Today's Reading

'I am Anne Seymour Garfunkel.'

'Anne Seymour. I like that.'

'Garfunkel.'

'Garfunkel. I am Mina...Davenport.'

The girl frowned, her brown eyes flickering to Mina's for the first time, but only for a moment.

'Did you forget your name?'

'No. Sometimes I wish I could, but it is the only one I have.' Humor, or at least inept humor, was clearly lost on the girl.

'I like your name,' the girl declared. 'It has lots of blue and purple and green in it.'

Mina's mouth opened a little in surprise. She took a step towards Anne Seymour Garfunkel.

'What...what is the purple?'

'The M and the V, though the M is rather more burgundy than purple.

Like your coat. Is that why you have that coat? The D has a little purple, but it is mostly blue. Mina is a happy name. Purple and pink and white and pale blue. Pretty. Who are you and why are you listening to our conversation?'

The question stymied Mina, until she realized it was addressed not to her, but to someone behind her. And someone much taller by the angle of Anne's Seymour stare.

'I'm Max,' said the intruder. 'And I am listening because I am curious.'

'About what?' Anne Seymour asked, clearly more interested in facts than manners.

'About ships. And about letters having colours.'

'Letters and numbers,' the girl clarified. 'Max is a good name.'

'It is?'

'Purple and two blues. Light blue like a robin's egg and grey-blue like the sky over a lake before the sun is high. Not grey like your eyes. Blue-grey like Mina Davenport's eyes.' She repeated Mina's name as if she was connecting it all together as she spoke.

Mina hadn't moved, but Max Cavendish came round her and went to lean on the railing on the other side of the girl. There was no expression on his face other than mild interest. No surprise, no dismay, no anger. Nothing of what was grabbing Mina by the throat.

'Yes, I agree, that is a very different kind of grey,' he said at last.

'It is prettier grey than yours,' Anne Seymour elucidated and he smiled at her.

'Undoubtedly.'

'Yours is dark. It will be dark soon.' Her voice switched, returning to some personal reality as not a pleasant one.

'Not for another couple of hours,' Max replied, his voice calm and calming.

'I am not fond of the dark. I am not allowed to read after dark.'

'That is a pity. What do you do after dark, then?' Max asked.

The girl frowned.

'I must sit with Nanny and have my tea and then say my prayers and get into bed and sleep. It is very...hard. May I join you tomorrow Mina Davenport?

The direct address shook Mina our of her stupor, but it was the resignation in the girl's words, expecting rejection, that brought her fully to the surface.

'When I am working and am allowed on deck, certainly you may.

'Your work? What is your work?'

'I am a companion to a young woman.'

'Is she as young as I? Or younger?'

'Not so young.'

'Good, the girl said and Mina smiled without thinking. The girl's gaze locked on her face and she smiled back. It was a strange, tentative, almost sad expression, as if aware in advance it would not do. Impulsively, Mina held out her hand, and Anne Seymour placed hers, giving it a single firm shake before leaving the deck.

Mina hugged the 'm'-coloured coat around her and forced herself to meet Max Cavendish's gaze.

Ten years is a long time, but somehow it wasn't. Time pinched and shrank and suddenly she was back in the library at Bascombe Hall, facing a younger version of this man as he furiously denounced her for what she had done to Peter.


This excerpt is from the eBook edition.

Monday we begin the book Don't Fall in Love With Me by Paige Toon.

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