”Thank God.”
”I thought you liked that dinner.” He put on his best lecture expression and said, “Ab uno disce omnes, Margo..
Margo just looked at him.
Kit frowned. “Margo, didn’t you understand that?”
”uh, no?”
His frown deepened. “Just how well are you doing with your Latin?”
Her face took on a familiar, panic-stricken look.
Oh-oh.
”I am studying!” she said desperately. As though to prove it, she rattled off, “Abeunt studia in mores!”
”Quoting Ovid now, eh?” Kit said sourly. “Take that advice to heart. Study harder. Studies do turn into habits, but only if you keep up with them.”
He made a mental note to check how often she’d actually been to the language lab. She should’ve been able to translate something as simple as “From one, learn to judge all” by now.
She tightened her lips. “I will. I am. I’m trying. Isn’t there any easier way to learn all those words and those awful endings that keep changing?”
”Unfortunately, no. Brian’s already installed the best language-learning programs available. But learning languages takes work. Constant, hard work.”
She sighed, then tried a winning smile that didn’t fool him in the slightest. “I learned an interesting thing from Sven today. There was this guy named Musashi,
a Japanese guy from the same time period as the Edo gate. He was so good at dueling, he stopped fighting with real knives. Just used a wooden practice sword whenever he was challenged. Isn’t that amazing? I wonder if Sven’s good enough to do that?”
”Probably,” Kit said dryly. “I thought you were studying American history, not Japanese?”