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Gideon shook his head "Hey, can’t you put yourself inhis own temper now "It’s the same for me! Hoould you act if you knew for certain that sooner or later, I was going to make sure someone attacked you and hit you over the head with a heavy instrument? In the circumstances, I don’t suppose you’d still think I was lovable and innocent, would you?"

"I don’t anyway!" I said fir that heavy instrument down on your head rinning again

I just snorted angrily We were passing Madaht fell out into the corridor from under the door; she was probably still at work on our costumes

Gideon cleared his throat "Like I said, I’ain?"

Nor to do this evening?" he asked in his best casually friendly tone

"Oh, practice dancing the o to sleep, I’ll think up sentences that don’t contain words like Hoover, jogging, and heart transplant," I replied caustically "How about you?"

Gideon looked at his watch "I’ to meet Charlotte and my little brother and then … well, we’ll see e do After all, it’s Saturday evening"

Of course They could do anything they liked I’d had it up to here

"Thank you for escorting me upstairs," I said in as chilly a tone as I could muster "I can find my way to the car bythe sa I’m supposed to avoid too much exertion On Dr White’s instructions"

Even though I was so cross with him, my conscience did prick me, just for a moment I took a surreptitious look at hi around the next corner, don’t go saying I lured you that way"

Gideon s like that yet"

I wouldn’t do a thing like that ever was the thought that shot through my head However badly he’d treated me I would never allow anyone to hurt hiateway ahead of us was lit briefly by the flash froh it was dark, there were still a number of tourists out and about in the Te in its usual parking slot When he saw us coot out and opened the door for me Gideon waited until I was in the car and then bent down to me "Gwyneth?"

"Yes?" It was too dark for me to see his face properly

"I wish you’d trust me more" That sounded so serious and honest that, for a moment, it deprived me of speech

Then I said, "I wish I could" Only when Gideon had closed the door and the car wasoff did it occur to me that I’d have done better to say, "I wish you’d do the same with me"

MADAME ROSSINI’S eyes shone with enthusiasth mirror on the wall so that I could see the result of her efforts At first glance, I hardly knew ht, had been curled into countless ringlets and pinned up into a towering pile on top of my head, like the way le strands corkscrewed down to my bare shoulders The dark red of the dress made my skin even paler than usual, but not as if I were sick; I looked radiant Madame Rossini had discreetly powdered e into my cheeks Thanks to her skill with h I’d been up so late last night

"Like Snow White in ze fairytale," said Mada her eyes with a scrap of fabric "Red as blood, white as snow, black as ebony Zey will be cross with ernails--oui, très bien, clean and short Now, shake your ’ead No, shake it ’arder Zis ’airstylea hat"

"You will get used to it," said Madame Rossini, as she fixed the pile of hair with yet more spray As well as about eleven pounds of ordinary hairpins holding it in place, there were some just for show, decorated with the same little roses as the neckline of the dress They were cute! "There Ready, ain zis ti with the mobile in it "Lesley would murder me if I didn’t put this on record!"

"I’d like to take some of you both," said Madame Rossini, after she’d snapped me from all sides about ten times "You and zat badly be’aved boy, just to sho perfectly and also discreetly ze costuue about ze need for colored stockings again Enough is enough!"

"The stockings I’ aren’t at all bad," I said

"Zat is because zey s of ze time, but elastane makes zem far arter like zat probably cut your thigh in ’alf Of course I ’ope no one will look under your skirt, but if zey do, zey cannot complain, n’est-ce pas?" She clapped her hands "Bien, noill call zem upstairs and say you are ready"

While she was phoning, I stood in front of theexcited I’d tried to put Gideon fir, and I’d been fairly successful, but only at the price of thinking about Count Saint-Gerain were now mixed with excite that I couldn’t really explain to myself

Muht, so so what had happened in detail with Lesley and Xe it only to cheer ht there was any reason for e into the Thames because of unrequited love They both said that considering the circu the way he did had been justified, and Lesley said that in the interests of sexual equality, boys should be allowed their own bad moods, and she felt sure that deep down inside, he was a really nice guy

"You don’t know hi that because you knoant to hear it!"