AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shammed a shiver. “Brrr, do you ever get used to the cold here?”
Nicky laughed. “Truthfully? No. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live somewhere warm.”
“You should try it sometime. Take your junior year abroad in Spain, or do a semester archaeology dig in Mexico, or do your postgraduate work at UT Austin. They have a great writing program.”
Nicky’s eyes shone at each suggestion I made, but the lights quickly went out. “I couldn’t,” she said. “My grandmother needs me and I’m pretty sure my scholarship only covers tuition here.”
“Hm…I’ll ask Dean Book about that. In the meantime, I wanted to talk to you about an idea for an independent study class—actually, it was Professor Doyle’s idea.”
“Really? You’ve talked to Professor Doyle about me?”
“Yes, he’s very impressed with the poems you’ve been writing.”
“He’s been awfully nice about them…He’sawfully nice. Don’t you think so?”
“Um, yes, he is very nice, but that isn’t the reason he likes your poems. Your poetry is very good—”
“And so handsome! Don’t you think he’s handsome?” Nicky asked, a dreamy expression on her face.
“I suppose so,” I answered as tersely as I could. “But Professor Doyle’s looks are not what I want to talk to you about. He—we—had an idea for an independent class that would combine the poetry you’re writing with research into the themes of your poetry. For instance, you use the motif of thecaptive maiden, a motif that appears in fairy tales such as Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, and in Gothic fiction…”
“Oh, like the way Emily St. Aubert is trapped in the castle of Udolpho,” Nicky volunteered. “Or Bertha Rochester is locked up in the attic of Thornfield Hall.”
“Exactly,” I replied, although I hadn’t been thinking of Bertha Rochester, who dies at the end ofJane Eyre. The idea was to have Nicky identify with the captive maidens of myth and literature who escape in the end. Liam thought that if Nicky could plot an escape for her fictional alter ego, she might not fall victim to the fate of all the Ballard women before her. Of course, Liam didn’t know about the curse, but when I’d run the idea by Soheila she had thought it couldn’t hurt. At least it was something to do. I’d read through the spell lexicon looking for ways to avert a curse but they all required knowing who had cast it. Anton Volkov had been away at a conference for the last few days so I hadn’t been able to find out the names of the two witches who might have cursed the Ballards. For now, this was the best I could do. “So do you like the idea?”
“Yes. Would I be working with both of you together, or one at a time?”
“Oh, we hadn’t discussed that. I suppose we could each meet individually with you or we could all three meet together. Which would you prefer?”
“I’d like to meet all together,” Nicky replied immediately. “I really like Professor Doyle, but whenever I’m alone with him I get so nervous I can hardly speak. It will be better if you’re there.”
I smiled indulgently at Nicky, as if it had been years since I’d experienced such nerves. “Good, it’s settled then. I’ll talk to Professor Doyle about a time that will work for all of us when I see him at the party this evening.” I looked at my watch. “Which I’d better be getting to.”
“Oh yes, you don’t want to be late for the holiday party. It’s a tradition at Fairwick. Of course, students don’t get to go toit. We’re all supposed to be off the campus by sunset today. They lock the gates an hour after dusk.”
“Do they?” I’d never seen the southeast gate closed, let alone locked. “Well then, you’d best be going. I wouldn’t want you to get locked into the campus the whole break.” Nicky and I both laughed at the idea, but it occurred to me that it would be just the kind of thing that would happen in the Gothic novels we’d been reading.
