“Danny,” said Pat—knowing that she was talking to the Belmage, but hoping to get a message through to the real Danny, who was surely listening very closely. “I love you. That’s not going to change. But like you said, we’re not married, and so we’re not going there. I didn’t like it at the time, but I agree with you now. And you should remember what I said about personal space and being touched without me inviting it.”

“Of course,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

But he didn’t sound all that sorry. It was just words. The real Danny would really have been sorry. In fact, the real Danny would never have tried to cop a feel right out of the blue like that.

“Until we’re in a position to make something real out of this,” said Pat, “out of whatever it is we feel for each other, then physically we’re just friends. That’s what you wanted, right?”

“It’s what I wanted then,” said Danny’s mouth.

“Oh, and just walking up behind me in the woods, suddenly you were overwhelmed with passion?” She laughed.

After a moment—too long a moment—he laughed, too.

The Belmage might have had a lot of practice, but he still wasn’t good at this—pretending to be the original person so other people didn’t notice the change.

“If you knew we were up here,” said Pat, “why didn’t you come along?”

“Because you didn’t stay here,” said Danny.

Pat wanted to laugh at how dumb the Belmage was. Danny North wouldn’t need them to stay long enough for him to walk up the hill to join them. He would just gate to them—or gate to wherever they went from here.

“Well,” she said, “it’s a good thing you didn’t, because that would have spoiled everything.”

“Spoiled what?”

“It’s hard thinking of a Christmas gift for somebody who can go anywhere and get anything he wants,” said Pat. “And no, we’re not planning some big stupid group gift, we just wanted to share ideas and make sure we didn’t all get you the same thing.”

“The same thing lots of times over can be very nice,” said Danny. His face didn’t really go well with the leer it was wearing as he said that.

“But not very individual,” said Pat.

“So do it as a group,” he said. “Or make me a video.” There was that grin again.