Free Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel

Look, my mother and father have just latched onto him.”
    I’d only ever seen Kate’s parents in a photograph. They were certainly a fine-looking couple. Mr. de Vries was tall and broad, with a slightly lupine face; Mrs. de Vries was beautiful in a languid way, with heavily lidded eyes and a full, sculpted mouth. Both were smiling and chatting with the Lunardis.
    “This is going very well indeed,” said Kate, watching. “Exactly as planned.”
    “Is there anything you don’t have planned?”
    “A few things,” she said. “Now, we’ve talked long enough. People will start to chatter. Where’s your family?”
    “Over there.”
    I saw her eyes lock onto them. “Take me right over. I must meet them this instant.”
    “Don’t frighten them,” I said.
    “Do I look frightening?”
    “You do look a bit carnivorous.”
    “I’m just enthusiastic!” she protested. “I’ve been looking forward to this for ages.”
    We walked over together, carrying the cups of punch.
    “Mrs. Cruse,” said Kate warmly, “thank you so much for coming. I simply cannot tell you what a pleasure this is!”
    “It’s lovely to finally meet you, Kate,” said my mother, taking her hand.
    My sisters both did pretty curtsies to Kate, and then their eyes widened as she embraced them lightly and kissed them on both cheeks.
    “That’s how they do it in Paris,” she informed them.
    “Is it?” said Isabel with delight.
    “Absolutely. They can’t stop kissing each other.”
    Isabel laughed, but Sylvia looked a bit suspicious.
    “What a pretty garden,” my mother said.
    “Yes, it is nice. It’s also a graveyard, you know,” Kate said to my sisters.
    “A graveyard?” Isabel repeated.
    Kate nodded and lowered her voice. “Not many people know this, but there are several corpses beneath the soil. When I was eight I buried Franz Ferdinand, my cat, at the back, right under that silver maple. And when I was ten, Teddy, my beloved cocker spaniel died. His tombstone’s right beside Franz Ferdinand. They got along famously.”
    Isabel went off to have a look, but Sylvia was too grown up to want to see.
    “We’ve got a garden now too,” said Sylvia, who I could tell was wary of Kate, but also fascinated.
    “So I hear,” she said. “What will you plant?”
    “I’ve not had time to give it much thought,” said my mother. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of a vegetable patch.”
    “Except that vegetables are so boring to look at,” said Kate. “Do promise you’ll plant some roses or peonies, won’t you? They’re so glorious.”
    I looked at my mother, wondering if she’d think Kate was completely frivolous, but she just smiled back pleasantly, and the two chattered on about their favorite plants and flowers. I realized I hadn’t been breathing properly, just sucking in little bits of air like someone in his final stages of drowning. I’d been terribly tense about Kate and my mother meeting, but they seemed to be getting on pretty well.
    Kate was a marvel. I’d never met anyone who was better at talking, and she never let a silence stretch on for longer than a second. She talked so easily to my mother and sisters that I started to relax—and even feel a little left out. I decided to let them be for a while, and took a walk around the garden. I only hoped my sisters wouldn’t say anything embarrassing.
    At the gazebo a waiter offered me a glass of something fizzy, and I stopped to listen to the string quartet.
    “I hope you and Kate are being discreet,” said Miss Simpkins, appearing at my side.
    “Of course,” I replied. I’d never been fond of Miss Simpkins, and it made me uneasy that she knew about me and Kate.
    “You want to see the future?” she asked me.
    “I didn’t know you were clairvoyant, Miss Simpkins.”
    “That tall fellow over there,” she said, ignoring my joke. “Do you see him, in the green blazer with the crest? That is James Sanderson.”
    “Let me guess,” I said, “the heir to the Sanderson