“It will be something to stay at a house that has its own station,” she said, dividing her attention between her brother and the first glimpse of platform. “I wonder how far it is from the station to the main building?”
“A mile and a quarter,” Griff said immediately. “There’s a service village around the station. Twenty-two structures. The village is on a hill, and there’s a view of Sheerside House from the station.”
He’d told them so at the beginning of the journey, and the reminder of the architectural treat waiting for him was enough to make him sit up and study again the rough map he’d already drawn up of the locale.
“Look at that peculiar woman with the umbrella and veil,” Eluned said. “In this heat! She…oh.”
“It’s the Aunt. Recognise the dress.”
Eleri’s flat pronouncement brought Griff to the window, but the slowing train had already juddered past.
“Check you haven’t left anything under the seats,” Eluned said, moving briskly on from this oddity. “And straighten your shendy, Griff.”
Griff tugged his knee-length red and blue skirt so the blue panels once again faced front and back, then swiped a foot under the seats in search of dropped valuables, collecting the pencil and rubber band the action produced. There was little else—they’d been ready since Aquae Sulis, failing to anticipate how long the last few stations would take in an unexpectedly strong afternoon wind storm. At least the final leg had lacked the couple who had shared their compartment most of the way from Caerlleon, all surreptitious stares and whispers.
“Tennings Together,” Eluned muttered, and unlatched the compartment door as the train jerked to a halt. The remaining traces of the afternoon’s hot wind whisked around them, not exactly pleasant, but an improvement by several degrees on the heat of the compartment.
A rambling pink-and-white rose smothered the stone fence immediately in front of them, most of the petals missing or scorched brown by the winds. Eluned contemplated it for a moment of disappointment and fellow feeling, then turned to face the aunt who—for the next few years at least—had far too much say in their choices. Shaded by a sturdy black umbrella, a wide-brimmed summer hat, and a draping of opaque veil that hung past her shoulders, she presented a bizarre picture, especially compared to the tall, beautifully dressed man leading her toward them.
“I see,” Eleri said. “Newly bound. Sensitive to light.”
“This is certainly not a fashion statement,” their aunt said. “You three look thoroughly cooked, and well past done. We’d best fix that first. Evelyn will make sure your luggage has arrived. Anything other than the three school trunks?”
The lightly amused, untroubled voice bothered Eluned enormously. Impossible not to think of all the times they’d arrived home from school before, to be enveloped in warm hugs and excited chatter from people who loved them, instead of this vaguely entertained stranger.
At their nods, their aunt continued. “Past the end of the platform there’s a picnic set out beneath a very large tree. Go wait there. Hold off eating.”
The last thing Eluned thought she wanted to do was eat, but the shade cast by the towering beech had a revivifying effect, enough for her to at least cast a speculative eye over a positively sumptuous collection of dishes.
“I could be sick all over her,” Griff began appreciatively, but then his attention was caught by the view. The station stood at the lip of a small valley, and across a vividly green gap an enormous building crowned the horizon. It was too distant to make out details, but more than enough to distract.
Eluned ran fingers through her short blond hair, then glanced up as her twin reached out to shift the right sleeve of Eluned’s tunic, exposing her upper arm. The skin around the liner and padded socket was red and chafed.
“Should have had the new arm by now,” Eleri said.
“It’s the heat, not the fit.” Eluned pulled her tunic’s neck to one side, and craned to see the harness straps without triggering any of the arm’s functions. They weren’t so tight as to cut into her, but they’d definitely rubbed.
The question of strapping was postponed by their aunt’s return, lugging a full bucket and accompanied by a uniformed man carrying another two.
“Griff, do you have anything in your pockets you’d rather not get wet?”
“No,” Griff said, eyeing the buckets with interest as he patted the sides of his shendy to make sure.
“Excellent. Stand over here, where the water will drain.”
After a nod of thanks to the station master, Aunt Arianne upended her entire bucket over Griff, who gasped and then wriggled all over, sending water droplets in every direction. Not reacting to the secondary shower, Aunt Arianne picked up another bucket.
“Eleri next. Eluned, there’s a convenience in the station if you would prefer not to wet your arm.”
Eluned hesitated only a moment, then headed into the billow of steam from the departing train, seeking out the room. She had long carried a glass shield of pride to help her to never flinch from stares, but after a hot and weary day that shield’s weight was almost beyond bearing. Still she unfastened her dress, removed the dark wood and pale metal arm, and did not let herself think of the station master, and the rather handsome man called Evelyn, and a house full of strangers.
When Eluned returned, and had handed the arm to Eleri, their aunt hoisted the third bucket. The water felt icy, shocking away any lingering queasiness, and then there were enamel mugs full of the same cool water, and stone bottles of ginger beer to pour.
“We have an hour before we’re due to leave,” Aunt Arianne said. “Plenty of time to dry off and recover. We’ll be on our way before it starts to rain.”
Griff looked up at the unspoiled blue of the sky, and then at their veiled aunt. “You can tell? That it’s going to rain?”
“According to Evelyn, Lord Msrah has decided it will rain, since the large holes in Sheerside House have been sufficiently patched. Evelyn—Dem Carstairs—is one of Lord Msrah’s Bound, and will be taking a tactfully long time over your luggage, to allow us a chance to talk.”
Griff scowled and grabbed a sticky bun before turning to face across the valley. “The whole thing was silly. All that fuss about a window.”
“It’s complicated—” Eluned began. She did not want to talk about the false sympathy, the way certain people had acted as if Eluned particularly was a danger to herself: someone whose parents were so inept they’d dropped an automaton on their own heads.
“Looking for an excuse to get rid of us,” Eleri said. “Decided we lowered the tone. Doesn’t matter. Important thing is here.”
“Our goal is our first concern, that’s true enough,” Aunt Arianne said, to Eluned’s surprise.
“You’re not mad?”
Eluned could read nothing from the slight sway of the veil, and wished their aunt would take it off. She had trouble enough reading this near-stranger as it was.
“If you make a habit of throwing away your tuition, I’ll respond by sending you to cheaper schools, but in the short term there are other matters to focus on. To which point, I may have made some progress, but have also suffered a significant set-back. I am Bound, but not to Lord Msrah.”
Eleri dropped her mug, and Griff choked on the remains of his bun.
“How?” Eluned managed, and listened to a story about a monster falling through the ceiling, and a vampire so badly injured he had turned on the nearest source of blood and ka and taken without limit. The law called attacks like that exsanguincies and—unless someone truly important had been killed—only fined the vampire. But it would still mean an awkward fuss, and so Aunt Arianne’s vampire had used a bonding to try to keep her alive.