together in a sad smile. There was more than a trace of guilt and self-loathing in her voice and face, and she knew it. But she was so relieved now, she couldn’t put that part into words.
“You cured him, and perhaps you were meant to do this. Someday maybe we can talk together about the dreams you had, and the Victrola that materialized in the living room.”
“Then Michael told you.”
“No, you told me. All the times you thought about it out there, remembering the waltz from La Traviata, and the ghost of Julien telling you to do it. But this isn’t important to me. It’s only important that you not worry about my hating you anymore. You have to be strong to be the heiress, especially the way things are now. You can’t be worried about the wrong things.”
“Yes, you’re right. You really don’t hold it against me. I know you don’t.”
“You could have known sooner,” said Rowan. “You’re stronger than I am, you know. Reading people’s thoughts and emotions, it’s almost a trick. I always hated it when I was a child. It frightened me. It frightens lots of gifted children. But later on, I learned to use it in a subtle, almost subconscious way. Wait a beat after someone speaks to you, especially if the words are confusing. Wait a beat and you’ll know what the person feels.”
“You’re right, it’s like that, I’ve tried it.”
“It gets better and stronger. I would think that knowing what you know—about everything—it would be easier for you. I was supposed to be disgustingly normal, an honors student with a passion for science, growing up with all the luxuries of a well-to-do only child. You know what you are.”
She paused. She drew a cigarette out of the pack lying on the table. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.
“No, not at all,” said Mona. “I like the smell of cigarettes, always have.”
But she stopped. She slipped the cigarette back in the pack. She laid the lighter beside it.
Then she looked at Mona, and her face seemed incidentally hard suddenly, as though she’d fallen deep in thought and forgotten to conceal her strong inner self.
The look was so cold and so quietly fierce that it made her seem sexless to Mona. It might be a man looking at her, this person with the gray eyes and the dark straight eyebrows and the soft blond hair. It might have been an angel. Surely, it was a beautiful woman. Mona was far too intrigued and excited by all this to let her eyes be forced away.
Almost at once the expression did soften, deliberately perhaps.
“I’m going to Europe,” said Rowan. “I’m leaving in a little while.”
“Why? Where are you going?” demanded Mona. “Does Michael know this?”
“No,” she said. “And when he finds out, he’ll be hurt again.”
“Rowan, you can’t do that to him, wait a second. Why are you going?”
“Because I have to. I’m the only one who can figure out this little mystery about the Talamasca. I’m the only one who can find out why Aaron died like he did.”
“But Michael, you’ve got to take Michael with you, you’ve got to let him help. You leave him again, Rowan, and it’s going to take more than a nubile thirteen-year-old to save his ego and whatever manhood he’s got left.”
Rowan listened to this, thoughtfully.
Mona instantly regretted what she’d said, then instantly thought she hadn’t said it strongly enough.
“It’s going to hurt,” said Rowan.
“Oh, you’re kidding yourself,” said Mona. “Maybe he won’t be waiting around here when you get back.”
“Look, what would you do if you were me?” Rowan asked.
It took a second for this question to sink in. Mona took another big drink of the orange juice and then pushed the glass to the side. “You’re really asking me?”
“There’s no one I’d rather ask.”
“Take him with you to Europe. Why not? What’s he staying here for?”
“There are things,” she said. “He’s the only one who understands the kind of danger directed against the family. And there’s the question of his own safety, but then I don’t know just how critical that is.”
“His safety? If the Talamasca guys want to hit him, they know where to find him if he just hangs around this house. Besides, Rowan, what about your own safety? You know more about all this than anyone except Michael. Don’t you need him with you? You’re really prepared to go over there alone?”
“I wouldn’t be alone, I’d be with Yuri.”
“Yuri?”
“He called again this morning, only