It was probably bigger, but Ariana wouldn’t admit it aloud. She liked the pink and gray room, with its shelves stuffed with brightly colored plush animals and its riot of pictures tacked willy nilly all over the walls. And it wasn’t only recriminations she wanted to escape, it was worry over why her spell had gone wrong. And guilt about that tear-stained note.
“Well,” Dahlia prodded. “Why did you come? It’s pretty clear you’re not meant to be here.”
Instead of answering the question, Ariana asked one of her own. “You say you know about the portal and the fact I’m from another time didn’t even make you blink. What else do you know?”
The younger girl, who looked far more worldly than Ariana could ever pretend to be, shrugged. “Just that my mum got sucked through the portal to the past and almost got stuck there. She says she was gone more than a year, but I never knew she was missing until she told me about it because Liam brought her back to right when she left. Then he closed up the portal for good so my mum could keep working at Belmary House. Dex said he’s visited the past but it was before my mum and him got together. I asked why I couldn’t go back to meet you lot and my mum about swooned and Dex said he couldn’t do the spell on his own after old Liam passed away.” She took a breath and finished, “That’s all I know, I swear.”
“That’s not much more than I figured out myself, but thank you.”
It felt good to speak comfortably with someone her own age again. It had been so long since she’d yammered away with a friend. The witches at the estate were less than chummy with her. Even Nick made it difficult to be herself sometimes.
“How old are you?” Dahlia asked. When Ariana answered, she raised her eyebrows. “Shouldn’t you be married and have children by now back in your time? Aren’t you about to be on the shelf or some such?”
Ariana scowled. “Goodness, what do you think you know about my time? I suppose I could be married if I wanted to be, though.” Now that Nick had invaded her thoughts her mood threatened to turn bleak. She knew she should be worried about him, about to board a ship to Italy, but her worries were all for Owen, disappearing into thin air as he’d seemed to have done.
Dahlia rubbed her hands together, then hopped off her bed, beckoning Ariana to follow her. “We have to be silent as church mice. I’m already in a heap of trouble.” She smiled as she cracked open her door and looked out into the darkened hall. “I’m glad you turned up when you did to distract them or I’d probably still be listening to them rage.”
They tiptoed down the short hallway to a living area that was attached to the dining area where they’d had supper. Past the table, the kitchen was only a few feet away, which was barely wider than the hall they’d just traversed. Dahlia plopped herself down on the floor near a bookshelf. Ariana joined her, giving up being ladylike in the new clothes and copying Dahlia’s cross-legged position.
“Why are you in trouble?” Ariana asked, hoping it wasn’t too forward.
Dahlia stuck out her tongue. “I nicked some things from one of the high street shops.”
Ariana gasped. “Oh my goodness, are you so very poor?” Her mind was in high gear, working out ways she might help without bruising her older second cousin’s pride.
“We’re not poor at all.” Dahlia’s face darkened with outrage. When Ariana’s eyes cut to the confines of the small flat, she hissed, “Yes, I know where you’ve grown up. I’ve been to Belmary House more times than I can count. But I happen to know the mortgage on this place is close to two thousand pounds a month. That’s probably a load of money for your lot to spend in a whole year, isn’t it? And your giant mansion is just a museum now where my Mum and Dex work. What do you make of that?”
Ariana was stunned by her ferocity. More stunned by how expensive things were in this crowded future. And the last bit made her blink with cold fear. She’d noticed that some of the open bedroom doors in Belmary House looked like they’d been converted to offices and seen the welcome desk when she’d been herded out by Dex earlier. And she knew he worked there because Mrs. Hedley, the housekeeper in 1889, had told her so. She supposed she’d assumed he kept the accounts or something, much like Kostya did at the Scottish estate. But if it was a museum, that meant her family no longer owned it. What had become of them? Between her and her three brothers, surely someone would have carried on the name. Did the Alexanders all die out? Go bankrupt? Lose the titles and the properties to some scandal? She clutched her churning stomach and realized Dahlia was no longer fuming. She looked wide-eyed and remorseful.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Ariana said, barely able to get out the words. “I had no idea…”
“No, I’m sorry,” the younger girl blurted. “I’m sure Dex can explain about the house. He’s probably told me a dozen times, but I tend to tune out when they get all historical minded. I’m sure it’s nothing bad. I got offended that you called us poor and mouthed off.”
“Then why did you steal? Weren’t you afraid of what your mum and Dex might think?”
Dahlia peered at her through narrowed eyes and when she deemed Ariana wasn’t judging her, she shrugged. “Haven’t you ever done something just to do it? That your
