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“Very pleased to an, but Branould not let her be the one who spoke for them He was the one who’d coot sick at home, Aunt Elizabeth and Tabitha made a tremendous fuss with hot water bottles and tinctures and sweets and kisses It only stood to reason that they should all make an extra-trerave in England, people tended toIt was only logic

“I am Branwell,” he cut in, “and these are my sisters, Anne, Emily, and Charlotte I’m dash honored to make your acquaintance, sirs, and, er, so’re they”

Charlotte ignored him She had questions, and when Charlotte had questions she could hardly bear to breathe until she got her answers “And where were you born, Captain Bravey? Was your father a military man?”

“How kind of you to take an interest in little old blockheaded hted blush “But I’m afraid my story is rather dull No different from any other soldier, really My full nae of Boxwickham, a little, dark place in the county of Shoppeshire Do not feel in the least sha to see there at all A bit of velvet land, a pleasant enough river on the north side of town to keep brigands out, and the whole lot surrounded by sturdy, impenetrable woods that quite block out the sun I never knew my father, only my eleven brothers, whom you see before you Sometied felloith a white mustache and spectacles, forever with a wood-chisel in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, with a Northern accent and a musty smell about him—wood oils and lacquer and sap But then I wake up and think I a about fathers and paintbrushes when there is work to be done!”

He ht furiously And the wooden box they all caave to Bran at Christmas! He doesn’t know that’s what he means, but he means it anyhow

Eaet your htly

“And were you named after an un

cle or a famous warrior?” Anne put in her and

Bravey looked puzzled He scratched the short, barky hair beneath his helht about it! I suppose I always thought it made plenty of sense, as I aave it to me Perhaps I am not so silly after all”

It was all Anne could do not to shout: No, he didn’t! No, he didn’t! I named you that because you had such a stern look on your face e took you out of the box! I named you! Me!

“Dash splendid Valise you’ve got here,” coughed Corporal Cheeky, feeling that the conversation had become a trifle too personal for his taste He hoisted his ankle up on one knee and rested back on the sofa with a long nail wedged between his teeth like a toothpick “So many of them don’t bother to set a proper table these days Labor disputes, you know”

Cheeky had a long burn across one cheek where Bran had left him too close to the candle

Captain Bravey looked up round the walls and buttresses “You’ll have to excuse the Corporal; he’s got a mouth like poison ivy” He slapped the lad’s cockily crossed leg back onto the floor “Do you want to cause a strike? Do try to behave like an oak and not a weed, boy!”

One of the tapestries began to shiver and quiver above the soap-brickafter a fox and a unicorn unfurled its ribbons and gloves and shawls and leather and wooden hairbrush handles and thi needles into an enormous face and neck and chest It was the wise, old, beaked head of a turtle, only it had a snail’s kindly, soft antennae, too They could see half its shell poking out of the wall as well, pearly and spiraled like a snail, but plated and patchworked like a turtle It stared down at the trophy The two sorts of animals who carry their houses on their back like the loveliest of suitcases, crushed into one creature

“It’s my first day on the job,” said the turtle-snail-beast When he opened his ue“I wanted to do well”