Page 38 of The Last Necromancer
"What an entertaining household this is. No tennis, no billiards, and no visitors."
"You're not here to be entertained."
"True. But I don't live here, nor am I staying long. You, Seth and Gus, however, need something to do in the evenings."
He indicated I should go first up the stairs. "I told you, they play cards. Most evening they spend with Cook."
"And you? How do you spend your evenings?"
"Reading. Writing correspondence and reports. Scientific experiments. Exercising. Thinking."
I stopped and he stopped beside me. "You mean all you do is work?"
"Sometimes I sleep." He continued past me.
I laughed. "That was a joke. Wasn't it?" I trotted after him. "Tell me you at least read for pleasure. You said you've read my book, so you must."
"On occasion. And yes, I have read your book."
My face heated. "I didn't mean it like that."
We returned to his rooms and I picked up the book. I finished it in the afternoon and spent another hour or so watching him as he mixed liquids together in little bottles and set them over a tiny gas burner. He took copious notes in a complicated scrawl that appeared to be some kind of code. It made no sense to me, but I liked watching the experiments and trying to guess what would happen. He answered my questions when I asked them, but mostly we didn't speak. It didn't feel in the least awkward or strained, and I began to like his quiet company. It made a nice change to the constant, inane chatter of the boys.
Seth and Gus brought our meals in for an early dinner, and gave Fitzroy their report. I wasn't concerned before they began and I still wasn't concerned when they finished. They'd traced my life back some three years. The following day they planned to continue.
They were about to leave when I stopped them. "You two got any cards?" I asked. "Or dice?"
"Can't gamble with what you don't have, boy," Gus said.
"I don't want to gamble, I just want to do something other than read and watch the machine work."
Gus and Seth glanced nervously at Fitzroy.
"You may play cards," Fitzroy said, turning back to the notes Seth had handed him along with his dinner tray.
"So kind," I said, bowing.
Gus suppressed a snigger and both men left. They returned after I'd finished my meal—a small portion of game pie and a salad—and deposited a deck of cards on the table. Gus arranged three chairs around it.
"What do you know how to play?" he asked me.
"Very little." Card games had been forbidden in our house by Father, but I'd seen the boys play when they could get hold of a deck. "Teach me something."
"We'll start with Loo." As Seth dealt, I surreptitiously glanced in Fitzroy's direction. He was watching us from beneath hooded lids.
"Are you joining us?" I asked him.
He turned back to the papers on his desk. "I have work to do."
"All work and no play makes Sir a very dull fellow indeed," I whispered.
Seth grinned and Gus snorted a laugh. "You better mind he don't hear you say that," Gus whispered back.
"He won't hurt me. Not while he thinks I'm a necromancer."
"And if you're not, like you say?" Seth drawled. "What do you think he'll do then? Simply allow you to walk away so you can blab about the ministry all over London? Think again, lad."
I swallowed hard. I hadn't considered that. "I ain't seen no evidence of him being cruel."
