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She nodded. “Isn’t this strange? Two months ago we held her in our arms as a newborn baby, and now she’s sixteen, and half a head taller than me. And only two years younger!”
“Yes, crazy!”
“I’m so relieved that she’s all right. But Nicholas … why did he have to die so early?”
“Leukemia. I’d never have expected that. Poor girl, to lose her father so young.” He cleared his throat. “I hope she’ll keep away from that boy, my … er, nephew, or whatever he is. These family trees are impossible.”
“Oh, it’s not all that difficult—your great-grandfather and his great-great-grandfather were twin brothers. So your great-great-grandfather is also his great-great-great-grandfather.” She laughed, noticing his blank expression. “I’ll draw you a family tree sometime.”
“I tell you, no one can work it out. Anyway, I don’t like the young man. Did you notice the way he was ordering her about? Luckily she wasn’t taking it lying down.”
“She’s in love with him.”
“No, she isn’t.”
“Yes, she is. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
“So how do you think you know it?”
“Oh, because he’s simply irresistible. My God, did you see his eyes? Green like a tiger’s. I think I felt a bit weak at the knees myself when he flashed them at me, even though he was angry.”
“What? You can’t mean that seriously! Since when have you liked green eyes?”
She laughed. “Don’t worry. Your eyes are the best of all. For me, at least. But I think she likes green eyes best.”
“She’s not in love with that arrogant young man!”
“I tell you, she is. And he’s just like you when you were younger.”
“What? That…! He’s not in the least like me. I never ordered you about, never!”
She grinned. “You did, too!”
“Only when it was necessary.” He tipped his hat back on his head. “I just want him to leave her alone.”
“You’re jealous.”
“Well, yes,” he admitted. “Isn’t that normal? When I next see him, I’m going to tell him to keep his hands off her.”
“I’ve an idea we’ll be crossing their path quite often in the near future,” she said, and now she wasn’t smiling. “And I’ve an idea you ought to start polishing up your skill at fencing. There’s something in the air, and it’s coming our way.”
He threw his walking stick in the air and caught it nimbly as it came down. “I’m ready. How about you, Princess?”
“Ready when you are.”
to spend a moment digesting that. Then I said, “It could just as easily have been you.”
“Yeah.” Gideon retreated into his side of the confessional, and I saw the flash of his white teeth in the dim light. He was smiling. “I think we’re going to have a rather exciting time in the near future.”
That gave me a warm tingly feeling inside. Presumably the prospect of more adventures ought to have scared me, but at that moment I felt nothing but wonderful happiness.
Yes, it would be exciting.
We said no more for a while. Then Gideon asked me, “Back in that coach, when we were talking about the magic of the raven—do you remember?”
Of course I remembered. Every single word.
“You said I couldn’t have that magic because I was only a perfectly ordinary girl. And you know lots of girls like me. Girls who go to the loo in groups and say mean things about Lisa because she—”
