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"It is"

"You can’t be thinking of sending children here on the treasure hunt," he said

"Why not?"

"It’s not safe," he said "They could easily fall and break a li to be one of those wildly protective papas, are you? We spent all our ti for roses?" He squinted at the rocks The water on this side ran in tiny rivulets and pooled in small hollows But on the opposite side, there was a three-or four-foot cliht up the rocks before one could cut a rose

"The footmen used to fetch those roses for Lisette all the tiher "This water feels so good" She swirled her hand beneath the surface and then let drops fly froers "Where’s Oyster?"

"He found a patch of sunshine and went to sleep"

"Do you think all dogs are as lazy as Oyster?"

"I don’t like dogs," he observed

"Well, he likes you," she said, grinning at hi to put your feet in the water?"

"I suppose," he said dubiously

"Didn’t you play in a river when you were a child?"

"Of course,and shut the sentence off halfway through

She was dipping her fingers in the water and then drawing patterns on the rock They were ridiculously slender fingers Beautiful They gave hi sensation

"I didn’t know you had a brother," she said "Look, Villiers, I’ a horse Could you tell?"

He looked at the blobby wet spot on the rock "No"

She shrugged and started over "Tell ers stilled on the rock and she turned her head "Now that I think of it, I’ve never heard about your brother"

"He died"

"I’?"

"Eleven" He cleared his throat "He was just eleven"

"What happened?"

"He caught diphtheria," Villiers said He heard the lack of expression in his own voice but was powerless to stop it

"That’s awful," Eleanor said "Did et it?"

"No My mother acted quickly She isolated him"

"What do youof our house and wouldn’t allow anyone in or out"

Eleanor had forgotten about the new horse she was painting Her fingers curled on the rock He watched them because he couldn’t bear to meet her eyes

"Not--by himself?"

He cleared his throat "No, his ot diphtheria as well"