Fire and Hemlock (46 page)

“You meant that, didn’t you?” he said.

“Yes,” said Polly. And, thanks to Laurel, had to go on meaning it, or it would all be to do again. To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much. The jet of misery rose in Polly, far higher and stronger than it had ever been at Middleton Fair, but she made herself say, “It was true.”

“All right. I did use you. I admit,” Tom said, speaking in bursts, between shivers. “All I can say is that I did my best… not to hurt you… though there was probably no way not to. Are you quite determined… never to see me again?”

Polly, shaking all over with cold, held to being stony, and held down the jet of misery behind. “I told you.”

“All right. But I want to keep seeing you. I always wanted to keep seeing you.” Tom put his blurred glasses on, and took them off with an exclamation of disgust. “It may not work out – between us. But I want to try. At least I can ask now. Won’t you change your mind?”

Polly stood up. She saw Tom’s head tip to follow her face, trying to make out her reaction. Hunsdon House stood above the uncut lavender bushes, dead and shuttered against the grey-white sky. There were people coming among the bushes, which was probably just as well, or she and Tom would be dying of exposure. And what was her reaction? She looked down at Tom. She thought of Ivy once standing implacably blocking the hallway. She thought of all the things Tom might have said – which Seb
would
have said – just now to change her mind. It was the things not said that showed they might have a great deal in common. And Tom had spent so many years defying Laurel. One of the things he had to be saying, by not saying, was that there had to be some way to get round Laurel’s chilly logic. Perhaps there always
was
a way.

The jet of misery died away and became a warm welling of hope. “This is quite impossible,” Polly said carefully. “For you, the only way to behave well was to behave badly. For me, the only way to win was to lose. You weren’t to know me, and I wasn’t to remember you.” She saw Tom’s head tip again as he began to get her gist. “If two people can’t get together anywhere—”

“You think?” Tom said with a shivery laugh. “Nowhere?”

“Yes, and if it’s not true nowhere, it has to be somewhere.” Polly laughed and held out her hands. “We’ve got her, either way.”

Tom groped, gripped her hand awkwardly, and stood up. “Who’s coming? I can’t see a thing.”

“I think it’s the rest of the quartet,” Polly said. Sam burst out of the bushes as she said it, and turned to shout that he had found them. We’d better all go to Granny’s, Polly thought, gripping Tom’s icy hand. Ed followed Sam, carrying Tom’s cello, and Ann came behind with Leslie. Even in that early light Polly could tell Leslie had been crying his eyes out. But he had recovered enough to pretend to be normal.

“Hey!” he called out. “That car of yours is sat on top of the roses back there. Squashed them flat!”

Tom leaned his head against Polly’s to laugh. “Now, that
is
impossible!” he said.

Other titles by Diana Wynne Jones

Chrestomanci Series

Charmed Life
^*

The Magicians of Caprona
^*

Witch Week
^*

The Lives of Christopher Chant
^*

Mixed Magics
^*

The Pinhoe Egg
^*

Black Maria

A Tale of Time City

Howl’s Moving Castle
^*

Castle in the Air
^*

House of Many Ways
^*

The Homeward Bounders

Archer’s Goon
^*

Eight Days of Luke

Dogsbody

Power of Three

Wilkins’ Tooth

Stopping for a Spell

The Ogre Downstairs

For older readers

Hexwood

The Time of the Ghost

The Merlin Conspiracy
^*

The Game

For younger readers

Wild Robert

^*
Also available on tape

For more information about the author and her work, visit her website address at:
www.dianawynnejones.com

First published by Methuen Children’s Books Ltd 1985
First published in paperback by CollinsVoyager 2000
CollinsVoyager is an imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd
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London, W6 8JB

The HarperCollins
Children’sBooks
website address is:
www.harpercollinschildrensbooks.co.uk

SEVENTH EDITION

Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1985
Illustrations copyright © David Wyatt 2000

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