67. The Banner
In which there is a lot of cake…
As soon as Gosie rang from Winchester Cathedral, Galley had started work on the banner. She had cut out the letters, and having learned from the last time, she started at the far end and worked backwards. The banner was now finished and said ELCOME HOME GRIFFIN GIMBAL AND GRAPHIC.
“There’s no W,” said Girdle.
“There wasn’t room for the W,” said Galley, from the top of the ladder.
“Then it says elcome.”
“It says elcome very nicely,” said Galley, and nobody could argue with that.
Gerbera stood on the bar with her whistle, directing chairs. Gourmet had closed the kitchen to non-essential personnel at five. Gadget was icing a cake the size of a cartwheel.
“Whose birthday is it?” asked Gondola.
“Everybody’s,” said Gadget, without looking up.
Gasket took the good teapot down from the shelf, the one kept for occasions. She looked at the ordinary teapot for a moment, then pushed it right to the back of the shelf.
At a little after 7pm MyrtleLion and @Hedgehogforshort came in carrying the crate between them, with Griffin, Gimbal and Graphic walking alongside it. They set the crate down by the long table.
Immediately the kitchen hatch opened and three bowls of soup came through it, with bread, cheese and the good chutney. Gimbal ate hers one spoonful at a time and counted the spoonfuls. Graphic ate hers with her eyes half shut. Griffin ate hers and then looked into the empty bowl just as Gourmet ladled more soup into it.
Then all the pub gerbils surrounded them, and everybody asked everything at once.
“You flew to another country without a passport,” said Gaol. “You can go to prison for that.”
“Nobody is going to prison,” said Hedgehog.
Gangplank pushed through to the front. “Did you look out of the aeroplane window?”
“We were in a crate,” said Griffin, “it was very dark.”
“How dark?” asked Gangplank.
“Like Gantry’s hard hat.”
“WHICH WAS VERY DARK,” said Gantry.
“Were there seeds in Sweden?” asked Garnet.
“Nine,” said Gimbal. “Then six. Then three. Then none.”
“Were they luxury?”
“They were our wages.”
Garnet considered this. “Then they can’t have been luxury,” she said, and then she looked along the bar to the box with the hinged lid. “Is this a special occasion?”
“Not yet,” said MyrtleLion.
“WILL FENELLA BURNISH BE ARRESTED?” asked Gantry.
“For what?” said Hedgehog.
The room had several answers ready.
“FOR LOCKING THEM IN.”
“Fenella likes the storeroom locked when there’s a crate inside,” said Hedgehog. “Halcyon told us so. She’ll say it was a mistake and she thought they’d gone home.”
“FOR STEALING THE WINDOW!” Gantry was insistent.
“The window is in the crate, which the Cathedral Architect handed to MyrtleLion. The replica is still in the cathedral. Nothing has been stolen.”
“So Fenella Burnish just goes back to her workshop,” said Girdle, “and carries on?”
“I expect so.”
“What about Gemma Glasswing?” asked Glissando.
“She is helping the Swedish police with their enquiries,” said Hedgehog.
Gimbal put her spoon down. “Do we have to go back?”
Everyone stopped talking. Graphic looked at her pen roll on the sill. Griffin looked at her paws. “There’s nothing in the contract about leaving,” she said.
Before Hedgehog could say anything, there was a knock at the door.
@ChristmasStars opened the door and found a heavy cream envelope, sealed with a disc of violet wax pressed with a pair of pliers.
“The Stationers’ Almanac,” said Grisaille, from something written down, “states that violet sealing wax may only be used by bishops.”
“Thank you, Grisaille,” said Christmas Stars, and broke the seal.
Inside was a single sheet and a smaller envelope that rattled. Christmas Stars read it aloud.
Griffin, Gimbal and Graphic,
I am going abroad for some time. The workshop is now closed.
Your employment with Fenhurst and Rhys has therefore been terminated, effective immediately. Your wages to Friday are enclosed, less one packet taken from the storeroom.
The leading was very good.
Fenella Burnish
“Going abroad,” said Girdle. “Where?”
“It doesn’t say,” said Christmas Stars.
“Sweden?”
“Not in a crate,” said Griffin. “She’d never fit.”
“DOES THIS MEAN THEY’VE BEEN SACKED?” asked Gantry.
“Not exactly,” said Hedgehog. “It’s redundancy because the workshop has been closed, which is good. We would never have let them go back.”
Gimbal had already tipped the small envelope out onto the table. She counted the seeds, then counted them again in a different order to be sure.
“Forty,” she said.
“That’s right,” said Griffin. “We took one packet as an advance.”
“Forty,” said Gimbal again, and looked at the three of them. “That’s thirteen each, and one over.”
She pushed the seeds into three piles of thirteen and looked at the one left on its own. Then Graphic reached out and pushed it towards Gimbal.
“That’s for you,” she said.
Gimbal looked startled.
“Griffin and I know you put one back. So we could all share when they started to run out.”
Griffin nodded. “It’s yours. Thank you.”
Gimbal was so stunned that she forgot to count.
MyrtleLion stood up from her seat and walked to the back of the bar. She took down the box with the hinged lid, set it on the table and opened it. From one of the packets she selected nine seeds and placed three each in front of Griffin, Gimbal and Graphic. “For your bravery, for your strength, and for coming home.” She then returned the box to its place behind the bar, and retook her seat.
No-one said anything.
Gerbera blew her whistle and pointed at Gadget who cut the cake into as many slices as there were gerbils, with a few more for latecomers. As she lifted the first slice onto a plate the W was revealed stuck to the cake board.
“There it is!” said Galley, peeling it off the cake board. She wiped the W clean on her apron, climbed back up the ladder with it between her teeth and tried to pin it up next to the E before realising there was no room.
The door opened and @MarieDeGournay stepped into the bar. She stood under the banner to read it, then turned to the gerbils. “I hope there’s some cake left for me,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re safely home. We were really worried.”
@AngleofRepose opened her notebook. “Hedgehog said you went to Stansted to where the other crate went,” she said. “What happened?”
“A plain white van collected the crate,” said Marie. “The docket said Consignee 3859. The driver drove all the way to the Lincolnshire village where the chapter house is. She took the crate to the parish church, where there was a community lunch. The churchwarden signed for it. A woman in a tabard brought me soup. Leek and potato.”
The kitchen hatch opened and Gourmet asked, “Was it a good leek and potato?”
“It was hot,” said Marie.
Gourmet appeared satisfied and closed the hatch firmly.
“After the lunch the churchwarden locked the church,” said Marie, “then she drove the crate to the chapter house, and carried it inside.”
Angle wrote it all down.
“So the four windows are now in the chapter house,” said Hedgehog.
Gimbal was counting on her fingers. She looked at the crate by the long table, counted again and then said, “This window makes five.”
Angle turned back through her notebook to the Lincolnshire page and read it again. “There are five windows in the chapter house,” she said.
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/67-the-banner