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Piosenniel's post:
Buttercup and Ruby
‘What’s that I smell?’ cried Buttercup, sitting up in her little bed. She picked up one of her pillows and threw it at the still sleeping form of Ruby. ‘What!’ came the muffled reply as Ruby pulled her covers over her head. ‘It’s not time to get up yet, is it.’
‘Well you’ld best get up and get your short shanks moving.’ Buttercup threw Ruby’s dressing gown at her as she wriggled into her own. ‘There’s smoke drifting up from the kitchen. Lots of smoke! We’ll be burnt to crisps if we don’t get out of here!’ Ruby was up in less than a wink, jamming her arms into the robe and taking off for the back stairs.
‘Wait! Don’t go down that way! That’s where all the smoke is coming from,’ cried Buttercup. The serving girls’ rooms were above the kitchen area and accessed by a small, private stairway leading up from the kitchen. They ran to the window in their room, noting the people gathering in the back yard below. ‘You there!’ yelled Buttercup to the auburn bearded Dwarf just rushing back toward the kitchen’s door, a bucket, with water slopping out as he ran, grasped firmly in his hands. ‘Put down the buck, Sir, and steady this so we can climb down.’
Over the windowsill came the cascading rope ladder that Cook had made them put there when they had first arrived. Secured by stout hooks on the sill’s inner edge it reached nearly to the ground. Buttercup motioned for Ruby to start down first, then quickly followed.
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