[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

his shrill, incessant bawling.
Cass froze in his tracks. Sandy had never imagined a man
so fair could blanch further, but Cass did. It was as if he'd
gone into a trance of some kind, or perhaps it was just the
normal reaction of an inexperienced person when first con-
fronted by a hurt child. The impulse to run away and let some-
one else take care of things was always a hair stronger than the
urge to help the little one.
Miss Poster summed up the situation with a cold and
practiced eye. "Just a bloody nose. I'll get the first-aid kit.
Jeffy, Ellie, you know you're not supposed to go on the
playground equipment without an adult to supervise. You will
both have indoor recess for the rest of the week. Stop crying,
Jeffy. My mind is made up." Jeffy's renewed howls followed
her as she marched off to fetch medical supplies.
Sandy did what no one else seemed to think necessary.
She got down in the dirt with the two children and gathered
Jeffy into her arms. There was blood on her shirt and sweater,
more on her own handkerchief when she pressed it to the little
boy's nose, but it only made her cradle him more closely.
"Don't cry, Jeffy. Hush, dear; don't worry, your brother's
here. We'll take you home, won't we, Cass?"
64 Esther M. Priesner
She looked up. Cass was gone. Davina returned her star-
tled gaze and shrugged, waving at the air as if to say that that
was the route he had taken, witnesses be damned.
As soon as Miss Foster provided a coldpack and some
fresh wadding. Sandy explained that she would be seeing Jeffy
home. "His brother ran ahead to open the house for us and see
about finding their mother," she explained glibly.
She didn't feel quite so glib when they got to the Taylors'
gate and found Jeffy's mother standing in the front yard, wait-
ing for them. The look on her face was chilling. Sandy had
seen people wear such expressions many times, but always in
newsreel footage of natural disasters. That face belonged on a
woman who'd returned to find her home burned to the foun-
dations, or inundated by a mud slide, or torn to flinders by a
whirlwind.
It seemed a bit much for welcoming home a small child
with a bloody nose.
"He's all right now," Sandy tried to tell her. The dead-
eyed look remained. "Really. It stopped bleeding halfway
here."
"I was only trying to show Ellie something. Mama,"
Jeffy quavered. "I told her about Bantrobel, how she flies when
she spreads her cloak on the winds, and the only way I could
do that was to have EUie hold down one end of the seesaw
while I climbed up to the other end, only her hands slipped,
and the seesaw came down, and I fell, and " He was blub-
bering again.
His mother made no move to take him into her arms.
"Will you come into my home, Mrs. Walters," she said.
It wasn't a question, or even an invitation, but a concession to
the inevitable. For form's sake, she added, "Please."
Sandy held Ellie and Jefly both by the hand. She felt her
daughter's fingers twine more tightly through hers. Jefly was
still sniveling; his little paw was ice. She gave them each a
warm, reassuring squeeze, and boldly said, "Why, thank you
very much, Mrs. Taylor. But please call me Sandy. And this
is our au pair, Davina Goronwy. I think that you ought to
know that she's Sighted."
The strange word had no obvious effect on Amanda Tay-
lor. "I know. Cass said he suspected that much. It won't mat-
ter. Inside, the wards are down." She held the gate open for
them and led the way through the garden.
Sandy heard Davina gasp behind her as they ducked be-
neath the lilac arbor. A brindle gray cat bounded into the mid-
ELF DEFENSE 65
die of their path before they mounted the steps to the front
door. He was holding a small white drawstring bag in his teeth.
His talent let him address Sandy without dropping the tiny sack.
"I did warn you."
"When cats listen to humans, I'll listen to cats," Sandy
replied lightly. He flaunted his hindquarters at her contemptu-
ously and inarched back into the underbrush.
"I see you've met Cesare," Amanda said.
"Oh yes. We had a lovely chat some time since. What's
he got in the sack? Chewing tobacco?"
"Poison." Amanda's voice was flat.
"Mm?" Sandy's brow lifted. "Lucky you. Hardly any-
one can find a good mouser these days."
"Cass is right. You are used to wonders." Amanda
opened the door and stepped aside, motioning Sandy and the
rest in.
"Used to them?" Sandy laughed as she led the children
across the threshold. "My dear, I'm "
The rainbow weavings of a thousand invisible hands
wafted from the bare beams of the ceiling. Each breeze that
chanced through the open door changed their living patterns.
Faces smiled and lips moved wordlessly within the embroi-
dered borders, offering untold secrets. Willows set in alabaster
tubs spread their lacy fans of tender leaves. Their drooping
branches trailed through the burbling rill that meandered across
the floor. Everywhere in the half dark was the gleam and flash
of gold, the glow of ivory and the liquid fire of opal. Radiant
waterlilies opened at every footstep that the visitor took, cup- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]