“Bring this one with you,” she demanded, pointing at Ollie. “He’s better company than anyone else in this house.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Ollie sent her a glowing smile, and she harrumphed to hide the smile that had briefly creased her own cheeks. There was no resisting Ollie.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” Ollie asked as we drove home. “How old is she?”
“I don’t know, and I’d never dare ask. Alison, her daughter, is seventy-one, if that helps.”
“What was that stuff about the library?”
“No idea. Lillian used to be friendly with my grandmother and they were the ones who catalogued the library, but I don’t know why Chris would be interested,” I said.
“Tim said she likes to talk about the past a lot. Maybe Chris was indulging her—or maybe he didn’t have a choice in the subject matter.”
“Could be. I hope he doesn’t actually have any questions, because no one else knows anything about it.”
“Not even you?” Ollie asked.
“I know where the library is, and that’s about it.” I glanced at his shocked expression. “Don’t really have time to read.”
“That issowrong,” Ollie declared. “You need to start taking some time off.”
“Actually, I was thinking when Tim has his friends here, we could go up to Avebury one night.”
“I’d love that,” Ollie said. “And could we go to that wood again tonight and fly? Just the two of us.”
Sounded damn near perfect, and I took the next turn away from the Court, towards the woods.
Itwasperfect, flying with Ollie. Tim and Mia tended to fly with their friends rather than me these days, and I hadn’t realised how lonely it had become, flying alone. Ollie gambolled around the sky like a lamb on steroids, and I found myself responding to his utter glee, chasing him and catching him. I wrapped my wings around him until we rolled over and over as we fell together through thick, wet, clinging clouds, eventually parting to race one another high into the sky and do it all over again.
Flying had always thrilled me, but flying with Ollie? When I flew with him, I felt like a young dragon again, as if he’d set me loose from the bonds that held me.
I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to stay out here forever, with Ollie.
Chapter Twenty-seven
ARCHER
Tim’s friends turned out to be a good bunch of kids. I guess I should have expected that from him. A little high-spirited and loud, but at that age, with few responsibilities and worries, why not? They dug out Dad’s old pool table from the clutter in the stables and set it up in the hall, and it kept them happy for hours.
I did my best to make them feel welcome, but it was obvious that when I asked them about themselves, it sounded more like an inquisition than conversation. Thank God for Ollie, who smoothed everything over, drawing me into the discussions and not letting my awkwardness with small talk get in the way.
On their last day, I came back to the house to find them collapsed in the sitting room looking exhausted, rather than crowded round the pool table. Anna was leaning against Tim, but I couldn’t tell if it was because she was having problems keeping herself upright or something a little more friendly.
Ollie spotted me at the door and tugged me out of the room after him. “I told them what Tim was doing in the kitchen garden, and once they’d had a look, they wanted to help. It’s brilliant, Archer—they’ve gotsomuch done, more than Tim and I would have managed before his term starts. I think Toady might have dug up the runner beans by mistake, but even so, it’s amazing.”
I was impressed. Grateful, too. I didn’t have time for the gardens, other than a quick ride around on the mower every couple of weeks to keep the grass from becoming too jungle-like, and anything Tim hadn’t done by the time he went back to uni would remain undone. Though Ollie seemed to have taken an interest, so perhaps the garden wouldn’t be completelyneglected in Tim’s absence. What they’d done was hard work, shown by the lack of the laughter that had been ringing through the house the past few days.
“That’s above and beyond,” I said. “Reckon take-out and some beers would go down well?”
Ollie looked at me, his eyes messaging something, and I finally realised what it was. Of course. “I’ll check with Tim, find out whether he’d like that.”
His smile at me was fond and encouraging. “Do it quickly because I can’t wait to go to Avebury.”
I left Tim with my credit card and a spending limit, and Ollie and I had a swift supper cobbled together from leftovers in the fridge before heading out. I couldn’t help but compare this to the last time we’d gone to Avebury together to fly, when I’d thought of him as nothing more than an infernal nuisance.
This time, flying with Ollie over the stones was magical. It probably helped that he didn’t crash into me. The night was cloudy and wild, with a strong wind gusting, and occasional breaks in the clouds allowed us to see the stones standing sentry as they had for millennia.
