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"Brought my son back froht where Linden kissed ht But while Linden’s lips had been warhn’s lips sendmy spine This father and son look so eerily alike, and yet I can’t iood daughter-in-law, and I blush "I just want for hihn says "Make that boy happy, and he’ll give you the world on a string"

"On a string" being the operative words

Vaughn wins the ga him win He did that on his own "You’re a hs as alk back to the ood"

I look everywhere for the path the limo took, but it’s nowhere to be found

It’s very clear that I won’t be allowed outside unless I’hn At least not today So I find Jenna, who’s curled up in my favorite overstuffed chair, her nose in a paperback with young se the wo

"I haven’t seen Gabriel," she tells me before I’ve even opened my mouth

"Do you think that’s strange?" I ask, taking the chair next to her

She purses her lips and looks at me over the top of her book She nods sys

I say, "Has lunch come yet?"

"Maybe we’ll see his meals to our floor, unless Cecily throws a tantrum that requires more than one attendant to cater to her

But we don’t see his us our lunch, and he doesn’t even know to look for us in the library He has to ask Cecily where we are, and she’s in such a lousyat the poor man from down the hall

"Will you quiet down?" I say, as Jenna and I gather in her doorway The attendant looks frightened of this sirl But when I look at her, I can only see the bags under her eyes, the purple swollen ankles propped on pillows "You’re going to hurt the baby if you get yourself all worked up"

"Don’t lecturewildly to the attendant "Lecture hiin

"No, she’s right," Jenna says She has lifted the lid off one of the dishes, and she’sslop?"

I look at her, shocked, and she looks right into o down to the kitchen and coins

"Don’t apologize," I say "It isn’t your fault It’s the head cook who should be overseeing these things, and she knoe all hate mashed potatoes" I lift another lid and crinkle ive Jenna hives I’d better go down and get this straightened out"

"Yes, of course," the attendant says, and I think he’s shaking a little as he begins rolling the cart of lunch trays back to the elevator, with ive hi smile once we’re in the elevator and the doors have closed "It’s nothing personal Really"

He s at his shoes "They said you were the nice one," he says

The kitchen has its usual verve, which hn isn’t nearby "Excuse me," the attendant says, "but Lady Rhine is here with a co in the doorway, and the head cook snorts withouta beat, and says, "This one, she doesn’t co me down here, and soood food go to waste, but I cah the steaainst the counter where the head cook is standing over her giant boiling pot In all the commotion I know she’ll be the only one to hear me ask, "What happened to Gabriel?"

"You shouldn’t be down here asking about hi to make more trouble for that boy," she says "The Housemaster’s had his eye on him since your botched escape"

A fierce chill rushes up my spine "Is he okay?"

"Haven’t seen him," she says And she looks atwhen the Housemaster called him down to the basement