CHAPTER 42
THE PORTCULLIS WAS RAISED AND THE PRISONERS charged out. Sam led the way, with the Hatmakers on one side of her and the king on the other. The king was pretending to be a lion.
Cordelia, Goose, and Sir Hugo were standing ready to greet them with the princess and all her courtiers. Sam waved wildly at Cordelia and Cordelia waved back, amazed to see Sam leading dozens of bedraggled Makers.
“Makers!” the princess cried. “You have been wrongfully imprisoned and for that I am truly sorry! I grant you all your freedom and beg your forgiveness!”
The princess curtsied low to the amazed crowd. The Makers cheered and clapped. In the excitement, the king spotted a broken pineapple crown lying on the ground and seized it, dancing happily around with it on his head.
When the princess saw her father, the smile slid off her face.
“I see Lord Witloof also lied about sending my father on a trip to the seaside,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes. “You Makers did all you could, but I fear my dear father is doomed to this silliness forever.”
The king dropped the spiky crown and started hopping from foot to foot, flapping his hands and squealing. The princess shook her head and Sir Hugo gallantly flourished an enormous silk handkerchief for her to dry her tears.
Cordelia, meanwhile, was studying the king.
He still wore the same strange outfit he had been in when the Hatmakers had delivered the Concentration Hat to the palace: puffy bloomers, an unbuttoned scarlet jacket, and tightly buckled shoes that were as purple as bruises.
Cordelia frowned at the shoes.
The king had been desperate to take them off, but Lord Witloof had forbidden it.
Why did he forbid it? Cordelia wondered.
There was only one way to find out.
She walked toward the hopping king and knelt down. He stopped hopping and, like a nervous horse, tapped his foot and shifted skittishly as Cordelia started to undo the buckles on his shoes.
One shoe came off, then the other.
The king stood in his socks on the cold cobbles and sighed with relief.
“Finally!” he said. “Those ghastly shoes are off! Gives a man space in his brain to think properly!”
Everyone stared with open mouths as the king looked around at them all.
“Father?” the princess asked, not quite believing her eyes.
“My dear Georgina!” The king smiled. “How lovely to see you! I’ve been in that dungeon a while. Not quite the trip to the seaside I was promised, eh!”
“Addlesnake skin!” Mr. Bootmaker exclaimed, picking up one of the purple shoes. “These shoes are made from Addlesnake skin. They have been causing the king’s silliness, I am certain.”
“Too right!” the king barked. “That rogue Lord Witloof gave them to me as a gift. He knows I have a fondness for shiny shoes. I put them on and, a moment later, I thought I was a kangaroo.”
“But a Bootmaker would never use Addlesnake skin—it’s far too menacing!” Mrs. Bootmaker blustered. “Where did he get them from?”
Goose’s older brother gave a strangled sort of squawk. All eyes turned to him.
“That’s where it got to!” he spluttered. “I—I brought that snakeskin back from the equator months ago!”
Everybody looked shocked. Mrs. Bootmaker, for once, was speechless.
“Ignatius,” Mr. Bootmaker choked. “Explain.”
“Oh, uh—yes—well …” Ignatius could not meet their eyes as he gabbled, “I—er—I remember that day … I unloaded all the ingredients I’d brought back, but somewhere between the dock and the back door of Bootmaker Mansion, the Addlesnake skin—erm—it disappeared. It—uh—it was in a crate marked DANGEROUS and it—I thought it had fallen off the cart. Went back to look for it but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Gosh! Um … gosh.”
Cordelia saw Uncle Tiberius grinning delightedly at the Bootmaker’s mistake. Even Aunt Ariadne seemed unable to keep her mouth from twitching into a slight smile.
Before Mrs. Bootmaker could draw breath to berate Ignatius, Goose piped up, “I bet it was Miss Starebottom who stole it!”
Hatmakers and Bootmakers all looked confused to hear this familiar name in such strange circumstances.
“Bring her here,” Princess Georgina ordered a guard. “And we’ll ask her.”
“And somebody arrest that lawless Lord Witloof!” His Majesty declared.
“He’s already been arrested, Father,” Princess Georgina said proudly. “Guards, fetch him too!”
Lord Witloof and Miss Starebottom were summoned and hauled before the king. They were both soaked with stinking bilge water.
“Did you steal the snakeskin to Make these shoes?” the princess asked the governess.
Miss Starebottom grinned nastily, still green with sea sickness. “Yes, I stole it from the cart when that stupid Bootmaker’s back was turned,” she hissed, pointing at Ignatius, who was determinedly avoiding his mother’s eye. “I Made it into shoes using the old Bootmaker workshop in the Guildhall,” she added. “Not bad for my first pair.”
“I see you stopped hopping long enough to take them off,” Lord Witloof snarled at the king.
“Miss Hatmaker helped me,” King George boomed. “I am deeply in debt to her for freeing my feet—and, indeed, my entire self—from your villainy.” He looked from the treacherous lord to the governess. “Who is this person?” His Majesty asked.
“That is an excellent question, Father,” Princess Georgina said. Turning to Miss Starebottom, she went on, “Shall we call you Miss Starebottom? Or do you prefer to be known by your true name: Delilah Canemaker?”
All the grown-up Makers gasped.
“Call me Canemaker,” Miss Starebottom spat, staring daggers at all the Makers. “You left me to die when I was only a child and you don’t deserve to forget it!”
The guards dragged her away, her furious wail echoing off the stone walls of the Tower.
“And this villain deserves a trip to the seaside,” Princess Georgina announced. “Just like the one he gave you, Father.”
“Take Lord Witloof away!” the king commanded.
Everybody watched as the wicked lord was bundled into the Tower and out of sight.
Silence followed his departure. Cordelia gazed around at the dazed faces of the Makers.
“By Bottom!” Sir Hugo declared. “Let’s see some cheerful spirits! The villains are vanquished and the day is won—this calls for a theatrical celebration!”
Cordelia and Goose looked at each other in alarm.
“More acting?” Goose gasped. “I thought we were safe!”