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Irene raised her eyebrows ‘You don’t think that telling you ?’

Coppelia chuckled a wheezing little laugh ‘To me, perhaps To you, it will merely be desensitization’

‘How dull,’ Irene said Then she sensed the gap at her side, the e the book She flailed around with her bandaged hands, trying to find it ‘The book – the Grimm – ’

‘Only seven out of ten for immediate reactions, I’m afraid,’ Coppelia said happily ‘Yes, we have it safe, and Wyndham’s letter as well I suppose it would be too much to hope that you didn’t read it? Of course it would What on earth would anyone do under those circu that sympathy would translate into lenience ‘Of course I had to check that it was the right one’

Coppelia’s voice stayed merry, but her eyes hardened ‘And you knew to check that it was the right one how, precisely?’

This here she decided how much she wanted to sell Brada to steal the book Before I could bring it back, she poisoned ht was a safe place But she despises me and I don’t like her rateful that they were talking in English rather than the Language She wasn’t actually going to lie, but there waswell, there ht be an element of flexibility She knew it, and Coppelia probably knew it, but that was best left unsaid ‘When she discovered my mission, she provided some additional inforht Alberich too’

‘De the verb "helped" twice in succession,’ Coppelia said ‘And then? I take it she also read it?’

‘Only ason metaphorically thin ice

‘Which was?’ Coppelia pressed

‘The eighty-eighth story’

She genuinely liked Coppelia, and she thought it was reciprocated Not just the sort of friendship that could flourish between any mentor and student, but a real, honest affection It caused her to bring books back froht enjoy the Coppelia’s clockwork joints, or just spending hours talking with her in the tihts There was cohts, as they observed the changing s on the strange world beyond She thought of all that, and felt a barrier rise between them as Coppelia’s eyes narrowed