Section 3B/A/B/B

After waiting another minute to make sure that they were far enough ahead of her, Kestrel continued on toward the Domini House. She didn't see anyone on the way, and she began to think that she had misjudged where the riders were going or even that she had recognized Barium. They could have just been people who were out traveling. It happened. It could be. Perhaps it was more important at the moment to worry about how to find Mrs. Plover rather than Greystone when she got to the House.

This time, she didn't hesitate about going to the back door. Mrs. Plover answered it, and Kestrel tried to contain her impatience as they chatted about the weather how Kestrel's mother was feeling. Kestrel had tried to rush conversations with the aging cook before, but it was like trying to convince a tree to grow faster. She knew that she would get where she wanted to go eventually, but that if she tried to hurry, then reorienting Mrs. Plover to a new direction in the conversation as well as new ideas would take twice as long. She was as good a woman as ever lived, but she had been running the kitchen the same way for nearly thirty years, and she wasn't about to change the way she thought.

In spite of reassuring herself, Kestrel really did feel that she ought to bring up the horsemen as well. She didn't expect that Mrs. Plover would do much about it, but it would ease her conscience a little. Really, Greystone was the one who would know what to do, but how could she possibly tell him? She certainly wasn't going to go looking for him.

As it turned out, she didn't need to. She was just turning the conversation toward her visit so that she could relay her meeting along the way when Greystone walked in. "Mrs. Plover," he said, "I have a request that--"
He stopped when he saw Kestrel.

"What are you doing here?" he said coldly.

"I-I was just trying to tell Mrs. Plover about some strange people I saw on their way, well, on my way--" she began.

"The point is not whether or not you had a pleasant journy here, but that you felt obliged to come at all," he informed her. His spine was stiff, and he looked down along his beak-like nose like a bird of prey trying to decide if she were worth killing or not. "You would please absent yourself at once."

"But I have another reason for coming too," she told him. "You see--"
"I do not see. Nor do I wish to see. At once," he barked.

Fine, Kestrel told herself. When bandits rob the house tonight, then we'll just see how hoity toity you are. And when I am the mistress of this house, then we shall see just how long you last. She stood up in as haughty a way as she could manage. "Good day, Mrs. Plover," she said stiffly. Then she turned and walked to the door without looking back.

But she ran most of the way home, fuming to herself the enitre way. And the bread dough she made for dinner had a thorough beating.

During dinner, she had to listen to her mother fuss about exams that were coming, which did nothing to cheer her up.  Kestrel had been studying for those exams for what seemed to be her whole life. Of course Daisy was coming over to study. How could best friends get through the last night before exams without one last night of cramming together? But Kestrel had to admit to herself that while she wouldn't sleep well that night, she wasn't sure which reason would play the biggest part in keeping her awake.

Continue on to Chapter 4