Page 15 of Harmonizing with Little Heaven Leigh

Derek nodded and then motioned toward the door. “Let’s take a look at the damage,” he said, shooing the Littles in ahead of him. Heaven and Angel followed.

She winced as she saw the broken castle again. So many hours of work. The castle, at least, was mostly salvageable. It could be repaired, but the little pieces that had been flattened, all those special touches that made it magic… there just wouldn’t be time.

Master Derek took a few moments to examine the wreckage in silence before he turned to Angel. “I’m sorry this happened. Is there any way to fix it?”

Angel rubbed his temple with two fingers. “Yes. Some of it. The castle should be fine, and once we fill the moat, I’m sure it will be eye-catching enough for the event. Functional anyway. Just… not what I’d hoped it would be.”

The Ranch owner shook his head and turned back to the three culprits. None of them would look up from the floor and there was a general shuffling of feet as they felt the weight of his gaze on them. “There is a long tradition of pranks at Rawhide. I don’t like it… but I recognize that mischief will occur wherever Littles get together. And I understand the reasons for the pranks—but I cannot consider such blatant destruction a simple prank.”

He sounded… not angry exactly, but disappointed and coldly stern. It had an immediate reaction on all three Littles, and even Heaven, who had done absolutely nothing wrong, felt a wash of secondhand guilt about it. Pippi started to crack first. Her bottom lip quivered, and her hands clenched at her sides.

She probably would have spoken up, but Master Derek continued before she could. “What Angel does for us is art. And destroying art is nothing short of vandalism. It doesn’t matter if his work is edible or not, it’s still an expression of his creativity.”

He paused just long enough to let his words sink in. Mindy sniffled and a tear rolled down Becky’s cheek.

“Now, I’m going to ask you some questions and there will be no ‘pleading the fifth’ here. I want honest answers, and I want them now, or there will be severe consequences. Am I understood?”

Heaven Leigh had been in trouble with Master Derek many times, but she’d never heard that exact tone from him. A shiver rolled down her back.

“Was anyone else involved in this aside from you three?”

They exchanged looks and then shook their heads in tandem. “It was just us, Sir,” Pippi admitted, eyes fixed firmly on the floor. “I… saw Angel roll the cart out and the door didn’t close all the way behind him so…”

“You got curious and went in.” He looked at the other two. “I assume you both followed her?” Mindy and Becky nodded.

“Now, who wants to tell me what happened? Why would you destroy something that Angel worked so hard on?”

Pippi looked up, nervously biting her lip. “It-it was an accident.”

Derek’s eyebrow rose almost to his hairline. “An accident? You snuck into a room you’re not allowed to be in, and ‘accidently’ ate a chocolate centerpiece for tonight’s event?”

“N-no. I mean, yes. I…”

When she trailed off, starting to shut down, Mindy cleared her throat and took over. “We didn’t mean to break anything.”

Angel frowned. “You didn’t think eating my display was going to break it?”

“No-no, we only ate some after it broke!” Becky blurted. “It seemed like we might as well, since it was broken anyway.”

It took a little back and forth to get the story out, but finally it came back to Pippi and with halting words she explained. “We were just looking. We-we weren’t even touching—I swear!” She fixed a pleading look on Angel, and then shifted it to Master Derek. “It was so beautiful... with all of the little people.”

Her voice trailed off and she looked down. Master Derek gave her a second and then cleared his throat. “Continue, Piper.”

“It was mostly my fault,” she admitted in a low voice, barely above a whisper. “I was leaning on the table, to get a closer look at the little animals. They were so precious and small and I…” She started to cry, fat tears rolling down her face.

Pippi struggled to get her breath, swallowing back the sniffles. “I sort of, um, someone bumped me, and I fell forward. Before I knew what happened one of the walls tipped over and…” She shook her head. “I tried to lift it back into place, but it broke in half and then Mindy went to help and... well it started melting and there was a mess.”

Angel’s expression lightened. “Ah… I see. So it really was an accident?” He looked at the others, as if searching for confirmation.

Pippi nodded. “AndIdidn’t even eat any, because I felt so bad about it.” She snuck a look at the others but didn’t throw them under the bus. Judging by the guilt on their faces, it was obvious that she’d been the only one to refrain.

Mindy, in a defensive tone, said, “There was no sense in it going to waste. We only ate the broken pieces.”

“It was so good,” Becky added. And then swallowed hard as Master Derek shot them a look.

“So, what I’m understanding is that this was not deliberate?” Everyone nodded. “It was more of a tragic accident?” More nods and a few hopeful expressions as the Littles started to realize they might just get out of this without too much trouble.

Master Derek had other plans. “Which… would not have happened if you hadn’t been where you weren’t supposed to be.”

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