Undermajordomo Minor Read Online Free PDF Page B

where it should be.”
    â€œYou’re a lucky one. Luckier than the others, anyway. You should have seen the way these devils roamed about the compartment. It was as though the notion of consequence never entered their minds.”
    â€œIs that right?” the man said. “They do sound devilish, anyway. And what about you, boy? How did you fare?”
    Lucy waved the thought away. “Nothing to worry about there. It was that I chased them off when they came too near.”
    The man leaned forward. “Did you really?”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œChased them right off, eh?”
    â€œIndeed.”
    â€œThat was very daring of you.”
    â€œI’ve no patience for shirkers and thieves, is what.”
    â€œThat much is clear.” The man stood and bowed. “I salute you.”
    Lucy thanked the stranger; he was pleased to be making such an impression. Again he looked out the window. They were passing through a dense forest, now. A deer stood in the distance, away from the track, considering the train with a sidelong glance. When Lucy returned his attention to the compartment he found the man was studying him much in the same way.
    â€œYes, sir?” said Lucy.
    â€œWell,” said the man, “it’s just that I find myself wondering, at what point did you do this chasing away?”
    â€œAt what point, sir?”
    â€œYes. That is to say, did you actually see these thieves robbing anyone?”
    â€œI did indeed. Half a dozen people at least.”
    â€œAnd why did you not intervene before they got to you, I wonder? As one who proclaims to have no tolerance for thieves, for shirkers—for devils, as you yourself call them—I would think you’d have leapt into action at the first sign of wrongdoing. And yet you did nothing, until they came your way.” The man blinked. “Or perhaps it is that I’ve got the story wrong.”
    â€œWell,” said Lucy, “yes, hmm,” and he sat awhile, thinking about what he might say in his defense. In the end, all he could come up with was to state that he’d been slow to act due to his being heavy-minded from slumber.
    â€œAh,” said the man, nodding. “Still sleepy, were you?”
    â€œI was.”
    â€œA foot in each world?”
    â€œCorrect.”
    â€œThat explains it, surely.”
    Lucy felt he had deflected the interrogation handily, and yet he also wondered if he couldn’t identify a suppressed smile upon the man’s lips. Was this frayed individual making fun of him?
    â€œMay I ask you where you’re headed?” the man said.
    â€œThe Castle Von Aux. Do you know it?”
    â€œI do indeed. You wouldn’t perhaps be Mr. Olderglough’s new man, would you?”
    â€œI am. How did you guess it?”
    â€œPoke in the dark.”
    â€œDo you live at the castle?”
    â€œI most certainly do not.”
    Lucy thought he detected in these words some trace of pique, and so he asked, “Why do you say it like that?”
    The man held up a finger. “For one, I am not welcome there.” He held up another finger. “For two, I have no inclination to visitsuch a place.” He held up a third finger, opened his mouth to speak, shut his mouth, and balled his hand to a fist. He sighed. “Do you know,” he said, “I was saddened about Mr. Broom.”
    â€œWho’s Mr. Broom?”
    â€œYour predecessor.”
    It hadn’t occurred to Lucy that there’d been a predecessor. The man deduced this and asked, “Have you heard nothing about him?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI find that strange. There’s a story there, after all. Poor Mr. Broom.”
    Lucy sat watching the man, who apparently did not plan to elaborate.
    â€œWon’t you tell me?” Lucy asked.
    â€œIt’s not for me to tell. Ask Olderglough. Though he’ll likely not tell you either, that rascal. Ah, well. We’ve all got our