“Well,” he said, capping his pen and rearranging a few items on the desk.“How very interesting.”
Crispin stopped breathing.
“There’s just a chance…” the man said slowly, wiggling his monocle back into place and this time the larger eye was not aggrieved, but bright, like a bird that has spotted a worm, “there is just a chance you might be able to help us with something, and after that… Well, we’ll see how it plays out, shall we?”
“May I smoke, sir?”Crispin asked.
“Of course,” the man said, the line of this mouth curving upwards for the first time.“So…what about a codename, then?Any preference?”
Chapter forty-nine
Ormdale
Violetdrippeddowncorridorsand up flights of stairs, dropping layers as she went, until she got to the nursery.
It wasn’t until she’d seen the pretty new wallpaper and crisply made bed that she remembered it wasn’t her room anymore.
But by now she was shaking uncontrollably, and there was a small coal fire in the grate.She stripped down to her combinations, shovelled more coal on the fire, and sank down to absorb as much warmth as she could.
“Must you leave trailseverywhereyou go?“ came a voice from the doorway.
It was Una, holding Violet’s river-dark boots by the laces, Oolong at her heels.
“It makes it easier for you to find me?”suggested Violet.
Una set the boots close to the grate to dry, got a wool blanket from the chest by her bed, and draped it over Violet.
“Do try not to get a chill, Violet,” Una said.“I see he dropped you in the river this time.What next?”
“The manure pile, I expect, like the nettles.If I’m lucky!”Violet laughed.“The lime kiln if I’m not.At least that would bewarm.“ She pulled the blanket round her tightly.
Una did not laugh.She sat in a chair and stretched out her arms to Oolong, who gave a little leap into them.Una's eyes looked strangely bruised, the blue of her eyes bringing out the shadowed area around them.
“Didn’t it scare you at all, Violet?”Una asked.“Don’t you worry about dying—ever?”
Violet blinked.It hadn’t scared her—not exactly.Not the way other people seemed to get scared.She’d revealed this once to someone, and the results had been very bad.If she explained it to Una, it would terrify her, and probably ruin everything.
“It doesn’t matter whether it scared me,” said Violet.“It scaredyou, and that’s enough.Are you sure you want me to stay, after all?”
Una gave her an unexpectedly cold look.“Gwendolyn’s a lady doctor, and I run a dragon menagerie.Do you think you are the only Worms sister who can do something difficult?”
Una nudged Violet with her shoe, which took away a good deal of the coldness.
But Violet didn’t laugh.“He was wrong about you, you know.”
“Who was wrong about me?”asked Una.
“Father.He thought that because you were soft and quiet and felt things deeply, that you were weak.That you would be squashed.But I think you might be the strongest of us.Look at the way you run this place!Do you think I could do it?Or Gwen?”
“I think both of you could do almost anything.But me?”Una looked around her, and nodded towards the menagerie doors.“It’s taken me a long time to learn how to do this properly.And I worry all the time.I’m not sure I’d be much good at anything else.”Then she looked back at Violet.“You miss Gwendolyn a lot, don’t you?”
“Every minute,” said Violet.“Don’t you?”
Una looked down.“She never seemed like she wanted to be here.Perhaps she always knew she was made for somewhere else.”
“I wish she’d tell me whereI’mmade for,“ Violet mused, hugging her knees.“Until then—I’m going to keep trying with Elfed.And I have an idea!”
“An idea?”Una repeated cautiously.
