The Monsters of Rookhaven, стр. 25

Mirabelle wasn’t sure what to say. She’d expected Enoch to be enraged, even hoped he’d be angry, but his muted response had completely flummoxed her. Enoch kept looking out of the window.

‘I’ll be going to dinner soon. I need to get some reading done before then.’

‘Yes, Uncle,’ said Mirabelle, knowing she was dismissed, but feeling a strange sense of loss now that her fury was dissipating.

As she turned to go, he spoke again.

‘So you told her everything about us?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you tell her that her kind used to hunt us?’

‘Yes.’

‘And that we used to hunt them too?’

Mirabelle bit her lip.

‘No,’ she said quietly, looking at the floor.

‘Mirabelle.’

The sound of the pendant hitting the desk caught her attention. Enoch had already turned back to the window. Mirabelle picked up the pendant.

‘Thank you, Uncle.’

Enoch merely nodded.

Mirabelle walked out into the hallway and closed the door behind her. She was still bemused by her uncle’s reaction. She’d expected him to explode with anger after her confession, and she certainly hadn’t expected to get her pendant back. She also felt a twinge of guilt over not having told Jem the full family history.

A mirror shimmered on the wall to her left, glowing with a grey nebulous fog that brightened to a sparkling whiteness as Odd’s head popped out of it.

‘Hullo,’ he said, grinning at her. Then he frowned as if suddenly remembering something. ‘Hold on, just give me a sec.’

His head disappeared back into the mirror, reappearing a moment later as he clambered out. He climbed down using the lip of the mirror as a handhold then, when he had his feet on the ground, he shoved his hand under the mirror’s surface, felt around for a bit, then pulled.

Daisy came flying out of the mirror and hit the floor in an ungainly tangle of limbs. She jumped up, looking furious as she patted her pinafore down and fixed her hair. She then stomped off down the hallway, glaring at Mirabelle as she passed her.

‘You’re welcome,’ Odd shouted after her.

‘You’ll be sorry,’ Daisy growled, wheeling back round to glare at Mirabelle again.

‘I am sorry,’ said Mirabelle.

‘You will be,’ Daisy snarled, disappearing round a corner.

‘I am!’ Mirabelle shouted.

Odd looked amused. ‘Was that an apology?’

‘No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know,’ Mirabelle snapped. She noticed some items had dropped out of Odd’s pocket after clambering out of the mirror. There was a marble, that arrowhead he’d shown her previously and the golden necklace again. He picked them up and looked sheepishly at her as he put them back into his pocket.

He nodded at her hand. ‘I see you got your pendant back.’

‘Enoch gave it to me.’

Odd frowned. ‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘That was rather forgiving of him.’

Mirabelle wanted to say that she was surprised, that Enoch was acting strangely and that she’d expected something else from him. Anger perhaps. Rage. But she had recognized something in him. Something she’d seen today in the human girl, Jem, but only rarely before in one of the Family. He seemed sad.

‘Do you think something’s wrong with Enoch?’ Mirabelle asked.

Odd looked slightly taken aback by the question. ‘What?’

‘Do you think he seems . . . I don’t know . . . sad?’ Odd licked his lips and considered the question.

‘Sad?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I suppose he might have something to be sad about. Maybe he’s finally come to terms with the fact that he’s a little too full of his own self-importance. Perhaps he’s beginning to bore himself to death with his ideas of tradition and—’

‘Odd, please. Be serious for once.’

Odd chuckled and avoided looking directly at her.

‘Odd?’

Odd shook his head. ‘It’s probably just the tear in the Glamour. It’s a concern for him. That’s all.’

He looked at her now, and he was smiling, but Mirabelle got the strange sense that the smile was little more than a mask, and if she waited a moment longer it would crack.

‘I really have to go now, Mirabelle.’

Mirabelle nodded. ‘Don’t go too far.’

‘I won’t. Maybe I’ll just take a quick jaunt to Mongolia.’

‘Aren’t you going to the feast tonight?’

Odd patted his stomach. ‘I’ve already eaten.’

He winked at her, then stepped quickly into a portal that had appeared behind him. The portal popped out of existence.

Mirabelle was left alone in the hallway, an after-image of Odd’s pale face playing in front of her. He’d seemed happy enough until she’d brought up the subject of how Enoch was feeling. Something about his reluctance to talk about it made her suspicious.

And there was no mistaking the brief look of relief on his face just before the portal had disappeared.