“You can tell me all about it then. I hear they have a moat and peacocks.”
“No peacocks, sadly,” I said. “But there is a moat anda maze. Oh, and a folly, too.”
“No peacocks? They should have peacocks.”
“That’s what I said!”
By the time the bus reached the centre of Winchester, I had become fast friends with Anne, along with Robin and Neria inthe seat in front of us. In fact, it seemed as if half the bus were listening to our conversation. I hadn’t realised that staying at Talbot Court made me some sort of local celebrity.
Once I got away from my fan club, it didn’t take me long to stock up on what I needed, including a diversion to a chemist’s to pick up an industrial quantity of condoms and lube—better to have too much than not enough. That left a couple of hours to fill before I was due at June’s. I wandered around the outside of the cathedral, but the entrance fee was pretty steep, so I headed for the cheaper Great Hall. I wanted to see the Round Table, even though Archer had said it was fake.
I wished he’d been able to come with me. It would be much more fun exploring with him and comparing notes on what we were looking at. Which, in my case, would have been him. Even a thirteenth century Round Table couldn’t compare to Archer. But he’d said he had to work, so there was only me to enjoy the soaring gothic interior of the hall and theenormoustabletop hanging on the wall.
I supposed, when I thought about it, a table that all the knights could sit around would have to be pretty big, but I was taken aback by the sheer size of the thing. It was painted in green and white sections and had a different knight’s name at each place.
I’d thought there were twelve Knights of the Round Table, but looking at this table, it seated twenty-four. I thought perhaps I was getting confused with the apostles. Google told me, unhelpfully, that no one knew how many knights there’d been, with estimates ranging from twelve (I’d been right after all) to more than a thousand. I paused briefly over a French source that claimed there’d been sixty. Now that the Berstows had been discovered, there were sixty-one dragon families—the same number as the knights if King Arthur was added to thetotal. Given how the legend of King Arthur was entwined with tales of dragons, the coincidence pleased me.
Outside the Great Hall was a garden, which the visitor guide said was designed and planted as a replica of a mediaeval garden. I wondered how the gardens at Talbot Court would look if they could be restored, although none of the family had the time or the money to do that. Still, I’d help Tim as much as I could while I was staying with them. For however long that was. I didn’t want to think about going home, not now Archer and I were—whatever we were.
Our date didn’t seem to have put him off. He’d held me as I’d fallen asleep last night, not sent me back to my cold bedroom. Somehow, he liked me. I hoped I could keep it that way.
Chapter Twenty-two
ARCHER
I caught up with Mia later in the morning. Being a Saturday, she wasn’t in lessons and was having a rare bit of time to herself, watching TV. I hated how hard she and Tim had to work, but I couldn’t do everythingandkeep a roof over our heads.
“Can I talk to you?”
She instantly paused the show she was watching and sat up straight, alarm in her eyes. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?”
“Everything’s fine,” I assured her, sitting down. “Why would you think it wasn’t?”
“Because you never ask that. You just say what you have to say. What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know that Ollie and I—that we’re kind of together.”
Her face almost glowed with happiness. “Seriously? I mean, of course seriously because you’re never anything else, but that’sawesome.Though, what do you mean, ‘kind of’? Are you, or aren’t you?”
“We are, but I’m not sure what it means.”
“Ollie really likes you,” she informed me. “So, as long as you don’t mess it up, it means you’re together.”
How did my teenage sister know more about this stuff than me?
“Can I tell Lacey? We had a bet about it.”
“You didwhat?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re kind of obvious when it comes to Ollie. Which is unexpected because you’re inscrutable about everything else. I guess I’ve never seenyou with anyone before.” She wrinkled her nose. “That’s weird, isn’t it, at your age?”
“I’ve been a bit busy,” I said defensively.
“Oh, God, Archer—sorry.” Her eyes filled with guilt. “You’ve had me and Tim, and the family, and the forge, and—”
“And I could have made the time if I’d wanted to.” I interrupted her swiftly. Nowaywas my life her fault, and I’dneverwanted to be without her and Tim. They weren’t a burden. It was everything else that was.
I hastened to clarify. “I didn’t want to bring anyone into the life I lead. The headship is pretty all-consuming.” Which left me wondering how Ollie and I could fit together. I only knew that Iwantedus to.
