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“Then it ht,” Ysabeau said “And I shouldn’t worry about causing trouble It see will happen any day now It always does”

Matthew and I exchanged glances Sarah snorted

“Has Diana told you about the griffin?” my aunt asked

—

WITHIN THE HOUR, Apollo was perched on Ysabeau’s arriffin was about the saht, I suspected that his leonine hindquarters added considerable weight Only a vaance In spite of her race of a

Becca had elected to have Sarah and Agatha read her a story rather than play with the griffin The rest of us ith Ysabeau to witness the rare sight of a griffin taking to the open air

Ysabeau had a dead riffin’s coriffin left his perch and soared above her Quickly, Ysabeau tossed the mouse into the air

Apollo swooped down and caught it in his beak, his tail strea behind him He returned to Ysabeau, and laid the trophy at her feet

“Good boy!” Philip cried, clapping for added emphasis

Apollo chortled so in response

“Okay” Philip seeriffin had said and picked up the ht It landed about two feet behind him

Apollo retrieved the mouse in several bounds and dropped it at Ysabeau’s feet this time

“I fear that Apollo is not getting enough exercise, Matthew Youup the mouse once more She hurled it across the moat “You won’t like the results”

Apollo gae of the water, flew over it, and found the riffin took off with it and circled overhead a few tiht him back down to earth

“You seeriffins, Grand-mère,” Marcus said suspiciously

“A bit,” she replied “They were never very common Not like centaurs and dryads”

“Dryads?” I said faintly

“Back when I was a girl, you had to be very careful walking through the woods,” Ysabeau explained “Dryads looked like perfectly ordinary women, but if you stopped to talk to one, you could be encircled by trees before you knew it and find it impossible to see your way out”

I glanced at the thick forest that bounded the property to the north, uneasy at the thought that the trees ht try to strike up a conversation with Becca

“As for centaurs, you can be glad Philip didn’t summon one of them They can be devious, not to mention irandson “Give Apollo his mouse He’s earned it”

Apollo extended his tongue in anticipation

Philip picked the mouse up by the tail Apollo opened his beak, and Philip dropped the rodent into the griffin’s craw

“All done,” Philip said, wiping his hands together in a gesture of completion

“Still think you can weave a disguising spell for him?” Matthew murmured in my ear

I had no idea But I was going to have to reconsider the knots so that it could include weighted feet to keep Apollo attached to the ground The creature definitely liked to fly

“I’m sorry Rebecca did not stay to watch the hunt,” Ysabeau said “She would have enjoyed it”

“Becca is a bit jealous,” I explained “Right now Philip and Apollo are getting a lot of attention”

Philip let out a riffin followed suit

“I think it’s time you took a nap You’ve had a lot of excite his son into the air “Coo find your sister”

“’Pollo, too?” Philip inquired, looking especially winsome

“Yes, Apollo can nap in the fireplace” Matthew gave me a kiss “Will you join us?”

“There was a bucket of cherries on the kitchen counter thisabout the to do with the the way back into the kitchen

Marcus laughed and opened the door for entlemanly as always I kne that it was his hts returned to Hadley, and to Marcus’s story What had happened to Catherine and Patience, after Marcus fled?

“Diana?” Marcus said, concerned I had stopped in my tracks

“I’ about your mother, that’s all,” I said “She’d be very proud of you, Marcus”

Marcus looked shy Then he smiled In the years I’d known him, I’d never seen such unalloyed joy on his face

“Thank you, Diana,” he said with a small bow

Inside, Marthe was pitting the fruit by boring one slender pinkie into each cherry and popping the seed kernel into a waiting stainless steel boith a satisfying pling

I reached into the bowl Soers “Ow!”

“Keep your hands to yourself and nobody gets hurt,” Marthe said, glowering She had a new crilish phrases

Ysabeau poured herself sone, and I made myself a cup of tea and cut a slab from a freshly baked lemon loaf to console myself until Marthe declared open season on the fruit Sarah and Agatha joined us They’d finished Becca’s first story—and her second—and left her in Matthew’s capable hands He would sing songs from his childhood to send the twins to sleep

“Matthew really does have a special touch with the children,” Sarah acknowledged She headed over to the coffeepot As usual, Marthe had anticipated her need for caffeine and the coffee was hot and fragrant

“The twins are lucky,” Marcus said “They won’t have to search for a good father—a true father—like I did”

“So everyone knows about Obadiah now?” Ysabeau asked her grandson

“Everybody except Phoebe,” Marcus replied

“What?” Agatha was stunned “Marcus How could you keep this from her?”

“I tried to tell her Loads of times” Marcus sounded miserable “But Phoebe didn’t want me to tell her about h my blood”

“Bloodlore is even more unreliable than a vampire’s memories,” Ysabeau said She shook her head “You should not have let her dissuade you, Marcus You knew better You followed your heart, and not your head”

“I was respecting her wishes!” Marcus retorted “You toldyour advice”

“Part of growing older and wiser is learning which advice to follow and which to ignore” Ysabeau sipped her cha My , but I knew better than to try to ferret it out Instead, I changed the subject

“What’s a ‘true father,’ Marcus?” Va, and I wanted to be sure I had it right “You mentioned it earlier Obadiah was your birth father—is that the sa, in vampire terms?”

“No” The colored threads around Marcus were getting darker, the purple and indigo now al to do with vampires A true father is the man who teaches what you need to know about the world and how to survive in it Joshua and Zeb were truer fathers to me than Obadiah So was Tom”

“I found so of the inoculation ban in Massachusetts,” I said, determined to find a safer topic of conversation than fathers and sons “Everything you reress were panicked at the thought that an epidemic would wipe out the entire army”

“Their fears were justified,” Marcus replied “When I finally reached Washington and the ar to a close for the year, but fatalities were destined to increase when the fighting stopped and the army went into their winter camp Back then, peace was more deadly to the arht,” Ysabeau said “And I shouldn’t worry about causing trouble It see will happen any day now It always does”