blest was very important for all sorts of reasons, he said, but it was the Merlin who was really entrusted with keeping it healthy.
My mother did quite often talk of sending me to live with this grandfather in London. But this would have meant leaving Grundo to the mercies of Sybil and Alicia, so, whenever she suggested it, I told her I was proud to be a member of Court which was quite true and that I was getting the best possible education which was partly quite true and then I sort of went heavy at her and hoped shed forget the idea. If she got really anxious and went on about this being no sort of life for a growing girl, I went on about the way Grandad grows dahlias. I really do hate dahlias as a way of life.
Mam had her latest worry session in Northumbria, in the rain. We were all camped in a steep, heathery valley waiting for the Scottish King to pay our King a formal visit. It was so bare that there was not even a house for the King. The canvas of the royal tent was turning a wet, dismal yellow just downhill from us, and we were slithering in shiny, wet sheep droppings while I went on about the way Grandad grows dahlias.
Besides, its such a stupid thing for a powerful magician to do! I said.
I wish you didnt feel like this about him, Mam said. You know he does a great deal more than simply grow flowers. Hes a remarkable man. And hed be glad to have you as company for your cousin Toby.
My cousin Toby is a wimp who doesnt mind being ordered to do the weeding, I said. I looked up at Mam through the wet black wriggles of my hair and realised that my dahlia-ploy hadnt worked the way it usually did. Mam continued to look anxious. She is a serious person, my mam, weighed down by her responsible job in the travelling Exchequer, but I can usually get her to laugh. When she laughs, she throws her head back and looks very like me. We both have rather long pink cheeks and a dimple in the same place, though her eyes are black and mine are blue.
I could see the rain was getting her down having to keep the water out of her computer and having to go to the loo in a little wet flapping tent and all the rest and I saw it was one of the times when she starts imagining me going down with rheumatic fever or pneumonia and dying of it. I realised Id have to play my very strongest card or Id be packed off down to London before lunch.
Come off it, Mam! I said. Grandads not your father. Hes Dads. If youre so anxious for me to be in the bosom of my family, why not send me to your father instead?
She pulled her shiny waterproof cape around her and went back a step. My father is Welsh, she said. If you went there, youd be living in a foreign country. All right. If you feel you really can stand this awful, wandering existence, well say no more.
She went away. She always did if anyone talked about her father. I thought he must be terrifying. All I knew about my other grandfather was that Mam had had to run away from home in order to marry Dad, because her father had refused to let her marry anyone. Poor Mam. And Id used that to send her away. I sighed with mixed relief and guilt. Then I went to find Grundo.
Grundos lot is always worse when were stopped anywhere for a while. Unless I think of an excuse to fetch him away, Sybil and Alicia haul him into Sybils tent and try to correct his faults. When I ducked into the dim, damp space, it was worse than usual. Sybils manfriend was in there, laughing his nasty, hissing laugh. Give him to me, dear, I heard him saying. Ill soon make a man of him. Grundo was looking pale, even for him.
The only person at Court that I dislike more than Alicia is Sybils manfriend. His name is Sir James Spenser. He is very unpleasant. The astonishing thing is that the whole Court, including Sybil, knows he is nasty, but they pretend not to notice because Sir James is useful to the King. I dont understand about this. But I have noticed the same thing happening with some of the businessmen who are useful
to the King. The media are constantly suggesting these men are crooks, but nobody even thinks of arresting them. And it is the same with Sir James, although I have no idea in what way he is useful to the King.