Page 94 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
“I’m not nervous.”
“You are. The vein in your neck below your ear throbs when you’re nervous.”
“It does not.”
He kissed the vein, but because it was in a ticklish spot, I giggled. I felt his smile against my skin.
“That’s better,” he said, tugging me toward his parents. “Mum, Dad, this is Sylvia.”
At the last moment, I remembered these two were a lord and lady, and I didn’t know the protocol. Should I curtsy?
India must have realized why I hesitated. She drew me into a hug. “I am so glad to meet you, Sylvia.”
Matt shook my hand. “I feel as though we already know you. Gabe told us all about you in his letters.”
“Oh,” I said, on a breath.
“Six months’ worth of letters,” India added. “It was clear from the first one that you were special.” She smiled gently as she clasped both my hands. “I can already tell I’m going to like you. Are these your friends?”
I introduced Petra. They already knew Huon, and Alex introduced Daisy. He couldn’t stop smiling as he did so.
India, still holding my hand, squeezed it. “So much has happened in the last six months. I’m sorry to have missed it, but I’m not sorry we went away when we did.” She exchanged a knowing glance with Catherine, her dear friend.
“It turned out to be the right decision,” Catherine said. “Ivy is—” She stopped herself with a shake of her head. “We’ll talk about it later. Today is not the day.”
Matt looked past me. “Oscar? You don’t look very dead.”
Oscar shook Matt’s hand vigorously. “Surprise.” He embraced India. When he drew back, he clasped her hands lightly. “You look very well.”
“So do you, for a dead man,” she said with a scowl. “Seeing you here is quite a shock. Is Gavin all right?”
Oscar rubbed his arm where Professor Nash had punched him. “I believe he’s feeling better after venting his frustration.”
“He has been rather down these last few years, you know. You’d better make it up to him.”
On cue, the professor arrived, carrying a tray with tea things, Mae and Lulu behind him, also carrying trays. He beamed. It was the happiest I’d ever seen him. “Matt! India! We thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow.”
“Our ship docked early,” Matt said. “We decided to surprise Gabe and caught the midday train to London, but he wasn’t at home. Bristow said you were all here. Did the clock downstairs chime?”
“Yes, as it happens. Did you make it chime, India?”
“I practiced a new spell I created on the voyage home,” she said. “Did it chime at nine o’clock precisely?”
The professor pushed his glasses up his nose. “Yes. Is nine AM significant?”
“It’s when our ship docked. My spell was designed to announce our arrival on English soil. I’m so pleased it worked, although it is a rather pointless spell.”
Matt put his arm around her. “Not at all. In future, you’ll have all the clocks chiming your arrival, so Willie knows when she needs to start behaving.”
Cyclops snorted. “That’s not going to make her behave.”
Willie nodded, all seriousness. “Very true. So, how’s Duke?”
“He and his family are well,” Matt said. “He misses you.”
“Naturally.”
“So he’s visiting us in the autumn.”
