Part 35 (1/2)
The mirror was a dark hole until Eldric lit a candle. Our reflections stood side by side, masked but unmistakable. I'd never thought about how different we were. Tall and short; gold and pale; broad and narrow; tawny and flaxen.
”I must leave the instant the clock strikes the half hour,” I said, like a twentieth-century Cinderella. Both Cinderella and I needed to keep an eye on the time. She had her slipper problems, I had my ghosts.
”I've been thinking,” said the Eldric image.
”Ooh, thinking!” I said. ”Shall I tell your father?”
”Very funny,” said Eldric, but he was laughing. ”You may be clever, Miss Larkin, but I've spotted a few holes in last night's story. Yes, even I!
”Take Rose, for example. Would Rose ever climb willingly onto a swing? Rose, who's so cautious she doesn't even toast bread without wearing gloves?”
I hadn't thought of this, but I had an answer. ”We don't know what she was like before she struck her head. Perhaps she was quite the opposite.”
He slipped off his mask. ”Please remind me not to argue with you again.” Bruises ran from the bridge of his nose into his eye, which was swollen shut.
”I'm so sorry,” I said.
”It's all right. I quite enjoyed telling my story about the great brute with the powerful left hook who surprised me in the night.”
”Poor Eldric!” I said. ”And where did this great brute overtake you?”
”On my way to call on Leanne.”
Oh! My mouth echoed my thoughts: O!
”Take off that mask, will you?”
I shook my head. What if my own Briony mask were not securely in place? Look at my lips, look at how they gave me away: O!
”And?” I said.
”I set it to rights, put her out of my life. It was rather horrible, but it's over.”
The mirror Briony smiled.
Eldric tugged at the strings of my mask. ”Won't you take this off? I have something to say to you, and I'd like to see your face.”
What could I do but slip it off? It left me entirely exposed, my face raw as a peeled apple.
”First.” Eldric tapped one index finger against the other. Tick. ”Apologies for being in such a very bad humor when you visited me.”
The mirror Briony had no amusing answer. She nodded.
”Two.” Eldric ticked his second finger. ”Do you remember the paper I burnt?”
Another nod.
”It was a letter, to you. It was that which put me in so foul a humor.”
To me? The lips of the mirror Briony mouthed the words.
Eldric nodded. ”It was also the secret I mentioned the other night, the secret I'll tell only one person.
”Three.” Tick. ”Remember what you said about marriage, during our picnic?”
Briony nodded.
”That made me upset, which made me angry.
”Four.” Tick.
The candle sputtered. Eldric cupped his hand round the flame, coaxed it to life. It shone between his fingers, tracing his hand with fire.
”A person might get angry when the girl he loves says she'll never marry.”
Girl he loves.
My face was raw. I cradled it in my hands. Give me a mask, any mask! I swung my hair forward.
”I'm almost out of numbers,” said Eldric. ”As you know, my mathematical skills are limited.” He laid his fire-traced hand on the back of my neck. What was I to do? I wished I could love, how I wished!
”That's what I didn't say the other night.”
I turned my peeled-apple face to him. I'd make myself look at him. I owed him that. His touch lingered on my neck as though he'd left a handprint of melted light.
His brow was pinchy and he was paler than usual. His scar looked very pink.
The clock struck the half hour. I jumped. ”I must go!”
”But the gun!” said Eldric. ”What am I to do with the gun?”
”Make sure they don't hang me. I don't want to hang!”
And then I was out, into the square, where nothing had changed. The torches still burnt as before, and the toffee wrappers still glinted, and the children oohed and grabbed and ate, and the sky was still holding its breath.
28.