Jamie pretended to scowl. “Oh, Christ, don’t get him started on his stories about the pair of them!”

“Scamp,” Ian said fondly.

“Fossil.”

Mika interrupted this loving volley of insults. “How long have you and Ken been married?”

“As long as we’ve been allowed to,” said Ian. “Which is to say, not very long. But we’ve been together over fifty years.” That seemed like an unfathomable amount of time to Mika. With a dreamy sigh, he went on: “You know, love at first sight sounds like a lot of nonsense, but I swear to you, I knew I loved Ken the moment I laid eyes on him. He took a bit more convincing, I’m afraid. I can be a trial.”

“We know,” Jamie said drily.

“My father had died a few years before, but my mother and Ken’s parents knew about us. They were the only ones we told at the time. To everyone else, we were confirmed bachelors. That was what they’d call us back then. Well, to be more precise, that was the nicest thing they’d call us.”

“But you loved each other anyway,” Mika said, suddenly aware that she was not just in awe of them, but also envious. Her heart ached with a terrible, passionate yearning. “And you still do, even after all this time.”

“I could have another hundred years with Ken and still want more,” Ian said simply.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Mika spent most of Friday fast asleep, drifting in and out of peculiar dreams about snowy nights, stormy grey eyes, and pine needles. She’d locked the attic door to prevent anyone from coming in to check on her and finding her asleep wearing a coat that most certainly was not hers, so when she woke at last, it was to the sound of loud, resolute knocking at the door.

“Just so you know,” Terracotta’s voice hollered from the other side of the door, “you have to teach me the spell to lock and unlock doors.”

“And me!” Altamira chimed in, not to be outdone. “Are you awake yet? We miss you!”

Hastily putting Jamie’s coat on her chair, where it might have been all night and all day for all anyone knew, Mika let the girls in. Circe, who had been inadvertently locked out of the attic as well, followed them in with a rather petulant bark. Mika immediately set about soothing her offended temper with hugs and scratches.

“Lucie says you have to come down to dinner,” Rosetta informed Mika. “She says she doesn’t care how tired you are, you’re not missing another meal.”

Mika grinned at this spot-on imitation of Lucie’s tone. “As it happens, I feel a lot better and I’m starving, so Lucie’s summons couldn’t have come at a better time. Lead the way, small ones.”

But Terracotta, that irksomely hawk-eyed child, paused. “Why is Jamie’s coat on your chair?”