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“Ouch!” screeched Cynthia, because Lesley had taken her at her word and pinched her.
y had only laughed. “Oh, come on, who do you think you’re kidding? It’s obvious what’s going on. You’re head over heels in love with the guy!”
But how could I be in love with a boy I’d only known for a few days? A boy whose behavior was impossible most of the time? Although at those moments when it wasn’t he was just so … so … so incredibly—
“Here I am!” crowed Xemerius, landing in sweeping style on the dining-room table next to the candle. Caroline, who was sitting on Mum’s lap, gave a small start of surprise and stared his way.
“What’s the matter, Caroline?” I asked quietly.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I thought I saw a shadow, that’s all.”
“Really?” I looked at Xemerius in surprise.
He just shrugged one shoulder and grinned. “It’s nearly full moon. Sensitive people can sometimes see us then, usually just out of the corners of their eyes. Then if they look more closely, we’re not there at all.” Now he was dangling from the chandelier again. “That old lady with the golden curls sees and senses more than she’s letting on. When I put a claw on her shoulder, just to find out what would happen, she reached up to the place … not that that surprises me, in your family.”
I looked lovingly at Caroline. A sensitive child—not that she’d inherited Great-aunt Maddy’s talent for seeing visions.
“Now comes my favorite bit,” said Caroline, her eyes shining, and Great-aunt Maddy threw herself into the story of sadistic Hazel with her best Sunday dress on, standing up to her neck in the liquid manure, screeching, “Just you wait, Madeleine, I’ll pay you back for this!”
“And so she did, too,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “More than once.”
“But we’ll listen to that story another time,” said Mum firmly. “You children must go to bed. You have school in the morning.”
We all sighed, Great-aunt Maddy loudest of all.
* * *
FRIDAY WAS PIZZA DAY, and no one skipped school lunch. Pizza was about the only edible dish the school ever served. I knew that Lesley would die for that pizza, so I didn’t let her stay in the classroom with me. I had a date with James there.
“Go and have lunch,” I said. “I’d hate for you to miss pizza on my account.”
“But then there’ll be no one here to act as lookout for you. And I want to hear more about yesterday, with you and Gideon and the green sofa—”
“Look, with the best will in the world, I can’t tell you any more than I already did,” I said.
“Then tell me again. It’s so romantic!”
“Go eat that pizza!”
“You absolutely must get his mobile number,” said Lesley. “I mean, it’s a golden rule: never kiss a boy if you don’t have his phone number.”
“Delicious cheese and pepperoni…,” I said.
“But—”
“Xemerius is here with me,” I said, pointing to the windowsill where he was sitting, chewing the end of his pointy tail and looking bored.
Lesley caved in. “Okay. But make sure you get something to eat today. All that waving Mrs. Counter’s pointer about does no one any good! And if anyone sees what you’re up to, you’ll be carted off to the loony bin in short order, remember that.”
“Oh, go away,” I said, pushing her out of the doorway just as James was coming through it.
James was glad we’d be on our own this time. “That freckled girl gets on my nerves, always butting in! She treats me like thin air.”
“That’s because so far as she’s concerned you are … oh, forget it!”
“Well, so how can I help you today?”
“I thought maybe you could tell me how to say hello at a soirée in the eighteenth century.”
