The Gorgons Gaze # 2 (Companions Quartet) by Julia Golding Read Free Book Online Page B

had come to visit her.
    Godiva sniffed suspiciously. “How do you know my great-niece, sir? Are you one of those Hescombe Society people?”
    Horace smiled, delighted that the question could be answered quite truthfully. “No, no, I’m from London. I come sailing down here from time to time.”
    “Like sailing, do you?” asked Hugh brightly.
    “It is a great passion of mine. I was in the navy.”
    “So was I! Which ship?” Hugh was clearly settling down for a long discussion of all things naval.
    Godiva gave her brother an indulgent smile.
    So she does have a weak spot, thought Connie. It’s
Hugh
.
    “Well, you’d better ask him in then. You can take him through to the kitchen,” Godiva said primly, watching the pools of water gather on her spotless stone floor.
    Not believing her luck, Connie ran down the stairs. “Mr. Little, it’s great to see you!” Horace patted her on the shoulder, looking searchingly into her face, checking all was well. She gave him a small smile. “So, Connie, how are you?” he asked.
    “Fine,” she replied briefly, wondering when Godiva would realize that one of the members of the forbidden Society had slipped under her guard.
    “Well, Mr. Little, would you like to dry off in thekitchen?” asked Hugh. “You’re soaked to the skin.”
    “Oh, what’s a bit of rain? I’m used to it.”
    “Well, a cup of tea then?”
    “Don’t mind if I do. Connie, why don’t you show Antonia around? This looks like a very interesting house.” He nodded toward the front door.
    “You can take her up to your room,” countered Godiva crossly. “We’ll resume our lesson later.”
    Connie led Antonia upstairs to her bedroom.
    “Hey, this is really cool!” the girl exclaimed, admiring the many posters of animals, ranging from unicorns to dolphins to seagulls, that Connie had pinned on the walls to relieve the austerity of the room. Antonia sat on the edge of the bed and looked straight up at Connie, her face eager and alert like an otter, twitching in expectation of fun. “What’s it like being the universal then?”
    Connie felt a great wave of relief. At last, here was someone she could talk to after days of having to pretend that she was normal.
    “It’s amazing. I s’pose it’s a bit like what you feel during your first companion encounter, but repeated again and again.” Connie sat on the edge of the metal table and smiled back as she remembered the creatures she had met over the past year.
    “Grandpa’s been really worried about you—they all have. Dr. Brock asked us to try and call because your great-aunt doesn’t know us. He thought Grandpa might be ableto charm them into letting you out a bit.”
    “I hope he can. My aunt thinks the Society’s some kind of evil cult—she’s trying to cure me of it. If she suspected he was a member, he wouldn’t be sitting in the kitchen now.”
    Antonia flicked through a photo album lying on the bed, looking at the pictures of Hescombe, of Col, Anneena, and Jane. She paused over a snapshot of Scark the seagull, perched on top of his favorite lifebuoy. Connie felt a pang of grief. It was her only photo of the bird. She had taken it before Kullervo crushed the seagull to death for trying to save her.
    “Not much chance of being cured, is there? I can’t imagine my relatives wanting to keep me out of it,” Antonia added. “They were thrilled when I turned out to be a companion to wood sprites, as none of my brothers had inherited the gift.”
    Connie was interested by this, not having come across a family, apart from her own, where some members did not share the gift. “Hasn’t that caused a problem in your family?”
    “Oh, no,” Antonia grinned. “You don’t know my brothers. They couldn’t care less what I do. They have their own life—soccer, music, y’know—they just think my going off to the Society is, well, just my thing.”
    “Are there many wood sprites in a city? It must be hardbeing a companion to them in