Free A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey Page B

with a pantry, and a real bathroom with piped-in water and a boiler for the bath. It didn’t require a kitchen, for like Holmes and the Watsons, the widowed landlady, Mrs. Horace, provided breakfast and supper, and if arranged, luncheon and tea as well. All they needed was the little stove in the sitting room to provide hot water for tea and a place to toast bread. Lord Alderscroft paid for this highly agreeable arrangement, and the landlady understood that they were, unlike most young ladies, apt to be coming and going at all hours. Nan more than once suspected that Mrs. Horace at least
knew
about the Hunting Lodge and the Elemental Masters, even if she was not a magician herself, and assumed that Nan and Sarah were part of that establishment. Nan was perfectly content to leave her with that impression. It was near enough to the truth after all.
    â€œMemsa’b senna note,” the urchin continued, as they all took their places around the table. The birds joined them on perches, withtheir own food and water in cups fastened at either end. Grey got chopped fruit at this time of the evening, with a few shelled nuts. Neville got raw meat, the trimmings from whatever Mrs. Horace cooked for the girls. “She ast if I wanta come go t’ th’ Lunnon Zoo. She’s bringin’ th’ school an’ sez I could meet ’em there.”
    â€œWhen would that be?” Nan asked, taking the cover off the new potatoes and peas and helping herself, then passing the plate to Sarah. Sarah had taken a lamb chop and served first Suki, then herself, and was spooning out mint jelly from a bowl.
    â€œDay arter termorrer,” said Suki, her eyes on the spoon holding the sweet stuff.
    â€œI’ll send a note saying you may,” Sarah told the girl, who looked up, grinning with glee. “Just remember that the birds in the aviary are
not
like Grey and Neville, so don’t go climbing past balustrades and fences so you can get closer to them.”
    â€œYes’m,” Suki promised, taking bread and buttering it.
    Supper was followed by Suki reciting the lessons that the girls had set her to do during the day, and a bedtime story. After Suki had been put to bed, and the birds settled onto their perches beside the hearth, Sarah stared fixedly for a while at the center ornament on the mantelpiece, which happened to be an enormous, and unusually fine, whelk shell, a gift from the Selkie-folk.
    â€œWhat are you thinking about?” Nan asked, after a while.
    â€œWell,” Sarah said slowly. “I was wondering if there was any way we could ask that fearsome Celtic warrior you turn into now and again about the Fomorians. . . .”
    â€œHuh.” Nan considered that. “That’s not exactly under my control, you know.”
    â€œHypnosis? Or perhaps Memsa’b and Sahib know a way?” Sarah continued to look hopeful.
    Nan smiled wryly. “I am sure Holmes knows hypnosis, but I am equally sure he would not be in the least interested in attempting to summon a Celtic warrior-woman out of my head. I’ll tell you what, though, we can ask Mary and John and see what they say.”
    â€œI hope they know a way. Or that they know someone who knowsa way.” Sarah tilted her head to the side. “Do you think that it is a past life of yours?”
    Now Nan laughed. “How should
I
know that? When it happens, it’s as if a separate person comes and takes over my body, and we don’t have anything to say to one another. I don’t understand what
she
is saying, and I am fairly certain she doesn’t understand me.”
    Sarah bit her lip. “You could try lucid dreaming. . . .”
    Nan felt annoyed with herself. “Yes, I could, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Good work, Sarah! This is why we are better as a team!”
    Sarah flushed with pleasure, and they both returned to their books.
    Nan and Sarah had