110
Kalix woke up the next day a little vague about what had happened the night before. Feeling thirsty, she dressed quickly and went downstairs. When Kalix crossed through the living room she was surprised to see Moonglow and Jay huddled together on the floor, under a quilt. They were still asleep but somehow they didn’t look comfortable. The young werewolf crept past silently, took water from the kitchen and went back upstairs. As she reached her room, Daniel’s bedroom door opened and he peered out.
“Are they awake yet?” he whispered.
Kalix shook her head. Daniel tiptoed along the corridor with exaggerated stealth and slipped into Kalix’s small room.
“Good,” he said. “I’m leaving the house before Moonglow gets up.”
“Why?” said Kalix, puzzled.
“After last night’s debacle I figure she might need a few hours to cool off.”
“What’s a debacle?”
“A general disaster in which everything goes wrong. You don’t remember?”
Kalix shook her head.
“What went wrong?”
“Well, there was you collapsing all over her boyfriend for one thing.”
Daniel looked pointedly at Kalix’s bag.
“So the mysterious werewolf herbal concoction turns out to be laudanum. Powerful stuff, by all accounts. Yes, well may you hang your head in shame, Kalix, the way you plummeted to the ground, upsetting Moonglow’s carefully laid dinner arrangements.”
Noticing that this had made Kalix much more agitated than he intended, Daniel hurried to reassure her.
“Don’t worry about it. Your collapse was no more than a side show compared to my performance.”
“What did you do?”
It was Daniel’s turn to look ashamed.
“Started an argument with Jay and, quite possibly, tried to pick a fight with him.”
“You tried to pick a fight?” said Kalix, quite astonished at the thought. She couldn’t imagine Daniel fighting with anyone.
“I was severely provoked. He criticised Motorhead. You can’t do that in this house. Not when I’ve been drinking cider, anyway. I guess I didn’t really try to fight him. Just abused him verbally for a while…”
Kalix looked sympathetically at Daniel.
“Is this all because you’re in love with Moonglow?”
“How did you know that?” cried Daniel, agitated.
“It’s the most obvious thing in the world.”
“Is it? I suppose it is. Well, maybe that was why. But it’s not just me that doesn’t like Jay. Malveria really took against him. They had an argument about astrology and then when he had the nerve to spout some rubbish about Stonehenge she put him pretty soundly in his place. You can’t argue with Malveria about Stonehenge, her grandmother knew the people who built it.”
Daniel paused, and looked troubled.
“It all seemed funny at the time but I don’t think Moonglow was very pleased. No girl likes to see her boyfriend harassed from every direction.”
“Why are they sleeping downstairs?”
“Because Malveria accepted Moonglow’s offer of a bed for the night. Not that Moonglow actually made the offer. Malveria just said she was tired and she much appreciated Moonglow’s hospitality. Then she disappeared up to Moonglow’s room. Jay was surprised.”
Daniel stood up.
“I’m actually planning to arrive at university two hours before my first lecture, so you’ll appreciate how much I don’t want to meet Moonglow right now.”
Daniel crept away and soon afterward Kalix heard him going as quietly as he could down the stairs and out of the house. She smiled. It sounded as if last night had been fun. She was sorry she couldn’t remember it very well.
‘But now they know about the laudanum,’ she thought, and became worried. ‘And Moonglow will be angry at me for collapsing on her boyfriend.’ She wondered if she should follow Daniel’s example and vacate the flat for a while. Deciding it would be a good idea, she put on her ragged coat, slung her bag over her shoulder and slipped out silently. She had nowhere to go, but, remembering how she had enjoyed looking at the boats, she decided to head for the river.
As Kalix walked swiftly northwards she attracted plenty of attention, though not the sort that she’d attracted recently. Then people had wondered who the sick, trembling girl might be. Now they looked at her with admiration. She was still very pale, but she was healthier, and clean. With her large dark eyes, her perfect cheekbones and her incredibly long dark glossy hair, she looked like a teenage model walking down the catwalk to exhibit some new collection of ragged urban clothing. Kalix was exceptionally beautiful, the most beautiful of the ruling family of the MacRinnalchs, who were, as everyone acknowledged, a notably beautiful family.