“No good,” said Violet.
“Ah... I couldn’t meet Miss Lettie’s standards, it seems.”
Rohtas had produced a piece of art so bad that it could give Mr. Fisalis’s “abstract painting” a run for its money.
Mr. Fisalis and I couldn’t help but grin, while Violet puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
“Color me surprised! I didn’t think there was anything you couldn’t do, Rohtas.”
The butler cracked a strained smile. “Ha ha ha... I’ve never been much of an artist, I’m afraid.”
“Wow! Who would’ve guessed?!”
We left the teasing at that, however. Pushing too hard would’ve spelled trouble for us later.
Mr. Fisalis and I had gotten quite a kick out of that unexpected turn of events, but Violet didn’t seem too happy about it.
“I’m ashking Bellis next! Daisy, take me to Bellis!”
“Okay!” her friend replied, leading the way out of the parlor.
Whoa, hold on! Bellis drawing pictures? Now this I gotta see.
“Count me in!”
“Huh? Vi?!”
“You can go ahead and start dinner without me, Cercis!”
“Hold it right there!”
“Madam, dinner is—”
“That can wait!”
Leaving a stunned Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas behind, I followed after the two girls.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Bellis! Draw something!”
“Huh?”
When Violet and Daisy showed up at the greenhouse all of a sudden and thrust a piece of paper and pen his way, Bellis was uncharacteristically thrown for a loop.
“Draw...something?”
“Yeah! Draw me and Daisy and the manor and flowers!”
“Uh-huh...”
It sounded like she’d tacked on an extra request for Bellis! Daisy, too, was staring up at him with stars in her eyes.
“Okay... Hold on.”
Once he’d wiped the dirt from his hands, Bellis took the pen and began his sketch.
Mr. Fisalis had been a disaster of an artist—Rohtas, likewise. Now the question was: how was Bellis’s drawing going to end up? I awaited the finished product with as much excitement as the two children present.
“There. Done.”
“Show us! Show us!”
Oops. I think my voice was the loudest there.
Despite my clamoring, Bellis made a point of showing his picture to the girls first.
“Whoa! Cool!”
“That’s really pretty, daddy!”
His sketch had the girls jumping for joy, so I went ahead and took a peek myself. There on the sheet of paper, he’d drawn a whole row of super delicate flowers. I hadn’t seen that one coming.
“Wow, you’re good at this, Bellis.”
“I guess. Every now and then I have to draw a sketch of how I want a bouquet or a pruning job to look.”
So the same idea as Cartham, more or less.
“That explains why you’re only good at still lifes,” I said, to which Bellis responded with silence.
To expand on my comment: while the flowers and building were drawn in great and loving detail, the subjects of the picture—Violet and Daisy, that is—looked pretty slapdash.
“They move around a lot...so it’s hard to observe them.”
“Yeah, I get it. Those girls never stand still.”
For the ones who’d been asking people to draw them in the first place, they didn’t make for very good models.
Still! Thanks to them, I discovered a new side of Bellis today!
“I look ugly,” Violet complained.
“Me too,” said Daisy.
Bellis’s flowers looked great, but his people? Not so much. The little ones had yet to be fully appeased, it seemed.
“Let’s see Cartham next.”
Next thing I knew, they were running off to look for Cartham in the kitchen.
✦ ✦ ✦
The mood in the kitchen was nothing like how we’d left it. The preparations for dinner were in full swing.
“Is the sauce for the vegetables ready yet? It better be chilled to perfection!”
“Yes! Here it is, sir!”
“We need more plates!”
“On it!”
Now that Mr. Fisalis was home, it was a race against the clock.
Violet, meanwhile, wasn’t much for reading the room. The picture of innocence, she walked right up to Cartham.
“Cartham! Draw me and Daisy and some flowers and dinner.”
“Pardon? Our little ladies, a bouquet of blossoms, and a feast? What a delightful combination!” He smiled down at the girls, switching from Scary Boss Mode to Doting Uncle Mode in the blink of an eye.
“Sorry, Cartham. I bet you’ve got your hands full getting dinner on the table, huh? You can worry about this later.”
“Fear not, Madame. This shouldn’t take any time at all,” he said with a grin. He then washed his hands and took the pen and paper from Violet.
Just like earlier, he ran his hand smoothly across the page. Judging by the little tune he was humming all the while, he must have had an even easier time with this sketch than the last one.
“All done!”
The artwork he’d churned out in almost no time at all looked shockingly good.
“Omigosh! These flowers look like flowers!”
“What else would they look like? You say the silliest things, Madame.”
“I look cute!” exclaimed Lettie.
“Me too!” said Daisy.
“But nowhere near as cute as the genuine article, of course,” said Cartham.
“The food looks yummy!”
“Ha ha ha! That’s tonight’s entrée, for the record.”
All the disasterpieces I’d seen that day had thrown off my eye for good art, but there was no mistaking the quality of Cartham’s work. It wasn’t super detailed or anything, but he’d managed to capture all the defining features of his subjects.
“Wowee! I knew you could draw food, but I didn’t know you were so good at drawing people too!”
“The key is to pin down the most important traits of whoever it is you’re drawing; once you’ve done that, it’s not hard to fool people’s eyes.”
“No way—you really are talented! I mean, compared to Cercis? Oh man... I’m gonna laugh just remembering it.”
“What did his look like?”
“In short? A disasterpiece.”
“Oh my... Well, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.”
“Whatever! What matters here is that you’re the unanimous winner of the Art Awards!”
“I had no idea there was a contest, but I’m honored nonetheless.”
Later on, Violet and Daisy begged Quince to draw for them. He turned out to be a decent enough artist of both people and animals.
Something tells me they should’ve just asked Quince to begin with.