Simon pulls my wrist down. “Do you trust me?”
He knows I do. That I did, even when I hated him. (I never hated him.)
“Yes.”
“Can I touch you?”
I nod my head.
83
SIMON
I’m not crying. Neither is Baz.
My wings hurt. I lie on my stomach, so I can spread them out.
Baz sits beside me, and I know he’s inspecting the damage from yesterday. They’re just cuts, I’ll live.
I feel his fingers on the back of my neck.
“You can be angry now,” I say.
He pulls my hair.
84
SIMON
A few hours later, Baz is sitting on my bed with his violin, holding it like a guitar. He’s not playing anything, really. Just making cheerful noises with it. I didn’t know Baz’s violin was capable of cheerful noises. At Watford, it always sounded like it was crying.
“Does that hurt?” he asks.
I’ve got my wings folded up as tight as I can, and I’m buttoning a shirt over them. “Yeah, but there’s no way around it.”
“You could leave them out,” he says, “and I’ll cast spells at everyone who looks at you.”
“Seems impractical,” I say. “I’ll cope. I can spread them out once we get to Lady Ruth’s.”
“She’ll like that.” Baz stands up, leaving the violin on my bed, and comes over to me. He moves my hands away and finishes buttoning the shirt. It’s his shirt, an olive-green cotton one with complicated stripes and short sleeves. (I’ve never even seen Baz wear short sleeves.)
“Are you going to dress me every morning?” I ask.
“If you allow it, absolutely.”
I’ll probably allow it, what do I care.
“I don’t want to wear flowers,” I say. Baz is wearing flowers. His button-down shirt is grey with sprays of pink and blue lilacs. He makes it look manly somehow, with his indigo trousers and grey lace-up shoes. I’d look like a sofa.
“No flowers.” He kisses my cheek. “So noted, rosebud boy.”
I look up at him. “That’s what the ghost called me—your mother. That’s what she said.”
Baz is looking in my eyes. “I remember.” He runs his thumb over my cheek. Then my bottom lip. “My rosebud boy.”
Lady Ruth has the door open before we get to it. “Simon!” she says. “Baz! Come in, come in!”
She hugs us both. I try not to wince.
