Page 90 of A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: Vol. 6
“Yeah, I gotta booboo!” the child declared, manipulating her sweet features into a tragic expression. “Alfie bited me!”
“No, I didn’t!”the kidney-jabber protested with great indignance. “Loni was tryin’ to get a cookie outta the box, and she fell off the counter and busted her lip!”
“I didn’t did dat!”
Nigel looked from his son to his daughter. His son maintained a firm scowl, but the girl child hid her mouth behind her hand and giggled, blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “Apolonia Lavender,” Nigel said a bit sternly, “tell me the truth, now.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I did did dat.”
“You did did?”
“Yeah.”
“And why were you trying to steal a cookie, Loni? I know your Auntie Arabella gives you plenty of sweets.”
“But she din’t let us eat thenewcookies!”
“What new cookies?”
“The Green Yule cookies what have all the glitter!”
“You mean the baked ornaments? For the Winter’s Heart Tree?”
“Yeah!”
“Loni, sweetness, those are nothing but flour and baking soda. They’re not edible.”
“But they looksoyummy!”
Nigel shook his head and tussled his daughter’s hair, even as he picked himself up off the kitchen floor. “Well, I hope we learned a valuable lesson from our misdeeds today, at least.”
“Yes, Daddy!”
“And what did we learn?”
“Next time,” Loni declared solemnly, “I’s gonna use the chair.”
Nigel was just opening his mouth to impress a more pertinent moral upon his offspring, but they were both spared by the arrival of Auntie Arabella, who bustled into the kitchen with a blue-eyed baby on her hip, crying, “Oh, Nigel, luv, there you are!” She held the baby out at arm’s length. “She set up such a fuss and bother about two minutes ago. I figured you must be coming through Garden.”
Staggering a bit under the combined weight of scrawny arms wrapped around each trouser leg, Nigel reached to take the baby, saying, “There’s my Sweet Tea!” The little tot uttered a shriek of pure delight, extending dimpled hands to grab hold of his tie, which she promptly pulled out from his waistcoat. Then she bit his nose with affectionate delight, slobbering happily. “Galatea Chamomile,” Nigel said, grinning under her attentions, “I swear you’ve grown today, haven’t you?”
“I growed too, Daddy!” Alfie declared. “See how high I can reach?” He stretched his arms over his head while standing up on his toes.
“Wow, Alfred,” Nigel said, holding out his hand and pretending to measure the top of his son’s head. “Would you look at that? You have indeed grown. You must have drunk your milk like a good boy at lunch today.”
“I did, and I et all my greens, and I closed my eyes for fifteen whole minutes, like Auntie said to. So I’m big now!”
“What a man,” Nigel praised warmly. Then he looked around, brows rising. “Where’s everyone’s shoes? Mummy’s waiting you know.”
With more shrieking and more barking from the black-and-white dog and some hissing from the striped cat by the stove, the children charged back through the house, making for the coat closet. In a moment of relative peace, Nigel addressed himself to Arabella, saying, “And how did we behave today?”
“Oh my lands, they’re a precious lot!” Arabella smiled enormously. “We baked our Green Yule ornaments this afternoon, and I had such a time convincing that Loni of yours not to stuff them in her sweet mouth.” She sighed a little wistfully and swiped a finger at the corner of her eye. “She’s so like her mother, that one! Nothing but trouble.” Then, with a little snap of her fingers, she said, “Now hold on a moment while I fetch my coat and hat. And a bottle of that sherry Rory likes. You know she won’t touch spirits any other time of year, but every Green Yule, she’ll toast the goddess ten times over, and I do so like to see her go all giggly!”
While waiting for the rest, Nigel bounced Baby Tea on his hip and straightened her little dancing-mushroom bonnet. As he did so, he spoke to her quite earnestly about her day and doings, while she answered with her one-word vocabulary.
“And who did you miss most of all while Daddy was at work?”
“Da-da-dada-da!”
