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.“Well, I’ve been doing some reading, trying to see what the precedents were.I mean, we all know that it’s not a good thing for a prima to be without a consort when her twenty-second birthday rolls around.But I found an instance where that happened, and a warlock from her clan married her even though he wasn’t the consort, and it actually worked out just fine.So maybe that’s what we should do here.”It took a few seconds for his words to sink in.Lowering my voice, I said, “Are you asking me to marry you?”The previous flush was swallowed up in a wave of bright red that went over his face from forehead to chin.“Well, yeah.Wouldn’t it be better than what happened to Great-Aunt Ruby?”“Nothing happened to her.I mean, the Wilcoxes tried, but they weren’t successful.And it turns out she was right all along for waiting, because then she met Great-Uncle Pat a few weeks later.All’s well and all that.”“Yeah, but — ”I realized then how hard this must have been for him.He had to know I wouldn’t agree, but because he was worried and because he cared, he’d gone out on a limb anyway.“It’ll be all right.You’ll see.”He hesitated.“Maybe.But can you promise me something?”“What?” I asked, my tone guarded.I knew better than to make a promise without knowing what it was about.“If we get to your birthday, and there’s still no one else, can you please think about it? I want you to be safe.”I looked up into his pleading blue-gray eyes.If the man of my dreams never materialized, did it really matter? I didn’t want to be alone for the rest of my life, and no matter how much I might yearn for him, I knew Chris Wilson was not an option.Witches and warlocks married civilians from time to time — heck, Adam’s own mother was one — but a prima didn’t have that option.“Okay,” I said slowly.“If we get to that point, then…okay.”His face lit up then, and for a second I was worried he was going to pull me into a hug and smash my plate of pie right against me.Somehow he managed to keep a grip on himself, though.“Great.I mean, I doubt it’ll happen, but if it does…”“…you know where to find me,” I said wearily.I gestured with my free hand back toward the table where I’d been sitting.“And now I’m going to sit down and eat the rest of this pie.”“Sure.” He grinned at me.Since I didn’t want to show him how unexcited I was by the prospect of having to marry him because there was no one else, I summoned a smile in return before heading back to my empty chair.In that moment, I wondered how much I really had to be thankful for after all.* * *Clean-up seemed to take forever, but finally around nine o’clock I headed home with that night’s bodyguards in tow.No one spoke, probably because we were all feeling sleepy and stuffed after the enormous meal we’d eaten earlier.By that point pretty much everyone had done a rotation watching over me, so I didn’t see the need to show anyone where the snacks and sodas were.Or the coffeemaker; more than once I’d awoken in the middle of the night and smelled the rich scent of coffee drifting up the stairs, beating out the lingering paint fumes.I just said goodnight to them and went upstairs, thinking I’d read in bed for a while or watch a show on my laptop.Something normal, prosaic.It felt way too early to go to bed, even though I was wiped out from the long day and all the heavy food I’d eaten.But after I’d washed my face and brushed my teeth and climbed into the flannel pajama bottoms and long-sleeved thermal shirt I wore to bed — it was a magnificent house, but drafty — I found that the book I was partway through really didn’t interest me, and neither did any of the shows I had queued up on Netflix.So I shut my laptop and wandered down the hall to the library to see if I could find anything more enticing there.I say “library” because that was what everyone called it, but it was really more of a combination study and library.A big rolltop desk stood against one wall, and two of the other walls were covered in bookshelves.This was a room I hadn’t touched yet, mainly because I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do with it.Sydney thought I should turn it into a media room, sort of a home theater, but I thought it felt sacrilegious to tear out those lovely dark oak bookshelves.Not that what they contained looked all that intriguing.An old out-of-date set of World Book encyclopedias, probably from when Great-Aunt Ruby’s sons were young.Books of fairytales.Some tattered paperbacks looking out of place amongst the more dignified hard-bound books, mysteries and some science fiction and a few more sensational titles like Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls.Wow, Ruby…who knew?Fighting back a smile, I pulled out what looked like a first edition Wizard of Oz and shook my head.How much must that be worth? It still wasn’t really what I was looking for, though, so I put it back.As I did so, my gaze fell on a slim book bound in dark red leather.It had no lettering on the spine, but I didn’t know whether that was because it never did or because it had worn off over the years.Intrigued, I opened it up and saw that, instead of being filled with type, it was hand-written.I flipped over to the flyleaf and saw inscribed on the yellowed paper there, Ruby Lee McAllister, 1947.I did some quick mental math.This was her diary, and from her twenty-first year.My heart started to beat a little faster.Now, maybe I shouldn’t read her diary at all, since it was private.Then again, how private could it be if she’d just left it out on the shelf in plain view of everyone? And there could be things she’d written down that would help me now.A lot had happened to her that year.If there was anything in that diary that could be of use, it would be silly of me to ignore it.For all I knew, she’d put it there precisely so I would find it once the house came to me.With that rationalization to buoy me, I tucked the book under my arm, and slipped out of the library and down the hall to my room.After closing the door behind me, I climbed back into bed, plumped up my pillows so they’d give me good support while reading, then opened the book to its first page.Mama took me into Cottonwood today to go shopping as part of my birthday treat.Yesterday was my real birthday, and everyone came over for cake and ice cream.How nice to have a birthday in June when ice cream is appropriate.While we were in Cottonwood, she bought me this book.She said twenty-one is special for any girl, but especially for the next clan prima.It’s in this year that I’ll meet my consort, and everything will change.I stopped for a moment, thinking of pretty young Ruby with the Rita Hayworth waves and the red lipstick.She hadn’t been afraid of her future — she’d had no reason to be.She had her parents and the members of her clan, and seemed to look forward to being prima
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