"Bard, what are you doing?"
Bard looked up from his culinary efforts to Sebastian's unsmiling face. "Oh, 'ello Sebastian! I was just makin' the earl's dinner. Like you told me to."
Sebastian leaned in and sniffed at the dish. "This has banana in it, Bard. You know the master does not react well to banana. How could you have forgotten?"
Bard waggled his cigarette thoughtfully for a moment.
"I dunno, Sebastian," he concluded finally. Sebastian sighed heavily and motioned him away from the counter.
"Take this outside and dispose of it," he ordered, thrusting the dish into the cook's chest. "I shall make dinner. Be off now."
Clutching the dish, Bard fled the kitchen.
"Did it work?" Finny asked excitedly as Bard came hurrying into the garden. Mey-Rin squealed.
"Oh, Finny, he did it, he did!"
"I did," Bard replied, grinning around his cigar. "Ha, Sebastian actually thought I put the banana in by mistake! So he told me to dispose of it."
"We'll help you," Finny beamed, pulling out a fistful of silverware from his pocket. "Mey-Rin, have you got the plates?"
"Oh, no, I dropped them," Mey-Rin shuffled. Bard shrugged.
"We'll use our hands, then, c'mon-"
And the three of them dug happily into the ill-fated dinner.
From a window in the mansion, Sebastian watched them.
"That should keep them out of trouble for a while," he commented to himself as he set about preparing his master dinner.