Una looked at her glassily.“I’m sorry.I just realised—if I’d talked with you—if I’d come to you straight away and told you what Gwydion’s father told me—“
“And if I’d come and told you I was running away—if!“ shouted Violet.“Stop trying to find a new way to blame yourself for everything!”
Una stared at her.“I’ll try,” she said at last, meekly.
“Una,” said Violet.“You know I’m the last person to actuallylearnanything from a mess like this, but—we must alwaystalkto each other, after this.Even if we fight like cats.I don’t care!As long as we don’t stoptalkingagain, we’ll get through somehow, I feel sure of it.”
Violet stretched her hand out.Una looked at it, just to check.
“What’s wrong?”asked Violet.
“It’s muddy,” Una said.
Violet looked down at her own hand as if it didn’t belong to her.“I’ll spit on it.”
“Don’t youdare!“ cried Una, and grabbed hold of it grimly.
Then they just sat for a moment, and Una though how strong and warm Violet’s hand was in hers.Her own hand was now the same size as her sister’s, not smaller and softer.The four years between them simply didn’t matter as they once had, and everything was different.It felt like a puzzle finally coming right because you found a new way to look at it.
Violet squeezed her hand.“I’ll go tomorrow, and be back in a day or two.I only have to go to Blackpool.”
“Gwydion’s inBlackpool?“ Una repeated in astonishment.
“Yes, Blackpool!Why does everyone object to it so?”
“Well, it’s Lancashire, you know,” said Una matter-of-factly.Then she shuddered.What on earth had Gwydion been thinking, all this time?Did he even know what his father had tried to do?“Won’t it be terribly awkward for you to fetch him, though?After—all of it?”
Violet smiled in a terrifying sort of way.“Don’t you think he deserves every bit of awkwardness that’s coming to him?”
Una blinked a few times.“As a matter of fact…yes,” she admitted.“I think he does.Even if—if he didn’t want to switch sisters midstream” —Una blushed at this— “he oughtn’t to have trusted his father in such a matter.It was very bad judgement, and bad manners, too.”
“And that is why I fully intend to give him h—“
But Una kicked her sister before she could say the rest of the word.
“Blazes, Una, give him blazes,” Violet said, grinning.“Whatdidyou think I was going to say?”
“Blazes isn’t any better than the other one!”Una objected.“At least that one’s in the Bible!”
“Whatdid you say?“ Violet said, opening her eyes wide in mock horror.“Did you just say bl—“
Una seized the pillow and beat Violet about the head with it three or four times.When she had relieved her own feelings in this way, she felt quite calm.Oolong licked her hand in approval.
“I’ll see about getting your old bed back in here, if you like,” Una said.
Violet froze.“You want me back—inhere?”
“I’m not sure I do, really,” Una admitted.“But I can’t have you sleeping on the floor outside my room.”
“I think,” said Violet thoughtfully, “that I’m done with that.You don’t need me to protect you any more.At least, not in the way I thought.And besides,” she said, looking at Oolong, “you have a dragon to protect you.”
Chapter fifty-one
London
Allthatafternoonatthe Colonial Office, Crispin’s mind was furiously working, putting pieces together in different shapes.
That morning at breakfast, his father had announced to the family that he’d be taking a work colleague to Yorkshire very soon—a fellow from the office who has taken a fancy to the dragons, were his exact words.
