The Juliet Spell by Rees Douglas

Author:Rees, Douglas [Rees, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-08-29T14:36:29+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

That night, after the three of us had eaten dinner and the dishes were done—without any assistance from any En.glishmen, by the way—Edmund yawned and stretched and went to bed.

That bothered me. I wanted to get him all to myself and warn him away from Vivian. But, I told myself, he’d been up all last night. He needed the sleep. Mom and I watched television together and went to bed at our regular time.

I fell asleep worrying about Edmund.

Then, at three that morning, I jerked awake with my heart pounding like a jackhammer. Someone was sneaking into the house, climbing in through a window. I could hear it.

I reached for my phone to dial 911.

And I heard Mom say, “Edmund, what the hell?”

And Edmund said something like, “Milady, did I wake ye?”

I got up.

Edmund was standing in the hall in his day clothes and his shoes were wet and had bits of grass on them.

“The next time, come in through the door,” Mom said.

“Aye, the window of me room is something too high,” Edmund said, smiling like a naughty little kid. “’Tis easy enough to go out so—”

“You don’t need to sneak out of here,” Mom said. “Just tell us where you’re going. Where were you, anyway?”

“Ah, I was ranging about a bit, milady. More than that I cannot say,” Edmund said.

He didn’t have to say. I knew exactly where he’d been. Vivian’s perfume was hanging on him fresh as new paint and twice as tacky.

Mom sniffed it, too.

“Hmm. More than that you don’t have to say,” she said. Then she turned to me. “Miri, go to bed. I have some things to discuss with Edmund.”

“I have some things to say to him, too,” I said.

“Yours can wait until tomorrow. Mine are clinical.”

I walked out into the living room and sat down.

“Miranda,” Mom said.

“Mom.”

“What?” Edmund said.

“Miranda, I want to talk privately with Edmund. Now.”

“Mom, there is nothing you can tell him that I don’t know about,” I said. “And as far as Vivian goes, I know a lot more than either of you.”

“I won’t speak of Vivian—or anyone—to the pair of ye. A man, a proper man, would do no such thing.”

Mom looked at me for a moment before continuing. “Do you at least know what a condom is?” she blurted out.

I blushed. Edmund didn’t say anything. And Mom, she told him exactly what it was, how to use it and why he was a damned idiot if he didn’t use them.

Edmund stood there with his arms crossed like he was too noble to know what she was talking about. The idiot.

And I sat there trying to look cool and cringing inside.

When Mom had finished her little lecture on twenty.first-century hygiene and the wonders of not getting girls pregnant, he turned to me, and said, “And ye, Miri. What would ye have me know?”

He looked as arrogant as Tybalt.

And I realized that I couldn’t say anything. Because what I wanted to say was unsayable, especially in front of my mom.

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