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"this may not be the thirteenth century, nathaniel, but some of the combatants wil have lived through those times, and they have a sentimental attachment to destroying people the old-fashioned way. leave this to me and marcus." matthew thought this was the end of the matter.
nathaniel shook his head and stared fixedly at the table.
"do you have something else to say?" matthew asked, an ominous purring starting in the back of his throat.
"you've made it perfectly clear you'l do what you want in any case." nathaniel lifted his frank brown eyes in chal enge, then shrugged. "suit yourself. but you're making a mistake if you think your enemies won't use more modern methods to destroy you. there are humans to consider, after al . they'l notice if vampires and witches start fighting one another in the streets."
the second battle between matthew and nathaniel had to do not with war but with blood. it began innocently enough, with matthew talking about nathaniel's relationship to agatha wilson and about sophie's witch parents.
"it's imperative that their dna be analyzed. the baby's, too, once it's born."
marcus and miriam nodded, unsurprised. the rest of us were somewhat startled.
"nathaniel and sophie bring into question your theory that daemonic traits result from unpredictable mutations rather than heredity," i said, thinking aloud.
"we have so little data." matthew eyed hamish and nathaniel with the dispassionate gaze of a scientist examining two fresh specimens. "our current findings might be misleading."
"sophie's case also raises the issue of whether daemons are more closely related to witches than we'd thought." miriam directed her black eyes at the daemon's bel y. "i've never heard of a witch giving birth to a daemon, never mind a daemon giving birth to a witch."
"you think i'm going to hand over sophie's blood-and my child's blood-to a bunch of vampires?" nathaniel looked perilously close to losing control.
"diana isn't the only creature in this room the congregation wil want to study, nathaniel." matthew's words did nothing to soothe the daemon. "your mother appreciated the danger your family was facing, or she wouldn't have sent you here. one day you might discover your wife and child gone. if you do, it's highly unlikely you'l ever see them again."
"that's enough," sarah said sharply. "there's no need to threaten him."
"keep your hands off my family," nathaniel said, breathing heavily.
"i'm not a danger to them," matthew said. "the danger comes from the congregation, from the possibility of open hostility between the three species, and above al from pretending this isn't happening."
"they'l come for us, nathaniel. i've seen it." sophie's voice was purposeful, and her face had the same sudden sharpness that agatha wilson's had back in oxford.
"why didn't you tel me?" nathaniel said.
"i started to tel agatha, but she stopped me and ordered me not to say another word. she was so frightened. then she gave me diana's name and the address for the bishop house." sophie's face took on its characteristic fuzzy look.
"i'm glad matthew's mother is stil alive. she'l like my pots.
i'l put her face on one of them. and you can have my dna whenever you want it, matthew-the baby's, too."
sophie's announcement effectively put an end to nathaniel's objections. when matthew had entertained al the questions he was wil ing to answer, he picked up an envelope that had been sitting unnoticed at his elbow. it was sealed with black wax.
"that leaves one piece of unfinished business." he stood and held out the letter. "hamish, this is for you."
"oh, no you don't." hamish crossed his arms over his chest. "give it to marcus."
"you may be the ninth knight, but you're also the seneschal of the knights of lazarus, and my second in command. there's a protocol we must fol ow," matthew said, tight-lipped.
"matthew would know," marcus muttered. "he's the only grand master in the history of the order who's ever resigned."
"and now i'l be the only grand master to have resigned twice," matthew said, stil holding out the envelope.
"to hel with protocol," hamish snapped, banging his fist on the table. "everybody out of this room except matthew, marcus, and nathaniel. please," he added as an afterthought.
"why do we have to leave?" sarah asked suspiciously.
hamish studied my aunt for a moment. "you'd better stay, too."
the five of them were closeted in the dining room for the rest of the day. once an exhausted hamish came out and requested sandwiches. the cookies, he explained, were long gone.
"is it me, or do you also feel that the men sent us out of the room so they could smoke cigars and talk politics?" i asked, trying to distract myself from the meeting in the dining room by flipping through a jarring mix of old movies and afternoon television. em and sophie were both knitting, and miriam was doing a puzzle she'd found in a
book
promising demonically difficult sudoku. she chuckled now and then and made a mark in the margins.
"what are you doing, miriam?" sophie asked.
"keeping score," miriam said, making another mark on the page.
"what are they talking about? and who's winning?" i asked, envious of her ability to hear the conversation.
"they're planning a war, diana. as for who's winning, either matthew or hamish-it's too close to cal ," miriam replied. "marcus and nathaniel managed to get in a few good shots, though, and sarah's holding her own."
it was already dark, and em and i were making dinner when the meeting broke up. nathaniel and sophie were talking quietly in the family room.
"i need to catch up on a few cal s," matthew said after he'd kissed me, his mild tone at odds with his tense face.
seeing how tired he was, i decided my questions could wait.
"of course," i said, touching his cheek. "take your time.
dinner wil be in an hour."
matthew kissed me again, longer and deeper, before going out the back door.
"i need a drink," sarah groaned, heading to the porch to sneak a cigarette.
matthew was nothing more than a shadow through the haze of sarah's smoke as he passed through the orchard and headed for the hop barn. hamish came up behind me, nudging my back and neck with his eyes.
"are you ful y recovered?" he asked quietly.
"what do you think?" it had been a long day, and hamish made no effort to hide his disapproval of me. i shook my head.
hamish's eyes drifted away, and mine fol owed. we both watched as matthew's white hands streaked through his hair before he disappeared into the barn.
"'tiger, tiger, burning bright / in the forests of the night,'"
hamish said, quoting wil iam blake. "that poem has always reminded me of him."
i rested my knife on the cutting board and faced him.
"what's on your mind, hamish?"
"are you certain of him, diana?" he asked. em wiped her hands on her apron and left the room, giving me a sad look.
"yes." i met his eyes, trying to make my confidence in matthew clear.
hamish nodded, unsurprised. "i did wonder if you would take him on, once you knew who he was-who he stil is. it would seem you're not afraid to have a tiger by the tail."
wordlessly i turned back to the counter and resumed my chopping.
"be careful." hamish rested his hand on my forearm, forcing me to look at him. "matthew won't be the same man where you're going."
"yes he wil ." i frowned. "my matthew is going with me.
he'l be exactly the same."
"no," hamish said grimly. "he won't."
hamish had known matthew far longer. and he'd pieced together where we were going based on the contents of that briefcase. i stil knew nothing, except that i was headed to a time before 1976 and a place where matthew had played chess.
hamish joined sarah outside, and soon two plumes of gray smoke rose into the night sky.
"is everything al right in there?" i asked em when she returned from the family room, where miriam, marcus, nathaniel, and sophie were talking and watching tv.
"yes," she replied. "and here?"
"just fine." i focused on the apple trees and waited for matthew to come in from the dark.