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."Bright girl.Would have been proud of your efforts.Course, I haven't read it yet.Might be useless."David laughed, but on the inside everything was crying.Only Henry, with his characteristic old-school bluntness, could have defused a situation like that.He stood up, clutching the Inuit book."Thanks for the loan."Henry pointed at the shelves."Want to see yours there one day, boy."David nodded."I'm working on it.I won't let you -- or Zanna -- down."***365If such warmth from Henry was considered rare, the cordiality reached an astonishing peak a few weeks later when he invited the Pennykettle family plus tenant to join him for a home-cooked, pre-Christmas dinner.The date was December the twenty-third.Liz was so flabbergasted she almost brought Gretel out of winter stasis to provide her with a dose of smelling salts.She changed into a stylish black dress, put on some earrings, and found some Belgian chocolates for a present."Is this OK?" she asked David before they set out."Too formal? Should I do something with my hair?"David, who thought he looked shabby by comparison, in corduroy jeans and a white linen shirt, made her do a twirl on the spot."You look great," he said.And he meant it.He'd never really seen her dressed up before.Never even thought of her as a real woman.But here she was, his landlady, with wild red hair and flashing green eyes and not a bad figure (though he tried not to look).She resembled Lucy so very much.Flawless skin.Perfect mouth.Beautiful in a childlike way.Was this what Guinevere had been like, he wondered? Wow.366What a gene pool.No wonder the dragon, Gawain, had been charmed.Lucy, of course, could not be present.That had caused Liz a flutter or two and made her think twice about going at all.But with David's support she bravely rose above it and explained her daughter's absence by saying she was expected home the very next day (when Henry would be visiting relatives in Framingham), and would be gone again back to her Aunty Gwyneth's by the time he returned.Wasn't that a shame? Henry, who had never much cared for the company of children, took it as a kind of stoical mercy and invited them both to take places at his table.It was a good dinner.An extraordinary dinner.Henry had cooked a spectacular turkey, which he carved with such culinary expertise that the meat almost fell into supermarket-ready slices.He had also concocted a homemade punch that he insisted could not make a goldfish dizzy but had Liz giggling after one large glassful.As the afternoon wore on, Henry took orders for367coffee and felt his way to the kitchen.While he was gone, David turned in his chair and cast his eye about the room."What you after?" asked Liz, covering her mouth to stifle a bubble of returning punch."Remote," said David."It's Saturday.Want to check the soccer results.""You can't do that.You're a guest in someone's house.""I used to live here," David reminded her."Henry won't mind.Besides.""Wozz the madder?" Liz said, befuddled by the pause.He had stopped at the edge of the shaggy white rug as if he was suddenly afraid to cross it."Something's happening," he said, putting out his hand.The air above the rug was rippling like a heat haze.Everything beyond it, the TV, the sideboard, was swimming way out of focus, as though his eyes were wrapped in a layer of polythene.Then, something extraordinary happened.At368rug level, a wicker basket pulsed into view.It was the one Liz had found when Lucy had been taken.The one that Snigger had been jailed in and released from.He was in it again now, gnawing at a corner.Chewing through it.Breaking out.This can't be right, David thought, his brain all at sea.But when he tried to say so his voice was muted, as though he was caught in a waking nightmare.The air shimmered again, and suddenly he understood what was happening.He was seeing a replay of Lucy's abduction -- or rather, a second or two after that incident.The air movement was a rip in space, a rip that was fast resetting itself.But not fast enough to beat a nimble squirrel.Snigger leaped forward, and with a pop as quiet as a soap bubble bursting, he completely disappeared.The wicker cage dissolved from view.The room returned to normal.David swept around."Did you see that?"Liz was falling forward, holding her head."Feel tired," she mumbled."Brainz gone to sleep.""There was a disturbance," said David."Some sort369of time slip.I saw Snigger, going through a kind of wormhole.I thought you told me you'd released him in the garden?" He shook her to her senses
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