Page 161 of Ruby Red (The Ruby Red Trilogy 1)

I’d gone bright red at the mention of Gideon’s name. “Maybe I won’t meet him today at all. I’m just being sent back to 1956 to do my homework in a cellar.”

“Yes, but maybe you’ll run into him before or after that.”

“Lesley, I’m not his type.”

“He didn’t mean it that way,” said Lesley.

“Yes, he did!”

“So what? A person can change his mind. Anyway, he’s your type.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. There was no point in denying it. He was my type, as much as I’d have liked to pretend he wasn’t.

“Any girl would think he was amazing,” I said. “As far as looks go, anyway. But he needles me all the time, and he orders me about, and he’s just so … he’s just so incredibly…”

“Great?” Lesley smiled lovingly at me. “So are you, honest! You’re the greatest girl I know. Apart from me, maybe. And you can order people about yourself. Come on, I want to see this limousine that’s going to fetch you.”

James gave me a cool nod as we were passing his niche.

“Wait a sec,” I told Lesley. “I need to ask James something.”

When I stopped, the bored expression vanished from James’s face, and he smiled cheerfully at me. “I’ve been thinking about our last conversation,” he said.

“What, about kissing?”

“No, about the smallpox. It’s possible I did catch it after all. Your hair is beautifully glossy today.”

“Thank you. James, could you do me a favor?”

“Nothing to do with kissing, I hope.”

I had to smile. “Not a bad idea,” I said, “but, no, it’s about manners.”

“Manners?”

“Well, you’re always complaining that I don’t have any, and you’re right. So I wanted to ask you to show me how to behave properly. In your time. How to talk, how to curtsey, how to—oh, I don’t know what.”

“Hold a fan? Dance? How to behave when the Prince Regent is in the room?”

“Exactly!”

“Oh, yes, I can teach you that,” said James.

“Great,” I said, and was turning to go. “Oh, and James? Can you fence as well? With a sword?”

“Of course,” said James. “I don’t wish to boast, but I am considered one of the best fencers in town by my friends at the club. Galliano himself says I have a considerable talent.”

“Super!” I said. “You’re a real friend.”

“You want that ghost to teach you fencing?” Lesley had been following our conversation with interest. Of course she’d only been able to hear my side of it. “Can a ghost hold a sword?”

“We’ll see,” I said. “Anyway, he knows his way around the eighteenth century. After all, it’s where he comes from.”

Gordon Gelderman caught up with us on the steps. “You were talking to that niche in the wall again, Gwyneth. I saw you.”

“Yes, it’s my favorite bit of wall, Gordon. I’d hurt its feelings if I didn’t stop and talk to it.”

“You do know you’re weird, right?”

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