Corinthia wanted to ask about college but silenced the too-personal question with a gulp of cocoa instead, which caused her to cough.
“There, there,” Rosemary said, thumping her soundly on the back.
“Thank you,” Corinthia choked out.
“Here, have some restoring brandy.”Rosemary held out the tiny bottle.
Corinthia took it.Unscrewed the cap.Eyed Rosemary like a cozy mystery she wasn’t about to give up figuring out, then knocked it back.It burned but gently, right down her throat and into her belly, and all at once she understood what all those historical novels were talking about when they pushed brandy on the cold, weak, and infirm.“Come on,” she said, emboldened.“I’ll show you my library.”
It wasn’t Corinthia’s library, per se, and she knew that—there were quite a few librarians, clerks, and managers—but a proprietary sense of ownership possessed her and could not be dislodged by mere facts.She led her guest into the library proper.
All the lights were off except for the twinkling white lights strung on the branches of the large artificial tree in the children’s section.The glow cast on the floor shifted like moonlight on choppy water, making the bathtubs look even more like small boats adrift in a bay.Any moment, one might float off course and crash into a bookcase cliff.
Rosemary rushed to the nearest boat.It wasn’t a run, or a skip, but more of a flutter, and her hands landed on the side of the tub and curled around as she leaned to look inside.“Pillows!”she cried, delightedly.
“They’re for reading,” Corinthia said, standing a little taller with pride.
“You must climb in them all the time.”
“My legs are too long.”
“Nonsense,” Rosemary said, climbing in.She sank down onto the pillows and leaned back, then threw one leg over the side to dangle as if her toes might actually touch water.“You just stick your leg out.”
“I’ve tried,” Corinthia insisted.“It’s very awkward.”
“You mustn’t be afraid to look awkward.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“Come,” Rosemary said, indicating the tub alongside her own.“Sit next to me.I should have helped you in first, but when I saw this tub I had no self-control whatsoever.Will you forgive me?And sit by me?”
Corinthia hid a smile as she added more pillows to the neighboring tub.“I’ll sit by you.I want to interrogate you.”
Rosemary sat up slightly in mock alarm.“Interrogate me?Whatever for?”
When at last the padding was stable and thick, Corinthia carefully lowered herself into the tub and draped one leg out of it.She rested her arm on the edge of the tub, which brought her close to Rosemary, and at an angle where Rosemary’s eyes were shown to startling advantage under the twinkling lights.“Why,” Corinthia said, “were you in the Refuge after dark?”
Rosemary relaxed downward and closed her eyes, as if comfortably sinking into the tub.“Why wereyouin the Refuge after dark?”
“I asked you first, in the Refuge, and you never answered me.”
Rosemary opened her eyes and looked at Corinthia.“I know why you were in the Refuge.”
“Oh, do you?”Corinthia had not missed that Rosemary had dodged the question for the second time, but the lights and the cocoa and possibly the shot of brandy made her willing to let it go, for the moment.
“You were drawn there.”
Corinthia felt the truth of this and couldn’t deny it.She lay quietly.
“The birds,” Rosemary continued.“The sand.The oaks.They called to you.You came.”
“They didn’t—” Corinthia stopped, because technically they had.“I didn’t—” She stopped again when she realized she couldn’t answer Rosemary, not fully, because she truly had broken the rules and traipsed through the Refuge at night on the strength of nothing more than a feeling.Instead, she asked, “Is that why you were there?It called to you?”
“No,” Rosemary replied, calmly.“It didn’t need to.I’m always there.”
Homeless, Corinthia thought, with an uncontrollable pang of concern on Rosemary’s behalf.But it didn’t make sense.No one could camp in the Refuge for long—there was too much foot traffic.Hikers and field trips and bird watchers, not to mention the schoolchildren who wandered around the complex after school, killing time until their parents picked them up.“I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Rosemary smiled.“I didn’t expect you so soon.”
