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Disoriented, Pandora becas Ajax had run back along the holloway to bounce and prance around the the way she was tre on her back between her shoulder blades His chest , but he sounded calm and collected as he replied "Phoebe, the fact that I asked you to be a chaperone should have made it obvious that I didn’t want a chaperone at all"

"I have no desire to be one," Phoebe retorted "However, the children are asking why you’re taking so long, and I can’t very well explain to theoat"

"No," Gabriel replied, "because then you would sound like a parsirins the siblings exchanged after the sharp words

Rolling her eyes, Phoebe turned and strode away Ajax bolted after her--with Pandora’s hat cla will cost me a fortune in hats," Gabriel said dryly His hands stroked her back and neck, while the rough pounding of her heart eased slowly

It took at least a half-minute before Pandora could speak "Your sister--she saw us--"

"Don’t worry, she won’t say a word to anyone She and I like to bait each other, that’s all Co her chin upward, he stole a last swift kiss, and pulled her along the path with hied fro Pandora had seen except in photographs or engravingsa wide belt of pale sand extending toward a white-frothed ocean, and more blue sky than she’d ever seen at one time The foreshore was backed by dunes anchored in place with bushy grasses and spiky flowering plants Toward the west, the sand graded to pebble and shingle before the ground ascended to chalk cliffs that bordered the promontory The air was filled with the rhyth across the sand A trio of herring gulls pecked over a bit of food, squabbling with thin, sharp cries

It didn’t look like Haland at all

Phoebe and the two boys stood farther along the shore, engaged in unwinding the string of a kite Seraphina, who had been wading in ankle-deep water, noticed Pandora and Gabriel, and scas, and the trousers of her bathing costume were sodden fro in a loose braid over one shoulder

"Do you like our cove?" Seraphina asked, with an expansive gesture at their surroundings

Pandora nodded, her awed gaze traveling across the scenery

"I’ll show you where to put your robe" Seraphina led her to a bathing-machine that had been left near a dune It was a sh wheels, with a set of steps leading up to a door A removable hook ladder had been affixed to one of the outside walls

"I’ve seen one of these in pictures," Pandora said regarding the contraption dubiously, "but I’ve never been inside one"