Patricia C. Wrede by Book of Enchantments

Author:Book of Enchantments [Enchantments, Book of]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-29T12:59:28+00:00

* * *

The Lorelei

The tour bus lurched down to the end of the parking lot and expired in a cloud of blue smoke right in front of the ice-cream stand. Janet wondered whether the driver had planned it. Maybe he had an arrangement with the man who ran the ice-cream stand. Maybe he always stopped here when he was driving a busload of kids.

Mr. Norberg leaned forward and said something to the driver. Janet didn’t bother trying to overhear; they were too far away, and her German wasn’t that good anyway. Now he was talking to Mrs. Craig. Janet bet he was translating. Mrs. Craig’s German was even worse than Janet’s, but the school had had to have at least one female teacher along on the trip to chaperone the girls, and Mrs. Craig was the only one they could find who knew even a little German.

Janet saw Mrs. Craig nod, and Mr. Norberg stood up. “Everybody out!” he called. “Stay together and follow me, and don’t wander off till I’m done with my speech. Mrs. Craig will bring up the rear, to make sure nobody gets mislaid. We can’t afford to spend much time here if we want to get to Marksburg Castle yet today.”

“Then why are we stopping at all?” Will Forney said from the seat behind Janet. His voice was loud enough to be heard for a couple of seats around him, but too low to carry to the front of the bus.

“Ice cream,” Janet whispered back, and ducked her head to keep Mr. Norberg from seeing her expression.

“Everybody got that?” Mr. Norberg said. “All right, then, raus.”

There was some good-natured shoving as the bus emptied and a lot of milling around in the parking lot. Janet noted that Linda Sommers had taken advantage of the confusion to slip over to the ice-cream stand and buy one of the triple-chocolate bars. Linda was always doing things like that.

“Everybody out? All right; this way,” Mr. Norberg said, and started off.

He led the way across the parking lot and around to the right of the little Gasthaus. Janet was rather proud of herself for thinking of it as a Gasthaus, rather than a hotel; it made her feel as if she wasn’t just an ordinary tourist. She smiled to herself, and then she tripped on the curb and nearly ran into Dan Carpenter from behind. He gave her a look that made her feel twice as clumsy as she had actually been, but at least he didn’t say anything.

“Watch out,” said Heather Martin, who had come up beside Janet. “You nearly fell on me.”

“I did not,” Janet answered automatically. “And if I had fallen on anybody, it would have been Dan. You weren’t even close.”

“You missed me by an inch,” Heather insisted. “Honestly, some people are so—”

“Shhh! Mr. Norberg’s going to say something.”

Heather craned her neck to see over Dan’s head, and Janet nipped around the outside of the group to a place nearer the front. There was no

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