Great Aunt Charlotte opened the kitchen door just in time to see them, although to her they looked like ordinary children.
“Mary!” she called. “Can you hold a tray straight without spilling your father’s tea?”
Mary, who was the monster’s head, turned around so quickly that the middle section of the monster fell off the Way of Peril and landed in a forest of needles. Anyway, Muffs said it felt like needles and the monster’s tail curled ’round her and lifted her back on the walk again.
Tea and cakes served in the workshop! It was something that had never happened as far back as the children could remember. Mary was now a prim maid-in-waiting carrying the King’s tray. She lifted the latch of the workshop door and Tommy dropped the apology in among the tea things.
“Bless my buttons!” exclaimed Mr. Tyler, looking up in surprise. “How long have you children been there?”
“We’ve only been children for the last minute,” Tommy said solemnly. “Before that we were a three-headed monster only our middle fell out and now Mary’s a maid-in-waiting.”
“So I see. Great Aunt Charlotte must have suspected that I had an important guest this afternoon,” Mr. Tyler said as Mary handed him the tray. He passed the cakes, took one himself and then held up the paper. “What’s this? The bill?” Then he saw it was addressed to the headless man. “We all have heads here,” he chuckled. “Must be some mistake.”
“I am the headless man,” the guest announced and reached for the slip of paper.
While he read it the children stood watching. They said things to each other in whispers and nudges. He hadn’t told! He hadn’t come to tell on them at all. Why, he was actually smiling over their apology.
