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Gideon grinned. “That’s okay. I’ve no intention of dissolving into thin air.”
“Lesley? Can I call you back?”
But Lesley wasn’t listening to me. “Gwen, listen, I’ve been right through Anna Karenina,” she said excitedly. “And I think I know what the count really plans to do with the philosopher’s stone.”
I couldn’t have cared less about the philosopher’s stone. At this moment, anyway.
“That’s great,” I said, glancing at Gideon. “You must tell me all about it later—”
“Don’t worry,” said Lesley. “I’m on my way.”
“Really? But I—”
“Well, to be precise, I’m here already.”
“Where?”
“Here. I’m standing at the end of the corridor leading to your room, and your mum and your brother and sister are just coming upstairs after me. With your great-aunt puffing along in their wake. Oh, they’ve overtaken me now. I’m afraid they’ll be knocking on your door any moment—”
But Caroline didn’t go to the trouble of knocking. She just flung the door open and cried, beaming happily, “Chocolate cake for everyone!” Then she turned to the others. “Told you so,” she said. “They’re not necking at all.”
ELEVEN
THE DAY REALLY had been full of all kinds of strange revelations, and the most important was that Gideon really did love me after all! Oh, and then of course there was the bit about Lord Alastair’s sword and dying. But in a way, the family picnic in my room this evening seemed the strangest of today’s events. Here was almost everyone who meant most to me in the world, sitting on the rug, laughing, all of them talking at once: Mum, Aunt Maddy, Nick, Caroline, Lesley—and Gideon! And they all had chocolate on their faces. (As Aunt Glenda and Charlotte had lost their appetite and Lady Arista had no sweet tooth at all, we had the whole chocolate cake to ourselves.) Maybe it was because of the cake that Gideon and my family immediately seemed to be on very good terms, or maybe it was because he was more relaxed than I’d ever seen him before. Even though Mum and Aunt Maddy kept asking him any number of questions, ranging from genuinely curious to embarrassing, and Nick still insisted on calling him Gollum.
When we’d finished the last crumbs, Aunt Maddy got up, groaning. “I think I’d better go down and give Arista some moral backing—Mr. Turner managed to slip into the house when that boyfriend of Charlotte’s arrived, and I’m sure they’re still quarreling about begonias.” She gave Gideon one of her dimpled, rosy smiles. “You know, you’re unusually nice for one of the de Villiers family, Gideon.”
Gideon got to his feet as well. “Thank you very much,” he said cheerfully, shaking hands with Aunt Maddy. “I’m delighted to have met you properly.”
“See that?” Lesley whispered, nudging me in the ribs. “Good manners. Gets his bum off the floor when a lady stands up. Cute little bum too. Pity he’s such a bastard.”
I rolled my eyes.
Mum brushed crumbs off her dress and hauled Caroline and Nick up. “Come along, you two—time for bed.”
“Mum!” said Nick, sounding deeply injured. “It’s a Friday, and I’m twelve.”
“And I want to stay here, please.” Caroline looked innocently up at Gideon. “I like you,” she said. “You’re ever so nice and ever so good-looking.”
“Yes, ever so,” Lesley whispered to me. “Is he by any chance blushing?”
Seemed like it. How sweet.
Lesley’s elbow landed in my ribs. “You’re gawping like a sheep,” she hissed. At that moment, Xemerius flew through the closed window and came down on my desk, with a satisfied belch.
“When the clever and extraordinarily handsome demon returned from his outing, full of hope, he was disappointed to see that in his absence the girl had lost neither the piss-yellow blouse nor her innocence,” he quoted from his unwritten novel.
I mouthed a silent “shut up!” in his direction.
“All I mean,” he said, sounding hurt, “is that it was a good opportunity. You’re not as young as you were, and who knows, you may be hating the guy’s guts again tomorrow.”
When Aunt Maddy had left and Mum had shooed my brother and sister out of the room ahead of her, Gideon closed the door behind them and looked at us, grinning.
Lesley raised both hands. “No, forget it! I’m not going. I have important things to discuss with Gwen. Strictly secret things.”
“Then I’m not going, either,” said Xemerius, hopping on my bed and curling up on the pillow.
“Lesley, I don’t think we need to keep things secret from Gideon anymore,” I said. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea if, for the common good, we pooled all our knowledge to date.” I thought I’d put that rather well.
