Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel Read Free Page B

realized,
counting in her head. More than ten.
    "Nope. Beth and I are actually the
right people to send in on this one. If I talked to Ferdinand about it, he'd
probably still send us. If magic is going to be spotty in that area, who
would you send?"
    Ethyl Vernor was a society wife, but
also a good person, and not exactly a fool. She'd run an anti-terrorist squad
during the attacks that Doctor Debussey and her evil crew had been using to
create fear after all. In one case that meant going in to a bomb scene to
protect people herself. She actually took the information she had, and thought
about it for a bit, then sighed.
    "I understand, dear. Make certain
to stay safe however. I... Well, perhaps we could speak of it over tea?"
    That meant collecting Beth, who was
already packed herself, even though she didn't have a backpack.
    "We need to get you one. Like mine.
Just in case. If we're running for some reason, I don't want you slowed down,
trying to lug that duffle around. I bet Charles has something that will work,
if we aren't too picky about appearances?" The thing there was that people
there were sensitive to that, almost always. Even the poor would wash
everything they wore and iron them daily. Even if it meant not having money for
food in order to do so.
    Women didn't go out without makeup on
either. Even in uniform they'd have to have some along. It was a pain in the
rear, but it was the nature of the place. Their house, their rules. Writ on the
largest scale imaginable.
    Their universe .
    "Is that a logical conclusion, or a
prescient insight?" Beth looked at her coolly then. That, learning to tell
the difference was actually part of her magical training. Along with a whole
lot of reading.
    After all, if you had magic, and all it
took to learn about it was reading and some practice, why wouldn't you
do it? That most didn't bother with it all that much amazed her still.
    Dropping into a focused state, she
cleared her thoughts and tried to feel the sense of fullness that indicated to
her that magic was taking place. That or a tingling, but it was almost always
like a mild pressure when it was in regards to the future. It shocked her, but
it was really there. She thought. She took a few minutes, and finally nodded.
    "I'm still learning, but I'm going
to go with it being prescient. We should have you drop into your own state for
that before we leave, just to double check it all. You're so much better at
that than I am."
    The woman simply was, but she demurred
calmly and then winked.
    "You need the practice. You do have
a point though. We could do it right now? Before we practice?"
    Gwen shook her head. "We can't.
We're invited to tea. I couldn't tell if it was for a regular chat, or
something more involved. I'm coming to collect you now, actually. If you want
to come?" She could beg off and not be impolite, but you had to be careful
with things like that. One refusal was fine, but two or three indicated that
you didn't like someone. Ethyl was a nice woman though, so it was easier to
just try to say yes all the time.
    "I'd love too. She always serves those
wonderful biscuits, on top of being excellent company. Shall we?"
    "Let's." The word felt funny
in her mouth and came out with a slight accent. Gwen had learned to fake one,
in order to pretend to be Katherine for a long time, and now it just popped out.
Beth, detective or not, didn't seem to notice it.
    Gwen did, and focused again, like she
just had been, trying to find the girl in her head, and make sure she was
staying dormant. If she wasn't, there was only one way for Gwen to hold her
back.
    It wasn't something that she'd discussed
with anyone, but if Katherine Vernor tried to take over, as evil as she was, as
spoiled and despicable, Gwen wasn't going to let her do it. Well, she'd
mentioned it to the girl in her head, who was stirring ever so lightly, listening
to her thoughts.
    No, if the other girl ever got the upper
hand, which was very possible, given that she was