Delusion by Laura L. Sullivan

Author:Laura L. Sullivan [Sullivan, Laura L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780544104785
Publisher: Graphia Books
Published: 2012-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Phil, with the resilience of youth, really did sleep until noon, even without the pills. When she woke, the corpse was gone, the bathroom scrubbed clean, and the bullet holes were patched. Soon the only sign of the fray was the fresh, slightly damp plaster at the level where Phil’s head had been.

“Did you have any luck with Uncle Walter?” Fee asked over tea and oatcakes. She’d been asleep by the time Phil returned.

“Yes and no.”

“Don’t tell me he believed you?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think he particularly cares whether it’s true or not. I think the idea that it could be true is enough.”

“Like when I read about bamboo slivers under the fingernails— ugh!”

“Er, yes, something like that. What he actually said was, ‘It’s a crime against nature to shoot pretty girls. Any reasonable civilization tosses ’em in the harem. These Germans must be worse than I thought.’ In any event, he offered a compromise. He agreed to train me, but not the Home Guard or the magicians. I was a little vague, and I think he prefers to believe they’re an academy of stage magicians like us.”

“Good thing you didn’t press it. I don’t think his sanity could take it. I know mine hardly can. When do you start?”

“After tea I have my first shooting lesson.”

“Then you’ll train the rest?”

“I’ll do my best. Do you suppose our teachers did it this way —cramming the night before to stay just one step ahead of their students? I wish I’d known. I wouldn’t have felt so stupid all those years. Are you coming to Stour with me?” She was going to collect more guns, teach a passel of pacifists how to make their very first fist, and of course tell them about the attempt on her life.

“Naturally,” Fee said, and to Phil’s disgust, she simpered.

“Are you aware that you look like an utter nincompoop every time you so much as think of Thomas? If I ever fall in love, I promise I’m going to be sensible about it.”

“Speaking of which, heard from Hector?”

“Bugger all,” Phil said, and ran to her room to dig through her pile of dirty clothes. She emerged, a bit disheveled, a moment later with the letter she’d received two days ago and promptly forgotten amid all the bustle and excitement and danger.

Guiltily, she tore it open.

“What does he say?” Fee asked.

Phil skimmed through. “Training is going well. He gave his sergeant a black eye during hand-to-hand combat training, but he didn’t get disciplined because the sergeant said it was better than a bayonet in the gut, and he might get a medal out of it, or a pension. The sergeant, not Hector. Let’s see...he doesn’t know where they’ll be posted to, and he couldn’t tell me anyway, but he has a feeling those French lessons might pay off. Hopes to go to Poland, though, to...oh!” She bit her lip. “To see if he can find any of Stan’s Romany relatives and let them know what happened.

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