dull stuff.
“You will notice the large circular wrought-iron chandelier hanging from the oak-timbered ceiling,” Edna said, smiling up at the chandelier like it was her best friend.
“Emily! Look! A suit of armor!” Holly was down at the other end of the room, near a little recessed area.
“No! Really? Where? Fabu! Hey, Edna, tell us about the suit of armor!”
She sighed a sigh just like Brother does when he says I'm driving him to an early grave, but toddled down to where Holly stood admiring a suit of armor. It was pretty, I'll say that, although it looked awfully small. It was about my size, shorter than Aunt Tim. I thought those knight guys were bigger than that?
“This suit of armor dates back to the fifteen century, and was acquired during one of the many battles between the Scots and the English. As you can see, it has been—PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH IT!”
I rolled my eyes at Holly, and pulled back my hand. “I wasn't going to hurt it. I just want to see what the metal feels like.”
“The objects in Nethercote are all very valuable and fragile. Visitors are asked not to touch ANYTHING.”
She gave me a good glare, then went on to tell about the English knight who had been killed, then went over to a case that had some famous punch bowl or something. I don't know, I wasn't paying much attention because my fingers were practically itching to touch that suit of armor. You know how it is when you want something so bad you can almost taste it—I had to touch it. Just once, just a little touch, but I had to know what it felt like.
I know, you're thinking: a suit of armor? But honestly, Dru, it was really almost pretty, not rusty and ugly like you'd expect, but glossy and shiny. I couldn't help it, I just had to touch it.
I waited until Aunt Tim was bent over the case looking at something, then told Holly to stand in front of me so Edna wouldn't see.
Holly looked shocked, and grabbed my arm as I reached toward the shiny metal front piece. “You're not going to...Emily, she said you weren't supposed to!”
“Don't be silly, I'm not going to hurt it! I just want to feel it. It looks all cold and slicky and very, very cool. Besides, I can't go back home and tell all my friends that I saw a suit of armor but couldn't touch it just because a woman whose left boob is named Edna said not to! I do have my reputation to think of!”
“Reputation?”
“Yeah. Hang on, she's looking over this way, act like we're talking about the suit of armor.”
“We are talking about the suit of armor.”
I turned around to glare at her, my hands on my hips just like Mom does when she gets peeved at Brother. “What are you, a baby?”
Her eyes opened up wide. “No, of course I'm not a baby!”
“Yeah? Well you're acting like one!”
“I don't think acting in a responsible manner—”
I poked her in the arm. “You're not acting in a responsible manner, you're acting scared.”
She got all huffy over that. “I am not scared!”
“Yes you are, you're scared that Edna will get mad at you. Crod, Holly, I don't see how you can expect that someone as slobbericious as Ruaraidh could like a girl who was scared of someone named Edna!”
“I'm not scared,” she repeated. “I just don't happen to think it's a good idea to touch the suit of armor.”
“Oh, get real. Do you honestly think I'm going to hurt it?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “Well, no—”
“Good, because I'm not. I just want to run my fingers over it. How can that hurt it?”
She chewed lip a bit more. “I suppose it can't, not if you're careful.”
“I'm always careful.” I peered over her shoulder. “OK, she's looking the other way. Ooooh, it's cold. But very cool. I wonder if they waxed it? It's so shiny. Huh, doesn't feel very heavy. I wonder if I could—”
I swear, the clatter, clang, and whumpa-whumpa ker-THUD of the suit of armor's right arm as it fell off the shoulder and banged into the stone wall before crashing into the floor could be heard for miles.
Holly moaned and closed her eyes. I picked up the arm and hurriedly tried to reattach it before Edna noticed, but before I could, Edna ran over to me, snatched it out of my hand (scraping my knuckle when she did, the