Wastebasket Brother
Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns the characters.
AN: I tried to put in George's accent, but he only doesn't say the "g" in "-ing" words. I looked in the SOTL books to research.
Thom jogged up to his father. "Da, do you know where Alan's at? We were supposed to go riding with Ma today, and boy, is she angry."
George knew Alanna had been looking forward to this ride for weeks. "We'd better find him." George said, "You look in the east wing, lad; I'll look in the west."
Thom took off, as fast as his eight-year old legs could go. George searched for about ten minutes, then went up to the deck. Heading up the stairway, he saw his little Aly using a make-shift spyglass to watch her Ma blow up.
"Aly," her father said, "do you know anything as to the where your brother Alan might be?"
"No," replied Aly a little too quickly for a good lie. Aly apparently thought so too, and tried to make up for it. "Shouldn't he be down there with Ma?"
George wasn't fooled. "Lass…" he said warningly, "Where is he?"
She took one last wistful glance at the spyglass and then led the way to her own room. George raised his one eyebrow. What was the possibility that Alan would be in here?
"Alan, I found you!" Aly called, and George could tell she had know she was here. "you're supposed to be out riding with Ma!"
"Wow, Aly, that took you a while. I guess I'm the better twin at hide-and-seek." Alan climbed out from under a wastebasket, and Aly rolled her eyes.
"She's boiling mad!" Aly said, and Alan took a sharp intake of breath and ran away at top speed. George shook his head at the antics of his children.