She smiled, shy but pleased. “Maybe.”
“Are you still writing your journal?”
“Every day. There’s a lot to write about.” She sneaked a glance at the pool and Tom followed it. Long legs drifted out behind the girl as she held on to the edge. A quote came unexpectedly into his head: Dostoevsky, “Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible.” Tom cleared his throat. “Good,” he said. “That’s good then. The more you practice, the better you’ll become. Don’t let yourself settle for less than your best.”
“I won’t.”
He smiled at her and nodded at his clipboard. “I can mark down that you’re happy then? Everything’s all right?”
“Oh yes.”
“You’re not missing your mum and dad too much?”
“I’m writing them letters,” said Meredith. “I know where the post office is and I’ve already sent them the postcard with my new address. The nearest school is in Tenterden, but there’s a bus that goes.”
“And your brother and sister, they’re near the village, too, aren’t they?”
Meredith nodded.
He laid his palm on her head; the hair on top was hot from the sun. “You’re going to be all right, kiddo.”
“Mr. Cavill?”
“Yes?”
“You should see the books inside. There’s a room just filled, every wall lined with shelves, all the way to the ceiling.”
He smiled broadly. “Well, I feel a whole lot better knowing that.”
“Me too.” She nodded at the figure in the water. “Juniper said I could read any of them that I wanted.”
Juniper. Her name was Juniper.
“I’m already three-quarters throughThe Woman in Whiteand then I’m going to readWuthering Heights.”
“Are you coming in, Merry?” Juniper had swum back to the side and was beckoning to the younger girl. “The water’s lovely. Warm. Perfect. Blue.”
Something about his words on her lips made Tom shiver. Beside him Meredith shook her head as if the question had caught her off guard. “I don’t know how to swim.”
Juniper climbed out, slipped her white dress over her head so that it stuck to her wet legs. “We’ll have to do something about that while you’re here.” She pulled her wet hair into a messy ponytail and tossed it over her shoulder. “Is there anything else?” she said to him.
“Well, I thought I might …” He exhaled, collected himself, and started again. “Perhaps I ought to come up with you and meet the other members of your household?”
“No,” said Juniper without flinching. “That’s not a good idea.”
He felt unreasonably affronted.
“My sister doesn’t like strangers, particularly male strangers.”
“I’m not a stranger, am I, Merry?”
Meredith smiled. Juniper did not. She said, “It isn’t personal. She’s funny that way.”
“I see.”
She was standing close to him, drips sliding into her lashes as her eyes met his; he read no interest in them yet his pulse quickened. “Well then,” she said.
“Well then.”
