Her lecturer’s tone livened. “Among other things, he may be able to
provide us with a familiar.”
“What? You’re not taking Edgar along?”
“No. British quarantine regulations. I suppose we could get an exemption
for him, I being a licensed witch, but that would mean the kind of
attention-drawing paperwork we want to avoid.”
“Good work, sweetheart.” I pulled her to me.
Thus, two weeks and three days after the disaster, we kissed our kids
goodbye very early in the morning. Will flitted us to Albuquerque
flyport. We shook hands with him, ignored the tickets to the Midwest
that we’d openly bought–maybe we could get a refund later–and used
those Ginny had arranged.
The flight to New York was uneventful. We’d have liked to break the
journey there, as sensible people do, but didn’t really dare. Instead,
we changed carpets at Idlewild for London. The transatlantic crossing
wasn’t bad. A Boeing 666 gives room to walk around in the pavilion, have
a drink at the bar as well as a couple of meals in your seat, and try
for a snooze. Just the same, six or seven hours aloft can get long,
particularly after a hop across the continent, and half a hundred fellow
travelers don’t make for restful surroundings. We reached Heathrow
pretty well wiped out and, having gone through passport control arid
customs, wanted nothing more than the nearest available hotel room.
Some hours of sleep and a big, fat English brunch restored us. Still
trying not leave a trail, we didn’t rent a broom but boarded a train for
Cambridge. I like those puffy little locomotives, the genial conductors,
the compartments where people mind their own business and read their own
newspapers unless perchance you fall into an interesting conversation,
the beautiful countryside through which you steam, even the meat pies
you can buy at the stops. Ginny does too, I think. In any case, we felt
rather jolly as we chugged north to our meeting.
————————————————————————
21
—
Cambridge gave us a proper english welcome, rain. Our glimpses of
several lovely ancient buildings were blurred as we cabbed from the
station to a hotel and, after unpacking and phoning, on to Frogmorton’s
house. The weather was soft, though, cool and silver-gray. When we
stepped off the taxi and out of its field, Ginny stopped a moment.
“After New Mexico,” she sighed, “I have an impulse to stand here,
staring up, with my mouth open.”
“Like a turkey?” I answered.
“Have you no poetry in you?”
“Oh, sure. ‘Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.’ ” It’s apt to
give me a phantom ache in the tailtip I no longer have. Even so, I might
have enjoyed it if we’d thought to buy an umbrella. Or if she’d spelled
it off us; but that was more effort than it was worth.
We opened a garden gate and strode fast along a path lined with zinnias.
Their colors flew gallant as battle flags. Everything else was green,
vivid, intense, nearly arrogant when we remembered our Southwest.
Through a line of willows behind the house, I spied the river. Our
errand felt unreal amidst this peacefulness.
The Lindens probably took its name from trees long gone; an elm
companioned it now. It was old enough–older than Albuquerque, not much
younger than Santa Fe. Beneath a steep, tiled roof, most windows in the
whitewashed walls had eighteenth-century casements with
nineteenth-century glass, but the oaken, iron-bound front door must be
original. I felt shy about wielding the knocker till I saw what a
drunken brass face leered at me, right out of the Restoration.
A formidable-looking housekeeper let us in. When we explained who we
were, she rustled ahead of us through a vestibule to the–sitting room,
is that the right word? It was rather dim today in spite of an edison
shining inside a beaded lampshade. Furniture was antique, unmarked by
children or cats. Books were as thick as Will’s, but all neatly shelved.
Between the cases, forebears stared from their sepia photographs. I
couldn’t help wondering if we’d come to the right place.
Frogmorton left an armchair to greet us. He was short, skinny,
round-shouldered, in baggy tweeds with a drab tie. White thin hair,