A/N: Thanks to Igenlode Wordsmith for suggesting the title, a quote from the musical Oliver!

Written for darkaccalia520's Girl Power Challenge.

Disclaimer: A Tale of Two Castles is the property of Gail Carson Levine. No copyright infringement is intended.

Fandom Blind Notes: This is a missing scene from Stolen Magic, which is a mystery centered around the disappearance of a magical Replica of the island of Lahnt. The POV character, Elodie, is a young girl who works as an assistant to the detective dragon Masteress Meenore, who, as is customary for dragons in this fantasy world, keeps ITs gender a secret. The bees of Lahnt are humans who have pledged themselves to celibacy and a life of service, much like monks or nuns.

The bees came in and started clearing away the dishes from supper and then the trestles and the long boards that made up the table, all under the sharp-eyed supervision of Ludda-bee. High brunka Marya and we guests stepped back, partly to get out of the bees' way, but mostly—the guests, at least—to avoid getting in trouble with Ludda-bee. The cook was in an especially bad mood because nobody had seemed to like the beet soup she'd made. We wouldn't have dared tell her, but I think we were all getting tired of beets.

I looked around, wondering what I should do now. I wanted to search for the Replica some more; we hadn't looked through nearly all the relics on the shelves. Now that both Count Jonty Um and Masteress Meenore had gone to Mount Zertrum, I felt even more desperate to find the little model of the island and get it back on its pedestal. If the volcano erupted now, it would kill not only the innocent farmers but His Lordship and my own masteress.

But that wasn't what IT would tell me to do. My masteress would say, "Observe, Lodie. Induce, deduce, and use your common sense." I could hear ITs nasally voice speaking in my head, and I knew I had to obey. So I sat down in a corner of the great hall where I could see everyone, and I watched.

High brunka Marya was leaving the great hall through the doorway that led deeper into the Oase. Maybe she was going to her room to try to get some sleep; she seemed worn out. Master Uwald was talking to Master Robbie by the fire. Master Robbie kept trying to catch my eye, but I ignored him for now. I was inducing and deducing. Master Tuomo was pacing, worried about his sons on Mount Zertrum, most likely. Mistress Sirka was watching Dror-bee clean up from supper.

I stifled a yawn. That accounted for all the guests. They weren't doing anything that might give me a clue as to who had stolen the Replica. Maybe this wasn't the most efficient way to find it.

In a few minutes, Dror-bee left the hall with the last trestle, and Mistress Sirka started wandering aimlessly around the room. Nothing else had changed. I fidgeted.

Then I realized that Mistress Sirka wasn't wandering aimlessly. She was making her way towards me. I wondered what I should do. She would interrupt my observing, and Masteress Meenore had already questioned her. Still, I wasn't learning anything useful right now, and people didn't tell things to a dragon that they would tell to another person. IT had said that ITself. Maybe IT would want me to talk with Mistress Sirka.

She sat down next to me and instantly made me feel tiny. Of course, traveling with a dragon and an ogre, I should have been used to feeling small, but I had never seen a woman as big as Mistress Sirka. She even dwarfed her beloved Dror-bee.

"You know, Mistress Elodie, sometimes I envy you," she said suddenly after we had sat for a few seconds in silence.

I jumped. "What?"

She nodded. "I mean it. I envy you."

I shook my head in bewilderment. "Why?"

Mistress Sirka pointed, with a complete lack of subtlety, at Master Robbie. "Because he's crazy about you. Everybody can see it; he's even held your hand a couple times. If my Dror would do that to me, I'd be the happiest woman in the world." She sighed, a big, deep sigh.

I blushed, but then I nodded. I understood now. "Master Robbie's very nice. I'm not sure I like him in that way, though."

Mistress Sirka looked at me like I'd just said something in Tairish. "Why ever not?" she boomed.

I ducked my head as Master Robbie looked over at us. "Well, I haven't known him very long," I said uncomfortably. And Count Jonty Um is even nicer, I thought. I couldn't tell her that, though. Even if His Lordship was a very nice ogre and just looked like a very handsome, eleven-foot-tall person, with freckles on his nose. Besides, he was a count, and I was only a twelve-year-old girl. I decided to change the subject. "How long have you known Dror-bee?"

She sighed again. "Since we were both very small."

I tried to imagine Mistress Sirka being very small. I couldn't picture it.

"We were a mischievous pair. Dror's no farmer, but he's brilliant at coming up with ways to get into trouble. And I was always game for whatever he wanted to do. He seemed to get hurt a lot, though. I was always looking out for him and bandaging him up when he got injured. That was what made me decide to become a barber-surgeon."

I frowned. "But isn't that backwards? I mean, isn't a goodman supposed to look out for his goodwife and protect her, not the other way around?" That was the way my family had always worked. But I couldn't see Dror-bee—even if he gave up being a bee and serving high brunka Marya so he could marry Mistress Sirka—being any sort of a protector for her. Not that she would probably need it.

"Well, of course the man is the provider and all that," Mistress Sirka answered. "And Dror would be; he has a heart of gold, and he loves helping people. But there's a reason it's the woman who takes care of the children. We're nurturers, Mistress Elodie, and always were meant to be. That extends to our husbands, too." She held up her hands. "These hands are just meant to take care of people who need my help. Yours, too."

I looked at her giant hands. They looked strong and very rough, but she had long, thin fingers that you could tell were gentle. I quietly hid my own tiny hands with their short, stubby fingers under the edges of my kirtle. They weren't a nurturer's hands like Mistress Sirka's.

"Men need us to look after them," Mistress Sirka went on. "Take poor Master Robbie for example. He lost his parents when he was very little, and his grandfather, too, and now his grandmother, bless her, has just passed away. He's got no one in the world to take care of him except Master Uwald, and anyone with eyes can see the old man's affection makes him uncomfortable. And is it any wonder, when his beloved grandmother didn't trust Master Uwald enough to marry him and never regretted it for a second, even when he became the richest man on the island of Lahnt? Of course Master Robbie would rather stay away from him! Why, a girl like you is just what poor Master Robbie needs."

I blushed and hoped desperately that Master Robbie wasn't looking at us. I did feel sorry for him, when Mistress Sirka put it like that. But I wished she wouldn't talk so loudly.

"Why, I'd do anything for my Dror," Mistress Sirka said. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I'd have stolen the Replica myself and blown up that horrible family of his that tossed him out, if I thought it'd make him happy again."

I stared at her. Could she possibly mean that? Had she stolen the Replica?

She sighed. "But he wouldn't want that. So I just have to wait and hope." She noticed my staring. "Why, stop looking at me like that, Mistress Elodie. I didn't steal it. I just told you, there'd be no point."

I forced a smile onto my face and nodded.

Mistress Sirka pushed herself up to a standing position. "Well, I suppose I'll grab Master Tuomo and start searching again. If for no other reason than to make him stop his pacing."

I nodded again. Master Tuomo hadn't sat down or changed his path the whole time we'd been talking.

Mistress Sirka smiled at me. "Don't miss this opportunity, Mistress Elodie," she said. "Remember, he needs you." She walked away.

I sat, my thoughts chasing each other around. I was shocked at what she'd said, but I was inclined to believe she was telling the truth. Common sense said that she wouldn't say a thing like that if she'd really stolen it. And anyway, it wouldn't have made Dror happy, which was the only reason she'd do it. What really bothered me was that she'd said she would do it at all. Did she really mean she would destroy a whole mountain full of innocent people just for one person?

I tried to place myself in her shoes, to see what it would be like to love someone enough to do something so drastic. I thought of Master Robbie—his quick, easy friendliness; how cleverly he'd caught onto inducing, deducing, and using his common sense; his eagerness to help me search for the Replica. But it wasn't enough. I liked him, but I didn't love him enough to do something like that.

Then my thoughts turned to Count Jonty Um, and I suddenly felt less certain. It was harder to know how I felt about His Lordship, but he was certainly a wonderful friend, whether or not I was really and truly in love with him. Certainly I would do almost anything it took to save him. I wouldn't destroy innocent people, though. Would I?

Maybe that was what Mistress Sirka meant about looking after someone if you loved him. Maybe it took a woman to care enough about one person to be willing to do anything for him. Masteress Meenore wanted me to think about everyone, and everything. (Did that make IT male?) But when I thought about His Lordship up on that mountain, feeling it rumble and shake beneath him… Well, maybe I'd do something terrible if that was what it took to save him.

Why did Mistress Sirka envy me? I envied her. All she ever thought about was Dror-bee. I had to think of everything.