Chapter 5: A Terrible Garden

"That answer hasn't been well received," Lucan told me.

He folded the list and put it back in his coat.

I stood beside his chair, wanting to ask who made him afraid of answering plainly.

The dining room door opened before I could.

Roderick looked at us together and smiled.

"A little private terror," he said.

"He's sitting down," I told him.

"We don't all require spectacle," he replied.

Lucan got up at once.

I wished he hadn't let the words move him.

"We're walking," he said.

He offered me his arm.

I took it because I wanted to, despite his cousin watching.

The garden had been lit for the village guests.

Candles stood along the low wall and beneath the bare branches.

There was also a perfectly useful path light.

Winnie switched it on while carrying a bucket toward the flowerbeds.

Lucan looked at the candles.

"They're intended to create an atmosphere," he said.

"So is autumn," Winnie told him.

She blew out the nearest candle before wax reached a leaf.

I laughed, and Lucan's arm relaxed beneath my hand.

We walked beyond the wall to the little pond.

Moths gathered around the candle someone had balanced on its stone rim.

A frog sat beneath them.

Lucan stopped beside it with carefully arranged solemnity.

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