'Dunno, I think he's afraid of what she'll say when she finds out I'm not dead.'
Tate said nothing, and they continued walking. By now the side of the house facing them was in shade and Alex kept glancing towards the house, wondering whether they were being watched from the darkened windows.
'She's not gonna believe it to start with, is she? I mean, it's like mental. Isn't it?'
'Yes,' he said quietly, 'It's like mental.'
'Are you taking the mickey?'
'Sorry, Miss?'
'Never mind. So are you going to tell Dad?'
'What is there to tell? We went for a walk.'
Alex glanced up at him. 'Yeah, we did, didn't we. Do you play tennis?'
'No,' said Tate.
'Fellstamp played with me. He kept trying to look up my skirt.'
'The way Fellstamp told me, you kept bending over in front of him.'
'I never!' She glanced back towards the house. 'He cheats.'
'So do you, apparently.'
'Yeah, well. He started it.'
'It does not make for good tennis if both of you cheat.'
There was a pause.
'Anyway, the bats are broken.'
'So I heard.'
'Does he talk about me?' she asked.
'Who?'
'Fellstamp.'
'Not especially. Why?'
'Nothing. I mean he obviously said something, you know, about the bats.'
'He said he didn't think you'd be playing tennis again.'
They rounded the end of the house and turned along the frontage. For the first time Alex could see Tate's face. The individual bristles on his chin caught the light so that it looked like it was frosted.
'I could fix the bats,' volunteered Alex.
'Perhaps you should. They weren't yours to warp like that.'
'I never warped them. They were twisted already,' she protested.
Tate's eyebrow rose fractionally.
'He was cheating,' she repeated, defensively.
Tate shook his head, slowly.
'He does look kinda cute in shorts, though, don't you think?' Alex grinned.
'I don't think I've ever noticed,' said Tate.
Alex looked up, letting the moonlight fill her eyes. 'All that working out with swords and stuff really defines the thigh muscles, you know what I mean?'
'I imagine you see him a little differently, Miss,' said Tate.
'Why do you call me Miss, Tate? Only Mullbrook and the stewards call me Miss, and they have to because they work here, but you say it like you don't mean it.'
'It pleases me to call you Miss, Miss.' There was that low sound again, a soft huffing that might have been laughter.
'Yeah, well, seems to me like you're taking the piss, Miss,' she said.
'Then what would you have me call you?'
'My name?'
'Very well, Miss Alexandra.'
'Now you're teasing me. Why can't you call me Alex like everyone else does?'
'There is power in names,' said Tate.
'What does that mean?'
'It means that how you are called in some ways defines you. Miss is a title, not a name. Once you would have been Mistress Alexandra.'
'Makes me sound like a floozy, or a school-marm.'
'It is an honorific, or it used to be.'
'I quite like that. The Honourable Mistress Alexandra Dobson,' Alex tested the title out for style, 'accompanied by the honourable Mister Tate… do you have a family name, Tate?'
Tate smiled, 'Not exactly, no.'
'Any brothers or sisters?'
'No.'
'I have a brother now,' said Alex. 'A half brother, really, I suppose. It's going to be strange, he'll always be younger than me.'
'I expect so, Miss.'
'There you go again.'
'Sorry, Miss.'
They reached the drive leading to the main entrance and Alex stopped. 'I should go back to bed, I s'pose.'
'It will be light soon,' confirmed Tate.
'Thank you for the walk.'
'You're welcome, Miss.'
'You won't need to mention this to Dad, will you?'
'It'll be our secret, Mistress Alexandra.'
She hesitated and then smiled. 'G'night then.'
'Goodnight, Miss.'
Alex walked back towards the house and mounted the steps to reach the main door. It was locked, but that was only a moment's thought. As she pushed the door gently open, she looked back. The circle of the drive curved away from the house, rounding a stand of trees beyond the lawns and flower beds, all flooded with moonlight. There was no sign of Tate.
Her gaze lingered on the drive for a moment, and then she shook her head.
'G'night, Tate,' she murmured, and slipped inside.
'You look better today,' said Blackbird, the hat's rim lifting as she glanced sideways.
'I'll take that as a compliment,' I said.
'That was a reckless thing you did yesterday.'
'That's spoiled the compliment somewhat.'
'You need to be more considered in your actions. If you keep blundering into things you're eventually going to meet something nasty.'
'I've already met several things that were nasty. So far I've survived.'
'Through sheer luck, but that luck won't hold forever.'
'Thank you for the vote of confidence.'
'That's the trouble, you're cautious when you should be bold and overconfident when you should be cautious.'
'I'll try and do things backwards in future, is that today's lesson over with?'
'Close your eyes.'
'Is this the lesson now or are you still berating me for letting Angela touch me?'
Blackbird looked sideways at me under the brim of her hat, and then forward again. 'Close them,' she instructed.
I did as I was bid and closed my eyes.
'What can you see?'
'Nothing, I've got my eyes closed.'
