Something sharp poked her in the backside. She lifted one hip and pulled out a sharp piece of walnut shell.
She rolled her eyes and flung it over her shoulder. “What’s one more shell in a room that looks like...” She paused in thought. “Hell?”
“Miss Georgina!” Graham hollered, his feet thudding on the hall floors. “Miss Georgina!”
“There is no God,” she muttered, just as the doors burst open with such force they rattled against the walls.
She flinched. She lifted the hand that was covering her tired eyes and frowned at him. “Can you not justwalk?”
“I was in a hurry.”
“You’re always in a hurry.”
“I have to be in a hurry. Otherwise Kirsty would get here first.”
“Heaven forfend.” She took a deep breath. “What do you want, child?”
“There was frost on the eaves and the trees this morning.”
“Okay.” She nodded as if she knew what that meant. “Frost.”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded like a sage. Then said absolutely nothing else. He was too busy rummaging in his pockets, taking out rocks and string and shells and something that looked horribly like a dead bug.
“Did you tell her?” Kirsty stood in the doorway, rocking on her heels and looking exactly like a small female version of her father. Blond hair, green eyes, a look that said she had Georgina pegged.
“Yeah.”
Kirsty turned to her and put her hands on her hips. “Well?”
“Well what?”
Kirsty gave a mammoth sigh. “Can we go?”
“Go where?”
She turned and scowled at Graham. “I thought you said you told her?”
“I did.” He was holding up an earthworm.
Georgina shuddered.
“Then how come she doesn’t know what I’m talking about?”
Graham shrugged.
“Why don’t you just tell me what you want, Kirsty?”
“Because Graham was supposed to. It’s his turn, not mine.” She crossed her arms over her small bony chest just like her father.
“Fine,” Georgina stood up. “Then the answer is no.”
Kirsty’s arm dropped to her sides. “How can you say no if you don’t even know what we want?”
“Easy. One word. One syllable. No. En. Oh.”
Kirsty just stared at her for a long time. The child despised her and made no point of hiding it. From the first moment she came back from staying with Fergus, she couldn’t look at Georgina without a challenge in her eyes.
She was smart as a whip and had a quick mind that kept Georgina on her toes, but she also found the girl entertaining, when she wasn’t exhausted like she was now. It was interesting to see what the child would say next. She eyed her for a long time. After all, shewasthe adult here. But for the briefest of moments she wondered exactly what the little girl was thinking.
