Page 28 of Just One Look

“Dunno. I’m Argentinian as well. Maybe it’s that. How about you?”

“Oh, I’m dull,” Piper said. “British, though I lived three years in the States, so I’m hoping I have a sexy accent now.”

“Uh …” he said again. “Are you at school as well?” he asked Elizabeth.

“Birdie’s at university already, in the States,” Piper said. “Halfway through her second year, and at a university that only admits ten percent of the people who apply to it, even though she’s barely a year older than me. She’s only eighteen, can you believe it? That’s what comes of being brainy and hardworking instead of thick as a plank and lazy.”

“Second year, eh,” he said. “I could be intimidated. Reckon youarebrainy.” And smiled at Elizabeth so sweetly that she felt her face flame.

“She’s studying to be a surgeon,” Piper said, sounding, as always, perfectly happy to talk about Elizabeth, because she really did think she was that awesome. “Like her dad.”

“Really?” Luka asked. “Cool.”

“Well, I haven’t done it yet,” Elizabeth said. “Maybe you should wait to think it’s cool until I have.”

“Watch my step, though, you reckon,” he said, “or you’ll cut me?”

“That’s right,” she said. “Beware the scalpel.” And he laughed.

Lauren handed over some bills, and Piper said, “I’ll see you at school, then, Luka, in the new term. That’s a coincidence, eh, meeting you here like this.”

“Yeh,” he said. “See you. Good luck at university,” he told Elizabeth. “Watch the scalpel.”

* * *

See?she thought now. It was nothing. Nothing, except that Piperhadseen him at school, had spent the next year and the following one practically glued to his side. Elizabeth knew that from the emails Piper had sent, full of photos and chat and bubbliness and the certainty that she’d met her soulmate.

Piper was like Webster, sure that everybody would love her, and Elizabeth could respond fine to the dog, so why had she always held her heart back from somebody as truly sweet as her stepsister? She’d written back every time, but she hadn’t initiated any contact, had she? And after a while, as if Piper sensed her reserve, the emails had stopped.

She didn’t know what had happened, but Luka had been with two women last time she’d seen him, and neither of them had been Piper. But then, you usually didn’t meet your soulmate at seventeen, or, probably, ever. Luka sure didn’t seem like he’d met his yet, and God knowsshehadn’t.

She should get in touch with Lauren, she thought distractedly as she munched on a firecracker prawn and watched the man in question, even taller and broader now, with the same big body and strong nose but without the rawboned look, put his head down and muscle his way forward as two other men held onto his body and tried to drag him down. The Blues were behind on the scoreboard, and from the way the announcers were talking, the game was almost over, but you’d never have known it from his determination, or the way the team was playing, either. Grimly, throwing everything they had into it, like they’d never give up. It was like the last stand of a defeated platoon, cut off from reinforcements but determined to fight to the last breath anyway.

“Half a league, half a league, half a league onward,” she said aloud, possibly to Webster, who picked up his head to listen. “All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred.” He cocked his head, looking so wise, and she ate her last firecracker prawn and explained, “Charge of the Light Brigade. ‘Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.’ Don’t be too impressed. Half of themdiddie or get injured, they lost the battle, and it was a stupid war anyway. But they were brave, and somebody wrote a great poem about it. Sometimes, all you’ve got left is your willingness to stand there and keep fighting.”