Baffled, Seren stared. Was this it? Was this when he would send her back to the orphanage? But why all the fuss and why all the people? And why was Lady Mair weeping and clutching Tomos’s hand so hard it was red?
‘You see,’ Captain Jones went on, ‘Lady Mair and I have become so fond of Seren that we have decided something momentous. Something wonderful. But first I would like to say how Seren has changed all our lives.’
A stir in the doorway.
Seren’s eyes fixed on it. Someone came in and stood there.
‘She has been such a joy. So happy, so generous, so clever, so sensible. She has lit up our home.’
It was a tall man in dark, shabby, very old-fashioned clothes. His face was lean and his nose was beaky. His eyes were jewel bright.
Seren gasped.
The lean man smiled. Behind him, out in the hall, Enoch was capering a silent jig.
‘And so,’ Captain Jones took her hand, ‘we have made a great decision. All the legal work has been done. If she agrees, we are ready to adopt Seren into our family. She will be a real daughter to us, and a sister to Tomos. And from now on, her name will be Seren Rhys-Jones.’
He looked down at her and she stared up at him. ‘Do you agree, Seren?’
Seren thought she could never get breath to answer. But she did, even though she could barely hear it herself.
‘Yes. Please.’
Everyone laughed. Everyone applauded, loud and happy.
Captain Jones gave her a hug. Lady Mair ran up and flung her arms around her and held her close. ‘I’m so glad, Seren!’
‘So am I, Lady Mair.’
‘No, no.’ Lady Mair pulled back and looked at her with wet eyes. ‘Mamma. You must call me Mamma now!’
Seren went quite still. Then she said, ‘Thank you. Mamma.’
The Ball exploded into music and dancing. People kept coming up and shaking her hand and kissing her, the farmers’ wives touching her hair and murmuring.
‘Hyfryd.’
‘Sweet thing.’
‘So lovely!’
But Seren was too busy craning to see behind them, to see through the crowd. There was Denzil, sipping from a huge tankard of ale and raising a quiet hand to her, and there was Gwyn, eating the sandwiches hungrily.
And here was a tall, thin dark man in a shabby coat, who came up and bowed graciously.
‘Is it you?’ she gasped.
He straightened. ‘Of course it’s me. Who else would it be, you foolish girl.’
Seren thought she would faint from relief. She gave a loud whoop and everyone looked round and laughed.
‘Oh, you should have seen it, Seren!’ Enoch muttered. ‘How there was smoke and chiming and song, and how he walked out of the fire not even singed.’
‘Yes well, I’m here now.’ He turned to Lady Mair and bowed. ‘My name, Madam, is Mordecai Marchmain, Schoolmaster. At your service. I understand these children are without a tutor. Allow me to put myself forward. I have several degrees from various Oxford colleges in…’
He caught Seren’s stern eye and stopped.
‘Well. Maybe just one degree. But I assure you I am proficient in all subjects and will be perfect for your children. I already feel I know them very well.’
‘It’s very strange,’ Lady Mair said, ‘but I almost feel I know you, too. How wonderful!’
Mordecai Marchmain bowed gravely.
‘Of course, you must come and teach them! But first, look! There are the fireworks!’
Loud cracks and bangs. Huge whoops and flashes of light. Everyone hurried outside. Tomos dragged his mother away and Captain Jones put his arms round a few friends and hurried them out.
Only Seren and the Crow were left.
‘You know you’ll always be the Crow to me,’ she said.
Mordecai Marchmain shuddered. ‘Good grief. I hope not. All those moth holes! All those itchy feathers. I will never forget it as long as I live.’
‘Won’t you miss it at all?’
‘Not a bit. And if you’d been a bird for hundreds of years you wouldn’t even ask so rubbish a question. Kek kek.’
Seren grinned. Suddenly she felt so happy she thought she would burst apart, so she ran towards the door. ‘Come on! The fireworks!’
But his jewel-bright eyes had fixed on something. He hurried towards it. ‘Just a moment. Oh good heavens! Oh, how I have dreamed of this … I have craved … I can’t tell you, Seren…’
A pile of creamy yellow cheese.
The Crow picked up a piece and nibbled it. ‘Oh my goodness!’
He ate more. ‘Oh heavens! Oh joy! Oh … fabulosity.’
Seren was dancing with impatience. ‘Bring the plate with you,’ she said, ‘or we’ll miss all the fireworks.’
But he was already piling plate on plate.
‘I’ve got so much to catch up on. I’m as thin as a rake.’
Seren laughed. ‘I don’t think you will be for long,’ she said.
And she dragged him outside, where the sky was a mass of falling golden stars.
First published in 2020
by Firefly Press
25 Gabalfa Road, Llandaff North, Cardiff, CF14 2JJ
www.fireflypress.co.uk
Copyright © Catherine Fisher 2020
The author asserts her moral right to be identified as author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-913102-37-1
ebook ISBN 978-1-913102-38-8
This book has been published with the support of the Welsh Books Council.
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