Unawoketothescratch of a busy pen.
The woman scribbling in the notebook by her bedside raised bright eyes as Una stirred.They were hazel, and in no way remarkable, but the sheer intensity of character in them matched the intensity of her fiery hair and made it hard to look away from the face to which they belonged, when once you had perceived its liveliness.
“Ah!Good morning, Una.No, don’t rush, you are to stay in bed quietly until Doctor Worthing arrives.You see, they have sent me to make sure you are well behaved.Which is absurd, because you are always well behaved, aren’t you, Una?I, on the other hand, am not.”
Una did not know how to answer this, but that caused no surprise because she was often a little muted in the presence of her brilliant first cousin, Edith.
“I’m going to shout down the stairs for supplies, and I’ll have a pleasant surprise for you soon.And if you try to run away and doany work at all“ —her eyes narrowed— “I shall be forced to obstruct you.Which would be awkward, in my present condition.”
With this threat, she sprang up and disappeared into the passage, and Una heard a melodious yodel.Small, quick, and bright, she reminded Una of a kingfisher.Yet she was more than thirty, and the mother of three children, two of which had appeared most inconveniently at once.She was soon to add one more to their number—Una devoutly hoped it was only one this time, for the sake of the peace of Ormdale.
Edith reappeared.“Still there?Good.Neither of us has disgraced ourselves just yet.”
“But Cousin Edith, the menagerie—“
“Will fall apart completely without your particular oversight?”she offered.“Yes.I quite understand.And what if it does?”
Una stared at her.“Well, George said—“
“Please.”Edith held up a hand.“Do not speak to me of my younger brother!George gave up the right to dictate what we do here when he set off for darkest Africa because of a chance remark in an obscure medieval manuscript.”
“The Opus Majus isn’tveryobscure,“ Una objected faintly.
Martha came in with a tray.
“Martha, what are your thoughts on Roger Bacon’s Opus Majus?”Edith demanded.
Martha snorted.“I think the only bacon I care about is the one’ll get cold if you chatter nonsense all morning instead of eating it.”
“Thank you, Martha, we would not dream of allowing such a crime,” said Edith.“I see you brought a second fork.I am most grateful.”
Martha left, chuckling despite herself.
“I will talk while you eat, Una, and so we shall be efficientandwell behaved.”
Una nodded and took a bite of toast.
“Now we were saying—even if you are absolutely right and everything falls apart in the absence of your excellent oversight, what of it?We dust off our knees and bandage our wounds and behold, a new day will be upon us.Besides, it’s Sunday.Don’t you know you reallyoughtto rest on Sunday?”
Una chewed and held her peace.It was all very well for Edith to speak of sorting things out, but it would be Una and not Edith who did it, because Edith would be required at home at Drake Hall by her devoted husband and pretty babies.Una did not envy her these accoutrements.She could see they brought Edith her own fair share things to sort out.
“Do you want to tell me about last night?”Edith asked gently.
There was a tap at the door.
“Oh, good,” Edith murmured, and popped her head out the door.When she turned round, she held Oolong in a basket.He was bandaged and weary, and did not even lift his head, though he blinked in greeting.“I thought you’d want him right away,” she said, and sat down on the bed, offering him to Una.“Do you remember where I found him, in the beginning?And how he saved me, too?”
The story of how Cousin Edith had rescued the Chinese dragon from the laboratory of a mad scientist in London might just be one adventure among many to Edith, but to Una, the little dragon meant everything.
Una tried to keep back tears as she tenderly lifted him out of the basket, keeping clear of the bandage round his soft belly.Years ago, Una had hand raised a river dragon, but it had outgrown her care and returned to the Orme.Oolong stayed.
Edith looked at her.“How do you feel—really?”
Una wasn’t sure how to answer.She was not ill, and she wanted to be allowed out of bed.She hadn’t actually been hurt, after all.Until Oolong had appeared, all she had felt was a growing desperation to be treated quite normally and be allowed to go about her daily schedule.Seeing him hurt had brought home to her the gravity of what had happened the night before.What if Oolong hadn’t survived the attack?
“I don’t suppose I need a doctor,” she said at last.“Dr Worthing oughtn’t to waste his time on me.”
Edith’s voice became a little grim.“You were drugged with chloral, Una.It might have seriously harmed you.I do know about these things.”
